Back on the trail to Mount Belknap with Windows to the Wild
On a hot spring day in early May, I met up again with the crew from New Hampshire Public Television’s Windows to the Wild: host Willem Lange and producers Steve […]
24 hours/four seasons: a spring hike on New Hampshire’s Mount Lafayette
On that 95-degree Thursday afternoon in May, we headed north from Kittery, seeking cooler air and adventure. But at 4 p.m., when we pulled into the Franconia Notch parking lot […]
Jurassic time-traveling in NH: A hike to Mount Shaw
Up in the White Mountains, winter hangs on long past its official ending date, especially this year, when most of the snow fell in March and April. Even as I […]
Monuments, politics, and the cycle of forgetting: Remembering Bashka Paeff’s “Horrors of War”
In Kittery, Maine, beneath the shade of an oak tree on a peaceful green common stands a monument that once stood in the cross-hairs of a politician who didn’t like […]
New Wilderness Voices: November 7 reading at RiverRun Books
On that morning after the ice storm, I left my chilly powerless house to warm up in the forests of Mount Agamenticus. My goal: to hunt down a tiny aphid-like […]
Mountain Day on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington
On August 11, 2016, Japan’s inaugural Mountain Day holiday, I was climbing Mount Fuji with my son and thousands of other hikers. We didn’t know it was Mountain Day, but […]
36-hour Montana Road Trip: Driving into the Big Hole and the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway
In 1905, Montana pioneer Joe Maurice experienced the worst possible losses. Although blind in one eye from a horse kick, the Belgium immigrant had persevered in eking out a living at the […]
The tragedy of the waitresses: A 1902 boating accident claims 14 lives at the Isles of Shoals
Fourteen people died in Kittery, Maine on July 17, 1902. I came across a list of the dead by accident, while browsing through some old Town Reports. All who died […]
Ten tips from 12 days of Spain
Bargain airfares, a favorable exchange rate, and a niece studying abroad pulled me to Spain this spring, my first trip to Europe in many years. Here’s my general spin on 12 […]
Mount Roberts: The rich legacy of a bankrupt millionaire
Mount Roberts, a small peak with big views, is “such stuff as dreams are made on”: one man’s dream, for building castles in the air. Although he can’t claim credit for […]