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Mojave National Preserve: Terra & the Tarantula
It’s National Park Week! The U.S. National Park Service oversees nearly 425 sites. This includes not just our fabled national parks, but national monuments, preserves, battlefields and historic sites, too. So far, I’ve explored 110 of those sites. I’ve hit a few of the big ones, like Yellowstone, Denali and the Grand Canyon, and lots and lots of little sites…
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The Iditarod: A Different Sort of March Madness
When five-time Iditarod finisher Jeff Deeter asked me how I got interested in the Iditarod, I blamed Winterdance, Gary Paulson’s 1994 book on his 17-day run to Nome. But really, it seems like at least a small awareness of the Iditarod was always around. Maybe that’s just what happens when you’re raised by wolves. For the uninitiated, the Iditarod is…
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This is Claude
In the months after Sadie died, I followed a bunch of dog rescue organizations. Luke, my other dog, has always been part of a pair. He was surrendered to our local SPCA along with a twin sister before I brought him home and then he spent a decade plus with Sadie. He needed a dog, I figured. He needed a…
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Big Bend National Park in 4 Snarky Parts
PART I: The Arrival When I pulled into the designated parking spot for my campsite at Big Bend, I became immediately concerned it was, in fact, just a pile of rocks. I couldn’t see any semblance of a campsite from the car. The website said the sites weren’t level, sure, but this seemed excessive. Where was my picnic table? Where…
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The Week it Rained Kittens
It was a Monday when kittens started falling from the sky. I didn’t know then that the kittens had fallen from the sky, just that they were in the way. Half a second before letting out Luke, my 70-pound, bird-killing, husky mutt, I spotted a very small, very young kitten two steps away from the back door. I stared, dumbfounded,…
