A Lookout in the Clouds

A childhood fascination with caves has led me to a lifetime of great adventures underground.

After developing a reputation as a mountain climbing “sandbagger,” it should have come as no surprise that a songwriter-climber friend of mine would eventually craft a playful song poking fun at me. What’s surprising is how good the song turned out!

In this episode, I reminisce on the dozens of celebrities I’ve encountered over the years.

Lifestyle design allowed me to retire at the age of 41. I’m not a wealthy man but I live an incredibly rich life.

With life becoming progressively more strained and strange—death, despair, giving up, loneliness and isolation in the world around me—I turn to meditation to navigate the uncertain waters ahead.

Reflections on some of the creators of the American counterculture—Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters, and the Grateful Dead—and the impact they had on my life.

A teenage fascination with Jim Morrison and the Doors led to a 20-year obsession about uncovering everything in the history of the band and writing a book about it.

With plans to soon embark upon a 1,000-year-old 700-mile walking pilgrimage in southeastern Japan, we spent a week doing a 60-mile reconnaissance of this classic ascetic Buddhist circuit.

Reflections on a first big road trip around the mountains of the western U.S. that would spawn a decade of tireless mountain wandering.

A trio of summers working as a volunteer forest fire lookout would set the tone for a love and appreciation for mountains that persists to this day.