Winter in our neck of the woods has been relatively mild thus far. In fact, I think Destin, Florida, has received more snow this year than we have! Nevertheless, the day we took our annual winter break to Lake Geneva wasn’t so mild. For this time of year, the temperatures…
On January 1 of this year (2024), my wife and I signed up for the Hiker’s 365 Challenge. Simple concept, actually. All you have to do is hike 365 miles in a year. Easy-peasy—just hike an average of a mile a day. Not like through-hiking the Appalachian Trail or Pacific…
Just before Independence Day, a friend and I hiked less than 2% of the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin on an overnight backpacking trek. Sounds rather insignificant, I know. But keep in mind the Ice Age Trail is 1,000 miles long—and all in Wisconsin! Hiking west to east, the trail…
Unless you were born after 2010, you’ve lived through the technology revolution that began with the personal computer in the last two decades of the 20th century, but really conquered the world with the “smartphone.” In less than a decade, these portable hand-held devices went from being communication tools (used…
Have you noticed how easy it is to slip into bad habits? Look around the next time you go out to eat. Notice how many people mindlessly scroll through the phone while waiting for their order to arrive. It’s so much easier to pull out the phone and swipe and…
After yesterday’s disappointment—following the wrong trail, losing ground and precious time—we left the Congdon shelter hopeful that we could make up for it all on our third day on the Long Trail. For the second day in a row, the sun brightened our mood and the forecast looked promising. We…
Aside from a swollen left hand, Day 2 dawned with an air of hopefulness. My sister and I were about 10 miles into our planned 273-mile adventure on Vermont’s Long Trail—the footpath in the wilderness. The previous two Pastor’s Page installments cover the months of preparation up to the actual…
365 miles in 12 months. On foot. On a trail of some kind (not neighborhood sidewalks or the mall). “The Hiker’s 365,” it’s called, and was the first My Adventure Challenge we signed up for. Initially, we launched this challenge in November 2021 with the goal of completing it one…
“Spite. It’s all because of spite,” he said. “He” is the trainer hired to try instilling some discipline in our German Shepherd, Timber. [In case you missed it, I wrote about some of the discipline problems in the previous post.] The trainer explained that German Shepherds resent being left alone,…
I rarely get to do spontaneous, early-in-the-week alterations to my routine. My to-do lists for the different days of the week are fairly uniform—at least the basics. I record the Morning Light broadcasts for the following week on Monday mornings. Then I’ll do some preliminary study for the week’s preaching/teaching…
