Welcome to my blog, the outdoor diary of someone who prefers to feel the earth beneath his feet. It’s what I am passionate about, it’s what I live for: to feel the earth beneath my feet. Not pavement, not concrete and especially not carpet, but the wild earth in its many natural forms.
I have written two books about this passion: The Earth Beneath My Feet (published June 1, 2021) and On Sacred Ground (published October 1, 2022). The books take readers on a 7,000-mile wilderness walk into the heart of wild nature, and the purpose of this blog is to add extra background to the books. But it is also to share and celebrate the wild, and perhaps even to inspire. From engaging deeply with nature I’ve received extraordinary rewards, and if this blog can lead even one other person towards those rewards then it will have served its purpose.
Many of my wilderness journeys take place alone, but through this blog I hope you’ll tag along and share the miles with me. Thanks for stopping by!
And for further details on the book, select the BOOKS page in the menu above.
THE SPRING MONTHS of March and April are typically the two snowiest months of the year in Colorado’s Front Range. It’s the time of year when strong cold fronts are prone to slip south around the great barrier of the Rockies then push moist air up against the foothills. These powerful ‘upslope’ storms can deposit
OVER THREE MONTHS ago I announced my third book: One Year One Mountain. I thought it was time for an update. One Year One Mountain is the book I wanted to write. At its core, it’s a love letter to nature and to Colorado’s mountains. I’ve spent the past quarter-century here in the Rockies, wandering
How we stand atop Everest, whether we realize it or not BACK AT THE start of March I spent a weekend in an igloo. It was an extraordinary experience. In fact, ‘extraordinary’ isn’t hyperbole (for once) but a gross understatement. So much happened. Every single moment was rich and full. The ‘meaning’ of the
I WALKED FROM home again. A mere eight miles and roughly three hours of moderate effort, and then I was in another world. ‘Turkey Central’ I call the location, named for the wild turkeys I’ve seen up there several times. But it’s a home to others, too: mule deer, elk, black bears, mountain lions, squirrels,
IT’S THE DETAILS that do it for me. It’s the details that I step into nature for. It’s not the Big Views, not the ‘numbers’ walked, not the time taken, not the hard-to-reach famous locations to namedrop later… but the plain old details, and what they do In The Moment, the experience of them, the
SINCE I ANNOUNCED my new book One Year One Mountain and explained that I wouldn’t be revealing the mountain’s location I’ve been asked a certain question several times: why not say where? This is, of course, a perfectly reasonable question. You’re writing about a specific place. Why not say where that place is? To be