The Cemeteries of Sleepy Hollow, New York

Across the United States, the pumpkin population cowers in fear. Black cats are on high alert. Cornfields have been gutted out to create giant mazes, which, hopefully, bad children will never return from. Roving gangs of teenagers, armed with toilet paper, are attacking nearby shrubs and trees in an attempt to exorcise their demons. This…

Backpacking in Baxter State Park (part 2)

From this hour, freedom! From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines, Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute, Listening to others, and considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. I inhale…

Backpacking in Baxter State Park (part 1)

 Tuesday, 9/4/12 One day after Labor Day 5:30 a.m. Two hours before I need to wake up, the sun is still to weak to creep through the closed blinds and my eyes are crusted and matted half-shut as I fumble around with the four buttons on the $10 water-resistant sports watch that I recently purchased for a…