writer. photographer. drinker of coffee.
Whenever I peruse the woods and shore at Matthews Beach, just a few yards from the residential creek that so captured my attention several years ago, I hope to find something interesting and significant half-buried in the sand or nestled beneath the frothy fern fronds and ivy roots. Luckily, I have found many interesting items…
How did fossils of tropical trees and plants make their way onto an artic archipelago? They didn't - it moved up north!
From the top of Platåberget, Longyearbyen looks small. In the late summer evening fog, a few lights are on, but the sun won't "set" for at least a few more hours. The bare, greenish hills and mountains close in around the village, and we can hear the ships horns and a helicopter somewhere, but the…
I've often heard iterations of the phrase "the more you learn, the less you know" -- if you're human and you speak English, you've probably heard it, too. I suppose there are as many ways to interpret the phrase as there are letters comprising it, but the way I see it is that one who…
Question: Why do people love backpacking so much? And why haven't I done it yet? Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, it's more than a little silly that I haven't gone backpacking before. I've tent-camped a hundred places, hiked a hundred more, but never the two together. My encounters with backpacking have been purely…
Continue reading ➞ Olympic National Park: Shi Shi Beach Backpacking
In case you have never yet heard of Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey/Fidalgo island in NW Washington, let me enlighten you. It is one of the most engaging hikes I have ever been on, and I've now been there twice in a month! It's not difficult, only reaching about 500 or so feet of…
We woke up fairly early this morning again - I gotta admit, I'm tired. I have not slept hardly at all on this trip, and I am really looking forward to our real bed again. But anyway, back to reality: it snowed!! The first real, real snow. I was very excited. It was a light,…
Continue reading ➞ Grand Tetons II: In Which I Might As Well Be Elsa
So this weekend, Jim and I stayed at a cabin in the YMCA of the Rockies, of all places. Jim's old business partner and his family live in Denver, and arranged the whole thing. It was a bit of an odd experience, but fun! I'd never have thought to stay someplace like that, but the…
This is a pretty short one. We took a day trip with Jim's mom, Sylvia, around Governor Dodge State Park, which is about 50 miles west of Madison. It was a brilliantly sunny day, which was good for (some of) us, but not great for photos. We hiked a bit around Cox Hollow Lake. I…
Since we didn't end up going to Door County, Jim and I decided to go to Devil's Lake, instead. We were here last December when we came for Christmas, but we only did the east side of the lake. That one was pretty tough, with lots of granite boulders to clamber over. The west side…
Anna A. Snook 