December 31, 2013 Uh-oh. Another corny joke was on its way: “How can you tell a train has been through town?” I’d heard Jim tell this one before somewhere along the Buckeye Trail, but I couldn’t remember the punchline. My wife Bonnie and I both love solving silly riddles, but we finally gave up and asked Jim for help. “You can see its tracks,” he said with a big grin. Yeah right, Jim. I have one for Buckeye Trailers: “How can you tell Jim Gilkey has been through here?” If you know much at all …

December 23, 2013 My brain reached its saturation point fifteen years ago; unfortunately, it was about five years before my retirement date. Lesson plans, parent activities in the evenings, organizing the yearly Mary Ingles Festival in town—my plate was piled so high that I couldn’t keep track of everything in the heap. So I did what Bonnie does to maintain her sanity: I made a to-do list. I recoiled at the idea at first. It seemed much more adventurous just to deal with life as it happened. But I could see that I couldn’t put …

  September 3, 2013 It was a diverse group of hikers shuttled by our trail angels to point 9 of the Bedford section of the Buckeye Trail. Bob had hiked the entire AT twice. On the greener end of the scale, it was Paula’s first backpacking trip; she had borrowed some nice gear from a neighbor. The rest of us fell somewhere in between. The first day was glorious and all off-road. We camped at Squaw Rock Shelter in South Chagrin Reservation after a

August 22, 2013 I had a lot to reflect on as I hung up the phone after a difficult, but enlightening, conversation with a good friend recently. To protect his privacy, I’ll refer to him as Job. The name seems to fit in regards to events transpiring in his life this summer. For example, a few weeks ago three police officers approached him in a city park for questioning. Two ladies observing people in the park had made a false, and obviously ridiculous, accusation against him. After the police questioned all parties, including members of …