It turned out that getting into the High County a few weeks earlier only made me want more. It didn’t help that a friend had invited me on a couple of backpacking trips in the same area and had shared his photos of high lakes and alpine scenery with me! Matteo could tell I was itching to go back and…
Category:
Hiking
Summer wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the East Side. I wanted to go somewhere new and had never been to the Rock Creek area. There are a handful of campgrounds nearby and some high peaks and many lakes within striking distance. It seemed like a good plan, but every good plan needs an accomplice or two… Finding some…
For the last few years, the Point Reyes Fungus Fair, hosted by the Bay Area Mycological Society, has been a winter tradition for the family and me to attend. It’s great to have something that brings us together in the forest, and quite a fun adventure that always has many surprises! The allure of going just a little further to…
In 2016, I passed through the Cottonwood Lakes Basin on the exit of my SOSHR attempt with Art and Joe. That trip didn’t go quite to plan; however, it did inspire me to make several other trips into places near that route since then. I have a love affair with the Eastern Sierra for which there’s no substitute. Although Mammoth…
There are people who go to the mountains, and there are people who come from the mountains. Having been treated to outdoor experiences in the mountains since I was old enough to walk, I find myself identifying with the latter. I recognize that there have been times in my life when my interest in the slower-paced ways of experiencing the…
Somehow two years passed since I last backpacked and slept outside for more than a night. Time passes so quickly; monuments that mark notable events in our lives act as reminders of that. It’s so easy to put things off, to feel like we are on the cusp of doing that thing that we’d get around to someday, then before…
As all of us go through life, we inevitably hit that phase where it get’s “real”. I find myself there this year. It seems I’m not alone either, as many of my friends who love the trails are also in the same general spot. Maybe it’s a “getting older” thing, or maybe it’s because people like us relish in experiences,…
I had been itching to return to Zion National Park ever since running the Trans Zion route with friends a few years ago. The soaring, red rock walls of the canyon, the bright green cottonwoods in the Grotto, and the dramatic views of the mesa’s in the backcountry make Zion an experience like the Yosemite of the desert. I promised…
I went for a walk in the woods. I didn’t have a map, and I didn’t make a plan. I didn’t turn my GPS on, didn’t record how far I went, how much elevation I gained, or how fast I got there. In fact, there was no “there” to get to. I did have to cross a few things off…
Before even completing my last trip out at SEKI, I was already scheming on shorter trips that I could put together to get into the areas of the Southern Sierra High Route that we were forced to bypass on that outing. Since I have passed by Center Basin so often but never visited, the pull to head out there was…