The more I think about it, the more I think 2014 was something of a boring hiking year because I didn't pursue any big ambitions. I had planned to do some major stuff, like attempting to summit Mount Marcy and do a couple weekend trips packed with miles in new terrain (like coastal Maine and Shenandoah National Park), but I stopped going to the gym ( Read more... )

I'm toying with the idea of a photo-a-day project in 2015, the sort of thing I did back in '08. The trouble is, there isn't much variety in my day to day life nowadays, not like there was in '08. Back then I went to school (lots of my pictures were taken while exploring campus), took a class featuring lots of lovely animal bones, had a job (which ( Read more... )

( Talking about prospective hikes, road trips, and travel over the next nine or ten years. )

I'd hoped to take a hike in all fifty states and all ten Canadian provinces (though probably not the three territories) by the time I turned 40. At the end of last year I'd gone hiking in just six states (New Mexico, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut), but you may (or may not) remember the various posts I wrote detailing ( Read more... )

Lately I find myself longing to hike with other people. Usually I'm ambivalent at best about including other people in my trail plans; I only started venturing out with Egor back in 2012 because we could split travel costs. Egor hikes too fast on uphills but flags on the back half of especially long hikes, so he's basically my opposite when it ( Read more... )

Reading this book put me in a Pacific Crest Trail state of mind. Of all the long-distance hiking trails in the US (or, for that matter, in North America or the world), I've wanted to "do" the PCT most. Hiking segments of the Appalachian Trail cooled my interest in thru-hiking the eastern corridor, but I've never lost my love for the Pacific Crest ( Read more... )

I've been to the gym twice now, after a hiatus of some 21 months. As expected, getting up at 6 am is rough, but so is the pain of putting my body to use after almost two years of inactivity. I managed all of twelve minutes on the elliptical machine on Monday, my first morning, and my calves have not stopped aching ever since. (Full disclosure, I ( Read more... )

Happy New Year, everybody ( Read more... )

I'm tired of the Appalachian Trail. ( Read it. )

Oh, how I miss having all the money I could spend. Barring further collapse of our national economy (which is always a risk these days), Jen and I should start having money again in three or four years (when some of our major monthly bills get paid off), or sooner if I get a job when Jonny is old enough for preschool. But it won't be the same ( Read more... )