I was somewhat of an odd duck in high school, in the sense that I actually had a trap line. I didn’t know anybody else who had one. People are really surprised when I say now that I had an interest in traps or trapping. When you’re a kid it seems like you have to have some small way of exploiting a part of the environment.
When I was in high school we had a cliff behind my house. Right below it was a little creek which ran seasonally with the winter storms in a sort of oak woodland. I could hike for miles along that stream and that provided access to the outdoors. In my teens I worked one summer in the Sierra at a breakfast place and then went fishing every day. At that time I often hitchhiked to my fishing spots. I would
mention to other fishermen that I had a good spot and got a ride back that way (laughs) .
Did you have a mountaineering phase?
Not really, ever. I overstate it to say that I’m afraid of heights compared to most people that hike. I’ve started up Mount Thielson and never really got close to that last part at the top. There’s even a place coming down Mount Scott that makes me a little queasy. I’ve enjoyed hiking on trails but never really wanted to rock climb. The alpine plants and animals are great, but when you start climbing the rocks it becomes more of a recreational thing rather than a natural history or nature experience. I’ve climbed a good part of South Sister and thought that rather than going to the very top, I really wanted to see what flowers were blooming in the lower meadows. You could say that my hiking has been more associated with nature than a pure mountaineering interest. I’ve never climbed with ropes, nor do I really want to.
