Bear Lake Journeys Blog

“I owe the best of myself to geology, but everything it has taught me tends to turn me away from dead things.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Let There Be Rock Everywhere is a landscape sculpted from rock by wind and water.  When the light is right, it looks like…

“Whatever has happened, whatever is going to happen in the world, it is the living moment that contains the sum of the excitement, this moment in which we touch life and all the energy of the past and future.” — Muriel Rukeyser I did get more rest than the night…

“I am who I am because the tears of my past have watered the magnificence of my present.” — Steve Maraboli I dozed off a bit before dawn, and was out of that rattle-trap of a tent as soon as I could see.  I had planned for a quick, cold…

“If what a tree or bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost.  Stand still.  The forest knows where you are.You must let it find you.” — David Wagoner I left early in Dimari’s car, stopping only once to pee, and once again for gas.  It made me…

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” — Ernest Hemingway By summertime, my physical condition wasn’t getting much better.  I had my injured hand in a fall, and it was still in a wrist brace.  My left…

“An effective democracy depends on the education of its people.” As it turned out, my next trip to the lakes would be in the midst of a pandemic. 2019 was the year the infamous COVID-19 virus decided that human beings made an excellent growth medium.  By the spring of 2020,…

This interlude is a work in progress… (just like the flowers)

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through.  Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.  This is a kind of death.” — Anais Nin I suffered through another long, crappy night tossing and turning without…

“When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.”   — John Muir I opened my eyes from inside…

“To encounter the sacred is to be alive to the deepest center of human existence.  Sacred places are the truest definitions of the earth.  They stand for the earth immediately and forever; they are its flags and its shields.  If you would know the earth for what it really is,…

“I tremble for my species when I reflect that God is just.” — Thomas Jefferson I got up at dawn (like I always do), and to avoid traffic I drove all the way up to the trailhead, stopping just once for gas – and a diversion that was far worse…

“We become better versions of ourselves in the mountains.” – Robert MacFarlane When the intrepid Canadian Geese begin to appear in the sky above my home, navigating their genetically programmed routes south for the winter, I begin to think of my own annual, instinctive, migration to the Bear Lakes.  Their…

“Only one who has learned much can truly appreciate his ignorance.” — Louis L’Amour 5. Old Regulator Murphy hated walking, and avoided it whenever possible.  He had been walking a lot since his mule, Bessie, had broken a leg up on the ridge and he had to shoot her.  He…

“Healing comes from gathering wisdom from past actions and letting go of the pain that the education cost you.” — Caroline Myss The dawn entered demurely like a new bride, covered with a veil of high, overcast clouds.  Peeking out my tent flap, I realized the next time I’d lay…

“What do you see when you look out over the landscape?  Do you simply see the sun rising or do you see the flaming forth of the deep mystery of the universe?” — William Blake I spent another night tossing and turning, and never really sleeping.  It was as if…

“Man is the most insane species.  He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature.  Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.” — Hubert Reeves I slept well, in between getting up and peeing three more times.  There were two welcome developments to greet me…