Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve started reading my old journals and am realizing that if I hadn’t kept them, much would be lost in my memory chips. I’ve never been one to get very philosophical in my writings because there was seldom enough time … Continue reading

September 5, 1987 As you probably know from the news and the paper we’ve been having a lot of forest fires. This morning I can see the mountains across the valley here in Weaverville but often the smoke has been … Continue reading

I’ve always liked the homemade variety of hiking sticks—one picked from the trailside, branch stubs still rough along its length, just for the one day’s use, or the long-term poles tapering to the working end, the handle smooth and polished … Continue reading

   My very first job that I can remember was selling fishing worms at 50 cents a box, later raised to one dollar. I’d cut quart milk cartons into the shape of a box with a lid that folded down … Continue reading

  I’ve spent time on what I call my “perch”, a board laid across several cement blocks overlooking the pond in the waterway behind our house. As the weather gets warmer the water level slowly drops and today it down … Continue reading

In 1959 I went on my first snow-camping trip with the UC Berkeley Hiking Club. We were on skis, carrying backpacks and camped in the snow, definitely a first for me. We were in the Desolation Valley area near Lake … Continue reading

Sept. 6, 1960 “This weekend was very different. Friday night four of us—Alden (a fellow about 40-45, married, two children was on the Mt. Dana trip in the car I rode in), Larry (a junior, physics major) and Judy (a … Continue reading

It seems a bit ironic now to realize that my first backpacking trips came about as a result of moving to Berkeley to attend my last two-and-a-half years of college after having grown up in state parks. My brothers sometimes … Continue reading

Our backyard isn’t very large but beyond the fence that marks its edge is a space about 4-feet wide, running the length of the property. A dense row of conifers lines the bank that slopes down to a temporary stream. … Continue reading

In 1941 we lived at Tahoe Campground State Park, a small park along the shores of Lake Tahoe and that summer my younger brother arrived to join my two older brothers and me. During those early years park personnel moved … Continue reading