A five day New Mexico road trip!

Hi y’all.  I hope everyone is staying safe in these weird and stressful times!  Right before s*** really started to hit the fan in the US, Sofya and I managed a trip to New Mexico in early March.  We drove around almost the entire state, seeing mountains, desert, desert mountains, caves, big piles of sand, cave dwellings, petroglyphs, AND MORE!

Hiking Kauai: Kalalau trail to Hanakapiai falls

For our last full day in Hawaii we hiked the most famous trail on Kauai: the Kalalau trail along the famous Na Pali coast!

Hiking Kauai: Waimea Canyon and Cliff trail

For our second day of hiking on Kauai, we chose the Waimea Canyon trail in Waimea Canyon State Park, which takes you to an expansive viewpoint of said canyon, and also finishes off at the top of the 800-foot Waipo’o falls!

Hiking Kauai: Awa’awapuhi trail

Hey y’all!  In mid-January, Schuyler, David, and I took a trip to Kauai, the un-official “hiking island” of Hawai’i.  The weather moooostly cooperated and we got in a few hikes to some epic viewpoints, the first of which was the Awa’awapuhi trail in Koke’e state park!

A late fall Tahoe hike: Ralston Peak

Oh hey y’all!  This is the second installment of my Tahoe hiking posts, as you can tell, because you read the title!  For our second day of hiking I chose Mt. Ralston, another mountain in the Desolation Wilderness and another hike recommended by NorCalHiker.  The views promised to be 360 degrees, and the elevation gain promised to be less than the day before, so it was the PERFECT CHOICE!

A late fall Tahoe hike: Mt. Tallac

In mid-November I had to fly to Davis for work, so we decided to make a mini trip of it and head to Lake Tahoe the weekend before, because #yolo.  I’d never been to the lovely bougie ski area before, on account of not being a skier and not being very bougie.  Mid-November is very iffy weather wise, so we hedged our bets and prepared for anything.  Welp, we got lucky and had a few sunny days in the 60’s with zero snow pack.  Score!  Besides the weather, the next challenge was picking which hikes to do!  Turns out the Desolation Wilderness area in South Lake Tahoe has some pretty ballin’ hikes with big views and big gains, like Mount Tallac! 

Guest post: Section hiking the AT – Georgia to North Carolina

[Editor’s note: Hey y’all!  For this week’s post we have a special guest contributor – Matt, who has often appeared here on the blog (e.g. all of the recent Utah posts, Mt. Washington winter climb posts, Smoky Mountains posts, etc etc).  A while back Matt did a solo section hike of the AT and has finally written up his adventure to share with us.  Enjoy!]

Hiking South Sister while out of shape: A 10 hour journey

Why hello there!  Since I moved to Oregon in August, I’ve been trying to get back into hiking shape (those two years in the flatlands of Virginia really hurt my hiking, y’all!).  It’s been a slow process with a lot of warm-up hikes like Iron Mountain and Kings Mountain, but this weekend I decided to go whole hog and hike South Sister.  The result was ….as painful as anticipated 🙂 .

Hiking Yosemite: North Dome

After failing to get a Half Dome hiking permit for the 10000th time, David and I once again began searching for alternative hikes in Yosemite with amazing views.  Having already hiked Clouds Rest and Four Mile Trail during our last visit, we searched ever-so-slightly off the beaten path and settled on North Dome, a moderate hike off of Tioga Road promising up close and personal views of of Half Dome. 

Hiking Yosemite: Sentinel Dome / Taft Point loop

Hi all!  It’s been a while (I feel like I say that all the time, woooops).  Since the last post, I’ve moved across the country from Virginia to Oregon… it was not fun!  Consequently, I spent most of the summer trying to spend as little money as possible, so no exciting trips were planned or taken.  However, I did get to Yosemite for a quick weekend trip in mid-September and did a few NOT HALF DOME  (what? I’m not bitter) hikes!