My wife, Barbara, and I first discovered Patagonia in 1976 when, in our mid-20s, we spent six months traveling there. We'd just completed our two-year Peace Corps service in Guatemala and decided to explore South America. We hiked national parks in Chile and Argentina that had wild, pristine rivers but never fished any of them.

The Great Barrier Reef is supposed to be a diver's ultimate dream destination. It's the largest single structure made by living organisms on Earth, and NASA's satellites monitor it from outer space. Six-hundred continental islands and 350 coral cays compose the behemoth.

November 4 brought the opportunity that my son, Reed, and I had been waiting for — the perfect day to climb the 9,495-foot giant that locals call Mount Pitt.

Oct. 11 was the last day of predicted dry, nice weather in the high country. I did some chores to prepare for winter and built a new weather-proof box for an elderly relative's well pump.

You want to get away from the noise and bustle of the city? I have just the campsite for you. It's called Coyote Lake, a dry mini-desert in southeastern Oregon.

In April, my son, Kevin, and I spent two weeks riding the waves in Mal Pais, a laid-back surf town at the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.

Castle Crags is perhaps the best-kept secret in the State of Jefferson: a state park in Northern California, just below Dunsmuir, about 100 miles south of Ashland and visible from I-5.

Edginess is not foremost among the character traits embraced by the general aviation community. Once you've ventured to the precipice, however, it's hard to disagree with Kurt Vonnegut's astute observation that, from the edge, "you can see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."

In contrast to most of the expeditions I do with my teenage son, Sam, we make absolutely no attempt to get the proverbial early start. Our goal — my goal anyway — is to hike under the pale white light of the full moon.

Last September my wife, Barbara, and I took a week-long, self-guided bicycle tour of Burgundy.