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David did very thorough research for our one-month trek across Frank Church and Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness summer 2025 in Idaho and Montana, seeking cleared trails. The two vast wilderness areas once boasted more than 4000 miles of trails, but now only … Read More

I wanted a minimum 70-miles of backpacking to celebrate my 70th birthday. When David had reached this milestone in 2021, he took a 70-mile solo trek on several trails in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson. I couldn’t go. Just … Read More

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

My December 2023 blog claimed I was “Bionic but better”—having hiked 1000 miles through 15 wilderness despite three joint replacement surgeries between 2021 and 2022. The same week I posted that blog I had a freak accident, but not in … Read More

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

It happened on the third day of a three-week trip in the High Uinta Wilderness in northern Utah. I was coming down Red Knob Pass—the second, steep thousand-foot descent of the day. The first was a skittery scramble on washed-out … Read More

Avoiding crowds in popular areas is always a challenge; and California’s iconic High Sierra mountains have always drawn people. First, they are only hours from the heavily populated California coastal cities. Second, their iconic splendor graces many scenic calendars. And … Read More

Last month we celebrated my birthday with a backpack trip in Saguaro Wilderness east of Tucson—perhaps my 14th visit since 1970s hikes with the University of Arizona Ramblers. The area—astride the Rincon Mountains that roll up from 2,700 feet at … Read More

We try to stick with public lands on our hikes; private land often spells trouble. In the 1980s, a week-long backpacking trip on national forest land in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains ended abruptly at a landowner fence. On a 1990s … Read More

Last May 2019, I posted Wildlife management: predators and prey in the Phoenix suburbs, where my sister and her neighbors shared misadventures of a mallard duck and her family. The female had grown up in my sister’s yard (nice duck … Read More

In 1980, Congress took 200,000 acres out of the 55-year-old Gila Wilderness and named it the Aldo Leopold to honor its namesake. Conservationist Aldo Leopold spent his early career years with the Forest Service in New Mexico and persuaded the … Read More

We emerged from Four Peaks scratched, beaten and sporting minor injuries. My left knee—whiny under any circumstances—started to “pop” as I clambered up steep slopes through heavy brush in Alder Canyon. David, who clipped back manzanita and thorny ceanothus branches … Read More

Year 2020: unprecedented. Unpredictable weather continues. Phoenix, our winter home, missed its monsoon rains last summer but got them in fall and winter with cool temperatures. In late January we returned to Idaho for skiing. One small snowstorm and no … Read More

It started in Virginia. And it led to revisiting favorite places across the country and rediscovering our own need for wilderness. A plan to visit all the wilderness in Virginia—and write a book about our adventures—was born in summer 2012. … Read More

I recently made my 10th visit to the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico—the nation’s oldest wilderness lying along a vast ridge and valley landscape with forests of ponderosa pine and oak-pinyon-juniper on ridges above Middle and West forks of … Read More

My WildernessNeed blog has been selected by Feedspot, an international marketing/promotion company, as one of Top 30 Wilderness Blogs in the world on the Internet. This Top 30 is an eclectic collection of adventure travel, advocacy, therapy and personal views … Read More

As an avid hiker I’m saddened by loss of legacy trails, especially on National Forests. The U.S. is blessed with a vast trails system on public lands. Some were early Indian and trapper routes; others built for mining, grazing and … Read More

Thru-hiking seems on the rise. Some even do a “triple crown”—Appalachian (AT), Continental Divide and Pacific Crest (PCT) Trails for a total 7,750-miles. I love trails. The idea of the 2000-mile trail AT intrigues me. I longed to do it … Read More

Blogger’s note: since I have other interests besides hiking wilderness (including reading, writing, music, physical fitness, triathlons, spirituality), I will sometimes weigh in on these topics when we’re taking a break from our explorations. An earworm, also known as a … Read More