Adventure Blog

Fall is my favorite season. While living in Tucson I have desperately missed seeing the seasons change but lucky for me I can still go visit fall and not have to travel too far! 

I didn't see a single person hiking from Juniper Basin Campground to Manning Camp, I was completely alone. But I loved it. I really enjoyed hiking up this portion of the trail, realizing that I'd hiked up from cactus to pines! The views were beautiful, I've always wanted to see the Rincons from this perspective, you can't see it from Tucson and only get a glimpse of it from the Catalinas. I love exploring new places and I felt gratitude for yesterday's decision to continue on, otherwise I would have missed these views!

The last few years I've taken a solo birthday trip around the end of September, beginning of October. It's one of my favorite traditions and I love...

Four years ago this week I left my beloved city of Chicago and headed west with Tucson, AZ as my final destination. Rather than drive the 1,800 miles straight through over 3 days I decided to make an adventure out of it and planned a week long, solo road trip for myself. I crammed a lot into 7 days and definitely need to go back to some of these stops! It was a great introduction to the Southwest and I know there's still so much more for me to discover here.

"As I turned on to Hwy 395 heading south I too a final look at Whitney and blew her a kiss. It was finally time to head home. This had been the most challenging but incredible experience. I'm so proud of what I've done."

"Combine that with my 47lb pack I was frustrated that I was back to my slow and steady pace. In a bad moment of frustration I took a break and ate one of my Pop Tarts. I reminded myself how far I'd already come and I was still doing it even if it was just a little slower. I told myself I'd start saying I was strong and steady, because I was."

"I bounded down the trail. Friends! People I know!"

"Somehow the contents of my pack, my resupply box, and freshly laundered clothes had taken over the space. I tried to put together a list of the things I needed to do while here in town. I needed to somehow fix my still broken trekking pole, get more bandaids, etc for my blisters, get some toe sock liners to help with my blisters, and make sure I had everything else I'd need for another week in the backcountry."

"After driving from Tucson to Lone Pine, getting my permit at the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitors Center, parking my car at the Lone Pine Film History Museum's long term parking lot, making sure I had everything I needed in my insanely heavy pack, and after having one more freak out, I met Lone Pine Kurt."

I plan to do an in-depth trip report of my 24 day hike in the coming weeks but for those of you who may be planning your own hike into the Sierras ...

Hiking the John Muir Trail has been a dream of mine for years but it wasn't what I thought it would be.

You know those videos of people climbing Mt Everest, they're in their tents during a winter storm and the walls of the tent are shaking violently i...