What's going on over here?


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	What's going on over here? I know there's been a flurry of activity here lately, without much explanation. While on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I decided to reinvent Clinch Trails as a general travel blog rather than restricting its focus to Sugar Hill. The reasoning is simple --- I've explored Sugar Hill, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration, I've been there and done that. Basically, I was finding very little to write about. On the other hand, I've got copious thoughts I want to explore about journeys past, present, and future. Since I'm mashing those three time periods all together, I thought I'd give regular readers a quick explanation of what the heck I'm talking about. Here are my primary travel obsessions lately: I spent an entire year travelling abroad in 2000 to 2001, filling more than half a dozen sketchbooks with my renditions of the native plant life. Since then, the sketchbooks have been sitting on a shelf (while the contemporaneous paper journals molder in the barn.) With the help of my sister Maggie, I'm embarked on an ambitious project of pulling out the most interesting insights we gained from the last third of that year, our time spent together in Costa Rica. We'll be posting joint entries in roughly chronological order over the next several months; you can read the first entry here, then stay tuned for several more already on the drawing board. Last October, Mark and I took a Caribbean cruise that let us spend a couple of days on the Yucatan peninsula. I took a lot of pictures, but just now found some Yucatan field guides to help me identify what I saw. Since we have another cruise planned to a similar area this coming December, I'm soaking up every bit of information I can find about the natural and human history of the Yucatan peninsula. Expect a slew of posts about plants, animals, and Mayan ruins in the near future. Finally, Mark and I have become very interested in the Native American history of our region, especially the enticing mounds and other evidence we can still see within a few hours' drive of our home. As usual, when I research a subject, I want to write about it, so you'll see more posts about this over time. I hope the hodgepodge of entries isn't too confusing! Keep your chickens well watered while gone on your journey with a homemade chicken waterer. Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed. RSS canopy bridge Anna and I spent a lot of time on the canopy bridge. Anna had worked out a deal with the naturalists that gave us access to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve any day that we wanted it. We spent some of that time sitting on that canopy bridge, and spending our time in interesting ways. Once we did an experiment to see how tall the bridge was by dropping things off the bridge and timing their fall to the forest floor. I think we found it was 50 feet up. Comment by maggie — Sun Aug 8 10:58:02 2010 Remove comment Canopy walkway I loved the canopy walkway! I can't believe I was quite so cheap, though, as to get permission to get in free. (Well, I mean, I can believe it. It's true, and I'm still cheap. ) I think we probably could have afforded to pay to get in.... Comment by anna — Sun Aug 8 13:50:34 2010 Remove comment Add a comment