I had gone flat. Nothing was wrong. The work was the work, and I needed to get my heart and my head back in the game. So I went up the trail, because I believe, not feel, believe, that nature never disappoints. The first miles made the case politely. The maples had...
Houston, we found the problem. It’s me. My resentment built until I dug into why the West has grown so fast, why Utah and Idaho have outpaced the nation, why the trails I hiked alone are now crowded, why the freeway that once moved now stalls, why the bucolic...
My phone informs me nearly every day that I’ve been sedentary too long. I don’t really need the notification. I feel it in my back, my shoulders, the particular heaviness that settles in after a full day of digital work. But then I guess I do need it. The...
Dad joke anyone? I’ve never slept outdoors a night in my life. I’ve spent dozens laying on the bare ground or in a tent, though, eyes wide open, waiting for morning to come. That wasn’t true when I was younger. But over the past few years, it’s...
I’m offended by the smoke that has invaded our valley. I’ve heard all my life that smoke follows beauty. Around a campfire, it’s an old joke. If the smoke drifts your way, you move to another log and let someone else become the punchline. This week there is no other...
I spend a lot of time outside—enough that I should probably worry more about skin cancer than I do. I’d always figured my coloring kept me on the safer end of it: brown hair, hazel eyes, skin that browns before it burns. Then someone close to me had a melanoma...
