Happy 9th Birthday, Summit to Shore

            I started blogging nine years ago when I set up this blog and posted my first piece, entitled ex nihilo. I posted more than 210 times that first year.

            I recently searched for information about the lifespan of the average blog but was not able to find anything close to a definitive answer. Anil Agarwal, at Bloggerspassion.com, writes that most blogs are abandoned within three to six months. Others have opin that blogs are generally short lived, whatever that means. One thing it might mean is that Summit to Shore has survived longer than most blogs.

            Not long after I started Summit to Shore, I also started posting to a group blog called Presbyterian Bloggers, an informal and unofficial gathering of PC(USA) Bloggers established in 2006. One blogger after another eventually stopped posting. Even the administrators drifted away. I was the last blogger posting and my last contribution appeared there in early 2013. That blog enjoyed a lifespan of less than seven years. Summit to Shore has now lived two years longer than that.

            I also used to post some of my creative writing to WritingFloor.com but it too ceased, its creator’s noting “After a good run, WritingFloor will no longer be in service. The usage of the site is unfortunately too infrequent to justify the expense of maintaining our servers and databases.” I do not know when WritingFloor started and forget when it ceased. Since Summit to Shore costs me nothing other than time, I do not see myself stopping posting here anytime soon.

            Over a year ago I started posting to The Trek,  an outdoor adventure blog dedicated to all things related to long distance backpacking, especially along the Appalachian Trail,  Pacific Crest Trail, and everything in between.” When I started posting there The Trek was titled Appalachian Trials but changed its name to better reflect its focus. As a Trek Writer I posted on The Trek twice a month for a year. I still occasionally post there but not as regularly.

            I started Summit to Shore primarily to force myself to learn more about social media, especially blogging, and as an outlet for some of my creative writing. I have posted original poetry, prose and photography. Barely a week has gone by that I have not posted at least once. Sometimes I post several times a week. I have never made a cent off any of it and never intended to.

            My first year blogging, 2009, was certainly the most prolific with 210 posts still remaining on the blog. 2013 was my least productive years as only 22 posts from that year remain up. Some from that year have been deleted.

            In my very first post, ex nihilo, I wrote that “My hope and prayer is that through this blog I might create a world in which to share my Philosophical and Theological thoughts, reflections, musing and opinions from a progressive perspective, and that readers might by chance, upon entering this world, catch a glimpse of something higher, deeper and more transcendent.” I think my hope and prayer have been somewhat fulfilled. What do you think?

            The most viewed post of all time is Chronological Linksto Cycling from DC to PGH Series of Blog Posts. During the summer of 2015, a friend and I cycled along the C and O Canal Towpath and Great Allegheny Passage from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh, PA. I wrote several posts about that trip, one post per day plus pre-trip and post-trip reflections. This most viewed posts offers links to that dispersed series.

            The second most viewed post is an August 2012 post entitled We Sailed. The post offers an original poem and photograph from back when I owned a C&C 24 that I sailed around Jamaica Bay and the waters around New York City. It is one of my favorite poems and posts. 

           Riding Solo Or With A Group, a recent post in which I reflect on the advantages of cycling alone compared with the advantages of cycling with a group, is the latests post to enter the most viewed list. This post is actually an edited section from a theological reflection paper I was required to write as part of the Spiritual Formation Certificate Program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

            Hiking, Cycling, and Kayaking NearWellsburg, WV, the 4th most viewed post, combines my love of three outdoor adventure sports and my ability to enjoy them within easy driving distance of my home town, which I moved back to a little over four years ago after being away for nearly forty years. It is also an early attempt at stretching my creative writing to embrace Outdoor Adventure Writing. 

           The fifth most viewed post, A Poem of Protest, is a free verse poem I wrote in response to gun violence. I post a link  to this poem on Face Book and twitter almost every time there is another senseless mass shooting.

            Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 for Sunday, November 13, 2016, the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), is the sixth most viewed Summit to Shore post. In a sense, there is nothing special about it, but it does serve as an example of my most prolific type of posting. I have been writing a series of Lectionary Ruminations for five years or more but have started deleting older posts as I have updated and edited them as my original Lectionary Ruminations have morphed into Lectionary Ruminations 2.0 and is now Lectionary Ruminations 2.5. 

           Would I have been better off focusing my blog on a single topic or interest? Perhaps, but I have so many varied interests that I have needed a broadly focused, eclectic blog to serve as a platform for my creative writing. I think this broad focus will serve in the future as well. Do you agree?

Celebrating Five Years

It seems many blogs do not last more than a few months and most do not make it past a year or more, yet today marks the beginning of SUMMIT TO SHORE’s sixth year!

My first post, “ex nihillo”,  went live January 5, 2009.  I have written over six hundred blog posts to SUMMMIT TO SHORE since then.  In addition I also posted to PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS  and SEBAGO CANOE CLUB.  Some of those cross posts were identical to the one’s I posted to SUMMIT TO SHORE and some were adapted.

