Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) Progress Report: I’ve done everything highlighted in purple on the map: about 535 miles so far. Approximately 301 miles of hiking (37 days), 100 miles of kayaking (5 days), and 134 miles of biking the on-road sections (5 days). Remaining to go: 348 miles hiking 130 miles paddling 23 miles bicycling This… More Campaign Status: Mountains-to-Sea Trail
You can probably understand my wife’s concerns, when I told her that I planned to hike alone, in the backcountry, for days at a time. You probably have a spouse or others who would share similar concerns. So she was much happier when I told her I had a plan to stay in touch, and… More Backpacking Gear: Delorme / Garmin inReach SE
Who needs a full-featured GPS-in-a-watch? Not many people, probably. But if you’re a backcountry backpacker, such a thing could come in handy. I recently found a too-good-to-pass-up deal on a brand new Garmin Fenix 5x. This device that had been on my “would love to have but is too expensive” list was suddenly attached to… More Backpacking Gear: Garmin Fenix 5x First Impressions
By late December, after a couple of months of flatland hiking, I was suffering from mountain withdrawal. I needed an extended hike in the high country. Several days of unseasonably warm weather, the week before Christmas, presented an opportunity. Logistical constraints only left me with one real option: Mountains-to-Sea Trail Segment 4, and Linville Gorge.… More Mountains-to-Sea Trail: Segment 4 – Linville Gorge
Reach the Peaks is an annual trail run and hiking challenge, organized by the Friends of the Sauratown Mountains and the Stokes County Arts Council. The course covers ten miles of the most challenging trails in the park, and visits five “peaks” along the route. My brother-in-law, Mike, is an avid trail runner. This looked… More Reach the Peaks 2017: Hanging Rock State Park
I learn something every time I hike. In an earlier post, I wrote about hiking lessons learned in the first leg of Segment 1A. So what did I learn in this second leg?
On Monday, September 11, the remnants of Hurricane Irma blew through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). While the storm had lost much of its power while over land, it was still quite a blow… and made quite a mess of the place. Main roads were closed for a day or two. Secondary roads… More Mountains-to-Sea Trail: Segment 1A, Leg 2
After a couple of weeks of healing, lightening, and getting wiser, I’m ready to hit the trail and complete Segment 1A of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. So what did I learn? And what am I doing differently?
After The Hike That Started It All, I had set my sights on a summer of section-hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) with my son, Jack. That plan crashed like a wave over the jagged rocks of reality, along with my right ankle, on the eve of our first AT hike (post on this is coming… More Mountains-to-Sea Trail: Segment 1A, Leg 1
My rowdy extended family of 9 (Me, Roberta, Jack, Viv, Viv’s boyfriend Dakota, Roberta’s sister Mary, Mary’s husband Mike, and their kids Matt and Katie) took an epic 10 day vacation to Colorado, Wyoming and Utah in July. While there, we spent a few days at Yellowstone, staying in Gardiner, MT. My personal primary objective… More Yellowstone: Bunsen Peak