(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 →
Trip Report: “It’s All Fungi and Games Until Someone Loses the Trail” (Cranberry Wilderness, WV) (August 7-9, 2026) (38 miles)
“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 →
Trip Report: 19 Day Colorado Trail Thru-Hike: A Hike Your Own Hike Trip (June 29–July 17, 450 miles)
19 Day Colorado Trail Thru-Hike: A Hike Your Own Hike Trip June 29–July 17 • 450 miles The Plan This hike started with a couple of queries to an AI chatbot. I gave it data from previous hikes and asked for an appropriate itinerary for the Colorado Trail, including the best times to start based... Continue Reading →
Trip Report: “The End of the World as We Know It” (Loyalsock Trail, North Central Pennsylvania) (June 18-21, 2026) (60.5 miles)
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 →
Trip Report: Bikepacking the C&O Canal
For a long time, I've been wanting to bike the whole C&O canal towpath. For those unfamiliar, the C&O canal was built in the late 1700s the transport freight but by the time it was actually finished, railroads had become a thing and worked way better than a canal so overall it was a financial... Continue Reading →