Petra
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Solo Hiking With Your Dog Isn’t About Perfect Behavior, It’s About Awareness
There’s a quiet pressure that shows up when you hike with a dog. Not always from other people, but from inside your own head. Will my dog react?What if we run into someone on a narrow trail?What if today is the day everything goes sideways? For many women who hike solo with dogs, the goal…
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How to Hike Solo Without Overthinking Every Step
If you’ve ever stood at a trailhead convincing yourself to “just go already,” you’re not alone. Solo hiking can bring up a lot of internal noise, especially if you’re responsible, thoughtful, and aware of risk. The problem isn’t that you’re thinking too much. It’s that your thoughts don’t have anywhere to land. Overthinking thrives in…
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Hiking the Milan Gap & Lewis Falls Loop
I started hiking at 8:30 a.m., parked at the trailhead, and had the place entirely to myself. No other cars. No noise. Always a good way to begin a loop. The Milan Gap & Lewis Falls loop starts on a fairly easy single-track trail, nothing technical, nothing dramatic. If you’ve hiked Camp Hoover Trail before,…
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You Don’t Need to Be Fearless to Hike Solo, You Need a Plan
There’s a narrative floating around the internet that solo hiking requires a certain personality type. Fearless. Brave. Unshakable.The kind of person who never hesitates and never turns back. That narrative is nonsense. Most women who hike solo aren’t fearless. They’re thoughtful. They plan. They notice things. They make decisions based on context, not ego. They…
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Still Hiking: What One Year on the Trail Taught Me
When people hear “a year of hiking,” they usually imagine a highlight reel. Big views.Clear goals.Before-and-after moments you can point to and say, that’s where everything changed. That’s not what happened. What happened was quieter and harder to explain, which is probably why it mattered more. I didn’t finish the year feeling triumphant.I finished it…
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Camp Hoover Trail Loop
Some hikes are about waterfalls, overlooks, and photo ops. This wasn’t one of those. This was a walk-into-it kind of hike, quiet, steady, and surprisingly grounding. I took Zina and Remi out to the Camp Hoover Trail area, starting near Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park. When I pulled in, my car was the only…
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Hiking with Dogs: The Rules Most People Ignore
Hiking with dogs is one of the best things on earth. Period. Fresh air, shared miles, muddy paws, quiet companionship that doesn’t need small talk. But here’s the part nobody likes to say out loud: A lot of people hiking with dogs are winging it.And the trail is not the place to wing it. Most…
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Fun Fact: I Already Earned My First Trail Quest Pin
Here’s the part that made me laugh a little when I officially committed to the Virginia State Parks Trail Quest: I’d already started. Not intentionally or even strategically.Just by living my life and saying yes to hiking the trails over the last two years. Which means, before I even “started”, I had already earned my…
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The 10 Essentials Every Hiker Should Carry (No Exceptions)
There’s a romantic idea floating around that hiking is all vibes: boots on dirt, sun through trees, problems left at the trailhead. And yes is of course the magic. But here’s the truth nobody puts on the inspirational posters: the trail doesn’t care about your intentions. Weather flips. Trails disappear. Ankles roll. Phones die dramatic…
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Why I’m Doing the Virginia State Parks Trail Quest
On paper, the Virginia State Parks Trail Quest sounds simple. Hike a list of state parks.Collect stamps.Earn a little sense of accomplishment. Easy, right? But the real reason I’m doing the Trail Quest has very little to do with checklists, prizes, or bragging rights. Those are nice. They’re just not the point. I’m doing it…
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Why We Plant a Tree When You Finish the Trail Year
When I first started thinking about how to mark the end of the Trail Year, I knew one thing immediately: I didn’t want a badge. I didn’t want a medal, a digital confetti animation, or a loud declaration of “YOU DID IT!!!” that disappeared the moment you closed a tab. That kind of recognition has…
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Hiking With Dogs Isn’t a Distraction, It’s the Point
I used to think hiking “with dogs” was a lesser version of hiking. Slower.Messier.Less focused. I thought real hiking meant: And then I spent enough time on the trail with my dogs to realize how wrong that framing was. Hiking with dogs didn’t take something away from the experience. It gave me the experience I’d…