The Longest Day

The dog days of August 1974 had found us at our local crag. Perched on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, Taylors Falls is a narrow gorge of billion-year-old basalt, 40-foot cliffs carved 10,000 years ago by the meltwaters of retreating glaciers. The gorge hosts over a hundred trad- and sport-climbing routes. Relatively flat ground above […]

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Spring Forward: Prep for Renewal

Photo: Lake Independence, Minnesota, March 2022 The pedals rotate unevenly— my left foot loses contact with the pedal for a brief arc over the course of a full revolution. My triceps ache. My lower back hurts. For the last fifty years this is the right of spring: back on the bike after the northern winter […]

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Fat for Fuel

Photo: The ultimate fat burn—nine days, eighty miles off-trail alpine hiking. Bonneville Pass with Pronghorn Peak, Wind River Range, Wyoming 2017. Slipping off my pack, I slumped to the alpine tundra back resting against a granite boulder… exhausted. It was late afternoon, the sun tracking low in the sky above the mountain ridge to the […]

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