While my frequency of posting has declined over the years, my posting has levelled off over the past two years to an average of 68.5.  During 2009, SUMMIT TO SHORES first year, I wrote 213 posts.  In 2010 I wrote 161 posts.  Posts declined to 90 during 2011, to 70 in 20012, and to 67 in 2013.  The most active month was July 2010 with 34 posts.  I have written over 600 posts to SUMMIT TO SHORE since its inception, an average of 120 posts per year, nearly double last year’s output.

In late 2010 I took over the authorship of the “Lectionary Ruminations” column on PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS and eventually started cross posting my “LECTIONARY RUMINATIONS” to SUMMIT TO SHORE.  After all the other contributors to PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS eventually stopped contributing, I too stopped posting to PRESBYTERIAN BLOGGERS but kept posting “Lectionary Ruminations” to SUMMIT TO SHORE.  Now that I have written posts for every Sunday in the three year lectionary I have renamed my column “LECTIONARY RUMINATIONS 2.0” as I revise and expand previous ruminations.

The most viewed post has been “We Sailed”, a post consisting of a photograph taken from the cockpit of “Mischief”, my 1983 C&C 24 sailboat, and a short poem I wrote about and after a day of sailing on New York City’s Jamaica Bay and lower New York Harbor.   That post has attracted nearly 2,000 hits, almost twice as many as the second most popular post, and I have yet to learn why.

While there have been fewer “summit” posts than “shore” posts these past few years, I expect the ratio to soon invert.  Over the past several months I have experienced major transitions in my life that have taken me from the shores of New York City and back to the mountains of West Virginia.  While I have no intention of abandoning sailing or coastal kayaking, I expect to be spending much more of my time over the next three or four years hiking and backpacking rather than sailing or paddling. I expect my posts to SUMMIT TO SHORE to reflect this change.

Summit to Shore Meets The Log of Spartina

One blog I regularly follow is The Log of Spartina. While I do not read every word its author, Steve, posts, I do look at every photograph he posts because Steve is a professional Photographer, and it shows on his blog.

I do not remember how I learned about Steve’s Blog, but we share enough in common that I sometimes enjoy reading it.  In addition to both of us being sailors (obvious) and loving seafood, Steve has sailed in some of the same areas my wife and I have kayaked, including  Baltimore’s developed Inner Harbor, Maryland’s wild Assateague Island National Seashore, the little picturesque harbor of  Onancock, VA,  Virginia’s Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and  the waters around Ocracoke, NC.   Steve’s shallow draft boat has taken him places I would never be able to sail Mischief, my four foot draft C&C 24 Mischief.  Nevertheless, I dream of sailing many of the places he has already sailed. 

I knew that Steve lived somewhere near Virginia Beach, so I contacted him a month before my wife and I were to vacation in Virginia Beach to see if he might be willing to meet us for lunch or dinner and if he might shows us his hand made sailboat Spartina.  In spite of the fact that we had never met, and perhaps against the best intentioned advice of his wife and a few of his own reservations, he accepted my invitation.

At Steve’s suggestion, and to fit his work schedule, we recently met for lunch at Chick’s Oyster Bar  overlooking the waters of Lynnhaven Bay in Virginia Beach.  I could not think of many other better places for three sailors who love seafood to meet for lunch.  Chick’s is one of the few restaurants I know where I can get a hamburger topped with lump crab meat while dining out on a plastic sheet protected deck overlooking and set right up against a bay.

Over lunch, we talked about sailing, photography, how Steve came to make and sail Spartina, how I came by Mischief, and many other common interests and experiences, as well as blogging on the blogspot platform.  We discovered that the three of us were all three years within the same age and shared some of the same philosophies about sailing.  Unfortunately, we were not able to see Spartina, but Steve issued us an open invitation to sail on her when the weather and our calendars permit.

After lunch, as we were preparing to leave, I asked my wife to take a photo of Steve and me.  A framed nautical Chart of Chesapeake Bay hanging on the wall above a picnic table out on the deck seemed to offer the perfect backdrop.

Summit to Shore Turns Four

There seems to be some debate about the average lifespan of a blog.  I have seen numbers as low as a few weeks and as high as two to three years.  Summit to Shore has apparently beaten the odds.  It turns four years old today! I started Summit to Shore, and blogging, on January 5, 2009. With a post entitled Ex-Nihlio, I entered the blogosphere.

Looking back  over the past four years, I think I started blogging for several reasons.  First and foremost, I wanted to learn about blogs and how to blog, as well as to learn more about social media.  In other words, I wanted to keep up with the times and I believe that the best way to learn is to do. 

