Backwoods adventure isn’t the only way to develop an affinity for the outdoors.
Essays
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
The death of backpacking?
Younger people don’t seem interested in this outdoors tradition.
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: “Lawn Guilt”
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. Henry David Thoreau’s neighbors generally thought of him as a lazy, confrontational, sanctimonious pain in the ass. They might be interested to know that he turned out to be right about nearly everything, from […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Reflecting on groundwater from the Owens Valley Watershed
Growing up in the high desert, I learned water doesn’t just fall from the sky.
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
When a parent dies, do we let the house fall?
Every generation must decide what to do with the lives that preceded theirs.
Posted inMay 26, 2014: The Great Gun Rights Divide
The Big Nasty
On garbage and tolerance in the wilderness.
Posted inMay 12, 2014: Parks for All?
Learning Forestry 101 in the Cascades
A novice logger helps thin the forest in Washington.
Posted inApril 28, 2014: Two-Wheel Revolution
A long-submerged town becomes visible
Water recedes under drought conditions and reveals a lost California community.
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: The Moopets
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. Although I’ve written 45 of these Rants from the Hill since the essay series launched back in July, 2010, there’s one word I have studiously avoided using. It is a filthy word, one that […]
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
A Japanese fly-fishing art comes to life
Centuries-old tenkara is becoming a hit on streams in the American West.
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
Visiting the frosties of the Lost Sierra
The wonders of the classic roadside stands that still dish out soft-serve ice cream.
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
Backpacking with monster skeeters
An Alaska encounter with the fiercest of the 176 mosquito species that roam the U.S.
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
Houseboaters vs. river runners
Andrew Gulliford, a professor in Durango, Colo., spent five days last summer on a houseboat floating around Utah’s most famous party scene, Lake Powell – a reservoir on the Colorado River – and then another five running the Yampa and Green rivers on the Colorado-Utah border. Gulliford noticed sharp differences between the cultures of houseboating […]
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
How to save your town from the interstate
Tourists flocked to Winslow, Ariz., back in the golden era of cross-country rail travel, and later along the classic two-lane highway, Route 66. But now the old Valentine Diner sits empty and rusting, having long given up on luring customers off Interstate 40, which sidestepped the town in the 1970s. It’s a symbol of all […]
Posted inJune 22, 1973: The crisis in energy: stampede corralled
My neighbor is an addict
No, he’s not addicted to drugs, good whiskey, or even bad women. He is addicted to the gasoline engine and the various vehicles and devices to which it has been adapted. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/5.13/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Road Captain
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. Last night I got a phone call with the bad news that I have received what my neighbors out here in the remote Silver Hills refer to as a “redneck promotion.” To be specific, […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2014: When California Kicks Coal
Happy housewarming, Charlie Brown
A couple restores a Seattle home and honors the Austrian Jewish couple who once lived there.
Posted inMarch 3, 2014: Fallon’s deadly legacy
Birthday of the burning boot
Making peace with growing older, on a hike near Patagonia, Arizona.
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
The Sacramento-San Joaquin deltas of 1772 and today
Remembering explorers past of this California water source.