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Home » Archive for  Musings (Page 2)

Category: Musings

My views on life, the universe, and everything.

Celebrating the wild places

Posted onJuly 18, 2025March 3, 2026AuthorPaul Mags4 Comments

We celebrate not the trail, but the wild places it passes through. – Ray Jardine, PACIFIC CREST TRAIL HIKER’S HANDBOOK, 1996 Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsfavorite, Ray Jardine, wild places, Wildness

Times are a changin’ – Walking in time of weather extremes

Posted onJuly 13, 2025July 13, 2025AuthorPaul Mags11 Comments

Call it climate change, weather events, cycles, or bad juju. But there are more fires, swings in snow levels, droughts, closures, etc. Some thoughts. Updated July 2025 Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsclimate, climate change, favorite, weather, wildfires

First time on the Appalachian Trail

Posted onJune 28, 2025June 28, 2025AuthorPaul Mags2 Comments

I am contemplating an extended walk in New England this Autumn.  This post comes back to mind. If all goes well, I will be returning to what sparked my love of the outdoors nearly 40 years ago. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsAppalachian Trail, boy scouts, New Hampshire

Another baker’s dozen – favorite campsites

Posted onMarch 16, 2025March 16, 2025AuthorPaul Mags2 Comments

Another “Baker’s Dozen” of favorite camping spots. A sequel of sorts to what I wrote in 2017. Rather than specific places it is areas we enjoy. Read More …

CategoriesMusings, Other Outdoor Jaunts

Two+ Year review – LightHeart Gear Fleece Hoodie

Posted onMarch 4, 2025AuthorPaul MagsLeave a comment

A longer term review of the LightHeart Gear micogrid fleece hoodie. Made in the USA, readily avialable, warm and fuzzy, but best for people who run cold or static use. Read More …

CategoriesMusingsTagsclothing, fleece, gear review, Joan West

Ultra-light but not ultra-precise

Posted onJanuary 18, 2025December 6, 2025AuthorPaul Mags8 Comments

Why I stopped counting ounces with my gear…at least precisely. Updated for 2025. Read More …

CategoriesGear, MusingsTagsgear, grams, lightweight, ounces

2024 in review

Posted onJanuary 6, 2025January 6, 2025AuthorPaul Mags4 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 Mags2 Comments

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, 2024March 16, 2025AuthorPaul Mags16 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, 2023January 20, 2025AuthorPaul 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, gift of time

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 Mags14 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, 2023April 27, 2025AuthorPaul 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, 2023January 27, 2026AuthorPaul 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

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Some local hiking this weekend. I scouted a route for a possible packrafting trip later this month, and on Sunday, @ramblinghemlock and I meandered through a canyon we’ve been curious about for a while.
I can’t imagine this landscape with a wall.
Two years inside the Park Service, trying to balance trade and calling. I left in fall 2025, and I’m still making sense of it - part grief, part gratitude, and part closure.
With a brief but noticeable bit of winter this past week, we opted not to travel the muddy, snowy roads into more remote areas. Instead, we tackled some home projects on Saturday and spent Sunday revisiting a place we hadn’t seen in a while. Red rock, canyon wrens, images, and late winter desert light accompanied the day.
@ramblinghemlock and I pivoted from an original trip after much-needed rain on Friday. On Saturday, we avoided muddy roads that would have derailed our original plan and spent two nights poking around a place we could reach only because of temporary, water-filled potholes and a handy Ziploc bag that made it possible. We also revisited sights we hadn’t seen in a while. Red rock, grand views, and old images marked the unofficial long weekend kickoff of spring around Moab.
@ramblinghemlock and I finally felt better and took a long-overdue trip into the backcountry. We slept outside and enjoyed the peace of the wild places. Canyon wrens filled the canyon with song during the day, and owl calls echoed off the walls at night. We returned to places we had not seen in a while and saw places new to us. The land endures.

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