Day hiking the Lofty Lake Loop
For the first time since finishing up the desert section of the PCT almost three years ago, I finally went car camping last weekend! How luxurious it was to sit in a chair (I never bring one backpacking), set up a fancy picnic table taco bar (instead of my...
Breathing heavy at Naturalist Basin
Trip dates: July 30-31, 2022 It only took me 10 months of living in northern Utah to FINALLY make it out backpacking in my local mountains, the Uintas. I’d planned on going a few weeks prior, but realized that donating blood and high elevation backpacking were probably not the...
Coyote Gulch: a Busy Slice of Heaven
Trip dates: June 1-3, 2022 We spent the night in a cabin at Escalante Outfitters (a highly recommended spot with showers, laundry, and overall cuteness about an hour from the trailhead), then made our way to the Hurricane Wash trailhead after a tasty breakfast at equally adorable Escalante Mercantile....
Exploring the Ancient Ruins of Kane and Grand Gulch
Trip dates: 5/29-5/31/2022 Backpacking season is finally ramping up, and my first Utah backpacking trip was one that I won’t soon forget! My ex-housemate/backpacking baby (although by now she has enough experience to be considered a backpacking teenager) Megan came out here so we could explore the desert on...
Plan D: The Timberline Trail
What’s a girl to do when she MUST go backpacking and Plan A (a JMT section hike) is canceled due to forest closures, and Plans B (Three Sisters Loop) and C (PCTish NOBO from Santiam Pass) are too smoky to attempt without sustaining permanent lung damage? Go with Plan...
Summer Sweatfest at Cumberland Island National Seashore
Trip dates: August 7-8, 2021 I went backpacking in Southeast Georgia in the middle of the summer and lived to tell the tale! Which is shocking, considering I’m a delicate western flower who hates the heat + humidity combination. I’ve been in Florida visiting my mom since early July,...
Water Water Everywhere at Desolation Wilderness
Trip dates: May 28-31, 2021 With it being a low snow year this year, Desolation Wilderness was more accessible than usual over Memorial Day weekend. So I grabbed permits for my roommate/backpacking baby (she calls me her backpacking mommy because I’ve been showing her the ropes) to spend three...
Gem Lake Loop, Emigrant Wilderness
A change of plans The fires last September squashed our original plans of hiking the Thousand Island Lake loop, so I spent hours trying to find a last minute, not smokey/not on fire backpacking trip that my mom, my aunt and I could go on for their first backpacking...
Mt. Olympus lives up to its name
This post has been sitting in draft mode for months now. I took a trip to Salt Lake City in March, right before the U.S. got hit hard with COVID-19. I am SO GLAD I got out of town one last time right before the world started to feel...
Winter overnight backpacking trip to Goat Camp
I headed out on my first post-PCT backpacking trip last weekend, exactly two months after tagging the Mexico border. Our overnight destination was Goat Camp in the Ventana Wilderness section of Big Sur, California. Emma, her dog Peach, and I left Oakland after work on Friday and spent the...