ajtestbed It is a frosty March morning in the Hoh Rainforest, deep within Olympic National Park in Washington state. The forest is full of Jurassic ferns, hanging moss, and towering spruce and cedars, but what I hope to find is an absence. I seek a spot known as the “One Square Inch of Silence” — one … Read more
I wrote this piece in May, while Grand Canyon National Park was still closed, and when stay-at-home orders were in effect across much of our country. These were my thoughts then, at that time – and so much has changed since. The outfitters I guide for in Grand Canyon ran their first COVID-era trip in … Read more
It’s 4 a.m. and I’m wide awake, coming round with a start in a hot motel in Mariposa, my first thought being, “She did it!” Ella, my 13-year-old daughter, is sleeping in the bed next to me as only a teenager could, a sleep so deep it would take an earthquake to break it, and … Read more
Some friends of ours recently headed to Mineral King, an absolute gem of a wilderness area in the southern-ish Sierra Nevada. They returned with tales of cars wrapped in tarps, which reminded us to remind you of the car wiring devouring marmots. -Ed. Marmots will eat your car. Well, not all of your car, but … Read more
I bought my car, a teenage Subaru with three hubcaps and two working windows, because I knew I could stretch out in the back. I tried it before I bought it, popped the hatch and lay down in front of the confused owner. “I’m pretty tall,” I said, as he gave me sideways eyes, “I … Read more
From our friend and contributing writer Kinga Philipps: A few years ago I stopped by my parent’s house after a camping trip and unloaded my gear in their living room. My dad looked at my Patagonia sleeping bag, ultralight tent, my solar panels, camping stove and nest egg pots and pans. All the things I’ve … Read more
The earliest fossilized footprints of a human being were found at a saltwater lagoon in South Africa. They came from a woman some 117,000 years ago, proof that walking is something that ties us to our deep evolutionary past, that it is an activity as old as our species and unique to us as well. … Read more
Since her birth in 2007, my daughter Ursula and I have built quite the outdoor resume – among my earliest memories are putting her baby bucket seat in our backyard so she could enjoy the fireflies. At six weeks old, I held her on my chest for passport photos, jiggling her and helping her hold … Read more
After 15 years of exploring Vancouver Island I can stand on a peak and name most of the mountains lining the horizon. I learned them because it felt important to me to know my neighborhood, to place myself within my geography, to answer my own question “which peak is that?” I did it slowly, a … Read more
In Killing Yourself to Live, his 2005 book about a 6,557-mile road trip visiting places where death had played an important role in music – where musicians died or committed suicide, where fatal concert disasters had happened, where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil – Chuck Klosterman discussed the number of CDs … Read more