| Terlingua, Texas |

Got back to my room tonight, pried my boots off and in a flash of sudden reflection thought to myself, ‘That’s exactly how a pair of hiking boots should look’.

And then I started thinking about some of the places those boots and I have been in the last several months. Death Valley, Zion, Canyonlands, Petrified Forest, Saguaro, Shenandoah, The Smokies and Blue Ridge Mountains, and numerous places in between, before now taking up residence for a few days on the trails of Big Bend.

They’ve touched earth in over 2/3 of our states, been as high as 11,000 feet above sea level and as low as -282 feet below. They’ve hiked in the mud, the sand, the rain, gravel, postholed in the snow, and saved me a time or two (or three) when I’d been less careful than I should.

That’s a very fortunate pair of boots, and by extension, a very fortunate owner of those boots.

This is an incredibly vast, beautiful, and diverse country my friends. And we are incredibly fortunate that those who went before us, had some level of foresight to set these places aside for all to enjoy.

Let’s all do our part to help keep America, the beautiful.