To keep from losing my Ranger Bob merit badge for winter backpacking, I needed to go on such a trip some time before spring. It had been several years since I went backpacking at all - probably the last time was with Will McElwee to Max Patch on the Appalachian Trail in southern NC. And it had been a year or so before that since I went backpacking in the winter - probably also with Will on the Nuwati Trail on Grandfather Mountain. So, a couple weeks before the spring equinox - the official start of spring - I planned this trip for the weekend of March 10, 2007.

Sunday evening on February 18, 2007, Carroll Lowe drove to Appalachian Ski Mountain to put in his time as a professional ski patroller. This was his 15th season. He invited me to tag along. I was pleasantly surprised by the good ski conditions in the southern US. This was my first trip back to the Appalachian resort in about 30 years. After having learned to ski there, I grew frustrated with the often warm weather and slushy or crusty snow. In the intervening years I had moved on to larger and higher slopes in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Montana.

In January of 2007 Bob Laney and Debbie (then Laney, now Staley) flew to Vermont to visit Debbie's daughter and son-in-law, Audrey and James Barnes. James is the brother of my daughter Allison's grammar school and dance studio best friend Whitney Barnes. It was typical Vermont winter weather ' temperatures below zero much of the time and several feet of snow everywhere.

On a moderately warm October weekend in 2006 I went to the beach with my sea kayak. The goal was to paddle to Bear Island. I had a long pleasant drive from Wilkes County to Bogue Banks, just west of Atlantic Beach, which is further southwest from Morehead City, NC.

One week in September, 2006, my nephew Robert Parker called me to see if I wanted to accompany him on a rock climbing trip to Pilot Mountain State Park in Surry County, NC. Robert had an occasion to be in the area while his wife visited with her family, and he needed something athletic to do on Saturday. I readily said yes.

Last Tuesday evening, at the weekly session of the Paul Anderson Tuesday Afternoon Tennis and Tea Society, Paul and I got together for a match with John Barker and Billy Gee. First let me set the scene, with the cast of characters.

In July of 2006 St. Paul's Parish of Wilkesboro journeyed to Valle Cruces for its annual retreat. Chuck Forester and Bob Laney were elected to lead the adult outdoor activity on Saturday. Unlike Bob and Chuck's Great Adventure a few years earlier, when we were assaulted by a terrible thunderstorm on the top of Grandfather Mountain, this time the weather was nice. We enjoyed a warm and sunny day.

Isla Mujeres Diving

Over a short week in late July 2006, Paul and Joyce Anderson lead our small group of Stan and Iris Carmen with Bob and Debbie Laney to the western Caribbean Island of Isla Mujeres.

Over the long July 4th weekend of 2006, Bob and Debbie Laney joined Allison Laney and her fianc'e Steven Harris, and Brian Mendenhall and his buddy Tyson Philyaw from Winston-Salem, for a pleasant day of paddling canoes on the New River. Brian and his buddy could only stay for the first day canoeing. Allison and Steven camped 4 days at the New River State Park, Wagoner Access.

Over the long July 4th weekend in 2006, Debbie and Bob Laney joined Allison Laney and her fiancee Steven Harris, and Brian Mendenhall and his buddy Tyson Philyaw from Winston-Salem for a pleasant day of paddling canoes on the New River. Brian and his buddy could only stay for the day canoeing. Allison and Steven camped 4 days at the New River State Park, Wagoner Access. Debbie and Bob stayed the first evening at the campsite to share a charcoal grilled cookout supper with the youngsters. Then two days later the old fogies returned in the evening after work to do it again - this time cooking over a fire of oak and maple. We old timers just can't get enough of that campfire taste! Saturday morning saw the Laney clan meeting at Debbie and Bob's Fairplains, NC, house to carpool with the NC State students. We met the Mendenhall contingent at the river put in where NC-16 crosses NC-88, just down stream from Zaloo's. The weather was perfect ' clear blue ski, warm but not broiling hot, a mild breeze and refreshingly cool water. (More on the water temperature later...).