A long time coming, it came like a winter flood. After six months idling in the backwaters, our house sold one day, and it carried us away for a month. Only a month? My body says a year. My body says: go for a walk. A sanity-preserving suggestion. We’ve landed in a gangly elbow of … Continue reading Home Again: A Photo Essay

I haven’t been through my canyon since the last big storm. Some things have changed. The route, for one, and I’m wearing the wrong pants for the detour. A douglas fir - average size - has snapped off near its base and splintered along the path. Chickadees are chasing each other through the rubble, a … Continue reading Aftermath

The goal of Trail-A-Week was 52 essays. In August of 2015, I realized that I wouldn't be a writer until I let my bones show. I'd already understood - gradually, after 24 years of doing it - that I am not fully living unless I am writing. But aside from a few (utterly nerve-wracking) published bits, I've written … Continue reading Dear Reader

I added a new state to my map last week. Though meeting a new country is closer to how it feels for an urban Pacific Northwesterner to visit Alaska for the first time. I checked into my Juneau accommodation with something like 30 hours to spare, before I was due at the artists’ camp that … Continue reading Lying Fallow