Hiker | Author | Outdoor Educator
East Fork of West Maroon Pass Trail to Crater Lake (10 miles) Last week, the night before I was supposed to fly to Washington state to hike the Wonderland Trail, a 93-mile hike that circumnavigates Mt. Rainier, my plan came to a screeching halt. Nearby wildfires had come close to the park and while they…
Crater Lake to Snowmass Lake (9.8 miles) I woke up close to midnight to people talking and multiple headlamps beaming through the darkness. What the heck, I thought? Only one couple was camped near me but this was much closer and in the wrong direction. I was slightly annoyed because they weren’t even trying to…
Snowmass Lake to Original Trailhead of East Fork of West Maroon Pass Trail (14.5 miles) The morning was beautiful as I packed up and headed out of camp. Snowmass Lake was a hard place to leave but I was eager to tackle not one, but two passes before lunch. The climb to the top of…
The Trans-Catalina Island is a stunning island trail and is suitable for hiking year round. A friend and I hiked it in late February and had a week of nearly perfect hiking weather. The trail is appropriate for well-conditioned hikers; newbies are suitable only if they are in good athletic condition and are willing and able…
This is the first in a series of post journaling my thru hike on the Trans-Catalina Trail off the coast of California. I had the special treat of hiking it with my best friend from my undergraduate days at Auburn University. If you’d like to read my post on planning for a thru hike of…
This post is a continuation in a series of post about my Trans-Catalina Trail backpacking thru hike that I completed in February 2018. The other two posts in these series are as follows: Trans-Catalina Trail Backpacking Thru-Hike Planning Guide Trans Catalina Trail: Days 1 and 2 Journal Day 3: Little Harbor to Two Harbors (5.3…
I’m taking the leap from one to three homeschooled children soon. One of these children, mind you, doesn’t speak English yet. I feel a little queasy about it all and still have no idea how in the heck we are supposed to get everything done each day. I am a bit type A when it comes…
If you look up the word “hike” in the dictionary, you’ll find an approximation of this: “A long walk, especially in the country or wilderness.” So when a friend of mine wrote about his 67-mile urban hike along the outskirts of Denver, CO, I was intrigued. Urban hiking? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Turns out, urban…
Serendipity: Luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for. Spring fever hits hard at Hickory Hills Academy (the official name of our home school) about this time each year. There are days when core subjects have no choice but to take a backseat to the call of…
My husband and I had the good fortune of thru hiking the Wonderland Trail this past September after securing a walk-up permit. It’s a 93-mile trail that circumnavigates Mt. Rainier, and it certainly lives up to its name. It was a magical way to spend 10 days together, while our family members were kind enough…
