PennOnTheTrail - Wandering Writer

Hitting the trails of SoCal and beyond, finding zen adventures amongst the trees.

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To travel is to fall in love again and again - with each place, with people we meet, and with each other more deeply, richly and simply than before.

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Views from an early morning jog ☔️💙 (at Nusa Dua)

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If only this is what shopping for a surfboard was like everywhere 👌🏼🙏🏽 (at Kuta)

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Success is subjective. My definition lies in pure, unadulterated simplicity in life and love. 🌏 #pennonthetrail (at Bingin Beach, Bali)

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Trying to develop a talent for finding beauty in each day, even when I'm not doing that which I'm more insanely passionate about. So, I give you this tree. It's pretty. (at Planet Earth, Solar System)

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Life's too short to dwell on what happened before sunset. Too long to worry about next week. Right now, I'll think about now ... And the goddamn weekend! Yew!

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I've been needing some major writing inspiration, and I decided I needed to go back and read and study some of my own favorites, including Ed Abbey. This is from a speech he gave to environmentalists in both Montana and Colorado. Enjoy as I have, rereading it all morning. "One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctance enthusiast... A part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. 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 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." #EdwardAbbey #pennonthetrail 📷: @lovers_waltz

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"You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are." #LewisCarroll ✨ Once upon a time in #BigSur ✨ #pennonthetrail #buckeyetrail 📷: @lovers_waltz (at Buckeye Trail, Big Sur Ca)

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And to think, just 10 miles away from here, there are hundreds of thousands of humans, being all human-like 😷😆 #pennonthetrail #lagunacanyon (at Laguna Coast Wilderness)

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Sunday's friendly skies 👌🏼 (at The Sky)

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Happy Thanksgiving you turkeys. (at U.S. Highway 395)

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Boredom is to fun as inside is to outside 🌎 #pennonthetrail #lospinostrail (at Cleveland National Forest)

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Saturday was fun | Fall is nice #pennonthetrail #icehousecanyon 👍🏼

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Toddies and sunset tailgatin' ... And Autumn, imagine that. 🍁🍂 #santafe #casatranquila 🌲🌳🌵 (at Santa Fe, New Mexico)

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Nothin' but blue skies 💙✨ #santafe #pennonthetrail #tentrocks (at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks Nat'l Mon)

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A year ago I was compelled to walk up this big mountain on a busted ankle, fueled by pure mountain stoke. I ran into an old friend, made a few new ones and my life was forever made radical by one. 💞 #pennonthetrail #mtwhitney #sierrasunrise #travelstoke

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"They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered." - F. Scott Fitzgerald / This Side of Paradise 💚