This is a little known masterpiece directed by Akira Kurosawa, who made so many it’s easy to lose count. It’s about a company of Russian troops exploring the far reaches of the Siberian tundra in the part of Russia Sarah…
Photography
Favorite pix of 2009
by tom • January 17, 2010 • 2 Comments
It’s late in the year for best of last year, but it’s rainy here today and I didn’t feel like mucking up already-soft trails and coming home all gunky. Furthermore, I’m going to be off in gearland through the end…
Sauratown Trail
Sauratown Trail – Sections 14-16
by tom • January 10, 2010 • 0 Comments
Good trail, great idea: Seems some local hikers and horse people decided there was no good reason not to have a trail connecting Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock state parks, which are, after all, a mere dozen miles apart as…
Salem Lake Park
New Year’s Day stroll at Salem Lake
by tom • January 1, 2010 • 3 Comments
I told a guy on the trail that I always try to get out for a New Year’s Day hike, though the facts don’t back me up: Just two First Day hikes in the past five (2007 and 2005 if…
Pilot Mountain State Park
Early New Year’s Resolution Hike at Pilot Mountain
by tom • December 27, 2009 • 1 Comment
Three weeks of gross lassitude and all-around laziness ended Sunday with a seven-mile hike at Pilot Mountain State Park (site of my first-ever North Carolina hike.)
Tom's travels
Snow confounds hiking plans
by tom • December 20, 2009 • 4 Comments
The blizzard that buried the Northeast this weekend left a mere 4 or 5 inches of wet, sticky snow in our neck of the woods. Sunday was bright, sunny and seasonable, with only one hitch: the blizzard socked in all…
Tom's travels
Another no-hike weekend
by tom • December 14, 2009 • 0 Comments
I’ve just returned from a four-day trip to visit family back in Illinois, where I hadn’t put in a holiday showing in 10 years. Two 13-hour drives in four days is some fun, I’m here to tell you. At least…
Grandfather Mountain
Winter introduction to Grandfather Mountain
by tom • December 6, 2009 • 17 Comments
Somebody has gotten it into their heads there ought to be winter in the Southern Appalachians. I was not consulted. I was thinking I should have had my head examined when I showed up in autumn apparel at a deep-valley…
Gear
Win free stuff in Coleman’s Twitter contest
by tom • December 2, 2009 • 1 Comment
See, Coleman has a problem: it’s the most ubiquitous outdoor brand on the planet but none of the cool Internet kids think Coleman is cool. Witness Coleman’s scant 361 Twitter followers (as of 12/02/09) … meanwhile Camping Blogger will probably…