As a Pacific Crest Trail section hiker, I don’t deserve — nor would I want — to wash the sweat-soaked socks of the “thru hikers” who go 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada each year. They’re major leaguers; I’m the … Continued
They say if you want to make money in the writing business you find a niche and go to that place again and again. In other words, if the crowd loved your trumpet solo don’t come back on stage with … Continued
SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — Here’s what it’s like to spend a weekend at the Wonderful Life Festival in Seneca Falls, N.Y. You’re waiting for a table at Parker’s Grille and Taphouse when a stranger leans over to you and says: … Continued
On August 20, 1905, Oregon wilderness wanderer John Waldo wrote a journal entry from the east slope of Mount Jefferson. In it, he quoted one of his two favorite authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson (the other being Thoreau): “In the woods, … Continued
Some books come hard. American Nightingale had a longer gestation period than a camel. Information only came grudgingly. In my third day of trying to get Frances Slanger’s 1930s school records, I got transferred to a janitor in the Boston … Continued
It was going to be the highlight of the summer of 2010: an elaborate beachside treasure hunt for my 5-year-old grandson Cade, whose trip through Disneyland’s “pirates of carrots and beans” — as he calls it — had enthralled him … Continued
En route to Yachats Friday, I was reminded that Florence-to-Yachats on Highway 101 is my favorite 20-mile stretch of highway in the state of Oregon. But did you know that back in the 1970s, it was almost ruined by the … Continued
In my book, “Pebble in the Water,” I quote the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, whose words have never spoken more clearly to me than they did this week as I spent a week in Massachusetts while speaking to three medical … Continued