September 24, 1998: Opening Lines in Past Trip Reports
One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: January 5, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1998_0905-07_WyomingWeekend.htm)
Adapted from email I sent:
From: ajs@fc.hp.com (Alan Silverstein)
Date: 24 Sep 1998 19:00:14 GMT
Subject: Re: 100 Best books readers' poll: update
Newsgroups: hp.misc
> BTW, if you (everyone reading this message) were writing a book, what
> would be YOUR opening sentence?
It would depend on the book!
You know, I've written a lot of "trip reports" about my outdoor
adventures; over 130 since 1984...
I usually try to open these reports with interesting sentences. Here
are some of my favorites, in random order (alphabetical by filenames).
Fun fun, I've never looked at them this way before...
-
By night I return to
Quandary Peak...
-
One summer day we walked across
Rocky Mountain National Park
in opposite directions...
-
The National Park is a quiet but intense place as winter draws near...
-
One fine Sunday last summer I very nearly snapped my thread, leaving the
rest to unravel into nothingness...
-
After looking forward to it for a year, I spent a night on top of
Castle Peak,
14265', the highest peak in the
Elk Range,
near Aspen...
-
This weekend we placed a bronze memorial plaque on top of
Challenger Point,
Colorado, 14080+'...
-
Once again, just for fun, I will attempt to convey in mere words an
overwhelmingly rich experience impossible to capture fully even in
memories or photographs...
-
Last night I comet-chased past 1 am...
-
It's a fun peak if you're used to exposure...
-
Crosier Mountain
is positioned for a gorgeous view of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain
National Park, and it is low enough to make a fine spring or fall
expedition...
-
When I pulled into the
Taylor Ranch
on Saturday evening, it had just finished raining, all the dirt roads
were muddy, the skies were overcast, and it was pretty cold...
-
Last weekend I took my daughter
Megan Silverstein
on her first-ever backpacking trip...
-
Death Valley
is one of my favorite places on earth...
-
There are over 100,000 people in the
Fort Collins
area, but only five of us took the trouble to be on top of
Horsetooth Mountain
(7255') last night for comet and eclipse viewing...
-
This was my last Colorado Fourteener! ...
-
The weather looked so crummy I nearly gave up on climbing...
-
"How to spend an extraordinary half day; or, my third trip to the bottom
of the
Grand Canyon,
and once again I didn't even spend the night." ...
-
One weekend I walked 30 miles around
Horsetooth Reservoir
with a "short side trip" up
Horsetooth Mountain...
-
Sure I knew how to canoe -- I thought...
-
"Clouded out on the
Big Island,"
or, "I traveled 3300 miles to see this lousy eclipse and all I saw was
this great T shirt." ...
-
It was another summer weekend of -- monsoon weather, too much stress,
too little sleep...
-
A short report about asteroid dust, sand dune slogging, and my first
Fourteener past age 40...
-
If you're not reading all these reports, I don't blame you...
-
As much as
Lake Powell
is a fine locale to absorb nature,
Lake McConaughy
is an equally nice place to party...
-
I spent a week visiting Heaven aboard the Houseboat to Hell...
-
If
Little Bear Peak
was awful the first time, it was even worse the second, to my surprise...
-
I finally stumbled across an opportunity to trust my life to a rope...
-
Recently I completed 17 years as a
Hewlett-Packard
software engineer followed by a half-year sabbatical, a non-compelling
leave of absence... [Followed by 22,000 more words...]
-
Ridiculously late on a Saturday night, a friend and I started up the
west side of
Milner Mountain
to spend the night on top...
-
Where better to spend the Fourth of July than on the highest point in
Colorado? ...
-
After my misadventures Saturday and Sunday, I had real doubts about
climbing another mountain on this trip...
-
Mount Whitney
is the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states...
-
This was the day I accidentally nearly killed someone...
-
A visit to an unlucky spot... It was hit by a rare mountain tornado,
and within ten years it was also burned by a forest fire...
-
Three early-season local adventures, including a very rare sighting of a
mountain lion...
-
One Saturday, three peaks, one sunrise, an early start, but climb cut
short by weather...
-
After three days of HP business meetings in
Cupertino
I caught a plane Wednesday evening to
Las Vegas...
-
This was a four-day, three-night foray into a wilderness area I had long
wanted to explore...
(Next trip report: 1998_1116_LeonidMeteors.htm)