This is the newest incarnation of some web pages I first put out in the early 1990’s. On-line resources for backcountry information back then were severely limited. The newsgroup rec.backcountry was by far the best interactive information site for hiking/backpacking/trip reports (don’t bother checking it now; it’s a shell of its former self) but there were no informative sites for things like national parks. Don’t believe me? Here’s the Guadalupe Mountains National Park “site” from early 1997: April 1997 US NPS Guadalupe Mountains NP site
Compare it with their current site.
Here’s some of my really early and awful attempts at this newfangled World Wide Web thing.
And here’s the earliest version of Phield Notes, without apology.
So most information on backcountry topics was garnered from hard copy sources, such as trail guides, park brochures and pamphlets, or hard copy versions of maps (USFS maps for example.) I put up my pages as a repository of photos from my trips to share with others, and also as a place to share camping and hiking information that wasn’t available on-line anywhere else.
Obviously things have changed over the past twenty-five years or so; with the demise of newsgroups and the explosion of indexed information on the web, personal “outdoors” pages like mine aren’t really helpful any more. So instead I’ve recreated it as more of a repository for my own information; trip logs of my own camping and backpacking experiences, and other relevant outdoors material others may find interesting or useful. Or not. NBD.
Over the decades I’ve come to understand these pages are now less for other people but rather for myself; the trip reports get long and full of detail that pretty much destroys the narrative flow but allows me to re-live these trips, and the very act of recalling, writing and then reading and rereading them over time imprints the details of long ago trips, many of which I’d forgotten.
If you find a mistake or value or a shared memory in any of what’s presented here please leave a comment. Thanks!
One final paragraph of advice: […] It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.
So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.
~ Edward Abbey [22]