I can think of a billion reasons to #OptOutside the day after Thanksgiving. In fact, I can think of quite a few reasons to #OptOutside for Thanksgiving. And I have done so quite a few times in recent years. This week’s #NatureWritingChallenge topic is all about why we should #OptOutside on public lands and the…
This week’s topic for the #NatureWritingChallenge really had me thinking! “Your most memorable encounter with a stranger on public lands” should have been easy because we meet new-to-us people ALL the time while out on public lands. It is inevitable that we run into people we don’t know, even when we are trying to escape…
Editor’s note: Since posting this in 2018, there has been a lot of movement in the healthy, pre-made backpacking meals industry. Five of the businesses I originally mentioned have stopped operating. (I have updated which ones below.) I am always trying to stay on top of changes but you may encounter future changes at the…
Dear Santa, I hope it isn’t too soon to be writing out my Christmas wish-list but see, there is this Nature Writing Challenge thing and this week’s theme is “Your wish-list for Public Lands” and you seemed like the perfect person to share my wish-list with. You the professional procurer of wish-lists and all. Santa,…
Social media and the online world make pretty easy targets these days. Blamed for all kinds of social ills and quite a few of the world’s problems or at least it seems. It is true that it can be overwhelming and impersonal, often displacing face-to-face interaction with our neighbor next door but I am here…
I bet if you ask anyone who has hiked the Pacific Crest Trail through Oregon if they made time to stop and visit the Dee Wright Observatory while crossing the summit of the McKenzie Highway through the Willamette National Forest, you will most like get a blank stare. The what? I imagine if you ask…