Category: Trip report
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The Place We Love
Sometimes you look at an empty valley like this, and suddenly the air is filled with snow. That is the way the whole world happened – there was nothing, and then… ~William Stafford We have returned from our special place – Yellowstone. Not all of us is back. We seem to always leave a little… Read more…
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Winter Bliss
When you leave a beautiful place, you carry it with you wherever you go. ~Alexandra Stoddard I certainly carry certain places with me. And moments in those places have a way of adhering to my memory, reappearing when my mind wanders to sights and sounds of their wildness, their beauty, their mystery. And I now… Read more…
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Another Count, Another Great Day at Pungo
Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we say, “Our work is finished…” ~Rachel Carson Saturday was our chance to participate in the 119th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. We did it, as we have for many years, at the Pettigrew Christmas Count centered on Lake Phelps in… Read more…
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They’re Baaaaack
The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill in finding their way back…It seems at times as if they possessed some extra sense—the home sense—which operates unerringly. ~John Burroughs, 1905 Last weekend we managed to escape for a couple of days and… Read more…
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Hiking the High Country
Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. ~Harold B Melchart Seems like just a little over a week ago that I was struggling to climb a mountain… Read more…
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Shining Rock
Backpacking: An extended form of hiking in which people carry double the amount of gear they need for half the distance they planned to go in twice the time it should take. ~Author unknown Melissa loves to backpack. That is an understatement. And I love to be in the places that backpacking takes us. It… Read more…
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Hot Holiday
It’s summer and time for wandering… ~Kellie Elmore After I retired (you remember back when I was retired) I loved the fact that I could go to some of my favorite places on a week day when fewer people would be out and about in the wild places I love. I certainly didn’t want to… Read more…
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Pungo Summer
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russell Baker It’s been too long since I have visited my other favorite place, the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. So, with Melissa in Yellowstone leading a museum youth group, I decided to make a day-trip this past weekend… Read more…
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Our Yellowstone
In such surroundings – occasional as our visits may be – we can achieve that kind of physical and spiritual renewal that comes alone from the wonder of the natural world. ~Laurence Rockefeller To celebrate our wedding, Melissa and I did something we have never done – went to our favorite place, without a group.… Read more…
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Plants That Bite Back – Part 2
It commonly chances that I make my most interesting botanical discoveries when I am in a thrilled and expectant mood…some rare plant which for some reason has occupied a strangely prominent place in my thoughts for some time will present itself. My expectation ripens to discovery. I am prepared for strange things. ~Henry David Thoreau,… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 