Yes, I read a couple of books and on line articles about blogging but I more or less just jumped into the blogosphere without much preparation. I have learned a lot along the way.  In good Socratic fashion, however, I have also learned that when it comes to blogging and social media there is a lot I do not know.  It sometimes seems that social media is changing so fast one must be working in it full time to keep up with it. I use social media in my profession, but social media is not my profession, just part of it, one tool in my professional toolbox.  I therefore sometimes find it difficult to keep up with all the trends and changes.  Nevertheless, I try.

I also entered the blogosphere because I felt like I had something to say – not that anyone would want read what I wrote.  I may not be the world’s best writer, but I like to write.  I sometimes feel like there are words and ideas within me that I have to write down, or else I will burst.  Blogging offers me an outlet for some of my creative energies.  It also provides me a forum for some of my ideas and opinions.

I have sailed against the wind by not blogging about one particular topic.  Summit to Shore is certainly an eclectic blog, covering everything between, well, summit to shore.  In the beginning I had intended to be eclectic, but to write more about mountains and summits than I have.

When I lived in West Virginia, I spent a lot of my free time hiking and backpacking.  I often hiked two to four days a month, covering 8-16 miles a day hiking in some rough mountainous terrain at high altitude, at least by eastern standards.  After moving to New York City five and a half years ago, I thought I would spentd a lot more time climbing and hiking in the Gunks, Catskill’s and Adirondacks, but the reality of traffic and tolls soon altered my ideas.  It takes me at least an hour and a half and over $10 in tolls just to drive up to the Gunks for a day of hiking or climbing, and finding climbing partners whose skills and experience were compatible with mine was not always easy.

I can drive from my home to Jamaica Bay in half an hour and pay no tolls.  With a sit-on-top kayak kept on Jamaica Bay at the Sebago Canoe Club, where I can almost always find someone to paddle with,  I quickly found myself drawn more to the shore than the summit.  Two and a half years ago my wife and I took sailing lessons and  I bought a used C&C 24 sailboat, which I also keep on Jamaica Bay. This past summer we sailed on average probably one day a week.  A year ago I acquired a Necky Chatham 17 traditional kayak which I also keep on Jamaica Bay at the Sebago Canoe Club.  Is there any wonder, then, why I have ended up posting more about sailing and kayaking than hiking and climbing?  I also often cross post many of my kayaking related posts to the Sebago Canoe Club Blog,

Almost three years ago I took on the “Lectionary Ruminations” Column on Presbyterian Bloggers and soon started cross posting “Lectionary Ruminations” to my blog as well.  While between 25-45 people read my “Lectionary Ruminations” post every weak on Presbyterian Bloggers,  I will soon complete the three year lectionary cycle and will no longer post on Presbyterian Bloggers, which seems to have outlived its lifespan.  It has been six months since anyone else has posted to Presbyterian Bloggers, so I plan to update, expand, and edit my previous “Lectionary Ruminations” postings and continue posting them exclusively on Summit to Shore.

For the first two and three quarter years of Summit to Shore, I was working less than full time and had free time to write.  For the past sixteen months I have been working two half-time jobs, or the equivalent of a full time job, and have not had as much free time.  Therefore I post less than I used to, devoting most of my creative energies to “Lectionary Ruminations” with an occasional post about sailing, kayaking, politics, culture, or anything else between summit to shore..

Glancing at my BLOG ARCHIVE suggests that I started blogging like a sprinter and over the past four years have slowed down to a reduced but more manageable pace.  Here are the numbers.

2009    213 posts
2010    161 posts
2011    90 posts
2012    70 posts

According to All Time Stats, as of 10:40 AM this morning, there have been 53,598 pageviews and I have made 535 posts, with eighteen followers (THANKS ONE AND ALL). These have been the most popular posts.

We Sailed, posted August 27, 2012, has received 659 pageviews, nearly twice as many as the next most viewed post.

PC(USA) GA Vice Mod Visits NYC Presbytery at the God Box, posted October 8, 2009 , has received 346 pageviews.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, December 4, 2011, the SecondSunday of Advent (Year B), posted December 1, 2011, has received 339 pageviews.

A Prayer for Newtown, posted December 17, 2012, has received 339 pageviews.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 26, 2012, the FirstSunday in Lent (Year B), posted February 23, 2012, has received 319 pageviews.

Stuck, posted June 15, 2010, has received 317 pageviews.

At least one post from each year made it into the top six.  Three of the top six posts, however, are from the most recent year.  I suspect "We Sailed," "A Prayer for Newtown," and "Stuck" will continue receiving additional pageviews and that "A Prayer for Newtown" will eventually rise to second place while "Stuck" will eventually rise to third.

Happy Birthday, Summit to Shore, and may your best years be ahead of you.

Introducing Oy Vey Rockaway



Rockaway Vivian cooking up some grub
at a Sebago Canoe Club Event



There are many things you can’t learn to do by watching–so I have entered the blogosphere!


With the above words, my friend, sometimes paddling companion, and fellow Sebago Canoe Club member Vivian Rattay Carter (a.k.a. Rockaway Vivian) started her blog, Oy Vey Rockaway, entering the blogosphere on August 31, 2010.

