CDT
My 5 Favorite Trail Towns on the Triple Crown
If I learned anything from my travels on the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail, it's that hiking them would be nigh impossible if not for the...
Colorado Trail: Te Amo
Lights and shadows. Inspiration comes, sometimes unbidden and other times because it's been chemically induced. Then it goes, as predictable and rhythmic as the tide going out. Or the arrival...
Colorado Trail: Lights and Shadows
My spirit felt uneasy. The dissonance between my own aggravation and my idyllic surroundings seemed to compound my sense of alienation. I reminded myself that emotional troughs usually follow psychedelic...
I’ve Thru-Hiked Over 8,700 Miles. This Is the Gear I Brought on My 99-Day CDT Thru-Hike
I've thru-hiked almost 9,000 miles in the last six years, including not just the likes of the North America Triple Crown, but also shorter trips like the Arizona, Wonderland, and...
CT: A Hailstorm Beats A Shitstorm
There was something magnificent about that storm. Although I was drenched and battered by hail, internally I felt balanced and sturdy. The past 48 hours had been a series of...
CDT Days 84-99: Northern Montana
Johnson Lake to Helena The Northern Montana section of the CDT began with a 1,200 ft. climb on day 84. It brought us to Warren Lake, which for my money,...
Colorado Trail: the Delight of Doing Hard Things
I lay in the dark feeling mad with the urge to crawl out of my own skin. Throughout the night, my limbs would spasm and jolt with unbearable itches. The...
Colorado Trail: Salida, I love you.
Backpacking is gratifying, intensely introspective, and demanding on many different levels. It is relieving to counterbalance that mode of being with moments of playfulness or outright hedonism. To live, however...
Colorado Trail: No Feeling is Final, Just Keep Going.
God speaks to each of us as (s)he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond...
Colorado Trail: trailmances are like never-ending first dates
Trails are an exotic and transient world where connections form quickly, burn brightly, and then abruptly extinguish.