6 Tips for Summiting Mt St Helens in the Summer
Route: Monitor Ridge via Climber’s Bivouac Trailhead Facts: The Native name for the mountain is Lawetlat’la. Distance: ~9.5 Miles Elevation gain: 4600 ft Road to trailhead: Rocky but passable by all vehicles Date hiked: August 6th, 2022 Permit: Required (available
Hiking Near Palm Springs – Ladder Canyon
In October of 2021, Maura and I took our first real vacation since the beginning of the pandemic. Graciously invited to sip poolside cocktails in Palm Springs for a few days by our old neighbors, we excitedly counted down the
12 Hours in Joshua Tree National Park
Most of the time, I daydream about hiking in view of snowcapped mountains and beside towering pines. But sometimes, I make exceptions. The great American West is home to so much landscape I have yet to explore and California has
Finding Solitude on WA’s Most Beautiful Rail Trail
I have a good friend who’s a Canadian immigrant and ironically knows US history and politics better than almost anyone I know. One thing that strikes me about him is his belief that I should be proud to be an
Whatcom Pass and Tapto Lakes: Backpacking the North Cascades
Sometimes, when you dream about visiting a place for so long, pouring over blogs and trail reports and staring at photo after photo, witnessing it with your own eyes can feel a bit surreal. Tapto Lakes is one of those
A Weekend on Marmot Pass in the Buckhorn Wilderness
For Dave and I, summer 2021 is all about training. We were lucky enough to land a permit for the highly sought-after Copper Ridge Loop + Tapto Lakes at the end of August, and have spent just about every minute
Summer in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
So many things this year haven’t gone according to plan – mostly thanks to our good friend COVID-19. Without a coordinated national response, unfortunately we’re still trying to find a new sense of normalcy. The pandemic forced us to postpone
Video: How to Expose Both Sides of 35mm Film
A few days ago, @girlwithagraycat reached out and asked me how I made these recently posted images. Feeling creatively inspired, I created my first ever tutorial video that (hopefully) encourages more analog photographers to try exposing both sides of
Trail Report: Ancient Lakes in Central Washington
Since the day quarantine started, it’s become a new ritual of mine to take long walks through the neighborhood we now call home. I didn’t know much about coping with isolation, but I did know that without routine, I’m not
Trail Report: Mount Rose Summit in Winter
Planning weekend hikes in the Winter can be exhausting. “What roads are closed? What trails are impassible? Do we need route-finding abilities in the fresh snow? How snowy is it at XYZ?” It’s frustrating, and we rely heavily on user-submitted
Analogifying Your Digital Camera
In the summer of 2018, when I first got the idea for this article, I remember I had just spent over $200 on film processing. Shooting film is much more rewarding to me than shooting digital, obviously, but I honestly