Mountain Season Arrived, and How!

My trip to Banff was planned with many stunning, wild, and booty-busting hikes in mind, but nonetheless hikes that an averagely fit person could handle, given enough time. Somehow it ended with a hike that is currently in my top three most difficult summits. I had no plans to do a big peak in Banff … Continue reading Mountain Season Arrived, and How! →

My Nomad Year

As this year wraps up and I find myself living in a foreign country, something I haven't been able to do since 2006, I can't help but marvel at how fortunate I am. I've been giddy since the second the plane wheels touched down at the Quito airport, and as this post hits my blog, … Continue reading My Nomad Year →

Creeping Myself Out

Happy Halloween from Savannah, Georgia! If you aren't following my other blog, you might not know that I've been a nomad for the past thirteen months. I try out a new state every five to six weeks, staying in long-term AirBnBs. Over the summer, I stopped back in Colorado to hike some more mountains and … Continue reading Creeping Myself Out →

The Next 100, In Record Time

I had originally titled this post to be more about running, but running wasn't a thing for me most of the summer. And then I just started to get back into in North Carolina when - bam! - major injury number three for the year that has me grounded yet again. I'd give up permanently … Continue reading The Next 100, In Record Time →

Return to The Top of The World

I've had a pretty rough spring/early summer. As long-expected as it was, the death of my dog affected me more than I wanted it to. Lingering in bad feelings is not my thing. I'm very much a "life is too short, buck up and move on" kind of person. But my subconscious fought me on … Continue reading Return to The Top of The World →

And I Would Hike 500 More

When I started tracking my unique hikes a few years ago, Trotsky and I took 107 weeks to do 100 of them. This time, we really put ourselves to the task and crushed the goal in 91 weeks. And that's despite a six-month period when we did almost none. I reached a kind of hiking … Continue reading And I Would Hike 500 More →

Time to Move On

For more than a decade, I tried to leave Colorado. When I arrived in August 2008, I planned to get my graduate degree and immediately head back overseas to work in international development. Yet somehow, that never happened. Jobs, romantic relationships, friends, the writing community, athletic aspirations, and financial goals all conspired against my inner … Continue reading Time to Move On →

Wild, Wild West, How I Love You

Although I've been saying I want to move back to the east coast for about five years now, and although I now have a full time remote job that enables me to pack up and move back tomorrow if I want to, I'm quite glad to have been in Colorado through the Covid-19 shutdowns. And … Continue reading Wild, Wild West, How I Love You →

The Vacation Non-Race

Last week, I returned from a much needed vacation to Glacier National Park. This was supposed to be our annual girls' trip to run a half marathon with Vacation Races, but, unsurprisingly, the race was canceled. We sat tight for awhile, watching to see what would happen with the state and park. On June 1, … Continue reading The Vacation Non-Race →

The 14,000 Foot Summits of 2019

Despite the late start to 14er season this year, due to the massive amounts of snow over the winter, my friends and I managed to get in just as many peaks as in other years. Dedication to the cause! Not that I ever plan to hike them all—Class 4s with full climbing gear are definitely … Continue reading The 14,000 Foot Summits of 2019 →