From the category archives:

Tales from the Trail

Coast, Mountain, Twinkie

January 10, 2010 Photography
Addy and Aubrey dancing

Timeline:

Friday
8:00 pm- Decide to drive to the coast
9:00 pm- Talk roommates into the idea
10:00 pm- Get in the car

12:30 am- Arrive at Nehalem Bay outside Manzanita, OR

(Sleep in the back of my Subaru)

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Vehicular Crisis

December 17, 2009 Tales from the Trail

I’ve been having a wrestling match with myself about whether or not to get a car. I live in a city that is very bike friendly, and I’m glad that I can reduce my environmental impact by not driving. If something is too far away for a bike ride, Portland has a great public transportation [...]

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Trying out some new recipes for backpacking trips

December 10, 2009 How to's

Despite my affinity for mac ‘n cheese, I am now determined to healthier meals and more variety when I backpack. To that end, I have been experimenting with recipes from a great website called Trail Cooking.This site is really helpful because they have a built in calculator so that you can adjust your ingredient measurements [...]

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The only downside to hiking with friends

December 4, 2009 Tales from the Trail

“Wow. It must be really great to have hiking poles when you ford a stream,” Amy said to me as she rock hopped across the water.
“Yeah,” I replied. “The only thing is that sometimes…”
This is the point where I land butt first in a stream. I’m not kidding. Falling has almost become almost cliche in [...]

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Reunited and it feels so good

November 30, 2009 Tales from the Trail

So we took a little time apart, and it’s been hard. We had been inseparable and it had just gotten to be too much. We needed space to do different things for a while. But now, finally, it’s time. Mac ‘n Cheese and I are back together again.
True, I have complained about it in the [...]

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On being not hard core

November 25, 2009 Tales from the Trail

I received a tough e-mail from a man recently. He said that I think know so much abut the outdoors, but I’m clearly ignorant. That just because I did two and a half months on the Appalachian Trail doesn’t mean I’m an expert.
Let me be clear: I do not now and have never thought of [...]

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Portland bomb shelter

November 18, 2009 Tales from the Trail
Thumbnail of a picture of a sign at Kelly Butte Nature Reserve

I did not know that shopping carts could be set on fire, but I suppose that with a little gasoline you can light up anything. I didn’t burn the carts myself, but stumbled upon them on a recent hike.
I had started this adventure by looking online for close in hikes that my car-less self could [...]

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Cave dwelling life forms

November 5, 2009 Tales from the Trail

After 4 months of an itinerant lifestyle, I finally have a place of my own. It’s not that I’ve minded being what I called “creatively homeless,” and I’m thankful to all the people that let me sleep on their couches, in their spare bedrooms, or out in their backyards, but it feels so good to [...]

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We can put a man on the moon but…

October 24, 2009 Tales from the Trail

I have discovered that one of the downsides of taking an extended time to go backpacking is that, when you come home everything can be compared to your trip. I went biking with a friend of mine and, as I was panting, I told her, “Man, I’m really out of shape.”
She said, “You spent 2 [...]

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Ray Jardine

October 23, 2009 Tales from the Trail

As anyone who read my early posts knows, hiking through the Maine section of the Appalachian trail was hugely difficult for me. So, when I got to the Maine/New Hampshire border, I threw down my pack and took abut 100 hundred pictures. In
short, I was ridiculously proud of myself. Not quite ready to leave, I [...]

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Adjusting to being home

October 14, 2009 Tales from the Trail

I am slowly adjusting to being back in Portland, but I have discovered some jarring differences between my trail life and city life. For starters, people here don’t wear the same thing everyday and tend to take showers more than twice a month. I’m still getting used to this. Recently, I was hugging a friend [...]

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Elaboration on being a solo female hiker

October 9, 2009 Favorites

I’ve gotten a lot of responses to my blog post “On being a solo female hiker.” Almost all of them have been positive and I feel encouraged to know that I have a community of supportive men and women. However, there is one response that I would like to address, and I will tell you [...]

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Abe’s visit

October 1, 2009 Tales from the Trail
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On being a solo female hiker

October 1, 2009 Favorites

It is nighttime at the hiker hostel and the guy next to me says to the group, “I hate it when a girl goes around a shelter. I mean, I don’t want sloppy thirds.”
I say, “I’m surprised you made it in the top five.” Then I smile (a technique that my friends Jade and Monika [...]

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I am not cute

September 30, 2009 Favorites

I was recently in the White Mountains talking with the leader of a group of college kids, when one of the students walked up and said, “Something smells awful!” She looked at me and reddened. “It’s not you,” she said. “It’s something else.”
I shrugged and said, “No. It probably is me.”
It’s true. I stink. We [...]

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Beasties

September 29, 2009 Tales from the Trail

I have yet to get eaten by a bear, but I will blog about it immediately if it happens. A few nights ago, I woke up yelling because I was certain that something-a bear, a rabid raccoon, a frisky skunk-had me by the legs. I am not using my tent right now, just my rainfly [...]

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Fan Club

September 17, 2009 Tales from the Trail

I’ve written about the evil spandex/fanny pack wearing man and I think it bears mentioning all the people who have been kind and encouraging to me. Just now, an older walked by me on the trail as I was taking a lunch break. They asked me about my trip and then said, “You’re gonna make [...]

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Laugh Track

September 13, 2009 Tales from the Trail

Today I learned some practical advice that I would like to pass on to you. Here goes: the REI Quarter Dom tent has two different color poles, two orange and one silver. If, as you take down your tent early in the morning, you would like to avoid being smacked in the face, take out [...]

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