(Based on a true story) Mark V (“Brightside”) thought he found the perfect way to avoid starring in one of my Trip Reports. We’ll see how that worked out for him.  Due to a hip injury Brightside could not hike the 2026 iteration of the “Tour de Sods.” This annual, epic route circumnavigates both the... Continue Reading →

“Stop looking at the GPS and just push through the brush!” Wesal (“WB”) exclaimed. We had been trying to follow an unblazed, wildly overgrown trail in the mountains of Cranberry Wilderness in West Virginia. Nature clearly had reclaimed this trail. Our shins were cut up from brambly, low growth and my thighs started developing red... Continue Reading →

Albina ate pickles as a side dish with her dinner. It was lucky she did so. We sat eating around an unlit fire pit at a dark, unremarkable campsite. We had just backpacked 25.5 miles and were exhausted. Veronica asked the group if anyone intended to hang their food in a bear bag. I smugly... Continue Reading →

“Where is the trail?” I asked Logan loudly so he could hear me over the din of rushing waterfalls surrounding us. “Do you think it is across the stream?” We had happened upon the banks of a bold stream as we were hiking the Allegheny Trail (“ALT”) in West Virginia. The ALT up to that... Continue Reading →

Ours is a tough neighborhood. The Shenandoah National Park (“SNP”) is, relatively, in our backyard—a bit over an hour from Washington, D.C. But don’t let the proximity to civilization or the “park” name fool you! This 36-mile loop of ours skirted a densely packed rattlesnake den, unusually savvy fish, a coyote kill zone, complicated rock... Continue Reading →