2,500 miles later, I was ready to walk. Sitting in the car for that long brings its own aches and pains, and I was ready for an ache of a different kind. The ache that comes from climbing, sun, or big miles. Well, it won’t be miles on this trip… it’s hard to get in miles within this National Park, mainly because there is no water. My friend Cindy and I had planned this trip to follow an eclipse chasing mission, and had successfully crossed the state of Texas once to catch a break in the clouds for totality on April 8 near Dallas, and crossed it again to visit the far reaches of this park. B ..read more

Rain for that last few hours of my tent time. Rain means it’s warmer at least… Things get wet, mainly because I’m careless and it doesn’t matter. I’ll be warm and dry tonight, soaking in a hot tub and eating pizza. Yes, I do have a post hike routine, and it most definitely involves a pepperoni and mushroom pizza. It’s hard to hike the last day and not be completely consumed with thoughts of not walking. I could have walked more miles yesterday to give me a short day to the car, but with my goal to head to Cold Springs Winery, which opens at noon, I wanted to give myself something to do this ..read more

Things got icy overnight. I could tell because I wasn’t sleeping. My fault… I woke up having to pee, as usually happens at least once a night out here, and I blearily look at my phone and see it’s 3 something. I get back in the tent, cocoon myself up once again, and don’t get back to sleep. I decided I might as well get up and have some coffee and start writing. These days my writing and coffee process can take upwards of three hours. I’ll write, lay back down for a while, have another cup of coffee, nap, write, eat some oatmeal, etc. It’s a really luxurious and drawn-out process at 4am in m ..read more

I woke up to more snow and partially frozen water bottles and thought of my down booties, at home. Ok, maybe I would have swapped out some layers if given a chance. I didn’t want to move until the sun was actually out, and it was for a few minutes. I could feel that today might actually warm up some, the the clouds seemed much more benign. I walk a quick five miles to Clover Creek and a reliable water source. I move quickly though and my excitement at a natural water source dimmed when i saw the 200 cows wading in the creek. I should have gotten water upstream. Up into the wind for lunch ..read more

Oh hello again, wind. There were no windblocks up on the rim. The wind started and stopped throughout the night, and about 2am came back with a vengeance. Today was to be a purely road day, but it wouldn’t be an easy one on the feet. The mud had hardened part way – then cattle, elk, mule deer, and pronghorn walked through the clay-like mud, churned it up into a jumbled mess right before it solidified into hard ridges. Did I tell you I saw a herd of elk yesterday? They were majestic! And large herds of pronghorn too. This morning, a group ran around and around in the hills off to the right ..read more

Rain? Snow? Something fell from the sky in the middle of the night, but the pattering on the tent didn’t last long. I slept long and deep, and in the morning when the light started illuminating the rimrock across the way, I knew the forecasted storm day could as easily be a non-storm day, or one of many types of days. The weather out in the desert does its own thing, but at least dramatic skies were a guarantee. The trail entered the Wilderness and wasn’t a trail so much as a haphazard user trail with old footprints. At the footings for a once-there footbridge, I turned my sights up: it wa ..read more

Late March is the perfect time to be out here. At least that’s what I’m saying on day one before the rain comes. A soild week of sun on earth started the annual cycle of green growth…even in the depths of this Idaho desert. I was headed into one of the most remote places in the country…the Jarbidge Wilderness. It has been a fairly smooth trip in, though, and will be a cruisy 100 miles out. I left Bend, and after six long hours in the car yesterday, crashed in a hotel room an hour from Hammett, Idaho, where the next day I would leave my car and get a ride to the Nevada border and the start of ..read more

Guess what! I’m talking about hiking soon Just kidding, I talk about hiking ALL THE TIME as hilariously captured in this meme: In addition to my twice-a-month Intentional Hiking events coming up soon: March 4, 4:30pm with Hiking My Feelings on Finding Your Wellness in the Wilderness March 19, 5pm with Leave No Trace on The Four Ps: Pee, Poop, Periods, and Personal Hygiene – Leaving No Trace on the Trail and Why it Matters April 2, 4pm with Glen Van Peski (founder of Gossamer Gear) on The Philosophy of Ultralight I’ll be hosting/speaking/moderating these events: March 12, 5pm (free Zoom ev ..read more

I am thrilled to be participating in the first ever Hike Like a Woman virtual summit, happening online from May 8-12. I’ll be one of 41 speakers from 7 different countries, and after looking at some of my co-presenters bios, I’m quite thrilled to be among such good company. You can tune into the talk at my scheduled time – Friday, May 10 at 9am (Pacific) – or you can watch my and all the 40 other presentations on-demand after the fact. Register for the Summit here. Hike Like a Woman is an organization founded by Rebecca Walsh, and the summit, well, I’ll let her explain where the idea came fro ..read more

John Day River Trip – In January!?!?! This blog has been quiet. I haven’t had any epic or not so epic extended adventures to chronical…and honestly I can’t seem to access the wonder, words, or desire to write extensively when I have a million distractions in the “real world.” Nature tends to even me out, smooth down the sharp pointy reminders of my to-do list, and leave me with the space to let my mind wander over the scenes and musings of the day. I need at least an overnight excursion to shake off the incessant access to the information superhighway and my weak resolve to find focus in a ..read more