Spinning a yarn

The longtime editor of the Mountain Gazette is headed to Maria’s Bookshop next week to unveil his 13th book, “A Long Tangent: ­Musings from an old man, his young dog & a quest to hike every day.”

John Fayhee, 68, who lived in Colorado for 24 years before putting down roots in Silver City, N.M., ­­said his new book deals with one of the crappiest things about life: getting old. Spoiler alert: it’s not fun.

Fayhee, though, has quite the adventure creds. Over the years, he’s hiked all through the Appalachian Mountains, Colorado, Arizona and the Continental Divide Trail. As is customary on the Appalachian Trail, in 1979 he also picked up the trail name, “Jumpin’ Jack the Hallucinogenic Hiker.” You can guess why he earned that name. 

In “A Long Tangent,” Fayhee embarks on a quest to hike every day for a year, an idea he came up with over a beer at a bar, where, obviously, the best ideas form. His dog, Casey, seemed on board, and the pair started the very next day, keeping the tradition for the next 365 days (he added on a bonus day).

The book has taken on even more of a special meaning after the death of Casey, who died from cancer while Fayhee was writing the book. In an interview with The Telluride Daily Planet, Fayhee said that, ultimately, the book is about realizing that no matter what age you are, you’re living in the good ole days right now.

“There’s a lot of us who remember the good ole days, and there’s young people who are making their good ole days right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of us in the mountain country that maybe … spend too much time looking back. I don’t want to come across as a curmudgeon that everything was great in the past and everything sucks now because that’s not how it is.”

Hey, that’s not a bad reminder.

You can see Fayhee at Maria’s at 6 p.m. Wed., Sept. 20. And after, you can likely run into him at the Ranch where he’ll maybe be coming up with his next great book idea.