8 Comments

Thanks for taking us with you, Tommy!

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It's my pleasure. I hope to go on an adventure with you and Nia in Montana sometime!

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"Even though the trees in the Pinelands Preserve are recent growth that was replanted after nearly all of it was cut down to feed the need for shipbuilding material, charcoal, and fuel for bog iron furnaces, preservation since the ‘70s makes it feel like a more wild place."

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This reminds me of the Clay Pit Ponds preserve on Staten Island. If you haven't been before, you'd probably enjoy it. And after an hour or two of none-too-strenuous hiking, you can reward yourself with a refreshing kölsch or hefeweizen:

https://killmeyers.com/

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Thanks, this may lure me into visiting Staten island! I've driven through it, and taken the ferry round trip to have a beer and show tourists the Statue of Liberty on the cheap, but I've never set foot there.

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That is something else, that poem and whoever felt the need to leave it there in that way. Thank you for sharing.

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I thought so I'm glad you agree.

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I've always found the wildness that I long for, even in these kinds of places, on the margins of society's economic and political needs. I recognize the strength of nature's commitment to life and it renews me,if only partially.

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There's a beauty to it. I haven't yet experienced true wildness, far from human habitation. Honestly it terrifies me a little. But I'll face it someday.

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