Vivian more than once has helped draw attention to my blog, complimented me on my writing, and enabled some of my photos to appear in local publications. Thanks, Viv.

Fair is fair. Since Viv has helped Summit to Shore gain exposure, I hereby return the favor and introduce her and her blog to my readers.

Visit Rockaway Vivian's blog, Oy Vey Rockaway, and see what she is cooking up there and serving to her readers.  If you like the service, leave a comment rather than a tip.

Cleaning the Rolls

The list of blogs I like, which appears along the right side, has slowly been growing longer and longer. Unfortunately, some of their bloggers have not posted in a long time. Wanting to shorten these lists and bit, I have removed all the blogs that have not seen a post in three months or more, resulting in the removal of four blogs from my lists. One blog, Worship Weblog http://worshipweblog.com/ appears as though it has not been updated in four months when in fact it has been kept up to date. For some reason, even though this particular blog is regularly updated, the update is not appearing on my list.

Networking

Last Wednesday was a good day for Summit to Shore for at least two reasons. As I have already noted, on Wednesday Google Analytics recorded the first visitor from South Dakota, the only state that had yet been logged as being the home of a visitor to this blog. Thanks to Kathleen Turner, the visitor for South Dakota, Summit to Shore can boast of having been visited by someone from every state in the United States during the first year Google Analytics was logging such information.

For the record, Google Analytics does not record the name of visitors, only their location. Had Kathleen not left a personal comment, all I would have known was that someone from the Sioux Falls area had visited twice on Wednesday, or that two visitors from the Sioux Falls area had each visited once. I would not have known the identity or any other personal information about the visitor(s), so your privacy is well protected unless you choose to leave a comment.

The other good news I received last Wednesday is that after months of waiting, Summit to Shore is finally listed on CC blogs, a network hosted by The Christian Century. I had applied to be listed on the CC blogs network soon after starting Summit to Shore only to be told I needed to have a bit of a blogging history before the application could be considered. After three or four months and several posts worth of blogging I reapplied, but at a time when CC blogs was experiencing growing pains and personnel changes. I think my application material, along with some e-mails, were lost in the process. I eventually had to follow up with additional e-mails to move the process along. CC blogs finally figured things out and as of last Wednesday, Summit to Shore is part of the CC blogs network, one of about 109 blogs so listed. Thus the icon and hot link in the upper right corner of Summit to Shore.

Even though I am a blogger and now part of the CC blogs network, I still think of The Christian Century as a print publication, one that in the past couple of years has become one of my favorite reads. That is when the United States Postal Service manages to deliver it in one piece. A recent issue had half of the front two pages totally ripped off and missing.

I read some issues of The Christian Century more than others and never read every page. What I like about The Christian Century is that it offers a variety of reading, from short one paragraph news summaries in “Century Marks” to full page and multi page think pieces as well as interviews and reviews of books, films and music. It also publishes cartoons, poetry and graphic art. I usually find the “Living by the Word: Reflections on the Lectionary” helpful as I am preparing sermons and occasionally quote from it. Believe it not, I also appreciate the advertisements for recent publications and especially workshops and other continuing education events. I learned about the most recent continuing education event I attended, and one I found most helpful, “Delivering the Gospel”, when I saw it advertised in The Christian Century. Had it not been for The Christian Century I would not have known about the workshop.

The Christian Century brands itself on the cover as “Thinking Critically, Living Faithfully” and I think that pretty well sums it up. I also think of the Christian Century as a progressive, somewhat intellectual, mainline conversation among well read and educated Christians as they seek to understand and be in conversation with and about our wider culture while keeping their eyes on emerging trends in both church and society.

JuMpInG uP aNd DoWn In GlEe Because South Dakota Visited Me

Finally! Just as time was running out, not only has Google Analytics recorded a visitor to Summit to Shore from South Dakota, but the visitor has also left a comment.

I made two appeals the last couple of months, trying to lure a visitor from South Dakota, because Google Analytics had yet to record one. On December 7, 2009, I posted an appeal for visitors from both Montana and South Dakota. Soon afterward Google Analytics registered a couple visitors from Montana but none from South Dakota. On January 4, 2010 I posted another appeal for a visitor from South Dkota, but again, nothing but silence. Yesterday, January 27, 2010, Kathleem Turner, a blogger from South Dakota, left a comment to my January 4 post.

I will not tell you what she wrote because you can read Kathleen’s comment for yourself. Nor will I tell you all about her because you cou can check her profile.

I learned about Kathleen and her blog, Kathleen Turner’s Dakota Dreams, and she learned about me and my blog, Summit to Shore, through a mutual internet friend and her blog, Melanie Reuter, who like Kathleen is a knitter, and who blogs at Hands to Soul.

