walk with me down the trail

walk with me down the trail

For two years, we lived in a tent trailer while traveling the American West. To document the kind of adventure I’d never have again, I wrote our stories.

We’ve left the RV life for now, but these weekly vignettes still explore adventure’s ups and downs, our relationship with the outdoors, the wonderful disaster of parenting, and the struggle to catch lightening in the creative bottle.

Bisons & Bullets
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Bisons & Bullets

On a hill on an island with fewer than two hundred people on it, there was a sculpture of a bison with holes in it.

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Bad Ways to Exit a Canyon
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Bad Ways to Exit a Canyon

This body, the one I’ve hated and mistrusted and treated more poorly than anything else I’ve ever owned – it still worked, and it worked well.

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Not Quite Night
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Not Quite Night

For a fistful of minutes, the bats performed their choppy waltz with each other and their prey. With each change in direction or newly chosen flight path, they reacted to shifts in our shared environment that I couldn’t see, hear, or understand.

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Irregular Shadows
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Irregular Shadows

I imagine this is similar to being in what the Celts called a “thin place.” Where the veil between this world and others is smallest. Just like moments of portent, there’s an extra bit of resonance both deep in my chest and prickling on the surface of my skin.

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