Well, that was unexpected ‘Oh thank God, I made it’ was my first thought when I reached the top of Rainbow Falls at Jones Gap State Park two hours after I started. To be fair, I stopped a lot, took a lot of snaps, and played with all the friendly puppies that crossed my path. It […]
In May 2016, I embarked on my first overnight hiking trip since the breaking of the bones almost exactly one year prior. I have a tendency to take to the woods whenever life is throwing me curve-balls, and lately I’ve been striking out on all cylinders. I first visited Kings Mountain in August 2015, after […]
A twist on the popular saying: What goes down must come up. After two days of descending into the canyon, I could think of just one thing: it was time to go up… on an ankle that was most likely broken. Fabulous. I was as rested, iced, compressed, [and well, elevated was going to be […]
It was twilight by the time I finally dropped my pack on the ground nearly twelve hours after my day had begun. My legs didn’t ache as bad as I anticipated and my neck and shoulders didn’t pinch the way I feared. Considering how nervous I was in the days leading up to my “rim […]
Most of last year sucked. Like straight up sucked. Yes, I graduated from school and got an amazing job, but other than that 2005 was shitty. Watching my father die, seeing my boyfriend tool around town with some floozy, having a fling with my boss, and moving to a new state–none of those things made […]
2016 Michelle here. Here I sit… older and wiser and all. 2005 was a particularly low spot in my life, and going in Italy in 2006, while not the best idea I’ve ever head, was really what jump-started my love of travel. And also here I sit, older and wiser and all, dating a special […]
I arrived in Peru at the tail end of February 2010 in preparation for my awesome Machu Picchu trek leaving the first of March. That didn’t happen. I was a little bummed about not getting to see Machu Picchu, but in true adventurous spirit said to myself “I’ll be in South America for a while… […]
Like many things I do, my trek to Colca Canyon was not carefully planned; it was more of a spontaneous impulse. I arrived in Peru mid-March hell-bent on hiking Machu Picchu. The universe was equally hell-bent on making sure that didn’t happen. As always, the universe won. I poked around Cusco for a while, contemplating […]
When you think of birds, what usually comes to mind? For me, it’s cute little feathered things like hummingbirds, cardinals, or wrens. Rarely do I think of owls as birds although I guess technically they are. Then there are large birds like eagles and vultures, but I rarely see them. Out of sight, out of […]
Taking on Wales’ tallest peak My first weekend away landed me in the charming village of Betws-y-coed, North Wales, a village of about 500. Bewts-y-Coed is located in the heart of Snowdonia. Wales may not be home to the tallest mountain peak, but it still has some challenging hiking. It has charming waterfalls. But really […]