A Shared Landscape:

This history and guide to the Forests and Parks of Connecticut covers over 120 properties with original research, four-season photography and original custom maps. The 240-page book was published in 2004. In this excerpt, we look at the Appalachian Trail, and the Parks and Forests through which it runs.

(One of the most dramatic events in the history of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut was a freak outbreak of tornadoes on July 10, 1989 that resulted in a major re-routing of the trail.)

Tornado in New Haven:

By coincidence, I was in the middle of that tornado outbreak, right as it exploded into New Haven. When Yale’s Peabody Museum put together an exhibit on the storm, they solicited first-person accounts; and this was my submission.

Small Steps:

After my father’s death, I discovered he participated in a non-violent protest against racial segregation back in World War II. This piece was published in the New York Times in “Home Fires,” an op-ed feature for Veterans’ Day, November 11, 2010.

The Turtle Dives Again:

In 1977, my partner and I built a full-scale replica of the Revolutionary War submarine the American Turtle, and dived it to test the sub’s operational characteristics. This article was published in American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Spring 1996.

Of a Rocket in the Jungle:

One of my most interesting gigs was when I used to fly down to South America to photograph, film and videotape French rockets taking off from their jungle spaceport. This excerpt from a larger memoir recalls my last trip to cover Spacenet 3E in March 1988.

Circumference:

In 1995, I had the opportunity to travel around the world, and I kept a journal throughout the trip. On Wednesday November 8, I was hiking in the Himalayas. It was my second day out from the trailhead at Pokhara.