A Bill and Dave Classic: The Top 10 Sexiest Nature Writers in History

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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(Note: Bill and I felt it was only right to exclude ourselves from this competition. )

IN REVERSE ORDER…….

NUMBER 10: JOHN MUIR

(Here’s the link to where this photo orginally appeared.)

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Getting Outside Saturday: New Leaves (a double photo haiku)

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

Getting Outside Saturday: Climbing with Rosie Bates

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Rosie Bates on Mt. Lemmon, Coranado National Forest, AZ

For some reason I find it easier to write about “failures” versus accomplishments, just as many tend toward serious life events versus day-to-day experience when they have to think of a topic to write on. If I were to have “succeeded” in the ranking sense, this would’ve been a completely different piece of work. I would’ve probably talked about how hard I trained, spoken to the years I had put into my quest and finally thanking those who had been there along the way. In the excitement of succeeding I would’ve forgotten how nervous I got, the mistakes I made, and the spontaneity of the ticket I had purchased just three weeks before. I would’ve written about this event a few weeks post competition, after the joy had worn off and the adrenaline had cooled down. I would’ve basked in the congratulations of friends, and knowing looks from strangers, not having to reflect on what I had accomplished, only being continually reminded of it by others. This is not how my trip turned out. Rather, I am coming home a day earlier, beaten, exhausted and humbled. But as I write this in the terminal of Denver International Airport less than 24 hours since I competed at Adult Sport Climbing Series Nationals in Boulder, Colorado I have never felt more motivated in my life. Continue reading →

Getting Outside Saturday: Last Ski of the Season?

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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The snow is going fast

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The Amish, Cattails, and Dinty: A Trip to Ohio in iPhone Photos

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Getting Outside Saturday: Virginia Festival of the Book

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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The nickel view, as our guide called it: Monticello

I find myself in Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book. My panel on Friday morning was called Forbidden Attraction, and I got to read a little from Life Among Giants, the scene in which Lizard first meets Sylphide, the world-class ballerina who lives across the way from him in high school and who becomes his life-long obsession. Continue reading →