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Self-portrait in the White Mountains

September 19, 2009

If you are my facebook friend then you have already seen this. I took it with my camera on a tripod and used my remote release.

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Emergency blanket: win

September 11, 2009

It’s 3:30 on a cold, foggy night and a woman tells me that my attitude is not helpful. “We’re all in this together,” she says. And I think, “I’ve been ‘in this’ for 6 hours. You’re just now showing up.” Let me rewind a little and say this: an emergency blanket is a windproof, waterproof [...]

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Shoving my pack through the Mahoosac Notch

September 6, 2009

The Mahoosac Notch is known as “the hardest mile on the Appalachian Trail.” In it, you wiggle under big boulders, stuff your backpack through holes, and hop from rock to rock. It was incredibly fun. Here are a few pictures of me shoving my pack ahead of me as I climb through a tunnel.

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Reader Question #8: Being a wimp

September 2, 2009

Audrey B from Lookout Mtn, GA Question: My brother/cousin/friend/grandmother/pet ferret did the 100 mile wilderness and did not have as hard a time as you. Is it possible that you are a wimp? Answer: Yes. Although we in the wimp community prefer to be called badass challenged. Actually, there are many stories of people who [...]

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How to climb a mountain in Maine

August 25, 2009

I’m done with the state of Maine now, so I though I’d pass on a few tips. Hiking here can be challenging because there are no switchbacks. It is as if the creators of the trail said, “Lo, there is a mountain. You will now walk straight up it.” Often, the trail is actually a [...]

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Impossibly beautiful

August 23, 2009

Last night I stayed in a lean-to with an impossibly beautiful couple from Holland. They snuggled and kissed and spoke to one another in Dutch. I had to interrupt them, “Um, excuse me,” I said to the man, “would you mind turning away while I change?” This is what everyone does in lean-tos. Neither them [...]

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Weight, weight, don’t tell me

August 22, 2009

“You are never going to make it through the Whites or the Mahoosacs with that pack,” another backpacker tells me. I nod and think I heard you the first four times you told me. He is traveling with a friend, wearing spandex, carrying only a fanny pack. He began to lecture me on the weight [...]

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Word of the day: submudged

August 18, 2009

Submudged: (verb) to step deep into bog water or mud. As in, Adelaide submudged her foot so deeply in the muck that she almost lost a boot. Coined by hikers Nick and Josie in the 100 mile Wilderness.

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