“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 →

Last year, I did not conquer the Death March in good form or in any form at all. The blisters were legendary. So this year I was determined to succeed. I remembered that my first successful completion of the Four State Challenge was also my first time organizing it, so perhaps there was a strategy... Continue Reading →

After four weekends without hiking, I was in the mood for something more challenging to prepare for Massanutten. My friend Rose was also training for the Cocodona 250 and wanted to hike a loop with a lot of vertical gain. There was one mountain in particular that I thought could fit the bill, but it... Continue Reading →

It was the coldest of times, it was the hottest of times, it was a day of blue skies, it was a day of downpours, it was the weekend of celebration, it was the weekend of resurrection. As I am writing this, my backpack lays outside my apartment room drying from the drenching it went... 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 →