It is easy to recognize out here that we all choose to carry different loads. Some go ultralight, carrying no stove and little food, preferring instead to walk really long days. Others carry a lot of extras. I met one hiker carrying an eight-ounce battery-powered toothbrush. For him that was really important. My toothbrush weighs

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By Mary Anderson Being in the heart of wildness with no roads for 100 miles. Experiencing lots of biting flies and mosquitoes. Seeing many colors of butterflies, including orange, blue, and lemon yellow. Learning a lot about horsepackers. Going over, under, and through the worst blowdowns I’ve ever experienced. Hiking in record heat. Crossing many

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I have been asked at least 100 times if I am afraid of bears. The answer is no. I take precautions and carry bear spray. I carry a bear-resistant food bag and hang food when necessary. I make noise when going through thick vegetation. But I don’t go around in fear expecting to be attacked

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We are encouraged to take something at the slightest sign of pain. We are not encouraged to sit in those painful places and learn from them. Hiking on crutches in the Great Basin of Wyoming By Mary Anderson Crutches come in many forms. Whether they are an aid for walking or a drug to help

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Snow is melting everywhere around me. It is pouring out of the mountains. I pass close to twenty waterfalls daily and cross numerous streams. All of this glorious water that will help keep the earth green as the sun heats up during the summer was stored as snow during the winter. The earth didn’t need

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I talk a lot about kindness in my blogs. It is because I think it is as important to life as water. And yet, like losing sight of the importance of water when you live in a house where it comes out of a tap, I think it is really easy to lose sight of

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