A book you may need to read

Since you mentioned good books…

Thanks to a friend, I am reading American Ramble by Neil King Jr—a delightful story of his walk from Washington DC to New York.  It’s well worth your time.  And in it he quotes that master of horror, Edgar Allan Poe:

“In America generally, the traveler who would behold the finest landscapes, must seek them not by the railroad, nor by the steamboat, nor by the stagecoach, not in his private carriage, nor yet even on horseback—but on foot.  He must walk, he must leap ravines, he must risk his neck among precipices, or he must leave unseen the truest, the richest, and most unspeakable glories of the land.”

Turns out Poe was a hiker, too!

The winter camping BOOK YOU MUST READ is: “Allen & Mike’s Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book”

In my experience as a Nordic Ski Patroller and winter ski camper I have found no other book as good on the winter camping, even though, as the title says, it is about backcountry skiing,  really that’s only 30% of the book. About half the information is in the cartoonish illustrations.

But yeah, winter camping is about solitude. “No bugs and no people.” Plus long nights where there’s plenty of time for reading, meditating or prayer. And stargazing or simply gazing into a wood fire is very soothing, even mesmerizing.