Between September 4th and 26th, 2000, I hiked all 270+ miles of the Long
Trail in Vermont end-to-end, by any measure a challenging adventure.
There is no point working hard to get somewhere if you don't stop long enough
to appreciate the place. Early in the history of the Long Trail, there
were speed competitions. However there were always opponents of pure
speed, in fact, one trail founder thought that there was much more merit in
going less and less far in a day. Observing a place and reveling in the
details, the tiny plants and overlooked creatures takes time. The
drawings and watercolors that follow take much more time, care, and
observation than a photograph. Each one represents not an instant in
time but a piece of my Long Trail experience. Creating them forced me
to slow down for a while, to stop hiking and open my eyes.
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