Lube the joints. Warm the bones. That refrain usually gets me out on the trail in the dead of winter. It helps if the rain isn’t blowing perpendicular to gravity and the temperature is forty or better, which I realize is leaning toward balmy for the days-are-getting-longer season of the year. But thirties and raining? No way I’m going out …
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A Benediction of Owls: Winter on the Baker River
We drove up the Baker Lake Road, each in our own car, past the gated campgrounds and shuttered ranger station. Above us the Mountain Gods —Kulshan and Shuksan—gleamed in the luminous winter sun, fresh snow dazzling against a cobalt-blue sky. I was sorely in need of a few days off the grid, and the weather window—a few consecutive days of …
Read More »The Trail Builder’s Art – The Legacy of Russ Pfeifer-Hoyt
If you’re like me, you’ve been on a remote hiking path in the North Cascades and thought to yourself, “Gosh, this trail sure is remote and rugged and well-maintained. I wonder who humped all the way up here to build it?” You’d be surprised at how often the answer is Russ Pfeiffer-Hoyt. Russ and his team of intrepid trail-builders have …
Read More »Top Ten Winter Hikes in Whatcom County
Winter has descended upon us. Skyline Divide, Yellow Aster Butte, and all of your other favorite high country romps are now— thanks to a thick shroud of snow—pretty much off limits until next summer. But there’s no need to put away your hiking shoes. There are scores of low country hikes that for the most part remain snow-free all year …
Read More »The Art of Falling
Adventure is a risk. Take the adventure of running. We won’t risk falling if we don’t run (or hike or bike or ski, for that matter), but we won’t run if we don’t risk falling, will we? It’s a natural tendency to be careful and safe, but so many of us are drawn to adventure and risk for a reason: …
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