I hear through a sleepy haze: It is 2:30 AM. Beep beep beep. It is 2:30 AM. I press the snooze button on my talking phone alarm two times. The time is now 2:40 AM, and I wiggle myself up from the floor-level bed in the van. Shoes on. Computer and glasses tucked away in…
Hey, we were here first. Now, this gray-haired Annie Oakley tries to push us around. No one sent her the memo. We are young bulls taking a summer break from college and gainfully employed as the lawn mowers and picnic table maintenance crew for the campground. In fact, we are under contract with the NFS…
Overall, my first week has been great. The learning curve is steep and, already, I have learned much. Here are a few of the most important lessons so far: Bison are rude Every few days, 3 bull bison wander into my campsite. I call them Larry, Curly, and Mo. They are simply grazing, but they…
The Buddhist world view includes a sense of impermanence, which tells us that everything about life is temporary. Clearly, our state of being alive is temporary. However, impermanence – annica – has greater implications. The Buddha noticed that everything is transient or subject to decline and destruction. Beautiful trees lose their leaves, emotional bonds break,…
There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation…
Just this morning I was bragging about this easy, low-stress job.Then, a few hours later, one of our campers goes missing. I met him and his wife on my rounds last night. They sleep in a tent, and I estimate their age at around mid-80s. Anyway, they drove up to a trailhead above us…
J is always talking about how great this trip has been. Yeah, the scenery is beautiful but the long days in the van while she drives get me down after a while. I get cramps sitting in one position so I sleep on my bed in the back and then, when I can’t stand…
Location: Lower Gray Canyon, BLM Recreation Area (Green River, UT) I believe that I left everyone curious about where I would end up for the next few days. I did not go far because I read about a wonderful Bureau of Land Management (BLM) area about 10 miles north of Green River, up…
Want to see a cool and fairly intact ghost town? One of the best is Lake Valley, NM, which is just north of Deming, NM. Gringo miners came into NM in the late 1800s and one of them found a huge silver lode in this mountain basin. Others followed and the town grew. From the official…