In a personal e-mail, Kathleen wrote “I'm a writer, but I should warn you that my fiction is decidedly irreverent. Currently, I'm writing knitting books - I'm working on my 5th right now (with a nightmare inducing deadline).”

Help me thank Kathleen for enabling me to truthfully boast that “Summit to Shore received visitors from every state in the country during the first year such information was being recorded” by visiting her blog, Kathleen Turner's Dakota Dreams, and perhaps leaving a comment.

Links

I have not been keeping up with my blog browsing lately and have fallen behind reading some of my favorite blogs. This morning I had the chance to play a little catch up and have been particularly struck by several posts. I do not usually highlight other blogs without adding some comment but this time I will some links with a minimum of comment.

Paul Rack over at Raxweblog has a pertinent post about Presbyterians and Evangelism. I think much of historical and contemporary analysis is right on target and worthy of further reflection. I know that if I and the particular Presbyterian Church I serve does not soon become more intentional about evangelism that there may not be a church for me to serve within a few years. Read Paul’s thoughts about evangelism and let Paul and me know what you think.

Melanie Childers Reuter, who blogs at Hands to Soul, has two thoughtful posts that I think are two of her best and most thoughtful since I have been following her blog. In one, she offers her own “Pledge of Allegiance” that I think captures the spirit of what it means to be not just an American but a human being, a pledge not to a flag or any other symbol, but to a way of being in community. I am not sure if she meant the next post to be a follow up to “pledge” but that is sort of how I read it. Bouncing off one of my favorite authors, Robert Fulghum, she offers some suggestions about how to play nice that, if followed, would help transform communities into more livable environments.

Finally, Carol Howard Merritt, in her Tribalchurch.org, reflects on her interviewing another of my favorite authors, John Shelby Spong, who has a new book coming out. Carol offers a provocative snippet from Spong’s forthcoming endeavor and reflects on it and her interview of Spong in light of her own ministry. I hear her and Spong expressing some of my own feelings and thoughts about ministry and the institutional church.

I have found these though provoking posts, some several days old, to have been a nice way to begin a rainy Monday morning. Along with a cup of coffee they have helped me jump start my brain.

One Year and Counting

When I set up Summit to Shore and started blogging a year ago, I had not given the whole blogging thing much thought. I just jumped in and learned by trial and error along the way. If I were to start all over I might do some things differently.

I am wondering if Summit to Shore is too eclectic. Admittedly, its subject matter extends far and wide, perhaps too far and wide. Should I limit its focus? Should I post less often but with longer and more thoughtful posts? What is the right balance between quantity and quality?

If nothing else, blogging has either ignited or rekindled within me an interest in writing, perhaps even an urge to write. I do not know what path this new direction will ultimately take me or this blog. We shall see.

A year’s anniversary is a good time to reflect and take stock. In its first year I published 213 posts, averaging over four a week and seventeen a month. Since I did not start using Google Analytics until January 28, 2009, and did not install a site meter until February 1, 2009, I am still collecting a full year’s worth of data to reflect upon. That also means that any potential visitor from South Dakota still has until February 27th to register a visit.

South Dakota, Where Are You?

Back on December 7, I was hoping to soon log visits from both Montana and South Dakota, the only two states at that time without a recorded visit to Summit to Shore. The next day, December 8, two visits from Montana were recorded, leaving South Dakota as the lone holdout.

The New Year has arrived and still there has been no recorded visit from South Dakota. Since I did not launch Summit to Shore until January 5, 2009, there is still time remaining for South Dakota to step up to the plate. (hint, hint)

If I knew anyone in South Dakota I would call or email them and ask them to visit Summit to Shore. The only name I can associate with South Dakota, however, is that of one of my favorite authors, Kathleen Norris. While I know her through her writing, she doesn’t know me from my reading, so I really can't call or email her. Besides, she might be in Hawaii this time of year.

Several years ago I read Dakota: A Spiritual Geography but could not remember if Kathleen was living in North Dakota or South Dakota. Having already read Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, The Cloister Walk, and The Quotidian Mysteries, I am now finally getting around to reading The Virgin of Bennington. Reading the second chapter of Virgin reminded me that Kathleen’s grandparents had lived in Lemmon, South Dakota, where her mother had grown up, where she had spent her childhood summers, and where she now sometimes lives and writes, dividing her time between South Dakota and Hawaii.

Lemmon is the home of the Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church, with 117 members in 2008, one of those members being Kathleen Norris. Kathleen has regularly preached at her home church. I had the opportunity to hear Kathleen Norris preach at the 209th General Assembly (1997) of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meeting in Syracuse, NY and thought she was an outstanding preacher. I used to have a recording of her sermon but loaned it out and it was never returned. One of these days I will get around to reading the only book by Kathleen that I have not yet read, Acedia and Me.

