Sixty degrees today at Taos Valley Overlook and a semi-dry path. Who could resist? I noticed on the way out that my ’87 Ford F-150 was almost impossible to shift. Maybe the hydraulic clutch just needs a little fluid. Oh, sure. Has that ever fixed anything? “Here, lemme just top this off”… I used to [...]
hiking
Two days before the solar eclipse
The first thing is, there are no mistakes. Anything I do results from all the forces acting on me at the time. I can look back and say something like, “I’ll bet she would have let me” or “I should have bought that motorcycle when I had the chance,” but why? No way could I [...]
Notable for what one doesn’t see
Sure, but then you knew that. This is a telephoto view looking west toward the Sangre de Cristos from Taos Valley Overlook about six miles south of Taos. The town itself lies beyond and below the sagebrush mesas in the foreground. That huge hulking thing is mostly Taos Mountain and belongs to Taos Pueblo. The [...]
Sagebrush, piñon, juniper, gorge, at least eight or nine extinct volcanoes
T is a new one on me. I was walking along today right here on a perfect afternoon in the terrible high desert. There wasn’t any wind. It was very quiet. Just then I heard the weirdest whoppety-whoppety sound, loud and up close. It was a medium-sized cottontail rabbit! The animal was running at breakneck [...]
Raining somewhere if we let it
The old dude marched across the sagebrush-covered mesa, scuffing his boots in the dust and marveling (once again) that he was all alone under God’s big sky in the middle of nowhere that was somewhere in his heart or else he wouldn’t be there. Scuff, stride, pant. It was hotter than it should have been, [...]
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