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 →

It couldn’t have been worse. A co-worker invited me to her in-office baby shower held during lunch break. I arrived 15 minutes late and immediately regretted accepting the invitation. The woman-only crowd was deep into corny “baby shower games.” I gamely tried to fit in during the “baby trivia” game. However, when someone passed around... Continue Reading →

I was looking forward to this trip for months. Andrew (“Camel”) posted a point-to-point hike on the Appalachian Trail (“AT”) from Dragon’s Tooth to Pearisburg, all just west of Roanoke, Virginia. This is one of my only two missing pieces of the AT in Virginia. It also filled a four-day weekend in the Fall since... Continue Reading →