Hiking Adventures

Now What? On September 8th, 2025, I walked into Canada. 5 months earlier, I'd been in Mexico. My own two feet got me all the way across the country along the Continental Divide Trail. In 2024, I'd attempted the same feat, but I had to leave the trail early when I got a severe stress fracture in my left femoral neck. For several months, I wasn't even allowed to walk from the couch to the bathroom and back without crutches. Building back up to walking, hiking, and backpacking w

A Reflection on High Risk Recreation As an online member of the outdoor community, I am often exposed to news of accidents and fatalities of outdoor recreationists. Last week alone, a teenager died from a lightning strike atop Mt. Blue Sky in Colorado. A man fell and impaled himself on his trekking pole and hiked out 10 miles on Granite Peak in Montana. Two separate hikers died from falls in the Canadian Rockies. And a Continental Divide Trail thru-hiker fatally fell off a ri

Tackling Redcloud Peak and Sunshine Peak in a Single Effort Colorado is famous for its 14ers -- 58 distinct peaks that surpass 14,000 ft above sea level. It feels like a rite of passage to complete one of these hikes and look out over layers of shorter mountains nearby. There is certainly a spectrum of difficulty, but there's truly no such thing as an "easy" 14er. When Mitch and I first moved to Colorado, we had just finished thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and were in the

Seriously. Stop It. I was recently in wine country, California for a bachelorette party. Our Airbnb was pretty secluded -- a little over 5 miles up a hilly, windy, wooded road that ended in a half mile long driveway that 2 Uber drivers refused to go down because it was "too sketchy" for them to drive for some reason (true story... despite the fact that 3 of us made that drive in rental cars without hesitation, they both made us get out of their car and walk the rest of the wa

5 Trails So Nice, I've Done Them At Least Twice, and I'll Do Them At Least Thrice! When I moved to Colorado in 2021, I was on a mission to explore as many places as possible, and this almost certainly meant every hike would be a one-time venture. No trail repeats. But I've found several that are worth doing over and over again -- not just because they're beautiful, but because they give me something new every time. These recommendations are, of course, going to be biased base

Spoiler Alert: You Probably Have Most of it Already! Getting into hiking can be intimidating. There is so much stuff out there, and some of it looks so technical. People from every direction are telling you to buy this exact outfit or use this exact water bottle; how do you decide what you actually need and what's just fluff? Fortunately, you likely already have the majority of items you need to begin your hiking journey! Until you have more experience under your belt to get

Timed entry permits for some U.S. national parks have changed in 2026 from previous years. Read how to get the permits you need for your national park vacation this year.