Melancholy seeps in. Sometimes I try to reason it away or wrestle it to the ground. This time I decide to take it for a walk at a local forest preserve. A place that lends perspective as crushed gravel crunches rhythmically under my boots. I note nests high in the...
Sometimes hiking is like a dream. Yesterday was one of those days. Few people were on the trail; that alone was surreal, especially on a warm spring day. Beauty and surprise were abundant. I was walking along the River Trail near LaSalle Canyon. The mighty Illinois...
It was cold but sunny, the perfect morning to wander around Matthiessen. Tonight is the Equinox, the beginning of Spring. A time of balance, night and day are the same length; Yin equals Yang. This hike is a quest to find Spring, I thought. I laughed and shivered....
Recent hikes in the Shawnee National Forest inspired me to research critters I was unfamiliar with; bobcats, rattlesnakes and copperheads. The process led me to consider fear in general. We are afraid of things we don’t understand, right? In theory, education will...
Every February, I long to get away. This year, I took time off work, so I would go, no matter what. I wanted to visit somewhere warm, which didn’t happen, mainly because I couldn’t coordinate it. Last week, I impulsively chose Shawnee National Forest over Hocking...
