"Soberly Astonished" on The Ridge to Gilpin

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

The Missing Peace; and Stellar Light, Shadow and Color on Gilpin Ridge...

"What we want from art is whatever is missing from the lives we are already living... Something is always missing. Jane Hirshfield

One Hike, Two Lakes and Four Tired Legs...Oh, and one pair of Ptarmigan, but not in a Pear Tree

I sent out invitations to a few friends to join us for a hike to Bullion King Lake and beyond. Bobbie and I have been itching to try the "beyond" part—up and over the saddle/pass above Bullion King basin—a cross-county search for Columbine Lake. In the ineffable words of Gomer Pyle, "sir-prize, sir-prize, sir-prize;"  Nobody responded to my invitation. Maybe it was the vague wording...or the distinct possibility of an endless, high altitude traipse across tundra and scree and boulders that ends with a 911 call...

A Gem of an Idea

"Time itself is our tragedy and most of us are fighting some kind of war with it."  The Faraway Nearby, Rebecca Solnit

When Words Fail...A pictorial essay from an extraordinary rove Into new territory

Perspective is such a relative construct. When in a room indoors we sense the boundaries and fill it to the brim with self. Only when outdoors, on top of a mountain, can we realize that we are not the story. Just a ripple from a pebble tossed into the sea.

Chasing The Muse On Bear Creek Trail

"You can't always get what you want...but if you try sometimes, well you just might find, you get what you need." Rolling Stones

A Soaring Ascent Up Mount Abram...because it's there and because we still can and because we still remember the way

"Stories are compasses...we navigate by them, build our sanctuaries and prisons out of them. To be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra..." The Faraway Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit