travel light, wake early, walk far
When you start telling people that you want an adventure, you really can’t complain when what you get is, in fact, an adventure, right? Some time ago, I decided that I wanted to reprise my section hike of the Mid State Trail, that epic footpath across the center of Pennsylvania, which DC UL had done... Continue Reading →
When our backpacking club, DCUL, hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail south of the Shenandoah National Park last year, we called our trip: “Whale Watching in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” It was really just a joke, though. Whales rarely hide in the trees of those mountains. We simply riffed off the name of a... Continue Reading →
Some day hikers approached us from the opposite direction on this final DCUL backpacking trip of 2023. Mark (“Snake Jumper”) smiled broadly and greeted them more warmly than to most hikers one passes on the Appalachian Trail. They greeted each other by name, exchanged a few words, and wished each other a happy New Year.... Continue Reading →
Photo Credit Jake Sawyer On October 7-8, 2023, seven DCUL backpackers completed a delightful low-mileage (LM) 19-mile overnight clockwise circuit along the West Virginia-Virginia border, in the Wilson Cove Wildlife Management Area and Great North Mountain region. The literal and figurative highpoint was the view from White Rocks Cliff while the low point was when... Continue Reading →
The first time I saw the Mojave Desert, it looked like an inhospitable wasteland. It was 2006 and I was on I-10, driving across the country with my dad from my college in Orange County, CA back to my hometown, Washington, DC after graduation. The barren, sun-baked hills and mountain ranges seemed like a good... Continue Reading →
DC UL Backpacking 