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Home » Archive for  Musings (Page 3)

Category: Musings

My views on life, the universe, and everything.

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

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

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 30, 2026AuthorPaul 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, 2022February 4, 2026AuthorPaul Mags4 Comments

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

CategoriesGear, MusingsTagsculture, electronics

The simple pleasure of bike errands

Posted onJune 29, 2022April 27, 2025AuthorPaul Mags2 Comments

Now that we live near downtown, we find we rarely drive during the week. The addition of a bike trailer made this task feasible. Read More …

CategoriesGear, MusingsTagsbiking

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A Quick Guide to Moab

The Squak – A readily available, $60, active-focused grid fleece hoodie from a Utah-based company. Read the review.

Women’s | Men’s | Children’s   

The Squak Camp Dress 

One of Joan’s favorites!

The Squak Alpha Fleece 

                                                                    

– 15% off coupon = PMAGS-SQUAK                                                                                                      

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PMags Instagram

@ramblinghemlock and I had some company in town this weekend, along with some very muddy roads. A quick trip to a place just off the pavement proved perfect for our needs. Plenty of water-filled potholes, great views from the canyon rim, and a memorable sunset.
Snow in our local mountains yesterday and today. And, of course, flooding in the desert. Much-needed precip, but the wet, heavy New England-style snow caused quite a few blowdowns. Gonna be interesting...
"The mayor of Willcox in southern Arizona is optimistic that Chiricahua National Monument will soon be the country’s 64th National Park.
A few days on the Colorado Plateau. We saw new sites, revisited old favorites, and enjoyed a solo hike while @ramblinghemlock took a class at the nearby @crow_canyon
Bearing witness in a changed, post-fire landscape. Fire and flood shape the environment; some history passes away, while other traces remain untouched. The land eventually recovers: Some of it recently, some of it long after my lifetime.
On a rare group trip, we heard rain overnight and woke to this raging torrent. After the Babylon Fire, flooding was inevitable. The water carried a lot of ash.

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Disclosure: This website may be compensated for linking to other sites or for sales of products to which I link. These sites include Amazon, REI, Moose Jaw, Gaia GPS, Six Moon Designs, Squak Mountain Co, and ULA Equipment. There is no additional fee for purchasing items through these links.

 

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    • 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
      • A Walk Across New England
    • Other Outdoor Jaunts
      • Utah
      • Colorado
      • New Mexico
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      • Clothing and related
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      • Sleeping bags, quilts, and pads
      • Stoves, cooking, and related
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      • Water containers
    • Road trip and car camping – gear and techniques
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