Living in Texas is hard. I love Houston, I love the food, I love the cost of living, I love Texas thunderstorms, but the location of Houston is hard. It's built on a swamp, and there are no mountains, no real forests, no skiing, none of the things I've grown up with in the Adirondacks, …
The last stop of our summer Pacific Northwest trip was the Emerald City itself, Seattle. It was a relaxing way to end a long trip, staying with family and seeing a few sights, but mostly hanging out. Our big outing was to Rainier National Park where we hiked part of the 7 Lakes hike to …
Shadow Lake Lodge was our big splurge on a trip full of camping and crashing at relatives' houses. It was completely worth it. We were nervous in the lead up because the lodge was so close to the fire closure areas and a nearby lodge had been evacuated, but Shadow Lake stayed on that outside …
The Icefields Parkway may be one of the most stunning roads in the world. Glaciers on glaciers, mountains on mountains. I'm so glad the smoke from early in our trip cleared and we had beautiful weather for the drive from Banff to Jasper and then back to Calgary from Jasper. For example, the mountain on …
In Jasper we did part of the Mina-Riley Lakes loop, and also discovered some really lovely breweries and bakeries in the town of Jasper. While Banff may have had some more epic hiking, Jasper definitely had more epic baked goods. The first set of pictures are from Mina-Riley Athabasca Falls was probably the most amazing …
I was planning on submitting these images to the Smithsonian Magazine annual photo contest, but I haven't been able to. The submit photo page has been giving me an error for the last 5 days from every computer and every network I've tried. I figured someone should get to see the work I put in …
Section 4: 223.5-Vt Rte 15/Valley of the Lamoille River to 272.7-Journey's End/Northern Terminus This fall has been brutal (not as brutal as the Long Trail) so I want to apologize for being so delinquent in my posting. Hurricane Harvey really did a number on the school year, combined with adding a class that I've never …
Section 2: 104.2-Sherburne Pass Rt 4 to 165.5-Birch Glen Shelter The second half of this section was pretty brutal, and it gradually became clear that my mom and I had different approaches and goals for the trail. I was wearing one knee brace for this section, and would add another for Section 3. The big …
This trail is an ass kicker. I loved it but I would not recommend it to everyone by a long shot. If you are used to hiking out west on beautiful clear trails with a maximum 10% grade, switchbacks and constant views and that's what you love, this is not the trail for you. If …
My true adventure in Grand Teton National Park was what began as a hike to Surprise Lake (and Disappointment Peak, which sounded fun). The hike would be about 11 miles round trip. I got to the trailhead parking lot around 9am and proceeded to loiter until some other groups showed up. This is my method …
onehappycamper 