Trail Talk
MAKE SUMMER TRACKS – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – August 2025
AS THIS lonely monologue creeps forth from that quiet place that all trail denizens know so well, our summer doldrums are written largely across the land. We’ve had another spring season […]
THOUGHTS FROM ATOP – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – July 2025
THAT FEELING we get that something or someone is watching us seems to be a residual reaction from our cell memory of living a much more tenuous existence. But it also […]
ABUNDANT ENCOUNTERS – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – June 2025
MAGGIE BARKED just the one time. This was unusual; if there were other hikers or dogs ahead of us, we’d expect a bit more of a serenade. An early morning walkabout […]
AWESTRUCK ON TRAILS – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – May 2025
WE SUPPOSE AT TIMES that it’s the unexpected that catches our attention. On a recent Spring day, as folks in camouflage spread across the grassy hillside, the juxtaposition of urban grays, […]
TIME TO BE OUT AND ABOUT – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – April 2025
WITH ANOTHER merry spring upon us, we’re wise to consider the simple message from Melanie Safka. She writes, “sometimes when we feel as big as the land and we lie back […]
IN THE MOMENT – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – March 2025
THAT NOTION that we might one day travel to that blank spot on the map, to explore where others have not gone ahead of us, is a fantasy that draws so […]
THE WOODS AWAIT – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – February 2025
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” ~ Aldo Leopold
THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY HERE, in the gradual reclamation of a […]
THE LEGEND OF THE WATER BAR – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – Dec 2024/Jan 2025
ONCE UPON A TIME, in a land not so far away, snow fell from the December sky. As it piled higher and higher, the woodland critters became anxious that their […]
GRATITUDE ON THE TRAILS – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – November 2024
ONE CONSIDERS THE THANKSGIVING SEASON most often from the perspective of gustatory delights, time with kinfolk, and brilliant change of the seasons. Here in the Siskiyou region, we can be thankful […]
INTO WILD PLACES – by Clayton Gillette
Trail Talk – October 2024
“There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some.” ~E. Abbey
AFTER RECENTLY FINISHING Kevin Fedarko’s, A Walk in the Park, we were reminded of the mindfulness […]