I didn’t much like the original title for this blog, the Weekend Mountaineer. I found it… limiting. This is to be my personal blog and while I LOVE the outdoors and that is likely to be the subject I write the most about here, well, I have other interests too. Besides, I didn’t want anyone to get the mistaken impression that I was a mountain-climber (although that would be fun to get in to, if only my poor wrist would allow it.)

I spent much of today brainstorming alternative names.

• The Wanderer
• Mountain Wanderer
• Rocky Mountain Wanderer
• Weekend Wanderer
• Diary of a Wanderer (seeing a bit of a theme here)
• Backcountry Atheist
• Atheist Outdoors
• Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost (A way-too-long-for-a-blog-title line from J. R. R. Tolkien‘s poem, All That is Gold Does Not Glitter.)
• Not lost
• Pike’s Peak is TALL

Eventually, I just gave up and put it in the hands of Twitter.

Trevlutz suggested The Hiking Humanist, which I ultimately picked. Calling me a hiker rather than a mountaineer doesn’t risk giving any false impressions as to my skills, and Humanist give me freedom to talk about a wide range of topics, apart from atheism, and is more inclusive of any theistic visitors.

Another user by the name of ParsleyV suggested No God in High Places.  I thought that was a great title. It reminded me of when my parents came down to visit me last summer. Among our many sight-seeing trips, we visited Pike’s Peak, one of Colorado’s 54 Fourteeners. I remember standing atop the summit, looking down at the clouds. I didn’t see any weird little cherubs, no angels playing harps, no line in front of any pearly gates for St. Pete to play bouncer. I didn’t see god. What did I see?

Well… I saw Garden of the Gods, actually, but never-mind that!

Big thanks to both Twitterers mentioned above, you’ve both been a lot of help.