Kathleen's home state of South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. It is also the home of Mount Rushmore National Monument. The Capital is Pierre. To date, it is the only state out of 50 without a logged visit to Summit to Shore. (another hint)

What could residents of South Dakota possibly have against me? Is there no internet there? While South Dakota has no shore, it certainly has some summits. At 7,242 feet, Harney Peak, the state's highest, is higher than any peak east of the Mississippi. Shorely somone from South Dakota has to eventually stumble onto this blog.

Hello Montana and South Dakota, Is Anybody There?

Less than a month away from its first anniversary, Summit to Shore has logged visitors from 52 countries but only forty-eight states. To date not a single person has logged on from or within Montana or South Dakota. What Gives?

Since no one from Montana has visited Summit to Shore, I decided to visit some sites in Montana. A Bing search returned the official state site, and after a few hot links I discovered that Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer has been very busy releasing “Flag Proclamations.” A google search returned a list of sites primarily related to outdoor recreation, especially fly fishing. A blogcatalog search returned a blog related to Montana Real Estate and one devoted to Hannah Montana.

Likewise, a bing search for South Dakota also returned the official state site. Glancing at the official site I did not see a single mention of Governor Mike Rounds making any proclamations about flags but I did learn that South Dakota is changing the types of documents required to get or renew a driver’s license. A google search returned official and unofficial tourism sites. Blogcatalog returned mostly political opinion blogs.

The truth is I have never personally visited either South Dakota or Montana, though I would like to visit both. Montana offers some excellent mountaineering and there is some outstanding rock climbing in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I could also kayak on one or more of the many lakes of South Dakota and enjoy white water boating in Montana.

OK South Dakota and Montana, I visited web sites and blogs in and about your states. Won’t someone there please visit Summit to Shore and leave a comment?

Former Students on the Web

Did Socrates take any pride in Plato? Was Plato proud of Aristotle?

From the fall of 2002 through the spring of 2007 as adjunct faculty I taught one Religion or Philosophy Course (some former students pictured at right) a semester at Davis and Elkins College, a small Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) related liberal arts college in the mountains of West Virginia. The course I taught most often was Introduction to Philosophy, in which I tried to employ the Socratic Method to draw my students out of the cave of unenlightened ignorance into the daylight of informed self-critical reality.

Perhaps the greatest reward of teaching is to see students and former students grow and mature. I am aware of at least three of my former Introduction to Philosophy students currently on the web and as their former teacher I proudly highlight them here. Check them out and let them and me know what you think about their work.

Tim Armentrout describes his blog breath made visible as the blog of a “West Virginia guerrilla mountain poet” whose writing “is primarily spontaneous and goes largely unedited.” His photos remind me of our shared home state and his poetry expresses the edgy feel of a critical, irreverent but thoughtful and self reflective young adult unwilling to accept the status quo. Tim started blogging in May 2006.

Eric’s Blue Reverie is a somewhat eclectic blog that Eric Stover started in May 2009. Eric describes himself as a smart ass but I think of him as a young, budding entrepreneurial free thinker just now finding his niche in the world. I am looking forward to reading where Blue Reverie goes.

I do not think of Vince LeGreco as a blogger per se but as the creator of the online “OH-NO Comics Featuring Whiskey Falls” which soon move to its own site at http://www.whiskey-falls.com/ Vinnie’s illustrations remind me a bit of the Simpsons. His subject matter appears to focus on uncovering the absurd and median of everyday life with a bent toward some self-effacing humor and a tinge of social criticism.

I invite any other former students of mine currently on the web to let me know of their presence, or to alert me in the future if they start blogging.

Six Months and Counting

Summit to Shore premiered and I first entered the blogosphere on January 5, 2009. My first post was entitled ex nihilo and the first photo I published on Summit to Shore appears top right. That was 112 posts ago. Since then I have been averaging eighteen to nineteen posts a month or about one post every other day.

According to Google Analytics, which I did not start using until January 27th; Summit to Shore has logged visitors from forty-six countries and territories other than the United States, the most coming from Canada. Visitors from every state other than Montana and South Dakota have logged in, including the District of Columbia. If you know anyone in either or both South Dakota and/or Montana, please send them a link and invite them to be the first from their state to visit Summit to Shore. Most US visits, 1,420, have come from New York. California has sent the second most number of visitors with 140. The most viewed page, with 436 page views, has been Death on the Van Wyck. The second most viewed page, with 235 page views, has been 45 Reasons to Learn How To Sail.

According to sitemeter, which I did not start using until February 1st; there have been 2,664 visitors to Summit to Shore since February 1st, an average of eleven per day, with the average visitor staying four minutes and 25 seconds.

My Presbyterian Bloggers colleague Jody Harrington, who usually blogs at Quotidian Grace, notes on Presbyterian Bloggers that “many blogs are abandoned within a few weeks of being created”. I guess that means I have stayed the course (so far) and passed the first milestone. So what might the future hold for Summit to Shore? As eclectic as this blog is, that is hard to tell. My hunch is that there will be some upcoming posts about kayaking and hiking as well as a memorial tribute to Ken Ragbir and possibly a reflection of a Subway Ride. I plan some future installments of my series Welcome to my Neighborhood and possibly some rants and raves about our dysfunctional New York State Senate if it does not soon get its act together.

