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Saving for a Sunny Day
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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Random Acts of Kindness
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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Patience Is a Virtue on the Trail
I cut steps into the steep snowy slope, forcing myself not to look down. I don’t want to freak out. I remind myself that panic is the worst thing to do in a dangerous situation. I focus on each step, sometimes only half a foot from the last. I have to force my mind to…
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Path-Finding the Old-Fashioned Way
I’ve been asked a number of times by younger hikers how I managed to hike the Pacific Crest Trail before cell phones and the trail apps with GPS. Sometimes I have to explain what I mean by map and compass. The other day, I taught a young man that a compass needle points north. I’ve…
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Behind Every Hiker
Water cached by a trail angel in the Chihuahuan Desert. The person who makes the first ascent of a mountain gets a lot of recognition and glory. Yet that ascent was most likely accomplished with the help of all the people who tried and failed before. It takes a lot of support to make a…
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A Matter of Discipline
“I carried my son on my back into the woods when he was still in diapers.” I meet a lot of people who tell me they would love to do a long hike, but they don’t have the time. Some days I feel I don’t have the time to do my leg exercises or my…
The Mary Badass
A Ruminating Blog About Personal Healing, Adventure and Day to Day Life
The Mary Badass 