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A personal geography of landscape and place, art and geo-science.

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TrailOption

A personal geography of landscape and place, art and geo-science.

In search of place, pattern, and process

Stories are out there, keep going (trails optional, take the other).


NV High point Stories

Photography, geography, and stories from the mountains of Nevada (USA).

LightOpt Stories

The stories behind my landscape and wildlife imagery.

Optional Frontiers

The TrailOption travel journal, images and words from near and far.

Field Notes

The TrailOption Blog

It’s What We Do – San Diego 100 Race Report

D. Craig Young
June 10, 2025

In June of 2012, I ran my first 100-mile trail race. Observing the 13th anniversary, I am republishing my ‘race report’ that appeared on an early version of the Trail Option blog (although the links don’t work, the original blog is here). It is rather long, but running 100 miles takes me a long time. In summary, I’m a 100-mile runner and that can’t be taken away; to finish is to win, and that motivates me to ‘keep going’ every day.

Continue Reading It’s What We Do – San Diego 100 Race Report

Embracing Distractions: Mason Valley – Seaman Range – Lunar Craters

D. Craig Young
May 26, 2025

Maybe high points don’t have to be the goal. I established my High Points quest in the 1990s to encourage my exploration of the Nevada outback. I knew summit goals could guide me as I traversed Nevada’s Basin and Range and grew familiar with its amazing variety of desert landforms. Over 30 intervening years, I was not as persistent in my high-point pursuit as I could have been – I missed several years or went months at a time without visiting a summit, but my exploration has been almost ceaseless as I worked on a wide variety of geoarchaeological projects and managed to summit 130 of Nevada’s 317 (or so) named ranges. I grew more patterned and regular as I began writing about the excursions. I am, however, due for change.

Continue Reading Embracing Distractions: Mason Valley – Seaman Range – Lunar Craters

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Patterned Ground

Video experience in geomorphology and geography; cartographic landform dictionary

Archaeologists ask questions about the technology and culture of people, past and present, to better understand changes in human adaptation and lifestyles across time and space. And yet, archaeological observations wrestle with geological problems. People leave traces of their passage on landforms shaped by natural processes–the dynamic landscape influences and alters people’s behavior and continues to alter and mask the materials and patterns left behind. We must understand these processes, along with the climatic and environmental conditions driving them, before we can find answers in the sample of artifacts and features we are fortunate to encounter and document.

About Patterned Ground
Jump to patterned Ground on YouTube

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