Yvonne Horn's Specialties

Walking Treks

Oh, how I’ve always wanted to trod the entirety of the Cotswold Way, picturing in my mind its gentle 100-mile wandering over hill and dale and through villages so storybook perfect that surely one must give them a pinch to see if they are real.

Through the years, I’ve walked a number of England’s long-distance trails, covering every inch of them from official start to official finish so as to satisfy my every-step-of-the-way sense of an accomplished odyssey. On each, I was able to inveigle a companion or two to buy into the adventure. Puzzling – none were willing to pull on their boots and march off with me more than once. With the Cotswold Way, it appeared I’d run out of candidates.

And yet, I wanted to go.............

“Roaming the Cotswolds"
Odyssey

George was the most considerate of hiking companions, adjusting his pace to mine and waiting patiently whenever I stopped to catch my breath. What's more, he actually seemed pleased when I used him as a lunchtime backrest, his soft snoring adding a gentle, vibrating massage to my leaning. All around us lay an incredible chunk of intact wilderness - the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, 2,938 square miles of untracked, tortuous terrain in southern Utah. One must be fearless and nimble of foot to take on its nameless mesas, steep canyons, wind-sculpted pinnacles, and sherbet-colored escarpments.

Nimble of foot was true of at least twelve of our group of twenty - George being one of the sure-footed twelve, along with Frosty, Zuco, Moose, Mo, Curly Rudy, Alpha, Strip, Cat, and brothers Precocious and Laser, who endearingly slept cuddled up head to tail. Goats, all. My assessment after five days of trekking? Don't leave home without one......

"Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument"
Odyssey

It was hard to restrain our imagination this day in late April. We’d already seen poodles and clowns and gargoyles, not to mention Queen Victoria and Pizza Man. All shapes to be hotly disputed, for where one person saw guests at a fancy masked ball, others saw an advancing army—rather like trying to reach a consensus on a series of Rorschach blobs. Only Queen Victoria held her own, although I privately voted for the queen in Alice in Wonderland.

We were hiking into the depths of Bryce Canyon past natural-rock sculptures called "hoodoos." ......

“Afoot for Adventure”
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