“Feliz cumpleano (Happy Birthday),” to Dennis Blanchard, author of Three Hundred Zeroes and enthusiastic program director for the very active Appalachian Trail Club of Florida. Heck, this is a big day for Dennis. Not only is it his 65th birthday (Hey Dennis, you can hike year-round just on a Social Security check!), but also St. Patrick’s Day. Surely somebody as chronically fun and upbeat as you has some Irish in them. And...

You get off to good and bad beginnings with your fellow humanoids. My initial contact with the well-known Appalachian Trail (AT) personality, ‘Baltimore Jack’, was of the decidedly rocky variety. While there was probably plenty of blame to go around, I want to take my share of the culpability. I first met Baltimore Jack in 2005 at the AT hiker hostel at Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. I was in the process of rooting out what was...

The Appalachian Trail Kickoff at Amicalola Falls, Georgia saw a record turnout this weekend. First, let me say thank you to Lauretta Dean for doing such a boffo job at arranging the whole weekend, as well as inviting me to speak. But much more importantly, this event–which is just a few years old–has now become one of the marquee events in the hiking community, along with Trail Days in Damascus, Virginia (May 17-19) and the Pacific...

. Snow LSnow levels on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) are one of the key variables of a thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. All winter, potential thru-hikers follow various websites trying to get an indication of how much snow there is the current year compared to normal. Well, I have some good news: the California Department of Water Resources reports that snow levels are running about 80% of normal amounts. That is very good news for all but...

“America’s hiking trails cast the widest possible net in terms of its participants,” I wrote in Skywalker–Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail. An astounding, but true, statistic is that between 3,000,000 and 4,000, 000 hikers per year step foot on the Appalachian Trail, for hikes of varying length and duration. That is all indeed good news. For the most part, the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails are widely...

“Dude, you should try some olive oil,” hiker after hiker commented to me. “Why olive oil?” “Because it has the highest amount of calories for its weight of any food.” Calorie vs. weight. In summation, that is one of the direct challenges that the majority of thru-hikers will face on the two great national scenic trails, the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). For those of you who have read my...