California Dreaming

It's here: the first day of the rolling lottery for John Muir Trail permits. Getting a southbound permit is tricky business, but with any luck, come August I will temporarily halt my life in the Northeast and get on a plane to California, stuff a huge awkward plastic container full of CLIF bars and freeze-dried...

Sleeping Giant still sleeps.

I still haven't gotten over that tornado. You know the one, the EF1 that touched down in the 1500-acre Sleeping Giant State Park and the surrounding area. It's been more than two months, and there are piles of branches still lining everyone's lawns. Pools of dead needles still border the roads. The exposed golden brightness...

Hike your own hike.

On my second-last day on the Long Trail back in September, I went up Jay Peak. It was a nice Saturday afternoon, and the trail to the peak was full of day hikers: Quebecois seniors taking gentle steps with trekking poles, a dad out with his preschool-age boys, college-age girls in cotton tank tops. And...

The tornado.

Late Tuesday afternoon, we were hit with what seemed like a severe thunderstorm. Between downed trees and snapped powerlines, my 20-minute commute home took more than 2 hours. Soon it was confirmed that we indeed got hit with an EF1 tornado. And Sleeping Giant State Park, my local park, seemed to get the brunt of...

Books to Inspire Your Outdoor Adventures

As the trail name Reading Rainbow might imply, I'm kinda into books. (Working in a library tends to help with this). So it's only fitting that I share some books that have inspired and aided me in my outdoor adventures. I'm providing Amazon links for the sake of convenience, but you should be able to get...

Origins, and AT-PA: Ashfield Road to Lehigh Gap (July 25, 2013)

I've now come upon a year of being a backpacker, a.k.a. hiker trash. Lately I've taken to calling myself "land pirate," which I find appropriate now that my hikes usually involve using my sleeve as a tissue, stepping into streams without a second thought, cursing loudly at inanimate objects, and/or thoughtfully examining poop. Not to...

Compartment Syndrome, and Other Trail Ailments

This morning I found myself in the waiting room of a neurologist, passing the time by leafing through the little journal that I use on my backpacking trips to document my daily mileage, time spent hiking, weather, elevation and peaks, wildlife, food, and general mood. Oh, and pain. Like the near-persistent pain that had plagued me...

After the LT

A couple thoughts from the first week of October, shortly after my Long Trail hike:  Did I think of getting off the trail early? Everyone entertains that idea, I think, to varying degrees of seriousness. I only really considered it when I thought I might have an injury that would affect my health for months,...

On Becoming a Giant Master

My certificate and patch from Sleeping Giant Park Association came in the mail a couple weeks ago, and I am officially Giant Master #358! To become a Giant Master, I needed to hike the 32 miles of trails going through Sleeping Giant State Park here in Connecticut. It took me almost 40 miles of hiking...

Lessons from the trail (so far)

Nobody cares about your hipbelt pudge. Whether you sling your hipbelt below your gut, or you ride high and cleave your paunch in half with it, you're going to show a pudge. And nobody is going to care. I've been guilty of relaxing my hipbelt when I hear other hikers coming to have my midsection...

The Long Trail, or: Why I’m Taking Up Blogging About My Woodland Adventures

For those who are not familiar with the Long Trail - which is probably the vast majority of people out there - it's a 272-mile hiking trail through all of Vermont, starting on the border with Massachusetts in Williamstown and finishing at the border with Canada. It's also the oldest long-distance hiking trail in the US, with...

“Let’s go to the woods.”

This is what my husband says, in a scratchy cartoonish voice, to lightly poke fun at me. Every summer, he claims, the only thing on my mind is heading out into the woods. And he's not wrong. When the the daylight returns to the evenings and the bite disappears from the wind, I pore over...

Hello there

After tossing the idea around for weeks - maybe months, maybe even years - and some halfhearted attempts at blogging my hikes before, I've decided it's time. I want to remember the hikes I'm doing, the ones I've done recently and not so recently, as well as the ones I have coming up. For the...