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Home » Archive for  Musings

Category: Musings

My views on life, the universe, and everything.

2024 in review

Posted onJanuary 6, 2025January 6, 2025AuthorPaul Mags3 Comments

The 2015 version of a 1995 holiday newsletter (as I am too old/lazy to do a 2025 TikTok video) .
Read More …

CategoriesMusings, PMags NewsTagsyear in review

Thoughts on seventeen days away

Posted onJanuary 5, 2025January 5, 2025AuthorPaul MagsLeave a comment

We just returend from seventeen days away in Texas going to Hueco Tanks, Big Bend National Park, and Davis Mountain State Park. Some initial thoughts. Read More …

CategoriesMusings, Other Outdoor JauntsTagsTexas

Sunday Blues

Posted onJanuary 5, 2025January 5, 2025AuthorPaul Mags1 Comment

All about the “Sunday Night Blues.” Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsSunday Blues, work life balance

The Enshittification of Gaia GPS

Posted onAugust 30, 2024September 2, 2024AuthorPaul Mags25 Comments

Gaia is now potentially new  sharing tracks and GPX waypoints unless you mark it as private.  And based on their past behavior, I don’t trust them for legacy tracks. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsenshittification

On “Structured Rambling”

Posted onMay 16, 2024September 19, 2024AuthorPaul Mags14 Comments

What got directed as an insult months ago seems less an insult and more of an aspirational idea worth striving for. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsfavorite, structured rambling

2023 in review

Posted onDecember 27, 2023January 1, 2024AuthorPaul Mags10 Comments

A look over 2023 with some photos and a few thoughts. Read More …

CategoriesMusings, PMags NewsTagsyear in review

Gear pick of the year 2023 – The Gift of Time

Posted onDecember 8, 2023December 9, 2023AuthorPaul MagsLeave a comment

The gear pick of the year for 2023? The best gift for any outdoors person – The Gift of Time. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsgear pick of the year

Rock Images Gallery

Posted onNovember 25, 2023November 25, 2023AuthorPaul Mags9 Comments

Over 200 images for your perusal. Mainly The Four Corners area, some from Nevada, the High Plains, and even a few from north of Banff. Updated Nov 2023. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsArizona, Colorado, Colorado Plateau, High Plains, Nevada, New Mexico, Petroglyphs, pictographs, utah

Top Ten Reasons Why Top Ten Gear Lists (Mostly) Suck

Posted onNovember 17, 2023November 17, 2023AuthorPaul Mags10 Comments

Top Ten Gear Lists are perhaps the most popular articles in any community. Be it backpacking, music, movies, etc. But they are typically useless. Read More …

CategoriesGear, MusingsTagsFriday repost, gear review, top ten

Lightweight backpacking concepts for couples

Posted onSeptember 7, 2023September 7, 2023AuthorPaul Mags4 Comments

A look at lightweight backpacking concepts for couples. More so than solo, lightweight backpacking as a couple means the overall system. Some thoughts. Updated Sept 2023. Read More …

CategoriesGear, MusingsTagscouples, Friday repost, partners, sharing gear

Images, not vandalism

Posted onAugust 11, 2023August 11, 2023AuthorPaul Mags7 Comments

Thoughts on why images are not vandalism. And reasons why people are calling them images rather than “rock art” as well. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsAncestral Pueblo, Arizona, Colorado, favorite, Friday repost, New Mexico, Petroglyphs, pictrographs, utah

The last journey

Posted onJuly 14, 2023July 14, 2023AuthorPaul Mags5 Comments

Polar explorers talk about the concept of last journeys. Maybe we are in the age of last, traditionally defined, other outdoor journeys as well? Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsclimate change, favorite, Friday repost

Three simple outdoor guidelines

Posted onJuly 7, 2023July 7, 2023AuthorPaul Mags5 Comments

Three guidelines for the outdoors: be safe, be courteous of others and their experience, have fun. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsFriday repost, guidelines, outdoors

America’s Outdoor Recreation Act – Boon or bust?

