Silver Snag Farm
Stories following the landscape from grass to habitat and food forest.
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Waiting to see what winter brings
Autumn is a season of giving and a prelude to the fear winter brings. Gentle storms wash loosen leaves from trees, to be gathered in piles for mulching summer-parched plants. Fruits, berries, and seeds that escape the beaks of birds… Continue reading
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Graceful as a hippo in a tutu roller-skating on greased marbles
Auyuittuq has only fragments of trail- bits that you celebrate like a delerious drunken sailor before they disappear into a gouged-out riverbank or a rockslide. You start out at Pangnirtung Fiord on sand and feel like this will be a super-easy trail.… Continue reading
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When the land shapes the living
In the Puget Sound region, we march slowly toward the lifestyle depicted in the science-fiction comedy Wall-E; Amazon will send a drone to your door soon so that your delivery arrives in an hour. We deliver groceries and restaurant food,… Continue reading
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Color and life in a barren land
In the Pacific Northwest, we tend to become hunched and dull during winter, when the slate grey days end too soon and the evergreen trees loom monotonously dark green. We board planes flying to sunny places, where light sparkles on… Continue reading
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The plan versus reality: Auyuittuq Trek
This has been a historic year for weather in many areas. My home, Washington state, has been hot and drought-stricken, resulting in failed crops and historic wildfires. This post is a week late after a historic windstorm swept through, leaving… Continue reading
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Appreciating the simple things- Auyuittuq Trek
The best lunch I’ve enjoyed in recent memory was delivered to my tent by guide Rhys Hill on a rainbound day at Summit Lake. Hot bannock grilled with cheese and ham delivered in a plastic bowl to the vestibule, along… Continue reading
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Baffin Island and the Canadian Arctic- Go There Now
Such an imperious commandment sounds more appropriate coming from Canadian artist Cory Trepanier or the North of Sixty project, both of which seek to raise awareness of the Arctic through art, personal stories, and multiple types of media. After all, this was my first Arctic… Continue reading
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The upside of day hikes- Lake Valhalla and Skyline Divide trails
The day hike is a modern convention, dependent on the automobile and decent roads that allow us to leave our homes and return the same day, with a walk in between. If the trail is close, the roads are good,… Continue reading
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Under the spell of goats at Lake Ingalls
When I die, I plan on returning as a trail sprite. When I hear hikers and backpackers having conversations about becoming a licensed engineer, the trials of office politics, or bad relationships, I will sprinkle people with amnesia dust, or cast a… Continue reading
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The Horse Trailer Sings Again
In a year where I’m grabbing for the steering wheel and brake pedal as the driverless car careens down a ravine, the patterns of nature go on as usual. For the second year, a Bewicks wren has built a nest in a compartment under the… Continue reading
A Place of River and Sky 