“This is crazy,” I said glancing over my shoulder toward my two hiking companions. One was only six horizontal feet behind me, yet his head was well below my ankles. The same was true for the man behind him. We were scaling the south side of Albert Mountain, climbing from one four-foot rock to the…
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I scaled the four-foot dirt bank and followed the trail as it turned sharply left and paralleled the meandering stream that I had just crossed. It was almost noon and I was hungry. I considered every small clearing as a potential spot for lunch, hoping to find a site near the water. The sound of water…
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It took all of the will power I could muster to get off the fallen log beside the trail and hoist my pack onto my shoulders. It wasn’t even lunchtime and I was beyond tired. I was weary. The overcast skies were not helping matters. They seemed to mirror my gloomy attitude. For the past five days,…
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My headlamp shown dimly in the dark moonless night. The trees cast long shadows that faded into the blackness of the dense underbrush. Occasionally I could see a highly reflective strap from another camper’s backpack as I surveyed my surroundings, searching for a place to bed down for the night. It was midnight and my hiking…
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On the far bank, a hiking friend from Georgia that I had recently met called out “Joe! You have to try this.” The blissful look of peace on his face affirmed his invitation. The stream was 8 feet across and 10 inches at its deepest point. Someone had thoughtfully placed stepping-stones in the water to allow…
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Do. That’s all the message said. A single two-letter word, a command really, scrawled in the loose dirt on the trail. An arrow primitively drawn beside the word directed my attention toward a sparsely wooded and vine carpeted underbrush bisected by a narrow path. Tendrils encroached onto the trail, obscuring much of the footpath and dissuading potential…
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Tray Mountain stood before me, its massive presence reaching toward the heavenly expanse and eclipsing the final efforts of the sun. Sitting on a log beside the trail, I took off my pack and reached for my water bottle. I estimated that I had an hour before the final remnants of the day gave way to darkness.…
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“We’re almost there,” my hiking buddy panted as he continued his slow gait in front of me. For the past couple of hours, the rhythmic clicking of his trekking poles had set the pace of our ascent like a metronome meters a slow, melodic song. We had already climbed well over a thousand feet as we sought…
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I stood motionless, training all of my senses toward the faint whisper of sound that had caught my attention. Frozen in the middle to the trail, I strained to hear the sound again. Moving my head slightly to the left, I listened intently. My eyes darting back and forth, scanning the underbrush for a sign. Did…
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In one fluid motion, I raked the spine of my knife down the length of the firesteel propelling a steady stream of sparks toward the small metal can. The denatured alcohol in my homemade SuperCat stove instantly ignited into a translucent blue flame. In less than 10 minutes I would enjoy the steaming, bold, liquid…
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