December 27, 2014
by David Ryan
4 Comments

A Wandering Surprise in Portland

Earlier in the month I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit my daughter’s family. If you have followed this blog or have read The Gentle Art of Wandering, you know that Portland is a great place to wander. In fact, the book’s cover photo was taken on Portland’s 4T Trail.

While in Portland, my daughter, grandson, and I happened to walk the 4T Trail again. And again the combination of trail, tram, trolley, and train was a great way to spend the better part of the day. We even topped off the hike by having lunch at one of Portland’s many ubiquitous food carts. As an added bonus, our trip was delayed a bit by a protest march streaming through downtown Portland.

You can find a food cart for everything cuisine imaginable. It's like going through a cafeteria with several choices except that you're outside. You can find them all over Portland.

You can find a food cart for everything cuisine imaginable. It’s like going through a cafeteria with several choices except that you’re outside. You can find food carts all over Portland.

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December 12, 2014
by David Ryan
10 Comments

Wandering in the Low Angle Light of Late November

Last month while driving from New Mexico to Tennessee, I was blown away by how wonderful everything looked. Even the Great Plains of eastern New Mexico and western Oklahoma looked fantastic. It finally dawned upon me that late fall’s low angle light was responsible for everything looking so great.

When it’s at a low angle, the sun lights up everything from the side and intensifies all the colors. Everything glows when the light is right. And when you add in the contrast of a brilliant glow on one side and a long shadow on the other, it is possible to see even the smallest details and textures. It may be the best time of the year to get out and wander.

You may remember the connection between Halloween and Groundhog Day that was mentioned in the recent blog post, Wandering Through the Bosque in Autumn. The same connection also applies to light. By the beginning of November the sun is low enough on the horizon to light up everything from the side. And sometime in February the details and contrast start to wash away as the sun travels higher on the horizon.

To check on this idea, the dogs and I went out with my friend, Bob Julyan, on the day after Thanksgiving to wander around the badlands the Ojito Wilderness. The Ojito is on public land and is an officially designated wildeness area about an hour northwest of Albuquerque. We thought it would be a perfect place to see how the light would play upon the details of the badlands.

Here is some of what saw in the area of the Hoodoo Trail.

As you can see, we picked a perfect day.

As you can see, we picked a perfect day.

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November 23, 2014
by David Ryan
6 Comments

Wandering Along U.S. 41 to Monteagle Mountain in Tennessee

A little less than two weeks ago while visiting my mother-in-law in Manchester, Tennessee, the dogs and I took a road trip from Manchester and headed south along U.S. Highway 41 to Monteagle Mountain on the Cumberland Plateau.

This stretch of U.S. 41 is perfect for a two-lane road trip. The traffic is light to almost non-existent; most of the traffic now goes on Interstate Highway 24. The Interstate is far enough away from U.S. 41 so you don’t even know it’s there. As a result, you can relax and take your time without feeling pressured by other traffic. This is the type of road that Bill Bryson described while driving around Australia in his book, In a Sunburnt Country.

A road like this rare. A few years ago I read an article in The New Yorker about Jack Kerouac and his 1957 novel, On the Road. The article mentioned that the book was actually nostalgia for driving in the 1940s, right after World War Two, when there were three million miles of highway for 38 million vehicles. Today the number of cars is close to 250 million while the highway mileage has only grown to a little over four million miles.

No wonder so many of today’s roads are too wide, too crowded, too fast, and too disconnected from the landscape for a relaxed and pleasant drive. So when you find a quiet and pretty two-lane highway, drive it.

U.S. Highway 41 south of Manchester, TN

U.S. Highway 41 south of Manchester, TN

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