Cindy's Fenix 7 Pro Garmin GPS watch
Technology helps us stay on track—or maybe not!
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Getting lost is one of the risks of hiking in rough areas with poorly marked trails. In 49 years of hiking together, we’ve been lost a few times. On a 1975 Grand Canyon trip, we led some fellow hikers up … Read More

Catalina-Rincon Trek, 2024 & 2016
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During our student years at the University of Arizona, five from our hiking club attempted to trek across the Santa Catalina (Catalinas) and Rincon Mountains (Rincons) that frame the northeast corner of Tucson, Arizona. We started in pre-dawn dark aiming … Read More

Pajarita Wilderness, Sycamore Canyon, sign, November 2024
Pajarita Wilderness, 2024
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We were warned about illegal migrants using this corridor. But we didn’t see a single migrant—although a trail from Mexico near Border Tank was most well-used path in Pajarita Wilderness. Scraps of sun-faded clothing, food packages, water bottles, and other … Read More

Hemingway-Boulders Wilderness, Sawtooth National Forest sign, September
Hemingway-Boulders Wilderness, 2024, 2023 & 2021
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The 11,000-foot Boulder Mountains are in our “backyard,” only 30 miles from our Hailey home and visible throughout the Wood River Valley, so we have cross-country skied and hiked there often—although limited by lack of trails and very rugged country. … Read More

Black Elk Wilderness, sign, August 2024
Black Elk Wilderness, 2024
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Our inspiration to visit Black Elk Wilderness came from its original occupants, the Lakota people who consider the area their homeland and sacred. We were attending WILD12, an international wilderness meeting in Rapid City, South Dakota. Emphasis was indigenous wilderness … Read More

Indian Peaks Wilderness, sign, August 2024
Northern Colorado Wilderness Trek (NCWT), 2024
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After 214 miles and 20 days hiking Colorado high country, we were wary about rainstorms. With gathering clouds on 13,000-foot Mt. Flora, we decided to camp at Berthoud Pass below—4 miles short of our next planned camp in a little … Read More

Chiricahua Wilderness, sign, May, 2024
Chiricahua Wilderness, 2024, 2018 & 2015
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The South Fork Cave Creek Trail has been on my Chiricahua Wilderness bucket list for years. The trail—a mellow 7.2-mile ramble up to the Crest favored by birders—was washed out by a major flood event after 2014 Hurricane Odile. I … Read More

Galiuro Wilderness, Forest Service sign, January
Galiuro Wilderness, 2024, 2016 & 2015
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The Galiuro Wilderness in southern Arizona once had 100 miles of legacy trails—still shown on Forest Service maps. Our 3 loops in this remote wilderness northwest of Wilcox found increasing trail loss to brush, downed logs, and washouts. From 2014 … Read More

Death Valley Wilderness, sign, March, 2024
Death Valley Wilderness, 2024
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Parched throats. Harsh beating sun. Alkaline flats. Waterless wastelands. Unbearable soaring temperatures. One expects such hardships when backpacking in Death Valley. Not for us. Our 54-mile March backpacking trek in a small portion of the nation’s largest and lowest elevation … Read More

Grand Canyon proposed Wilderness, sign, December, 2023
Grand Canyon (proposed wilderness), 2023
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We shared 8 a.m. shuttle bus with a dozen hikers going to Yavapai Point, start for South Kaibab Trail to the Colorado River. A few who drove joined us and sprinted down trail ahead of the two backpackers slowed by … Read More

High Uintas Wilderness, Cindy nursing hurt knee , July2021
“Bionic backpacker” is back and better
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In a previous blog, I described a 40-year battle with osteoarthritis. Arthritis had won the latest match. A cranky left knee abruptly cratered on Day 3 of long backpacking trip in the High Uinta Wilderness. I finished the trip but … Read More

Gila Wilderness, sign, November, 2023
Gila Centennial Trail, 2023
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Conservationist Aldo Leopold grew up in Iowa and wrote his famous essays published in A Sand County Almanac in Wisconsin, but left his most important legacy in New Mexico. Leopold, in 1924 a forest supervisor in New Mexico, recommended wilderness … Read More

