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July 2022 Trip Report: Wedding Crashing on Vermont’s Long Trail.
“You’re about to crash a wedding,” she said. She kept on trail running down Jay Peak. I was finishing my ascent to the steep summit, streaked with grassy summer ski slopes. Mark was behind me somewhere. Andrew up ahead. A wedding, huh? We’re section-hiking southbound (SOBO) for the week on Vermont’s Long Trail, not chilling…
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Tuscarora Trail Journal. Chapter Four: And In the End (Sections 1-10, Hancock, MD to Duncannon, PA, May 29 – June 4)
Intro. No more weekend warrior section hiking for us. We graduated to whole week warriors for the final 115 miles of the Tuscarora Trail — and threw on another 10 miles on the Appalachian Trail to boot so we could rock out with thru-hikers on our last night (and, you know, get back to our…
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2021 is in the Books!
Who doesn’t love a good read? Or a bad read, really.* I certainly do and I spent a lot of my time in 2021 with my nose in a book or four. Here’s my little chance to tell you which of those books I loved the most in 2021. Maybe something will jump out at…
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Backpacking Ontario: The Western Uplands Backpacking Trail
For Ontario backpackers interested in a 50 mile (80 kilometer) trail, Algonquin Provincial Park’s Western Uplands Backpacking Trail is one of the few backcountry options available. I hiked it in two nights and two days October 22-24 with rough splits of 5 miles (8 km) on Friday afternoon, 26 miles (42 km) on Saturday, and…
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Backpacking Ontario: Algonquin Provincial Park’s Highland Backpacking Trail (And Some)
I moved to Canada. Now I needed to backpack. It’s been a number of years since I had to start from scratch to get to know an area. After some internet and trail guide perusing, I seized on Algonquin Provincial Park as a great place to start. Algonquin boasts three established backpacking trails with designated…
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Tuscarora Trail Journal. Chapter Three: The Shenandoah Campaign (Sections 17-22, Rt. 48/55 to the Appalachian Trail in SNP, April 15-18, 2021)
Intro. If this hike was a Coldplay song it would definitely be “The Scientist.” Andrew, Brian, and I said, “Oh, let’s go back to the start,” and reversed direction for our section hike to head southbound (really eastward) along the roughly 69-miles of trail and detours from the West Virginia/Virginia border on Route 48/55 all…
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Tuscarora Trail Journal. Chapter Two: Happy Hour in Sleepy Creek (Sections 11-13, Basore’s Ridge Shelter to Hancock, March 26-28, 2021)
Intro. Welcome back to the Tuscarora Trail! Claudio, Kyle, Brian, and I continued our 2021 section hike with 45 miles taking us through the tri-border region of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland and covering sections 11-13 (and a bit of 14) as described in the PATC guidebook. We finished in historic Hancock, Maryland after passing…
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Profound Historical Fiction and Riveting Epic Fantasy (Reviewing Robert Jones, Jr.’s The Prophets, and Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War)
January started with a significant reading list. I’ll spend the rest of 2021 trying to even equal the power of the two books I read to start the year. No, these two books don’t share much in common. But each on their own merit is worth a “stop what you’re doing and read” urge. Hear…
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Tuscarora Trail Journal. Chapter One: My Kingdom for My Snowshoes (Sections 14-16, 48/55 to Basore’s Ridge Shelter, February 13-14, 2021)
Intro. I needed another trail section-hike project like I need some new backpacking equipment. Which is to say I absolutely didn’t but certainly took one on anyway. As far as section hikes go, it seemed everyone in my backpacking orbit was working on their own Tuscarora Trail version. And why not? At 250 total miles…
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An Inauguration Worth Commemorating
Backpacking seasons come and go. DC UL Backpacking should know. It’s been around for 11 great years. Though I founded the original version of the group as — essentially — a personal backpacking crew for me to ring lead in 2009, it has grown beyond my wildest dreams. I bestowed a name, an ultralight orientation,…