It might be hard to believe that the now lush White Mountain National Forest was, just a century ago, barren and heavily logged. By the 1850s, about 70% of the land south of the…
Read More
Notes from the Trail; a Bay Circuit Trail End-to-End Hike
On June 2, 2024, I found myself in waist-deep swamp water traversing a flooded dike. As I trudged through the muck, I entertained the possibility of snakes slipping through this water, of leeches latching onto...
Read more
The Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire is one of the most iconic mountain ranges in the United States. It comprises thirteen mountains, nine of which are over 4,000 feet in…
Read More
“I’m so sorry I’m late. I just had to feed several hungry, freezing teenagers,” says Michelle Sommers as she picks up the phone at her home in Maryland. She describes the row of wetsuits…
Read More
In the late 1970s and early ’80s AMC’s Cardigan Lodge was my wife Joyce’s and my favorite place to spend a couple weeks every summer. We were drawn to its rustic and intimate atmosphere, the…
Read More
Pockets of thick fog ebb and flow across the steep slope of false summits on the way up Saddleback, along the Appalachian Trail in Maine. I’ve been trying to keep my son in my sights,…
Read More
This story was originally published in the Winter/Spring 2021 issue of Appalachia Journal. My first impulse was to flee to the mountains. “The Appalachian Trail, here I come!” The Quarantine My first impulse was to…
Read More
This story was originally published in the Winter/Spring 2021 issue of Appalachia Journal. At a secluded crag near my house, there’s a climbing route called Malevolent Eye. It’s 32 feet high, with a 3-foot overhang…
Read More
This story was originally published in the Winter/Spring 2021 issue of Appalachia Journal. In a small patch of crumbly dirt and mulch, near the weather-worn trellis where the hydrangea had begun to bloom, my 5-year-old…
Read More
For centuries, public lands have served as the backdrop for important moments in civil rights history. Several civil rights leaders have marched on the streets of our nation’s largest cities, stood their ground in national…
Read More