Ball Bearing Mountain Kino Bay, Mexico. There were three of us. We’d driven down during Christmas break from college. On this day we’d decided to split up — each of us for a solo day. I went east from the beach and climbed up a nearby mountain. Everything was fine until the descent. I slipped…

A Palace of Liquid Crystal One winter day I hiked to the top of the San Rafael Reef from the mouth of Black Dragon Wash. It was raining and the cloud-base was low – about halfway down the reef. I climbed into falling snow as I approached the top. Nothing to see up there but…

THE TACHYCARDIA TRAIL, Part II Two Sides to Every Coin Brian “Grumpy” Jensen  So live your life that the fear of death never enters your heart. “Chief Tecumseh” “What in the hell to do mean you don’t have your meds with you?!” I was awestruck to hear this reply back from my friend. Scot had…

“You were so good with words And at keeping things vague” – Joan Baez Finders Keepers It’s all yours. It just is where it is It might stay where it is If you’re good with words And at keeping things vague Note: Some of the names have not changed in this post. They’re just names…

Where Did I Leave That Fire? Neko Case I owe Brian for hiking my butt up the Tachycardia Trail. We named it after a bout of tachycardia that hit me while he and I were deployed somewhere with our Air Refueling Unit in 1999. It ended my flying career that year and my military career…

Quick weekend trip to the Cedar Mesa area of Bears Ears Nat’l Monument with my daughter Val, her husband Rich, and their four kids. I’m 10 weeks out of back surgery and hoping my Dr will clear me to do what I did when I see him this Friday. I did stay away from their…

Ornithology or Ontology? Wandering Robber’s Roost on my own one day I had an experience that, as I write about it almost 20 years later, eulogizes my contribution to our earthly existence: Here Lies Johnson Clarifier Of  All The Things He Never Did Understand Allow Me To Clarify: Wandering Robber’s Roost on my own one day,…

NIGHT CLIMB – FACE OF CASCADE Travelin’ in the Dark Can’t see a Thing Travelin’ in the Dark Felix Pappalardi – Mountain September, 1978. It was a dark and stormy night. No. It was a dark and very pleasant night. My friend Lyle and I had returned from backpacking Europe and Israel in time for…

Imperial Canyon, Utah, Spring 1968 A lot hung in the balance in 1968. On one hand, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo. North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive. Several of our cities were torn by rioting. And Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated. “And that’s the way it is,” Walter…