Stay tuned. Log in/on often. Tell your friends about Summit to Shore. Rate my blog (top far right column). Post a comment or two about articles you read, like and do not like. Link to Summit to Shore. Send me ideas for future posts.

Khaki

What are the odds that on any given Sunday half of the people attending a worship service will be wearing khaki pants? This is exactly what happened at North Church Queens this past Sunday. The visual oddity was so noticeable that I actually counted the total number in worship and those (men and women) wearing khaki pants, did the math, and the ratio was 2:1, 50%, ½, half! Amazing! It was almost Twilight Zonish!

I know that Princeton Seminary grads, with our apparent preference for khaki pants and blue jacket, are sometimes accused of making khaki the unofficial uniform of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But not even I, a Princeton grad, was wearing khaki pants last Sunday. I was wearing blue pants.

This statistical anomaly was unplanned. It just happened. And not a single person wearing khaki pants last Sunday was a Princeton Grad, not from the Seminary or the University. Go figure. The Gap and Dockers must have had a recent sale on khakis is all I can figure.

By the way, this is my 100th post to Summit to Shore. What better way to mark such an auspicious occasion than with a one word title like “Khaki”! To celebrate I think I will go put on a pair of khakis, put on a blue jacket, and slip a pair of Docksiders on my feet.

Joe Kinder at EMS SoHo

Even though I was not scheduled to work Friday, I rode the subway from Queens into Manhattan and the Eastern Mountain Sports SoHo store to meet Joe Kinder. What a nice, regular guy! As I was sitting in the store talking with him, I found it hard to imagine all the places he has climbed and the difficulty of the climbs he has completed. I would not have known he was a climber if I had not noticed the chalk between his fingers, left over from a gym climb earlier in the day. I thought to myself “He might be able to climb eight grades above me but I could still sit down and drink a beer with this guy.” Well, we didn’t drink a beer together but we did talk a little about climbing and also blogging, because Joe also has a blog. Check it out some time. He even looked at my blog, posed with me for a photo (at right), and signed a photo of himself (holding it in the photo at right). If you are in the New York metro area, come on down to EMS SoHo tomorrow, May 30, from noon-5:00 PM and meet Joe for yourself.

Long Live the Printed Word

I think much has been written and said about the demise of the printed word thanks to the internet, as if the ability to retrieve and read information via a computer with an internet connection could ever replace the written word, be it books, magazines or newspapers. Perhaps the best argument against such is when the hard copy magazine article is about blogs and websites. Take, for example, the June 2009 issue of Sea Kayaker.

I do not subscribe to or usually read Sea Kayaker, but when a paddling friend alerted me to an article about Chuck Sutherland (“Chuck Sutherland: Cold Water Warrior” pp. 19-22) I picked up a copy at my local Barnes & Noble. The article about Chuck was worth the read and the purchase price, but that is not the point.

The point is the article on pages 44-47, “Kayaking Down the Information Superhighway”. The article documents how the internet has revolutionized sea kayaking social networking by enabling paddlers across the country from one another to share information, paddlers down the street from one another that may never have met to arrange to paddle together, and the formation of cyber clubs. That is right, four pages of black ink-formed characters on hard copy really existing in space and time white background, not computer code existing in cyberspace.

Beside the fact that the article “Kayaking Down the Information Superhighway” in the June 2009 Issue of Sea Kayaker alerting me to some blogs and websites that I was not familiar with, I can also roll it up and take it with me to read on the Subway. I can throw it into my briefcase without it taking up much space or my having to think about not dropping it. I do not have to rely on it maintain its charge, nor do I need to think about bringing along extra batteries or my cord to plug it in. It is completely portable. I can forget it, loose it, or throw it away without losing several hundred dollars worth of electronic hardware.

So here I am, a blogger, relying on the internet to communicate, writing about the fact that I think the written word is here to stay and that there are just some times I want to hold a hard copy in my hands to read. I like the internet for its search capabilities and the way it has decentralized the control of media and promoted free speech. I mean if I had to rely on a publisher and an editor the majority of what I have posted on my blog would never have appeared on a printed page. Nevertheless I am not willing to write the obituary for the book, magazine or newspaper. Long live the printed word.

ex nihilo redux: Three Months and Counting

Today marks the 3 month anniversary of my first blog post, ex nihlio, posted on Monday, January 5, 2009. In WWJB, posted on February 5, 2009, I reflected on a month of blogging. I allowed the second month anniversary to go by without comment, however. Not so the third month.

Though I started Summit to Shore on January 5 I did not begin using Google Analytics until January 25, so I have no traffic reports until starting then. Here are the numbers since January 25.

