AS REGULAR VISITORS to my blog will have seen, I’ve been writing a third book. Finally, after three year’s of research and a full year of writing, I’ve completed the manuscript.
And so, the time has come to ‘officially’ introduce my new book…
An Introduction
This is a memoir about a journey on foot in the Rocky Mountains. It is also a memoir about a relationship, although not with a person but with a place.
The journey began with an idea: to spend an entire year getting to know a single mountain. Instead of hiking over many different mountains, as I’ve been doing for three-plus decades, I wanted to try something new: restrict myself to only one mountain. I wanted to return to it again and again, from January to December, approaching it from all sides, in all weathers, in all seasons. I wanted to see what a focused journey on only one mountain might lead to.
The mountain I chose rises in Colorado, but I want to be clear up front: I won’t be identifying it. Originally, when I began the journey, I planned to name it. It didn’t cross my mind that I wouldn’t. But over time, as the journey developed, I came to understand that identifying it might have unwanted consequences; might leave behind too heavy a trace. Unexpectedly, the journey led me away from the mountain’s busiest trails into its hidden off-trail corners. These, it soon became clear, were fragile environments that a small number of people could visit without causing harm but hundreds couldn’t. Over previous years I’d seen too-many fragile places trampled and ruined, ‘secret places’ popularized through careless over-sharing. I had a responsibility, I ultimately saw, to avoid causing such harm. Understanding this was part of the journey. Deciding how to write about the treasures I’d found – what to reveal and what not to – was, equally, part of the journey.
Fortunately, for the story I have to tell, the mountain’s name and precise location is irrelevant. Although the mountain is unique in certain details, it is also similar in character, climate and nature to hundreds of other Colorado mountains. The adventures and experiences I had upon it are possible upon countless other mountains, not only in Colorado or across the American West but also in other ranges across the planet. And the journey to get to know one wild place could be undertaken anywhere there are wild places of any kind. The point is, the specific location isn’t the central part of this story; the journey to get to know a single place is. It’s a journey millions could potentially take.
Pockets of nature large enough for such a journey often lie closer than we think. I discovered this for myself years ago when I lived in the suburbs of a big city, London. Feeling hemmed in, needing to maintain my nature connection, I found a place where I could do it a mere thirty-minute train ride away. It lay in a hidden fold of Southeast England’s modest Chiltern hills, an unassuming beech wood only 200 yards wide. It was hardly wild, but it was a natural place worth getting to know. Over several months I returned to it often, by day and by night, until a bigger journey pulled me away. But, looking back now, it’s clear that a longer and more focused journey to know this one place would have repaid the effort. Even the brief relationship I had with it left me with memories to treasure. I can’t forget the pleasure of lying in my sleeping bag in soft morning mist watching fallow deer graze a short distance away. The deer, which months earlier had been fearful and skittish, were no longer troubled by my presence.
If this depth of immersion is possible on the edge of a city of seven-million people then it’s surely possible in many places. The mountain in this book is only one such place. Perhaps there’s a location close to you just waiting to be ‘discovered’. Or perhaps you’ve already found such a place. If that’s the case, I hope you’ll recognize aspects of your own relationship with a natural place within the pages of this book.
When I started this journey, two decades had passed since I’d last been on a Big Mountain Adventure. At one time, back in my twenties and early thirties when I was responsibility-free, long journeys on foot deep into nature were the focal point of my life. I lived for multi-month ‘thru-hikes’ across entire mountain ranges, even across entire continents. I undertook several, including a 7,000-mile walk across Europe and a 6,000-mile adventure traversing the US Rockies, Canada and Alaska. These solitary adventures ended, however, when I began another kind of journey, a relationship with a person this time, not a place. I fell in love, moved from London to Colorado to marry, had kids, and afterwards chose to put my family first. I had no regrets doing this. This new journey was beautiful and profoundly fulfilling.
And yet, an innate need for long solo hikes in wild places remained. By the time I reached my fifties it could no longer be suppressed. I was ready to head out again but, like countless people at my stage of life, I still wasn’t willing to abandon my family for months on end. And that was when the idea came. What if, instead of leaving home for a conventional hike of forever moving on and never getting to know any place well, I spent a year close to home getting to know one place really well? What might such a journey teach? What rewards might it bring? Would they compare with those a traditional thru-hike can deliver?
There are many different kinds of journeys. Some are thousands of miles long and span continents. Others are inward-focused and cover no physical ground at all. The best journeys, the worthwhile ones, all have a purpose beyond the destination. They all provide meaningful experiences. They all present challenges that lead to change and growth. They all give back the more one puts in. And they all ask questions – about places, ideas, and even life. The best journeys help a traveler find out.
That was what I wanted to do, go on a long and immersive journey in one wild place and find out.
This is the story of what I found.
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Currently, One Year One Mountain’s publication date isn’t yet set. There’s still a great deal of work to do before launching it: beta reader feedback to gain and apply, professional editing, proofing, and design, and then the hardest part of all: marketing.
At the moment, the Enchanted Rock Press is scheduled to publish the book, but I’m also going to explore options with larger publishers. I wouldn’t mind seeing a color photo insert in the book, or seeing it for sale in brick and mortar book stores. I wouldn’t mind reaching a wider audience than can be reached purely online. I believe the audience is there. My first two books have passed 10,000 sales, and from what I’ve been told by some readers, another book would be welcomed. Hopefully, quite a few of them feel the same way.
So… watch this space!
I’ll share updates and further details in future blogs. In the meantime, thank you for reading! For any questions, please reach out through my contact page.
