“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This well-known saying has implications in all spheres of life, but one meaning relates to sightseeing. Modern transportation allows us to cover vast distances in a short period of time, but in doing so we pass a myriad of beautiful locations that we fail to appreciate. One remedy is to go out for a hike. Hiking allows access to many amazing spots that cannot be reached by mechanized transport, and has the added benefit of providing good exercise.
I became interested in photography many years ago, in the age of film cameras, but found that I needed some inspiration for carrying my camera, such as going on vacation, visiting a park, or attending a special event. Before the era of camera phones and compact digital cameras, some photographers were happy to carry a bulky camera with them at all times, but that did not appeal to me.
Also, for many years I did not take vacations, and therefore my camera lay idle, gathering dust. I finally came to my senses a few years ago, and began to once again enjoy visits to beautiful locales, whether on a week-long vacation or a simple day hike in a nearby park. I enjoyed the hiking for its own sake, and again found inspiration for photography. In the belief that others may enjoy learning about the places I have visited, I have created this blog.
The URL, lowmileage.com, therefore stands for the idea that one can spend an enjoyable day traveling by foot, even though he or she only covers a few miles in distance.*
I therefore welcome you to my hiking photoblog, and hope that you will enjoy the photos and descriptions of my hikes, and will be motivated yourself to hit the trails.
* Okay, the truth of how I selected “lowmileage.com” is a little less romantic. Years ago I read that people were reserving URLs and then selling their rights for huge sums of money. The article stated that the most-desirable URLs were short, and that ideally no URL should be longer than 10 letters. I struggled to find a short URL that was not taken, and suddenly thought of lowmileage.com. (The term “low mileage” is perhaps only known in the U.S., in the context of used cars that have low odometer readings.) Perhaps a t.v. advertisement for an auto dealership was playing in the background as I had my epiphany. In any event, I reserved the URL, but for many years did nothing with it. I finally became interested in hiking, and decided that the URL would work for a hiking blog.