A Splendor Wild and Terrifying - The American Scholar

A Splendor Wild and Terrifying - The American Scholar

On a summer afternoon when restlessness nudged me from my vacation cabin, I hiked into the forest, taking no compass or map or GPS or cell phone, and without informing anyone, including myself, of where I was headed or when I expected to be back. About an hour later, I spotted a small stand of old-growth timber that I’d never noticed before and hurried toward it, as if to overtake the hemlocks and maples before they could flee, and then to anoth…