BACK at the turn of the century my wife and I hiked the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California with a bunch of friends During our traverse of the trail one of our companions, Terry Leyland, decided to shortcut a series of zig-zags on the trail by jogging directly downhill. Waiting for him at the foot of the zigzags was a National Park ranger, uniformed and impatiently tap-tap-tapping the holster on her hip, as though gently reminding Terry that there was something inside it. It was apparently a felony to short-cut the zig-zags. Probably because he … Continue reading A look to the future?