A Christmas offer two good to be true!

Hey, I know how tough this economy has been lately. That's why I have teamed up with outdoor photographer Don Geyer to offer you this incredible two-for-one deal this Christmas season. For a limited time only, you can order my Backpacking Washington and get absolutely free, a copy of Don's Mount Rainier. Yep! Two books for the price of one!

Want more details on the books?

Mount Rainier is a collection of Don's favorite photographs taken throughout Mount Rainier National Park, and includes his hints and recommendations about where, when and how to achieve successful photographic images of the park. He breaks his recommendations down by season, and even by weather. There is always something to photograph in the park! If you're not a photographer, you can simply enjoy the artistic images and the moods and emotions they elicit as you take a visual tour through this beautiful national park.


  Backpacking Washington is the most comprehensive backpacking guide to Washington State detailing 70 routes from 14 to 45 miles, from the lush Olympic Peninsula to the sun-kissed Blue Mountains of Eastern Washington.

This offer is for a limited time only! Order now to assure delivery before Christmas! Order Here!

Buon Natale!

Giuseppe and I would like to wish each and every one of you a Buon Natale. Merry Christmas everyone! For most of the country it's a Natale Bianco too. Take the day to enjoy life, family, and friends. Take the day to reflect, be thankful and hopeful. Today is a sacred day for many-secular for others-and for some people just a day. But no matter your leanings, Giuseppe and I hope that you find some of the true meanings of Christmas today and everyday. Peace on earth and goodwill toward all. Okay-its time for a Christmas run and then a festa of good food and spirits. And of course a little Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole on the stereo!

Tis the Season to be Charitable!

As someone who has spent countless hours in wild and beautiful places and has made a living writing about them-I support a number of nonprofit organizations that are dedicated to preserving and improving our environment as well as organizations that work to enhance and increase outdoor recreation opportunities. The following organizations are among the ones that I support financially and through my writings:

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
Cascade Land Conservancy
Conservation Northwest
Friends of the Wapack Trail
New Hampshire Nature Conservancy
Skagit Land Trust
Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
Washington Nature Conservancy
Washington Trails Association
Washington's National Park Fund

I also support Oxfam America and Giuseppe and Scruffy Gray are big supporters of the Humane Society of Skagit Valley.

I know that the last two years have been difficult ones financially. I too have felt the sting of the Great Recession having lost regular writing gigs and had others scaled back. However, this has not lead me to cut back on my charitable donations. In fact, I have increased my giving over last year. While the best things in life truly are free-maintaining them and fighting for them is not! I hope that during this Christmas Season-this time of hope, renewal and reflection, that you will find in your heart and wallet a little extra goodwill and help support the wild places that help sustain our sanity-not to mention a myriad of species' survival- throughout the year!

(photo-me admiring an old white pine on the Hay Reserve; preserved for all by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forest)

The Greatest Christmas Album of all time!

Today marks the birthday of one of America's greatest singers and performers, Frank Sinatra. While ole blue eyes left us 11 years ago -(Heather and I were actually in Sicily when Sinatra died-and we will never forget that day)-he lives on-especially during the Christmas Season. Matter of fact it wouldn't quite be Christmas for me without Sinatra. Growing up as an East Coast Italian American, Sinatra's music touched so many aspects of my life-but especially Christmas. When I think back to Christmas in Connecticut as a ragazzo I remember Sinatra warming up many a cold December night. I remember Streisand, the Chipmunks and Autry too, but they don't quite instill the nostalgia and ethnic pride in me as Frankie does! I am a romantic and I love tradition-especially cultural traditions-they keep a society and people together-and give them purpose (Hands in air-snap fingers-recall Tevye belting out "Tradition!" -I love Fiddler on the Roof). Every Christmas season I have my own traditions-especially when it comes to music and film-and the top 10 Christmas albums that I play over and over again-and never tire are the following-

1. The Sinatra Christmas Album
2. Christmas with Frank and Bing
3. George Winston-the Music of Vince Guaraldi
4. Christmas with Johnny Cash
5. The Christmas Song-Nat King Cole
6. The Chieftons-the Bells of Dublin
7. Bruce Cockburn-Christmas
8. New England Christmastide
9. Classical Christmas-Baroque Christmas
10. Swinging Big Band Christmas

What are you favorite Christmas albums and holiday tunes? And don't you just love those J-i-n-g-l-e bells?!

Bring on the Winter Solstice

It was 19 degrees this morning when I awoke. Grabbed the icy paper, a hot cup of fresh brewed coffee and sat in my favorite chair. Scruffy Gray commenced to warm my lap and read the paper with me. He's pretty impartial to the news-unlike me. But the thing that we both agree on is how much we love this time of year. And especially for ole Scruffers who we rescued on one of the coldest days of the year. He is very happy now to have a warm home during these frigid nights. The days are short and the nights are long-the coming new year is just around the horizon. I love the days and weeks leading up to the solstice because it is a time for reflection and renewal. November's dreary grey days are behind. The joy of Christmas and the promise of a New Year is just around the corner. The house is decorated-Vince, Frank, Nat, Bing, Johnny, and Faith are filling my office with songs of good tidings, warm blessings, nostalgia and a promise for a better tomorrow. The air is crisp outside, the sun is shining, the cats are napping, and I'm busy plugging away on the computer. An afternoon run into the late autumn stillness is near. It's a great time to be alive-spread the cheer!

