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.

Avalanche Lilies
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Avalanche Lilies

Why does a flower have more meaning when we know its name? As if identification confers value. As if possession is knowing.

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Two Hour Line
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Two Hour Line

I wouldn’t have given this roadside a second’s worth of glance in any other circumstance. But now, I was climbing over the guardrail to get a closer view of the river right next to us.

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In Search of Signal
Beth Downing Beth Downing

In Search of Signal

On a logging road with a closed gate with foxgloves rising all around the dirt that had been displaced to make the road, we had found signal in each of our ways.

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Sunward
Beth Downing Beth Downing

Sunward

I wish I had the strength to say yes to all the things that could burn me. It’s possible every now and then, but not in the same blazing and fleeting way as these sunflowers: fervently magnificent in their hopefulness.  

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