Texas’ Big Bend National Park, tucked against Mexico and the Rio Grande River, is worth every mile of the remote drive. There are miles and miles for your feet once you get there but we kept hearing that the Lost Mine Trail was the best. We began at sunrise at the small parking area. The five-mile roundtrip carried us up 1,100 feet and turned out to be one of our favorite day hikes—ever. Sue’s photography captured the best moments.
Author/adventurer Ken Ilgunas writes about testing his limits and then living within his means in his compelling first book, Walden on Wheels, in which he documents a most unusual path through graduate school.
A little older (29), but equally determined to step outside the ordinary, Ilgunas takes on what he calls an “epic, never-done-before, and sort-of-illegal hike across the heartland.”
As I read Trespassing Across America, I was drawn into his world as he sets out to walk 1,700 miles on or near the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. He confronts harrowing storms, stampeding cattle, gun-toting ranchers, suspicious law enforcement officers, and a host of physical challenges.
In the end, he was left with (no spoilers here) experiences and impressions that touch him deeply. I was left encouraged about the potential of the human spirit.
(Click on the cover to see the book on Amazon.)
Books and my backpack 