ok. this hike was fantastic. hard. long. a little dangerous. but so fantastic. i met up with my hiking group friends for a ten-ish hour adventure on majestic grandfather mountain, namely a 12.25 mile and almost 4000′ elevation gain hike, chock full of all the best amenities first of all. there was an old plane […]
mountains
outside. with new friends.

on a particularly drizzly and foggy day in early auguest, i was able to meet up with my local hiking group for a little stroll along the appalachian trail in the mount rogers national recreation area. we logged eleven muddy miles and 2700 feet of elevation gain, so it was a decent enough workout, even […]
my first ADK high peak. (phelps).

for our final day in the adirondacks, i was able to meet up with my old pal from batavia, andrea. when we were in the area a few years ago, she and i went on a pretty great hike to noonmark and round mountain. this time, she wasn’t sure if she could work me into […]
owls head lookout

for our final family adventure in the adirondacks, we opted for a 5.2 mile hike to owl’s head lookout. it was pretty wooded and buggy and a mostly steady incline the entire way until a final steep scramble to get us to the top. it clocked in around 1200′ elevation gain total. obligatory foot bridge […]
middle kid ADK epic hike.

it’s becoming a bit of a tradition on our family trips, that not only do we schedule a day for me to go on an epic adventure without the fam, but we also plan an extra long extra cool excursion for me and the annababy. for this vacations extra long extra cool adventure, we chose […]
balanced rocks. adk version.

upon getting settled into our little airbnb in the adirondacks, we planned out our week of adventures. first up, a quick little hike up to some balanced rocks. there’s a lot of “balanced rocks” hikes in this country and i feel like we have been on four or five at this point. this one happened […]
junie things.

it’s halfway through july as i type this. and we have been keeping pretty busy and active, so this all seems like a million years ago. but alas. i will do my best to recapture the moments. away we go… firstly. a lovely hike with ruby to hanging rock state park. a favorite of ours. […]
stone mountain, from a new perspective.

in an effort to meet some local outdoorsy folk, and maybe learn about some cool local-ish hikes, i recently joined a local hiking group. it took a minute for my schedule to allow me to register for a group hike, but i was finally able to join them on a trip to stone mountain. as […]
impromptu hike with hp

when your one and only local hike friend asks if you can go on a spontaneous-ish hiking trip, you make it happen. (it wasn’t that hard, actually, i don’t have that much going on). heather and i had been to elk knob a year or so ago, but it was in the winter and super […]
mothers day weekend with the middle kid.

a few weeks before mother’s day, unsure of what i wanted to do to celebrate myself (and the birthing of three children), i was poking around some state parks to see what camping options were available. much to my surprise, gorges state park had one last campsite opening, so i snagged the reservation, not really […]