With no snow on the ground, we decided on a Christmas Day hike up Black Mountain. It’s a short, five-and-a-half mile loop to 1,250 feet just six miles from home, and in all these years, we’d never hiked it. We’d always opted for higher mountains further from home with Leo, the dog. One of the […]
Yellowstone Souvenirs
A Mouthful of Words I’ve just returned from a first-ever visit to Yellowstone National Park and brought home a mouthful of words as souvenirs. Here are some of my favs: Big Sky I had a big dose of the big sky in all its variety: yellow sunshine, puffy white clouds, thunderheads, drizzle, downpours, double rainbows. […]
Hiking the Chilkoot Trail
Several readers have requested advice about hiking the Chilkoot Trail. The Chilkoot is a 33-mile hiking trail from Alaska to Canada that an estimated 70,000 gold prospectors used during the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898. Most of the prospectors left from the boomtown of Dyea and hauled a literal ton of gear to survive […]
Mt. Mansfield Forces a Change of Plans
Mt. Mansfield Forces a Change of Plans We’d planned to hike an ambitious ten miles on September first, but we stopped after arduous six. It wasn’t the distance that stopped us; it was the topography, forcing us to change our plans. Our plan was to climb and traverse Mount Mansfield, descend to Smuggler’s Notch and […]