I was on high ground during a hike today. The trail was on a ridge that allowed for a 360-degree view of Lakeside, full of houses, streets, commercial buildings, schools, and the like. Beyond were mountains, all around — it was a beautiful view. My carpool group had split. One had gone back to the car early, and half of the rest of us decided to make a loop and go back by the streets. Me, I decided to take…
I like to say that I started hiking in January 2014, but really, I’ve hiked long before then. Probably one of my earliest memories is of me walking somewhere in the Philippine countryside, temporarily losing sight of the adult accompanying me. The fear was so strong I had a nightmare soon after of getting lost, and I woke up crying. My first real hike was in the sixth grade, at sixth grade camp. Honestly, I don’t remember much about it…
I was a huge fan of epic fantasies as a preteen — that’s the genre of Game of Thrones. Back then I read David Eddings, Terry Brooks, and Stephen R. Donaldson, and like George R. R. Martin with A Song of Ice and Fire, they each had a long-running series or two at least five books long. What these stories often had in common were incredibly long journeys across a vast land of some sort, through rural, wild, and untamed areas,…
Once, in a comment on an old blog post, I joked that the phone used to be surgically attached to my sister’s ear. At the time, I was referring to a phone attached to a land line, the kind of phone that had a cord and physical buttons, back when that was the norm. I was exaggerating, obviously; it was the sort of phone you left at home when you went to school or work, so she couldn’t possibly have…
Friday after Thanksgiving I hiked with a couple of friends up North and South Fortuna mountains. We came across two mountain bikers on the steep saddle trail up to the first peak. One guy was on his back in pain, while his friend was bent over him wondering what to do. I noticed the scratched up bloody knee first, so of course I whipped out my first aid kit and handed some bandages and some antiseptic wipes to the friend,…