Category: Mountains and Memories
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Sunday Rock
It was raining as I drove along the western edge of the Adirondack Park recently. It was around the time when my thoughts turned to how much weight the Yankee pitcher, C. C. Sabathia, had lost during the off-season. Or, perhaps I was reflecting on Colbert replacing Letterman on the Late Show. More than likely, however,…
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Travels 20: The Man Who Wept
To: The Department of Late Sightseers to Iconic Places REPORT # 0531474203576X [INTERNAL USE ONLY—DO NOT TAKE EXTERNALLY] Well, sir, he’s out of our jurisdiction now. We monitored his situation carefully and kept him under close watch. As you know, we had choppers in the air and “unmarks” following him in black vans that had…
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Travels 18: The Call of the Desert: or If I Can’t Stand the Heat, What Am I Doing in Death Valley?
A man who refuses to acknowledge his god is unwise to set foot in the desert. Count Anteoni from “The Garden of Allah” (1936) I think it’s the isolation that attracts me to the austere places on the planet. I love the North because of the intense bone-crystalizing cold. The water-logged plants and animals without…
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Travels 17: Don’t Look Now
Acrophobia (n). An abnormal fear of high places. The American Heritage Dictionary (2012) Did you ever sit in the driver’s seat of your car with a lovely woman beside you? You are resting your right arm on the beige vinyl coated foam armrest. You fingers can touch the shifting lever. She is resting her left…
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I Am Ice
I was one of the uncountable snow flakes that fell that day. Time was the same, it snowed, it rained, drizzle fell, fog burned off and the sunshine broke through the clouds. Before I fell to earth I had my last glimpse of the sun. Then all darkened with clouds and more snow. The sun…
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The Lawn and the Short of It
Why are people afraid of trees? The Adirondack State Park, where I live, has something like 6,000,000 acres of land. This great northern forest was to be held “forever wild.” That was stated in Albany in the 19th century. Now, it seems logical to me (I’m not Plato, mind you) that those who choose to…
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These Haunted Mountains That I Love
Many of my blog posts tend toward the melancholy. The themes have often been about loss, grief, aloneness and death. That’s the way my mind works. I stare at the rain. I walk through the fog. I wander old and forgotten cemeteries, reading the names, dates and wondering about lives lived a century ago. It’s…
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The Mountain Nymph
I am walking down a trail in the ancient Adirondack Forest. I pull my wide-brimmed hat to better cover my eyes against the sudden spring rain. I wipe the sweat from my forehead and swat at the blackflies. I shuffle the rotting crimson and yellow leaves to one side. I monitor my steps carefully because…
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Lost On A Glacier in Alaska
Let me begin by setting the historical record straight, to slow the nay-sayers and bloggers who would be only too happy to challenge and dissect all that I am about to relate. I was never lost ON a glacier (not in this story, anyway) but about nine feet from the lip of ice that marked…
patrickjegan 