Arc Dome Wilderness, sign, August 2023
BASIN & RANGE TREK (BART), 2023
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Cattle ranching dominated landscapes around most mountains we visited in summer 2023 during “Basin and Range Trek” (BART) through four central Nevada mountain ranges rising to 11,000-feet elevation. We saw way more cattle—or signs of cattle—than hikers! Cattle often hampered … Read More

Pusch Ridge Wilderness, sign, May 2023
Pusch Ridge Wilderness, 2023
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The rugged Santa Catalina Mountains have captured my attention since college. I used to look up from the University of Arizona (UA) campus to the stair-step ridge climbing from 6000-foot Pusch Peak to 9000-foot Mount Lemmon to plan my next … Read More

Joshua Tree Wilderness, park sign, February
Joshua Tree Wilderness, 2023
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Trekking plains and rolling hills through stark desert, wearing raingear against bitter winds from snowy mountains soaring to the west. Camping in the shelter of washes or rockpiles, huddling beneath a large juniper tree to cook out of the wind. … Read More

Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, sign, November
Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, 2022
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I was trepidatious about a late November hike in Aravaipa Canyon because it requires crossing the creek many times or even hiking in it. Nice in summer or early fall but chilly later in the year. Perhaps others agreed: we … Read More

Saguaro Wilderness, backpacking, National Park sign, February
Saguaro Wilderness, 2022 & 2021
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David and I first met at the weekly meeting of University of Arizona (UA) Ramblers, held to review past hikes, and propose new ones. Ramblers is the oldest club on campus (started 1946 and ongoing today). My first year at … Read More

Olympic (DJ Evans) Wilderness, park sign, September
Olympic (Daniel J. Evans) Wilderness, 2022
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Two of our three visits to Olympic National Park in the 1970s—not yet wilderness—were dominated by wet weather. First was March 1977 during my visit to David, then in graduate school in Corvallis, Oregon, where I would move permanently after … Read More

Sawtooth Wilderness, boundary sign, September
Sawtooth Wilderness, 2022 & 2018
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Sawtooth Wilderness is best known and best used for its high country lake basins just west of Highway 75—but Idaho native David has a special spot for the lesser-used river country on southern end of the wilderness: Middle Fork Boise, … Read More

Smoky Mountains (Idaho), backpacking, Wolftone Creek, June
Smoky Mountains Trek, 2022
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The “Smokies” were definitely smoky for our first backpacking visit in September sometime in late 1980s. Wildfire in Sawtooth Mountains to northeast provided hazy skies for whole trip. It was also very dry. Other than smoky skies, I recall dry … Read More

Books
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Return to the WILDS What if you lived your whole life in an organized, safe, bland and boring place—then one day you walked into a BRAND NEW WORLD? What if the Keeper asked you to SAVE IT? When the gates … Read More

Commentaries & Newspaper Articles
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Professional Outlets 2020: Have protection designations outpaced management? (poster designed for Wild11 World Wilderness Congress in India cancelled at last minute in March due to COVID19)   pdf attached 2020: WILDERNESS: Why we go, what we see, where it’s headed (presentation … Read More

After the thru-hike, what’s next?
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So, you finished the Appalachian Trail (AT), John Muir Trail (JMT), Arizona Trail (AZT) or another thru-trail and want to do more backpacking. What’s next? Hike somewhere with fewer people? Or embellish your next thru-hike with short ventures into adjacent wilderness areas? We can design a thru-hike OFF THE BEATEN PATH… Read More

Free Trip Planning Service
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We started backpacking in the mid-1970s; since 2012, we have visited, posted, and mapped trips in nearly 70 wilderness areas in the Western and Eastern U.S. Now we want to help you see them too! We can help you customize your visit to a wilderness area that we have posted on this website.… Read More

Free GIS for map display
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Google Earth is a workhorse that we use for many things. All our wilderness visit tracks are available for download as Google Earth kmz files. It is also invaluable for route planning and for displaying kmz files available from other … Read More

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