Busy Writing.

Very busy. The only break I'm taking is to go and take advantage of the early voting for the Presidential election.

Various photographs from a hike in January of 2012 near Table Rock Mountain State Park in South Carolina. I do love my native southern Appalachian high country.

GPS

Brenda Wiley made this GPS graph of our hike on Sunday. You can see why we were all so tired by the time the hike was done. We gained, lost, regained, and lost again quite a lot of elevation. Some of the slopes were extremely steep, and there were some off-trail stretches that were really sketchy. I wouldn't suggest this kind of hiking for everyone.

This waterfall actually has a name, apparently. We've been told that it's called Yucca Falls. I don't know why that name was applied.

Yucca Falls.

Choices

Between my day-job and my writing job I have hardly any time to myself. That is, I don't have much time to pursue my hobbies and other interests. Even my reading time has suffered in the past few months because I stay so busy with my two jobs.

One of my hobbies that has suffered quite a lot because of this is my love of the outdoors. There are not many things that I enjoy more than hiking and backpacking. But in the past year I have not had a lot of time to engage in those pursuits. The past two weeks I have pretty much forced myself to go hiking despite having a couple of writing deadlines hanging over my head. Fuck it. I had to get out of the house and out from behind the keyboard for at least a couple of days.

That's the difference, I reckon, between the kind of writing I did in my youth and the kind of writing I do now as an older man. Back when I was young I wrote on 100% enthusiasm and inspiration. Now I write on a pure work ethic and a solid knowledge of how to create a story. The difference between the two is that one was a pursuit of fun and the latter is the work of a learned craft.

But as much as I love writing, I have to get away from it from time to time. I think that I'll be hiking more this year than I did last. It's either that or drive myself completely stir crazy sitting here in the office every day after I get home from my day-job, and spending my Sundays typing away at this keyboard while my pals all climb mountains or wander around in the wilderness hunting for waterfalls. Too many hikes missed with friends, and too many camp-outs and canoe trips missed with my wife.

The forests and rivers are calling. I'll listen to them more.