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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…
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You Didn’t Fail, You Resumed: Rethinking Consistency on the Trail
There’s a sentence I hear all the time from people who want to hike more: “I was doing really well… and then I fell off.” They say it like a confession.Like they broke something.Like the trail revoked their membership. And every time, I want to interrupt and say this: You didn’t fail.You paused.And then you…
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Why I Created a Ridge Raven Trail Tear That Doesn’t Care About Miles
There was a moment on the trail, somewhere between week fifteen and week twenty, when I realized something important: If this hiking challenge had been about miles, I would’ve quit. Not because I don’t like walking.Not because I’m not capable.But because the moment hiking turns into a performance metric, it stops being the thing that…
