It’s early afternoon on Thanksgiving. Most people are at the football game, but I’m walking in the Rexhame Dunes, collecting empty beer cans. Over the past few years this walk […]
Searching for the Source of th South River
Round Pond in Duxbury Both by map and from the water, it is easy to identify the source of the North River. In the tidal freshwater marshes of Hanover and […]
Water Under the Bridge
Duxbury’s Powder Point Bridge, looking inland. I forget who said it first, but I know it’s true. You can learn a lot about a person by using this simple test: […]
Out Here a.k.a. Seeking Peace In The Sand Dunes
I will go to the ends of the earth in search of peace– or at least to the ends of the country. But most often I just head for the […]
Fall Foliage Revisited
Bare Mountain My friend Karen and I were sitting atop Bare Mountain near Amherst, Massachusetts, looking down over the Pioneer Valley. It was mid-October, and the densely wooded foothills of […]
View The Fall Foliage From the Water This Year
The North River at Cornell Lane in Marshfield. It was a quiet and essentially unremarkable day on the North River — I could get away with saying nothing at all […]
Wilderness Reflections from Yosemite
I write this week’s column from the banks of the Merced River, in California’s Yosemite National Park. The park itself is a place of wonder: 1,170 square miles — […]
On Time, Tide and Looking Beneath the Surface
A tide pool near the mouth of the North River. If you’re like me, when you go to the beach — whether to walk, to swim, or just to sit […]
Ordinary Beauty
The North River at Two Mile. When asked why he spent six weeks this spring climbing Denali (Mt. McKinley), the highest peak in the U.S., my friend Ted had this […]
Rapid Rivers and Summer Storms
A few weeks ago, a friend and I were walking along Foster Ave. in Ocean Bluff. We were headed toward the beach, and as we walked, we could hear waves […]