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Expect Nothing, Appreciate Everything
Both times I hiked the Appalachian Trail, trail angels did not really exist. Nor were they present for me on the Pacific Coast Trail. There were people who were kind to me and fed me and even housed me at times. But they were few and far between. We hikers had not yet coined the
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Life’s Trail Angel’s
When I hike a trail like the Continental Divide Trail I find it useful to gather information from people I meet along the way. They can tell me if there are a lot of blowdowns or what the river crossing will be like. Sometimes I take what they say with a grain of salt, knowing
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Yes, the Small Stuff Matters
How many times have you heard someone say not to sweat the small stuff? Well, I’m here to tell you the small stuff matters a lot. For starters, that single grain of sand in my boot can become an incapacitating blister if I don’t deal with it. The same with a hot spot I feel
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Letting Go and Traveling Light
My tent in the Chihuahan Desert You become really aware of how much packaging surrounds the food we buy when you have to carry all your trash on your back for days. In fact, you become aware of the weight of everything. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t wonder what else I can
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Keeping Fear and Misery in Perspective
People keep asking me if I am afraid to be on the trail alone. Yes, I am leery of grizzly bears, icy snowfields, and raging rivers, but my experience driving across country last May was as scary as a lot of things I encounter on the trail. When I hit the deer I thought the
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Rambling Thoughts While Hiking
By Mary Anderson For a long time I ate no meat, and for a while I was a total vegan. Then I lived on a tiny island near Labrador, Canada, and I realized that being a vegan was not only impractical there, it went against my mammalian nature. If I was to really survive in
The Mary Badass
A Ruminating Blog About Personal Healing, Adventure and Day to Day Life
The Mary Badass 