Christopher Pagels

17 Dec 2011

Early morning pranking in a forgotten cemetery

It’s 3 a.m. and I’m hanging from a rope. The rope is attached to the swinging bridge in Glen Park swaying over the Kinnickinnick River. Ultimate trust fall, Mike holds my life in his hands and the blood alcohol level is not in my favor.

02 Dec 2011

Adventurer finds beauty in national park

A chestnut beard, multi-red reflective aviators, a tan cowboy hat and a canister of bear spray hung on a strap from my neck and clung to my body as I jostled elbows among dozens of strangers along a black top path wide enough for several people.

18 Nov 2011

Exploration of ‘haunted’ cemetery offers ironic feeling

Mike and I stopped our walk on Meridean Island, paused with baited breath, and listened for any howls from the “Hell Hounds.” Curious about ghost towns in the Spring of 2009, Caryville, an abandoned town in Eau Claire County, Wis., skipped across my desk.

11 Nov 2011

Solid handshake globetrots the world

I opened my mailbox to find, on top of the stack, a woman with golden skin, scarcely covered by a multi-colored blanket; dark brunette hair cascaded down her shoulders, white cowboy boots, and a sombrero atop her head.

04 Nov 2011

Message in bottle thrown to the Atlantic

I was Clutter’s guest, an old hiking pal from the Appalachian Trail, but she still asked me if I wanted to join her for a little concert at the College of Charleston. She is a short woman with a frog-like […]

28 Oct 2011

Alaskan mountain dominates its climber

In my glossy brochure of the trails for Kachemak Bay State Park, it said the Poot Peak trail leads to the top of the mountain, but there is a snag, or lack thereof, “climbing the 2600 foot peak is hazardous due to shifting scree and rock.”

21 Oct 2011

Dreary nights spent in Alaskan terminal

I have no photographs of the two nights I slept in Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The chill of the air-conditioning brushed my exposed arms; the average temperature outside had been 55-degrees for the last three weeks. The sun had […]

14 Oct 2011

Midnight car racing in the forest similar to anxiety before exam

The starry night was lost in the haze of a small town lamp that perforated the plastic covering over the steaming window. I sat in a chair and glanced from this spectacle to my friends, in slumber on curbside giveaway […]

07 Oct 2011

The handlebar mustache experiment

In England, there is an exclusive club where the only condition of membership consists of ownership of the following item: “a hirsute appendage of the upper lip, with graspable extremities.” That is of course the handlebar mustache, which I currently […]

30 Sep 2011

Enthusiastʼs wild petting zoo

“Christopher! Christopher!” said my nephew Samuel, age 12, who was on top of a riverbank pointing to the prairie grass where a beast was loitering. A bison with half of its shaggy winter coat still clinging stood like a portrait. […]