Exercise: Keep it social Want to get the best benefits out of your fitness routine, whether it be in the gym or outside on the trails? Research is showing that the American concept of “exercise,” as we know it, e.g., putting in hard miles, is not the best tactic. “No pain, no gain” can actually…
One of my favorite things about backpacking is the way your body shifts over time to fall in line with natural cycles of dark and light. There’s nothing like snuggling sleepily into your sleeping bag at 8 p.m. (which somehow feels like midnight) and waking up in time to watch the first golden-pink blush of…
Now that wintertime is truly here in full force, it’s finally time to play in the snow. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to increase my outdoor skills while frolicking around this winter wonderland. One of my favorite ways to do this is building myself a snow fort. Knowing how to build a…
Your own body follows a clock. All of its processes flow in a sweeping daily rhythm, merging into a larger seasonal cycle. Our daily clock is set by our interaction with the natural world around us, especially the movement of the Sun. Exposure to bright-morning light sends a cascade of wakefulness chemicals through our bloodstream….
California has had its share of woes surrounding the topic of rain. Too much results in catastrophic mud slides and too little creates a parched landscape crying out for moisture. Still, for me, one of the best smells on earth will always be the scent of fresh rain falling on mountain soil after a long…
Sitting on a trailside rock, eating my lunch and throughly enjoying the cool breeze, I happened to witness an encounter that reminded me of how “unofficial” and sometimes just plain confusing the world of trail etiquette is. A young couple were barreling down the trail, obviously dog-tired from a long day of hiking. A single…
Out on a forest trail, I was just closing on a particularly gorgeous specimen of Passiflora Edulis Sims with my iPhone camera when the phone gave the morose little beep of a dying battery. What? It was fully charged when I headed out! I glanced down with surprise at the glowering red battery icon ……
It was a great morning. Fluffy omelets, multiple refills of rich, dark coffee, and a chance to reconnect with old friends under tropical skies. I’d been on the road for the last few months before finally landing in Maui. Breakfast was over, and I felt sad to leave my friends. But it was time to…
“The mountains are calling and I must go,” wrote John Muir in a letter to his sister. Now, good old John Muir didn’t say, “The mountains are calling, but I just have to finish this TV marathon of ‘Frasier’ first.” Nope. He clearly focused his priorities to fulfill his purpose, to do what he needed…
I was recently hiking a rugged mountain trail when I realized that a man was approaching from behind me. I realized this when he was still more than half a mile away, since the individual in question had obviously taken the advice to use his “outdoor voice” far too literally. I prefer to think that…
