California Sierras, Pinehurst, Pinckney, Traverse City + New Smyrna Beach

“‘Try the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don't look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by,’ Kerouac wrote. Trails are like that: you're floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you're struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in…