“Walking on White” in La Crosse Magazine
“What do you like about winter?” I ask my wife as we hike up the wooded hillside, the trail buzzing with insects. Paula Ogden-Muse is an outdoorsy type bound to have a nature lover’s answer. Read more
Posts tagged ‘adventure’
Feb 1
Fishing for stories: Winter article and 2011 column
While settling in Onalaska, Wisconsin, last winter, I snapped this photograph of our new home’s mascot, the bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), a member of the sunfish family. In fact, our little town bills itself as the Sunfish Capital of the World thanks to Lock and Dam No. 7 on the Upper Mississippi River, which creates an angler’s paradise some three miles wide to the bluffs of Minnesota. Read more
Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show in 1959
“Beyond the glittery street was darkness and beyond the darkness the West. I had to go.”
– Jack Kerouac, from On the Road (1957) Read more
High Country News: Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, and lookout tales in the North Cascades
Good news! My North Cascades-inspired essay, “Busted Beer Cans and Baby Culture,” was published in High Country News, appearing in its magazine and on its website, www.hcn.org. Read more
Memories like mountains: Using photos for route finding
Pen in hand, where do I start? My mind races with landscapes, family and friends, good times and heartbreakers, journeys beyond count. The memories stretch across decades, scattered like ten thousand riverbed rocks, each small enough to hold in my hand, uniquely jewel-like, yet all of them born from the same incomprehensible source, some mountain far upstream beyond view. There’s no trail here. It’s route finding like I’ve never known. Read more
Boys in boats: Canoeing the Upper Miss backwaters
My buddy Adam, a good-looking Texan full of wanderlust and save-the-world enthusiasm, recently visited Paula and me in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We met him years ago while I was running a learning center in North Cascades National Park in Washington State, where Adam landed less than a year out of college, his smile as big as our valley. Read more
Forest flower: What species is this?
I’m new in this neck of the woods. Heck, I’m new in all of these woods, so I need some help. What species of wildflower is this? I don’t think it’s a spring beauty — too many petals and those hairy, red stems — but I’m all ears if you can identify it. Read more
Midwest road trip: The surprise of wild things
Last week, I roamed 1,500 miles to visit family, friends, and schools that offer writing programs near my new current home along the Upper Mississippi River. Despite my road-weary back, the trip nourished both body and soul, reconnecting me with loved ones and the region that raised me — the American Midwest. Read more
“I ain’t old, just seasoned”: A rookie ranger’s delusion
My wife says that if country songs were personal anthems, mine would be Toby Keith’s “As Good as I Once Was.” Maybe she’s right. I sure was singing it two summers ago when I rookied as a wilderness ranger for North Cascades National Park. Read more
