“There is nothing Warren likes more than watching a hiker who is vomiting, to then stand up and start hiking again.” I offered this quote from a longtime friend of Warren Doyle’s in my Appalachian Trail narrative, Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail. I had been taking Warren’s Appalachian Trail Institute class, which helps ready wannabe’ thru-hikers for the long journey ahead. Given that Warren...

Me giving advice on walking in the rain on the Appalachian Trail is like the captain of the Titanic giving advice on navigation. Well, not quite that bad. I made it, while the Titanic’s skipper didn’t have any such luck. But those of you who have read my Appalachian Trail book, Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail, know that I was an unapologetic fair weathered hiker. However, the stark truth is that even...

The highest compliment I can pay to the recently released Pacific Crest Trail documentary, Tell it on the Mountain, is that it ruined my life. What? Well, okay. It may not have ruined my whole life, but it sure has clouded my intermediate term future. I had already done the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), followed by Europe’s most popular footpath, the Camino de Santiago, and the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. So I had...

It happens so often, it almost qualifies as a phenomenon. There must be a reason for it. “I’m thru-hiking the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) again this year,” I frequently read on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. And remember–we’re not talking about repeating a round of golf or seeing a movie a second time. The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,663 mile hike through the desert and high mountains all the way from the...

I just saw a post of a friend from Amicalola Falls, where the approach trail to the Appalachian Trail begins. “Starting in the rain,” he wrote. “Hey,” I wrote back, “we fair-weathered hikers time our entry onto the trail.” I was being half-droll and half-serious. To be sure, given how early it still is in the hiking season, I would wait until good weather was forecast for a few days before beginning. As tough...