This is an “old” blog (circa 2003)….an article I wrote for the Issaquah Alps Trails Club newsletter and never used! But it makes perfect sense today, still: In my job, I have a lot of contact with junior high and high school youth. Several have interviewed me, with regard to my role as Trail […]
In 2000 I published my version of the Cougar Mountain guidebook. I recently reread my Afterword. I was already thinking it was worth re-posting some of my late 90’s-early 00’s musings about trails here in the blog. There’s no better start than that Afterword in its entirety: “…I must frame an apology (using that word in the […]
On February 3rd I suffered a concussion. For the first week I labored under the illusion I would be fine… just needed to pop some Advil. By February 12th, I realized I was in for a big temporary change in my life. I took 11 days off work and had a slower, emptier life than […]
My hiking experience in the Issaquah Alps began with Cougar Mountain. But in 1998 we purchased a house much further south and over time became acquainted with the Southeast-most Alp, Taylor Mountain. My affection for Taylor was a slow grow. My heart was still in Cougar Mountain, for which I published the official guidebook in […]
About nine years ago King County came to me as Trails Club Advocate for Cougar Mountain and asked my opinion on whether the new trailhead near Nike Park on Cougar Mountain should be named after Harvey Manning. I thought about it a (brief) moment, and replied that it shouldn’t. Having spent years poring over Harvey’s original trail […]
You may know Harvey Manning from his statue near the Trail Center in Issaquah. You’re more likely to know him as the author of the Footsore and 100 Hikes series of trail guides. I don’t remember when I first heard Manning’s name, but I do remember the first time I met him, by chance outside of City […]
When I was going through a divorce and living in downtown Bellevue, I went driving one night on Somerset, the Big Hill to the SE. I didn’t really know why, but just felt called. Maybe getting up and above the city, or getting out of it. Then I moved to a townhome at the feet […]