(photo- a frozen Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire- Winter Solstice 2007)

Buon Natale!

Giuseppe and I wish you all a Merry Christmas-even you scrooges out there! Peace on Earth - Goodwill Towards all Men! Tis the season (actually all year) to count your blessings and assess what really matters- family, friends, and freedom! Times are tough out there for many, and we are heading into another year of anxiety. With faith, self-resolve, and self-determination, we'll make it! We always do! Christmas is not about how much junk you acquire- it is about appreciating what really matters-and family, friends, and spiritualism is what really matters! No recession is going to take that away! Merry Christmas all and to all my friends in New Hampshire and Washington- enjoy the snow! Okay, time for Heather and I to go for our Christmas morning run!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, the scene here in western Skagit County is white! Over a foot of snow fell on us these past two days. Of course driving is treacherous, but the skiing has been grand. Second day in a row now Heather and I skied from our house to the Skagit Playfields. I have never seen this much snow in the Puget Lowlands-can't wait to see what the mountains look like! Looks like much of Puget Sound will be getting a White Christmas this year too! Spread the festive cheer!

Merry Christmas Washington State!

Ahh, tis the season when angry liberals and uptight secular progressives, and other inane folks take it upon themselves to steal Christmas. The scene in my adopted state of Washington is ludicrous and just downright sad. It never amazes me how pathetic things can get on the Left Coast. Displaying a Nativity Scene and Menorah at the Washington State house in Olympia was prudent and respectful and in line with celebrating diversity. Allowing all the other displays of tripe and hatred and silliness was just downright despicable. None of those other signs that denounced religion or spoofed holidays in general that were allowed had anything to do with the Christmas season. They were placed by foolish and spiteful people meant to polarize and denigrate the majority of the population.

Let me ask you this Governor Gregoire. On Martin Luther King Day would you let the Klan place a sign extolling the virtues of segregation? On Independence Day perhaps allow a placard with a counter point from the British? On Veterans day allow an anti military poster? Then what ole what dear Ms Gregoire was the reason behind the pure idiocy that you allowed at our statehouse? Christmas is a legal federal holiday. It has been since 1870. Its a holiday and deep part of the American tradition with both religious and secular roots. You either celebrate it or you don't. It is either religious to you or isn't. And if you don't celebrate it and don't care for its religious underpinnings then you just tolerate that others do hold it dear and leave it at that. But, no you turn the statehouse and our state into a clown show.

So here's a lesson for you Governor Gregoire and all you spiteful grinches out there- this is the CHRISTMAS season! Not the holiday season (there are lots of holidays-and this one is called Christmas). Its a CHRISTMAS tree not a holiday tree. The Easter bunny isn't called a holiday rabbit and Thanksgiving dinner isn't called the 4th Thursday in November grub fest. For you sorry and angry souls out there who hate Christmas and all that it stands for- let me ask you this. So, just what part of Goodwill Towards Men and Peace on Earth do you find so objectionable? Yeah, so much for the faux principles of tolerance and celebrating diversity that you cling to and spew without conviction.

Christmas happens to be a secular holiday here in America too- it has been for almost 140 years. The 25th of December is called Christmas! You don't have to be a Christian to celebrate it. I'm not Irish, Chinese, or Jewish yet I celebrate St Patrick's Day and the Chinese New Year and wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah. And if someone wishes me a Happy Hanukkah, Happy St Patrick's Day or Happy New Year anytime of the year, I thank them . Why would I be offended over someone wishing me good tidings? So if I wish you a Merry Christmas it doesn't mean that you have to accept Jesus, Santa Claus, flying reindeer or Mr Hanky. Just have a good day! Heaven knows if you get upset over a friendly salutation, you need it! Is that hard to fathom? Just what do you find offensive about having a good day- or a good Christmas, secular or religious? What?

This December I pray that the Christmas spirit may actually reach all of you angry "progressives." God knows you need it! Peace on Earth Goodwill Toward Men- all men (women included) even those who want to steal Christmas!

Award Winning Christmas Tree!

I have finally figured out what to do with all of those half-marathon and marathon finisher medals that Heather and I have acquired over the years. Decorate the Christmas Tree with them! Now, I must admit that I didn't come up with this ingenious idea. I learned it from Interurban Running Club members J Ellis and his lovely wife Meridith when I attended one of their infamous Christmas Parties. What a great idea!

Once a year for a month or so I get to let all that shining hardware dangle among my favorite ornaments. And what are some of my favorite running medals? Well based on their designs and not necessarily the race they represent, some of my favorite tree-decorating medals are:

The Eugene (OR) Marathon, the Manchester (NH) Half Marathon, The Calgary (Alb) Stampede Marathon, the Saskatoon (SK) half-marathon, and the Republic (WA) Gold Rush age-division winner medal.

The last one wasn't a marathon-but it was one of the hardest 10ks I have ever run-and the medal-is one of the coolest I have acquired with its rock-pick and shovel design. Anyone else out there with an award winning tree?