I remember the exact moment I realized that being “sort of fit” and being “trail fit” are two completely different things. It was a muggy September morning in the Appalachians. I was about four miles in on what looked like a manageable out-and-back. My legs were done. Not tired — done. I sat on a … Read more
The first time I hiked with poles, I felt ridiculous. I was on a straightforward trail in the Cascades — mostly flat, nothing technical — and I kept fumbling them, clacking them together, and planting them in all the wrong spots. For about ten minutes, I was ready to strap them to my pack and … Read more
It was 10 PM the night before a five-day trip into the Olympic Peninsula. I’d just finished packing my gear — and then opened the kitchen cabinet. Nothing. A half-eaten bag of granola, three instant oatmeal packets, and some peanut butter crackers. That was it. I spent the next two hours scrambling, driving to a … Read more
I was twelve miles into a red-rock canyon in southern Utah when my calves locked up so hard I had to sit down on a boulder and wait it out. My water bladder was still a third full. I wasn’t dehydrated — not in the way I’d always understood the word. I’d been drinking steadily … Read more
I was eight miles into a 14-mile out-and-back on the Appalachian Trail in northern Virginia when my legs stopped working the way legs are supposed to work. Not cramping. Not tired. Just… heavy. Like someone had filled my quads with wet sand overnight. My brain went foggy about a mile later. I had two granola … Read more
I hit the wall at mile 11 on a ridge trail in Colorado. Not from bad weather. Not from tired legs. From pure stupidity — I packed light on food because I didn’t want the extra weight. By the time I was two miles from the trailhead, I was shuffling. My legs felt heavy, my … Read more
I was somewhere on the second day of a four-day stretch through the Smoky Mountains, about mile 11, when I hit a wall. My legs weren’t done. My head was. I dug into my hip belt pocket, pulled out a bar I’d tossed in as an afterthought, and took a bite. It tasted like sweetened … Read more
I was six miles into a day hike in southern Utah when I hit the wall. My legs felt heavy. My head started pounding. I wasn’t out of water — I had about a liter left — but it was midday, the temperature had climbed past 90°F, and I hadn’t been drinking on any kind … Read more
I hit the wall at mile five. It was a ten-mile loop in the Appalachians — not a brutal route, nothing I hadn’t done before. But I’d packed light that day. Two granola bars and an apple. By the time I started the second half of that loop, my legs felt like wet concrete. I … Read more
I learned the hard way on a long ridge hike in southern Utah. Mile six, and my legs felt like wet concrete. My head was pounding. My heart was beating faster than the climb deserved. I stopped, sat on a rock, and drank half a liter in one go — but I was already behind. … Read more