I LOVE WHERE I live. I mean, really love it. I love it to the point where it feels more like an extension of who I am than simply a place I happen to be. Even though I grew up some 5,000 miles away in a thoroughly different environment, the environment that I now call […]
The Living Land – Colorado Wildlife Photos #1 Read More »
AFTER A WILD WEEK of snow and grayness, my little corner of Colorado has returned to horizon-to-horizon blue skies, to bright sunshine, to skin-soothing warmth, and to a rapid thaw. Deep snow is softening, sinking away. Water is gushing. Even though a certain dark cloud lingers on the horizon, today’s glorious brightness is keeping me
Storms Always Pass Read More »
THIS BLOG POST is a little out of character, perhaps, but given recent events in the divided nation that I’ve chosen to call home, I wanted to share a short extract from the epilogue of my second book, On Sacred Ground. A few lessons learned. They feel, well, especially relevant right now. (Please note: if
Yet Another Chance – A Few Lessons From A Long Walk Read More »
NATURE DOESN’T LIE. It doesn’t cheat. It doesn’t demonize. It doesn’t hate. It offers only honest truth. It is there, always. Reliably itself. Going back to nature isn’t an escape – it’s a return home, a return to the way all things ought to be, a return to truth and beauty and meaning. And it’s
Nature Doesn’t Lie Read More »
I’M THRILLED TO announce that High Summer: Backpacking the Canadian Rockies, by backpacker and author Chris Townsend, will be available for purchase on Amazon from November 1st 2024. This new and updated second edition of High Summer is being released through my independent publishing imprint, the Enchanted Rock Press. For those who missed my blogs
High Summer – Available November 1st! Read More »
AUTUMN COMES EARLY to Colorado’s high country. It doesn’t wait until October to get going the way it does back where I grew up in London, but instead begins altering the landscape even before August is done. The thrill and wonder of it catches me out pretty much every year. When I set out uphill
Autumn Comes Early Read More »
SLOW AND IMMERSIVE travel in nature can bring HUGE rewards. I’ve been fortunate to have experienced a few of them myself, and I’ve tried to convey them in my writing as best I can. Moving gently, senses open and engaged, stopping often to lose oneself in the details of the land, strolling along, or sauntering
To Saunter, or not to saunter, that is the question. Read More »
LAST YEAR I had a plan: to get to know one place. To spend twelve months travelling in only one spot. Why? Well, the reasons were many. Some were understood. Some were deeper and less understood. Some were probably hidden even from me. And some were shallow. One reason was to write a book about
SPRING COULD WELL be my favourite season in the High Country. The fading away of feet of snow, the re-emergence of the living earth after being buried for so long, the first flush of green, the first flowers, the return of blissful warmth on bare arms and legs that had previously been encased in layers
From White to Green Read More »
ON THE SECOND day of June, 1993, I fell down a mountain. It nearly killed me. On the twentieth day of August, 1994, I went back. Happily, this second visit went better. There were no finger nails lost, you’ll be glad to know. No cartwheeling down glaciers. But there were tears, and not only from
A Return To Hohtürli Read More »