On a recent Colorado white water trip on the Arkansas River, I was shocked to see a couple of prospectors on the side of the river. They had long, scraggly beards and overalls. If it weren’t for the power generator operating their sluice and trucker hat that one of them wore, I’d swear I was transported to the late 1800’s! Either that, or I was on some Disney float ride. Nope! It was 2014 and the float ride I signed up for didn’t include historic reenactments for tourists.

This month I took some time to hear a speaker talk about her journey hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). Her name is Jennifer Pharr Davis. She is a hiker, wife, author, mother and now speaker, with an amazing story – hiking can be addictive (although she doesn’t tell it exactly that way).

As “winter” (for lack of a better word) rolls into spring in southern Arizona it opens up more opportunities to warm up those climbing legs for some great vertical hikes.   

During the winter, while all the trails are open around Tucson, everyone stays in the rolling flats of Saguaro National Park (SNP), the Arizona Trail’s (AZT) southern reaches and loop trails like Sweetwater...

I’d like to debunk a myth spread around by people who know little about hiking - that hikers are just people who slap a few things into their backpacks and wander off into the wilderness.   

Serious hiking and especially high altitude, ultralight hiking, calls for a lot of planning and decision-making...

I recently spent a few days with Kurt Wedberg, Founder of Sierra Mountaineering International. Kurt was good enough to be a key speaker for a dinner in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that I helped arrange.   

Admittedly, Kurt hadn’t stepped foot in the North Texas flatlands before...

I recently participated on a post about my top three favorite camping items. I was one of 11 global outdoor personalities asked about the topic. The variety of answers got me thinking about what it means to go camping. Who you ask may affect the answer. How people camp varies widely. For kicks, I’ve boiled it down to 5 classes of campers, ranked in terms of most to least common.  

Sherpa Bill from All Peak asked me to share some of my knowledge on “spicing-up” meals for a mountain camping trip. I’m happy to oblige. Here are 7 tips that I think will take the “blah” out of your next trek.

Summit camping trips are like pregnancy. You tend to forget about the pain you suffered and only remember the end result. One of the toughest parts of a trip is often the first night’s sleep on the trail. Your body is not use to the changes. The altitude, outside noise and unforgiving ground offer you no solace compared to your comfy bed.   

Rest assured fellow trail companions. There is hope. Allow me to share with you some of the best tips scoured from hiking blogs and trip reports…as well as personal experience from a tried and true insomniac (me).   The first few tips should be common sense, but are worth mentioning.