951 visits have come from 19 countries/territories. 918 visits came from the United States. The other 18 countries/territories with their numbers of visits have been:
Canada 6
United Kingdom 6
India 3
Philippians 3
Spain 2
Netherlands Antilles, Sweden, Nigeria, Ireland, New Zealand, Belgium, Poland, Panama, South Africa, France, Trinidad and Tobago, Jordan, and Australia each logged one visit.

Of the 918 visits from the United States, over half, 500, were from New York State, and over 80%of those, 411, were from New York City (thank you, home town folks).

Two visits from Alaska still stand out in my mind. Alaska’s two visits to Summit to Shore have been from Wasilla, home town of Alaska Governor and former Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. Do you think? Nah! But just in case, and in the event of a return visit, HELLO SARAH! Thanks for visiting Summit to Shore. You betcha. Have you seen any Russian planes flying over Alaska lately?

To date I am still waiting for visits from nine states as no one from Vermont, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Dakota, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana or Hawaii have yet to visit Summit to Shore. If you have friends or relatives or know anyone else in those states, please ask them to visit my blog and be the first from their state to do so.

The most popular page view, with 80 views, has been my post about Western North Carolina Presbytery being the first Presbytery to flip-flop on their vote regarding G-6.0106b. The second most popular post has been my tongue-in-cheek parody masquerading as a Presbyterian News Service article about Amendment B showing a fourth quarter rally. I wrote that parody in response to two PNS articles, one posted March 11 and the other posted March 19 by Jerry L. Van Marter. The third most popular post, with half as many visits as the most popular, was my Letter to the Editor of the Presbyterian Outlook in response to their lagging coverage of the amendment 08-B vote. Thus, by far the most popular material on Summit to Shore has been related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its voting on amendment 08-B.

The three next six most popular posts have all related to kayaking, and two of those related to Jones Beach. Page views after these most popular are pretty mixed with regard to content.

What has been your favorite post? Least favorite? What would you like to read more about? What I have I not written about between summit to shore that you like me to write about? Leave me a comment and give me some direction. Otherwise I might break out my GPS and ask it to send me to a randomly selected direction.

Variety, Not Continuity

The votes are in, both of them. The two people who responded to my question about whether I should aim for variety or continuity with the header photo have both opined for monthly variety. So be it.

About Summit to Shore Header Photos

With my first post, ex-nhilo, I included an original photograph of a sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean I had recently taken from the eleventh floor of the Ocean Sands Resort and Spa in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My wife and I have vacationed in Virginia Beach several times over the New Year holiday and this particular photo was a reminder of many happy memories. It served as the header photo of Summit to Shore for the month of January 2009.

When I started this blog I had not given a lot of thought about the header. I liked the sunrise photo and thought it was appropriate considering the name of this blog. After a while I began to think that the header photo addressed the “shore” part of the blog but neglected the “summit” part. In my post WWJB, however, I had committed myself to generally post nothing but original photographs rather than posting images downloaded from other sites. That meant I needed an original “summit” photograph.

To address that oversight I changed the header photo in February and featured an original shot from the summit of Spruce Knob, at 4,863 feet above sea level, West Virginia’s highest peak. The view is looking east over the North Fork Valley. As a native West Virginian that had hiked around the summit of Spruce Knob numerous times, this photo represents my mountain roots and served as the header photo for the month of February.

When March arrived it seemed like I needed to once again feature a “shore” pic so I chose a shot of the Atlantic Ocean looking over the dunes from the National Park Service Campground on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. Ocracoke is at the southern end of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and reachable only by water or air. It was frequented by the famed pirate Blackbeard and where Blackbeard eventually lost his life. It is also an excellent locale for kayaking. My wife and I have camped in the NPS campground in both late spring and early fall and will undoubtedly return. The snapshot was a no-brainer for March's header.

It only recently dawned on me that I had not identified any of these header photos. Thus this post. In the future I will identify new header images as I feature them. From the photos above it is apparent that I also need to standardize the format, to decide how many pixels wide and high the header photo will be. That work remains to be done as I learn more about editing photos and working with blogger.

April will soon be here and I have already been thinking about what “summit” print to feature as April’s header. Unless I change my mind I will be featuring an image looking west from Sam’s Point at the southern end of New York’s Shawangunk range. Some friends of ours have a country home in nearby Cragsmore and when we visit them I usually hike around the Sam’s Point Nature Preserve. This particular shot was taken in late fall as isolated thunderstorms were passing over the area.

I have wrestled with the idea of changing the header photo every month, alternating between “Summit” and “shore” pics, verses keeping the same header over time. There is something to be said about variety but there is also wisdom in establishing and maintaining a “brand” identity that could associate with a particular graphic. For the time being I have opted for variety.

What do you think, should I aim for variety or continuity with the header photo? Answer via comment or respond to the poll at the top of the right hand column. I will leave the poll up through noon, Sunday, March 15, 2009.