I sure never thought of myself as a hiker.

Neither did I ever picture myself doing any writing, at least not any more than the sermons I compose for a local campground ministry.

Rather, I envisioned this retiree happily overseeing a huge garden in our back yard, tending a bounty of prolific, deer-resistant flowers and veggies. Maybe wearing out a hammock or two as well.

Instead, the deer couldn’t resist, and they themselves became prolific. However, while they ate and relaxed in their newly claimed piece of land, my life was taking on an entirely new direction, one far from my back yard.

I was hiking the Buckeye Trail in Ohio, all 1,444 miles of it, taking it one piece at a time. My book, Hiking Without Dave, tells the reason I was hiking. It weaves my Buckeye Trail experiences together with the memories I have of my kid brother, whom I lost to suicide in 2008. The book was published in November 2014. You can check out sample chapters on the Hiking Without Dave page.

I hiked the Buckeye Trail again with my wife Bonnie from October 2015 through October 2019. She did the writing this time, and you can enjoy our journey on the blog section of this website.

I still post articles about hiking, but most of them now are about everyday life. In the photo gallery, you will find pictures from each section of the Buckeye Trail and from other trails I have taken.

In 2018 I published my second book, Safe and Secure in a Tippy Canoe. I had no shortage of misadventures growing up in the ’60s to provide writing material.

Feel free to leave comments on the website about the articles or photos. You can also email me if you wish. I’d love to hear from you.