This is the page I really hate. Like I haven’t set up an entire site to tell you about myself or my perspectives? You must be either insatiably curious or have one humongous case of insomnia. Oh, alright. If you insist, here goes:
A recovering
Californian, I currently reside in the Pacific
Northwest with my five boys, ages Rocket Scientist to Knows
Everything. I've been married to
the oldest “kid” for almost thirty years (even tho I'm way too young to be that
old). I enjoy hiking, reading,
camping (except for the tent part), swimming (except for the water part),
Andrea Bocelli tunes, hanging out with the fam and doing
almost anything other than laundry. My
heroes are the Man in the Yellow Hat, Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne, and
Reepicheep (don’t tell anyone). Major
interests include milk chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate with almonds,
German chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate and pretty much
anything made
by Hershey’s.
I've been a hiker since before I could walk. No, really. Mom and Dad would zip me into a handy-dandy baby backpack (aka: Dad's shoulders) and the whole family would strike out for adventure and intrigue on the trails. My folks were my first and best teachers in hiking, the great outdoors, and enjoying and respecting nature as God's creation. I've hiked more trails than I can recite and racked up more miles on the 'ole shoe leather than I care to recall, in and out of national parks, forests, and the like all over the western United States. Ditto much of the Midwest. Any place Snuggle Bunny and I can lace into our Red Wings, stow the Ten Essentials, map, compass, and check the weather, we're off lickety-split to discover a new trail - and new adventure. The Northwest is a personal favorite. Kind of like a hiker's paradise.
My earliest hiking memory is the Silver Falls Loop at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State. I first hiked that trail as a four year-old. More than forty-five years later, I've hiked the loop
dozens of times since. (Hey, what can I say? Apparently, hiking's in my blood. Or maybe it's the water? Hmmmm...)
Anyway, we're fourth generation hiking aficionadoes, particularly when it comes to "gamboling" all over God's Country (that's the Northwest, for those of you who may be hiking neophytes). Note to non-hikers: Hiking is an aesthetic pleasure only exceeded by hand-cranked, homemade ice cream.
While you can always down that third scoop of Haagen Dazs from the passenger's side, you can't possibly visit the sites or parks discussed in The
Gambol Gazette without ever leaving your car - and claim to have "seen
it." That's like Neil Armstrong claiming to have "seen" the moon
without ever leaving the lunar module. Whether it's a national park,
forest, wilderness area, the backcountry or the surface of the moon,
you have to get out of your vehicle and hit the trail to really see, experience, and get to know it! And what better place to start than the gorgeous, glorious Northwest? That's what this site is all about. Check out Hiking 101 (the really, really short version) for more.
So, what are you waitin' for? The trails beckon. Just choose one of the trails featured here, raise your right hand and repeat after me: "Go take a hike! Go take a hike! Go take a...."
Happy Gambol-ing!
