When I paid $4.39 for gas the other night, it occurred to me that hiking is getting to be an expensive hobby, given that I live in town and all the good trails around here seem to require an 80-mile round trip.

Not hiking is not among the available options, so I’ve decided to put the ads from you-know-where back on the blog. These pay for about two tanks of gas a month, and they stave off the humiliation of begging. I know they’re annoying, but they do serve a purpose: I get at least 10,000 page views a month from search engine surfers — they’re looking for stuff, and believe it or not, they’re occasionally looking for stuff that appears in those ads.

The hundred or so of you who come by here every day or so can just retrain your eyes to ignore them as you did before. It’ll take about 30 seconds.

I’m not going to waste my time or yours with affiliate links or gear shops or similar nonsense. I will waste your time with all my usual chatter about walking on dirt in these parts, but little bits of sponsorship keep the price such for luxury at its appropriate level of zero.