For now, we will experience a year or so of El Niño, which is like a short-term climate change preview. It gives us a rapid year-over-year increase in global average temperature, with the associated local consequences

Look left 2 months past. 2 months of traveling this well-trodden path. 2 months of chasing a dream, one of thousands on a great migration northward. 2 months and 884 miles lie behind, when I look to the left. 2 months of trail towns, of benefiting from the generosity of others, of forming relationships in...

Because characteristics, like Chef, are misnomers. Indicative but incomplete.

The two great fluid bodies of our planet, atmosphere and ocean, linked to us and to everything through great continuous chains of water.

On day 29, I wrote a post on national parks arguing that discounting our participation, particularly historic Native American participation, in natural systems harms and deludes us. I wrote another post making a related argument through the lens of Leave No Trace principles instead of national parks. I tinkered with this article for a long...

This philosophy guides us in gratitude, to recognize Earth’s provision and to make impacts and consume resources responsibly.

The famous views of this section of trail displayed all the folded ridges, emergent green, and faded Eastern skylines off central Virginia in early April. These photos and those below convey the scale of the cliffs, the emergence of spring, and the setting better than words. McAfee Knob relaxing Since leaving Pearisburg, VA, I’ve spent...

Hope blooms in each flower if you are willing to sit down and marvel at its exquisite detail. Hope emerges with each leaf that imbues a bleak landscape with a splotch of vibrant color.

Yet if nothing else, aligned in pews together with men and women of every age, I felt a gladness at our unlikely gathering.

I am fascinated by the New River and honestly had no idea the Appalachian Trail would cross it. I thought, after getting farther into Virginia, I would reach the other side of the Eastern Divide to stay and cross Atlantic-bound rivers like the James, the Roanoke, the Shenandoah. Not yet. The New River, like those...