Sage is 13!  When I started documenting her first hikes, she was only 3 years old.  It's been ten years of hiking...wow.  What a great life we've had; I have ten years filled with great memories hiking with my kids up the wild mountains of New Hampshire and on beautiful trails around the country and in different parts of the world.  I am a fortunate woman. Alex and Sage in August 2009, the day Alex finished her first round of the NH4Ks at 6 years old (on Moosilauke),  and just before Sage started hiking 4Ks  (she is 4 years old in the photo and was partially carried up on the day this photo w ..read more

We have another talk coming up at AMC's Pinkham Notch Visitor Center -- February 21 at 8pm.  Stop by, have a listen, and say hello! Alex and I had a wonderful time at the AMC's 2018 Summit in Norwood, MA last month.  Alex gave a mini-talk at the end of my talk, and she answered questions from the audience. Sage had prepared a mini-talk as well, but unfortunately she woke up with a 102 degree fever that morning.  A few days later she seemed better, but then she took a severe turn for the worse.  Turns out she had pneumonia.  She is doing better now and is slowly getting back out there -- and ..read more

The girls and I are honored to be speakers at the AMC's Annual Summit in Norwood, MA on January 27, 2018.  There's a lot going on at this wonderful collection of informative talks and workshops.  Check it out -- register, attend, and hang out with a bunch of fun hikers/outdoorspeople!  Here's the description of our talk, which can be found on the Summit's webpage. **Nurturing Amazons: Raising Girls Outdoors Trish Herr Alex (15) and Sage (12) have hiked the White Mountain Four Thousand Footers with their mother, Trish Herr, almost weekly, year-round, since they were each five years old. They’v ..read more

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted!  All our hiking-related trip reports and news are now posted by Alex on her blog, Alex in the White Mountains.  She posts every week or so -- though right now she is on Thanksgiving vacation and will catch up with her blog posts this Saturday evening.  I believe she has two trip reports to post (Franconia Ridge Traverse on November 12 and the Osceolas on November 21). The girls also have news related to Union of Concerned Scientists, an organization they support and highly respect.  Alex will write of that news this weekend -- check out her blog. Als ..read more

Hello everyone, Check out Alex's latest trip report on Jackson.  She finished that peak for the Grid last Sunday.  :) Also -- the girls interviewed Allmuth "Curly" Perzel a few weeks ago.  Alex edited the podcast and it was released last week on GraniteGals (subscribe on iTunes!).  Curly is a hiking legend, having hiked the rare Triple Crown (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail), and having finished White Mountain redlining just last year at the age of 76.  The day after Alex hiked Jackson for what may be the last time in a very long time, Sage and I hiked H ..read more

Greetings! Alex recently qualified for Trailwrights -- meaning, she hiked all 72 peaks (one ascent per hike) and completed over 72 hours of documented trailwork.  Trailwrights is a stellar organization dedicated to the maintenance of hiking trails, and they allow people of any age to join them on their work weekends.  They are a great source of education and an excellent example of service.  We are grateful for their time, instruction, and expertise! Don't forget to subscribe to GraniteGals on iTunes!  A new episode is released every two weeks.  Last week's episode features Zoey Ceriello-sac ..read more

Alex will have an account of this late Sunday night; in the meantime, I'm posting some photos here. We had an excellent, windy, rainy, and worthwhile trip up Caps Ridge Trail to the summit of Jefferson last Monday (Labor Day).  From there, Alex navigated through the fog and wind around the sides of Clay and Washington to an area of cairn vandalism.  The three of us then joined the AMC's Pro Crew in rebuilding the destroyed cairns.  After three hours of building 7 or 8 cairns, we headed down Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to the Cog parking area and caught a ride from two kind hikers back to our car ..read more

Hi everyone!  I hope you are having an excellent holiday weekend. Lots of updates -- first, Alex and Sage have a new GraniteGals episode on iTunes.  You can subscribe to the podcast, and/or you can find the interviews here. Also, our recent talk at Pinkham Notch Visitors Center went well and was a lot of fun.  We spent the night at Joe Dodge Lodge afterward, then hiked Madison and Adams the next day via Madison Gulf Trail and Buttress Trail.  You can read Alex's write-up about our experiences here. Finally, my Cohos Trail blog is almost finished.  I just published the next-to-last day's hi ..read more

Hi folks, The girls and I are speaking at Pinkham Notch Visitors Center this Saturday, August 26, at 8pm.  Come join us!  We will discuss how the girls began hiking, where that hiking has taken them, and what we've learned from all our adventures ..read more

Our summer trail work continues...we have worked with Trailwrights this summer and we are the official adopters of the Alpine Garden Trail on Mt. Washington.  Here are some photos of our latest work (on Sunday) -- rebuilding cairns. One of the cairns we rebuilt -- this is the "before" photo Finished cairn  Yesterday, we managed to get the peaks of Kinsman; we had a great time observing the solar eclipse up there. North Kinsman View from the North Kinsman outlook South Kinsman ..read more