the illustrious Ed Abbey!

“?May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. . . where something more amazing and more beautiful and full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you.? - Ed Abby”

“"Get me a beer."
- the illustrious Radagast


"Get me outta here so I can see those crooked, winding, lonesom, dangerous trails."
-the burnt out Oldie”

“Ed Asner?”

“The rancher strings barbed wire across the range, drills wells and bulldozes stock ponds everywhere, drives off the elk and antelope and bighorn sheep, poisons coyotes and prairie dogs, shoots eagle and bear and cougar on sight, supplants the native bluestem and grama grass with tumbleweed, cow $hit, cheat grass, snakeweed, anthills, poverty weed, mud and dust and flies--and then leans back and smiles broadly at the Tee Vee cameras and tells us how much he loves the West.

I fear for the lives of my children. I regret and am outraged by the systematic destruction of the natural world for the sake of human greed.

Edward Abbey
From: Confessions of a Barbarian”

“"To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question."

EA

c'mon, no other Abbey fans here?

I know you've read Desert Solitaire!?! Anyone?”

“I can't believe that this thread is so sparse! Surely Ed is turning over in his grave (somewhere in southern az, I believe) at the lack of interest....anyone read "Hayduke Lives" and have any thoughts on it? Not quite up to the "Monkey Wrench Gang" quality....Come on tt's...let's get some action here!”

“Yes...Abby had a way with words...I still have the pictures dancing in my mind from Desert Solitaire, having first read it nearly eight years ago...and having picked it up and browsed some of my favorate passages over and over... lost the darn book in the last move...got to find another copy...”

“I owe a good part of my passion for the wilderness to Ed Abbey. When I read _The Monkey Wrench Gang_ about eight years ago, it became my favorite book--and it still is. (I agree, utahiker, that _Hayduke Lives_ was somewhat entertaining but really didn't compare to TMWG.) Ed was certainly a poetic, passionate, inspiring person.”

“Me, I found the wonders of Utah and the desert SW all on my own. Believe it or not, I've never read Abbey. I can only assume I'll like his work (yes, reading Abbey is definitely on my "to do" list.) I've read enough references here and there to know that when I see the Flint Trail on a Utah map, well, that was the escape route of the Monkey Wrenchers, right?

And speaking of Monkey Wrenchers, wanting to do away with dams, here are two groups you might be interested in (although Mary Phl wouldn't appreciate ;-)

http://www.drainit.org/
http://www.glencanyon.org/

Do you folks also read Terry Tempest Williams? (Haven't read any of that either, but I see the name touted around at SW environmental concerns. And is this a male or female?? lol...... I have the idea, female, although I used to think male.) How does that writing compare?”

“Always wanted to become a professional "MONEY WRENCHER" If only it paid better.
E.B. RULES!!!”

“I enjoyed Desert Soitaire a great deal.
Wendell Berry is the writer for me.”

“Terry Tempest Williams is a great writer! She was at the ceremony for the new Grand Staircase - Escalante Natl Monument in 1996. First book I read was Refuge, a book about her family's history of cancer due to living in Utah..another great one is Unspoken Hunger. She's a very attractive 50ish lady married to a well known photographer if I'm not mistaken. Here's a link to find out more about her:

Terry Tempest Williams

p.s. ever since javaboy told me how to make links, I'm link crazy!”

“If you want to read some really good discussion on abbey, go to the desertusa.com message board. They are going like gangbusters over there!”

“Thanks for the link, utahiker! I read that interview and then another that was linked. She does sound interesting. Although, based on what I read, I would like to hear her justification for moving away from Salt Lake City. Not trying to denounce her. Just based on what she said about community and place, I'd like to hear what she says about the move.

AND... how was the south???”