Not much in the way of pictures today. Just me thinking. A lot.

I’ve been very quiet of late, because there have been a lot of things going on. I hurt myself last year, so my hiking took a bit of a back burner while I rehabbed my knee. I spent a lot more time cycling, which was new and something I enjoyed quite a bit. As soon as I get a rack for my Prius, expect there to be cycle posts along with hiking posts.

But that’s not why I am here today. I’m here because I had a bit of a mental breakthrough.


I am a huge environmentalist. I don’t think it’s actually possible for a biologist of any stripe not to be one on some level, and microbiologists are no different. We get a different view than most people – more microbial ecology, mycology, and the complex zoonotic interactions of parasites – but it’s ecologically based nonetheless.

For a long time, I was content to do some advocacy, recycle, drive a hybrid – simple things. I read about action, took a little bit, but for the most part, I didn’t do nearly enough. All that started to change in 2016. And it goes without saying why – my country went from being a place focused forward on making strides against climate change and pollution, one that respected our National Parks and ecologically sensitive areas to….well, you know. A crisis large enough it forced all my activist friends to have to drill down and carefully choose which areas of work they could focus on, otherwise there was just too much.

My focus, I realized, needed to be here. I needed to make sure I put my money and my focus where my mouth had been. But I had so much to learn, and there is so much to do. Where could I start?

I start in my own backyard. John Muir’s woods were also my woods. Through research, interviews, vlogs, activism, coordinated volunteering, and immersion in the woods and fields I love so much, Muir’s Woods, My Woods is my small contribution to the pushback against a government that has lost it’s way, a society that has forgotten it’s roots, and against the mistakes I have made in my own lifeways.

John Muir helped us all see the beauty of our world. I am going to help myself remember, and I hope you’ll come with me.