
My name is David “Wazo” Smith. I live in Phoenix in a high rise, 22 floors up - not exactly backcountry. I love hiking, backpacking, camping, and bicycling. I’ve backpacked in a lot of great places - the Annapurna region of Nepal, Denali NP, Cotswold Way in the UK, the French portion of El Camino (Le Chemin de Compostelle / GR65), Canadian Rockies. However, my favorite trail remains the AT. I love thé Eastern Forest and the AT Trail culture. For more of me, you can checkout my blog, primarily pics, at wazohikes.blogger.com or on IG @wazohikes I can be reached at [email protected].
Posts
Far Not Fast (Elizabethton, TN) – Hostel Review
A Hostel More Like a Nice B&B In my time, I’ve stayed in enough hostels to know that some are nice while others are , well, let’s say more
Hostel Review – Mountain Harbour, Roan Mountain, TN
Day 0 of my Crazy Itinerary Flip Flop The Mountain Harbor shuttle picked me up at Tri-Cities airport at the time we agreed upon. The ride was
The Trek Synergy
The Trail Provides I have benefited from a lot of trail magic from the abundant generosity of trail angels. In retrospect, some of these gestures
2023 – Year of the Great Western Snow Dump AND Bear Cans
I’ve changed my thru-hiking plans for 2023 almost as many times as I’ve updated and reconfigured my gear list on lighterpack.com. If you’re like me,
Just Pay It – Forward, Backward, Any Direction
The Moment I Realized That Trails Don’t Just Appear I was about 20 years old. I. had been backpacking for a year or so when I had a realization. I
Well, it is the AZT (for now)
2023 Thru-Hiking, Here We Come! For anyone who is actually following, I have had more twists and changes than a bowl of spaghetti concerning which
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
The Elusive Thru-Hike Completion Thru-hiking has been a frustrating challenge for me. A failed attempt on the AT in 2016 due to a mix of my head
About One Week to My AZT Blast Off
Visiting the AZT When you live in Phoenix, you escape what feels like endless summer by going to the mountains. Generally that means going to AZT
Plan B – SOBO on the AZT
Goodbye 2021 PCT Thru-Hike, Hello Operating Room One of the harder phone calls of my life was calling the PCTA to turn in my 2021 PCT thru-hiking
All Systems Go and How I Became Wazo
The past few weeks have been horribly stressful. I was found to have an “unusual” cyst or something in my pancreas that was concerning for