Posted onApril 6, 2023AuthorPaul Mags9 Comments

America’s Outdoor Recreation Act seems promising. But I see many loopholes potentially exploited for financial interests. Or, business as usual. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsNational Parks, Wildness

An NPC in Moab Adventure Land

Posted onJanuary 1, 2023January 3, 2023AuthorPaul Mags14 Comments

For those who live in a tourist community, it sometimes feels like we fill the role of Non-Player Characters (NPCs). Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsMoab Adventure Land

A look back at 2022

Posted onDecember 31, 2022January 1, 2023AuthorPaul Mags2 Comments

A look at 2022. Some sentiment, some snark, and lots of photos. Read More …

CategoriesMusings, PMags NewsTagsyear in review

A ritual of the American pasttime of baseball. From the "Made in China

Sunday night rituals

Posted onNovember 6, 2022November 6, 2022AuthorPaul Mags2 Comments

Our Sunday evening ritual means repeating a pattern week in and week out. But one we enjoy. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsgift of time

Influential Gear?

Posted onAugust 15, 2022November 17, 2023AuthorPaul Mags4 Comments

What backpacking gear has become influential in the past few decades? Some thoughts. Read More …

CategoriesGear, MusingsTagsculture, electronics

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Different and colder desert vs last month with som Different and colder desert vs last month with some more meanderings.
This is the last batch of photos from our @bigbend This is the last batch of photos from our @bigbendnps trip. ... With only a 39CFS (!), Joan changed our backpacking trip to one in the popular Chisos basin as, surprisingly, a site became available. .. Once we passed the turn-off for Emory Peak, we enjoyed this quiet oasis above the desert floor. .. We went to our backcountry campsites for the rest of the day and, on our way home, stopped at @davismountainssp for a quiet evening on this island, also above the desert floor. ... #texas #bigbendnationalpark #hiking #camping #backpacking #pictographs
This is the first half of the photos of the Big Be This is the first half of the photos of the Big Bend National Park trip that Joan and I went on. We started with three days of backpacking and then a couple of days of camping at a "roadside campsite" along a dirt road. (Think BLM-style dispersed site but designated with a javelina/bear box) ... #hiking #backpacking #camping #texas #bigbendnationalpark
@ramblinghemlock and I spent 17 days away, traveli @ramblinghemlock and I spent 17 days away, traveling from Moab to the Rio Grande and then back. We spent 13 nights in tents and days exploring some of Texas's public land. .. We started our Texas vacation at the fantastic @huecotanksstatepark, which has phenomenally well-protected images of a small island of water surrounded by a desert. .. We got on a guided tour by a very excellent volunteer guide (and apparently a record-holding climber, as others later told us!) to see parts of the park where you need this type of permit to see what there is to see. An excellent stay and a place I know where we'll return. .. #texas #pictographs #petroglyphs #heuecotanks #camping #hiking
@ramblinghemlock and I spent 13 nights straight sl @ramblinghemlock and I spent 13 nights straight sleeping in a tent and spent our days watching sunsets, hearing coyotes, walking along desert vistas, and seeing the Milky Way every night. A few lines from Colin Fletcher come to mind - "It is always there, of course, when you come back from the green world. You have been living by sunrise and sunset, by wind and rain, surrounded by the ebb and flow of lives that respond only to such simple, rhythmic elements. But now the tone and tempo of the days switch. Instead of harmony, jangle." One last taste of green chile in New Mexico tonight, at home tomorrow, and make it through another week to go back into the desert again. Work is merely time between trips.
A "town" day with laundry, showers , and a resuppl A "town" day with laundry, showers , and a resupply. Oh, and ice cream. #texas #bigbendnationalpark #camping #hiking #backpacking
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  • Home
  • Ramblings
    • Musings
    • Books and Media
    • Videos
    • From The Web
    • Thru Hikes, Long Walks, or Routes
      • My Alphabet Soup summary
      • Vermont’s Long Trail
      • Appalachian Trail
      • Pacific Crest Trail
      • Colorado Trail
      • Continental Divide Trail
      • Ring The Peak Trail (Pike’s Peak)
      • Benton Mackaye Trail
      • Tahoe Rim Trail
      • Uinta Highline Trail
      • Collegiate Loop
      • A Walk Across Southern Utah
      • Great Divide Trail (Canada)
      • The Northern New Mexico Loop
      • Grand – Moab Route
      • SEUG Circuit
    • Other Outdoor Jaunts
      • Utah
      • Colorado
      • New Mexico
      • Arizona
      • California
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      • North Carolina
      • Oregon
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    • Quick and Dirty Guides
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    • Gear
      • All Gear Posts
      • Gear Reviews
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      • What I’m Wearing
      • Clothing and related
      • Footwear
      • Packs
      • Shelters and related
      • Sleeping bags, quilts, and pads
      • Stoves, cooking, and related
      • Tools
      • Water containers
    • Road trip and car camping – gear and techniques
    • Winter trip reports, gear overviews, tips, and techniques
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