Are army boots good for hiking? That’s one of those questions that sounds simple but actually depends on what kind of hiking you’re doing and what you’re…

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