\u201cThe principal motive of the wander-spirit is curiosity\u2014the desire to know what is beyond the next turning of the woods\u201d (Stephen Graham).<\/p>\n
I think of curiosity when remembering the walks of my boyhood. In those days my buddies and I followed few marked trails, and most of our hikes began with curiosity. \u201cIs that a cave below the bluff?\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s the best way to get to that ridge?\u201d \u201cSomeone said there\u2019s a hidden falls in that canyon; have you been there?\u201d And so we bushwhacked\u2014taking the most direct path to our destination regardless of the terrain. Later, we would learn the value of indirect but improved trails.<\/p>\n
As an older teen curiosity came with pictures and maps and resulted in planned excursions, still exploratory in nature, which might lead to multiday journeys and some overnight camping.<\/p>\n
In retirement, I\u2019ve been curious about new regions. I\u2019ve often hiked the Rockies of New Mexico and Colorado, but in retirement, I\u2019ve explored the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Sierras around Lake Tahoe and some trails originating at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I still want to check out the less visited north rim, and I want to see fall foliage in New England.<\/p>\n
What destinations spike your curiosity? I’d like to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe principal motive of the wander-spirit is curiosity\u2014the desire to know what is beyond the next turning of the woods\u201d (Stephen Graham). I think of curiosity when remembering the walks of my boyhood. In those days my buddies and I followed few marked trails, and most of our hikes began with curiosity. \u201cIs that a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3488,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions\/3488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}