Mediating a Mountain
Mediating a Mountain—some thoughts on Nan Shepherd and Elise Wortley After some years of exploring nature writing through actual material practices (e.g., that time we framed up Thoreau’s house using only the tools he could have used “Building Thoreau’s House”), I was gratified to read Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways where he encountered Edward Thomas’s […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 11
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 11, June 8 Sandy Gap — Tellico River 15 miles In the middle of the night, the rains came in, and I had that moment of satisfaction being in a well-pitched, well-designed tent. Just had to check around the edges to be sure nothing leaned on the tent “tub”, […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 10
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 10, June 7 Coker Creek to Sandy Gap 17.5 miles In past long-distance hikes, right around the seventh or eighth day, the world of work and obligation fades to a distant place, and then I have wonderful and interesting conversations with myself while walking that long path. Something always […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 9
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 9, June 6 Lost Creek tent site-Coker Creek campsite 16.6 miles By far the most difficult day. It rained hard in the night and everything was wet, as was the trail. So even though the opening parts were easy flat walking, my feet were soon soaking and some blisters […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 7
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 7, June 4 Double Spring Gap to highway 74 (and on to Ducktown) 11.1 miles Short hiking day—heading in to Ducktown to resupply for a 4 day stretch. A few days back I stopped to talk to a man (about my age) who was standing near the top of […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 6
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 6, June 3 Halloway Gap to Double Spring Gap 17.3 miles Last night I was reading Suzanne Simard’s The Mother Tree— a section where she and a friend had to climb trees to escape a mother grizzly, not exactly the best story to be reading alone in the wilds […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 5
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 5, June 2 US 76 to Halloway Gap 15 miles After my complimentary breakfast at the Douglas Inn (some of that screw tap cereal) I caught a ride back to the trail head for the next stretch which will in a few days take me over the Tennessee line. […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 4
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 4, June 1 Garland Gap to Blue Ridge 15.4 miles (plus hitch into town) In the last 4 or 5 miles of a long bicycle ride, my friend Greg would note our increase in speed and say “smelling the barn.” Like Greg’s proverbial horse, I was smelling the barn […]
Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 1
Walking to the Smoky Mountains Day 1, May 29 Day 1 Amicalola Visitors Center to Three Forks 15.1 miles (Approach Trail, then 6.1 on BMT) Walt Whitman opens his “Song of the Open Road” with enthusiasm that is hard to match: Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before […]
A Conspiracy of Trees
A Conspiracy of Trees I want to revisit a forest walk— maybe this one near Lake St. Clair in Tasmania (the trek that prompts this essay) or ridge-top nothofagus in New Zealand’s Tararuas, or the old, twisted orchards that surrounded my boyhood home— to think about empiricism, specifically “radical empiricism,” and the problem of representation […]