Some pictures from our trip to Sky Meadows State Park... the first time all four of us did something together this summer... Note the praying mantis on the left, above. He's hard to see.

We've been back in the States for nearly a year and a month; sad to say, we've hardly traveled, and so my blog has suffered. Not much to blog about when life is ordinary: work, driving the girls here and there, walking the dogs, and so forth. Still, in the summer of '08, we managed to get out and about some.

In late July, after an absence of 5 years, the girls and I returned to my old stomping grounds in the Narrows section of Lake Champlain in Ferrisburg, VT. Along the way we spent the night in Bennington at the Four Chimneys Inn, owned by the sister and brother-in-law of Eric L., a former colleague in R'dam. Did a little college-shopping as well, checking out both Bennington College and Williams, which was just down the road.

Then we headed up to the Lake, one of the girls' favorite places on earth. I had bad luck, or more accurately, no luck, getting outboard motors to run, but a neighbor offered take the girls water-skiing.

When in VT, we always stop and get maple candy and "Dakin bacon" at Dakin Farm.

After four nights on the Lake, we headed down to Middlebury where we met up with our friends from Seattle, Tim and KT-C. From there we drove over to Indian Lake in the heart of New York State's Adirondack Park. Even though I grew up just a couple of miles from the park's boundaries, I hardly ever visited the place, save for a skiing trip or two to Whiteface. It's an impressive wilderness (and indeed a wilderness... on the day we left, a black bear crossed the road in front of us).

Did a moderately strenuous 7 mile hike up Mt Snowy. The last 500' or so was the most taxing, as there were no switchbacks, you just went straight up. I've included pictures from the fire tower & summit.

Hope to return again next summer...

In late June, I traveled to Northern Arizona where I attended a week-long wilderness survival/primitive skills course taught by Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways. I've never done an Outward Bound program, but it's probably fair to say that this was quite similar to that. I did it because the Thoreau in me wanted to try a little bit of "living deliberately," i.e. I wanted to get off the grid - if only for a few days - and connect with the wilderness. I'm glad I did it and would highly recommend any of his programs. As I indicated, the course is a mix learning survival skills and primitive technologies, e.g. friction fire-making (something I have yet to master... word to the wise, bring several methods of fire-making with you when you venture into the woods, unless you're Al Cornell, who paid us a visit... he's a master of the craft and a scholar of primitive fire-making... have a look at this video).

I've included photographs of my reasonably comfortable lean-to (pine needle bedding... works for a couple of nights then needs to be refreshed as it starts to compress...), the Sycamore Canyon (much smaller than the GC, but still breath-taking, and devoid of people) and the view from Tony's property in the high desert outside of Flagstaff.

I first heard about Tony and AP in this NYT article. If any of this has piqued your interest, check out the sites for Rabbitstick and Winter Count. See also these sites for similar schools in Montana and Maine.

Spent the nights before and after the course at the Hotel Monte Vista in 7,000' Flagstaff, a neat little town.