The following is the personal account of a single, long-winded individual’s experiences living and working in Antarctica. No part of it has been reviewed or in any way endorsed by the United States Antarctic Program… Read More »The SPOT Diaries, prologue part 1: an unexpected offer
There is something about the saguaro that speaks to my soul. Tall, ominous, serene, these most magestic of cacti dominate every patch of the Sonora desert where they thrive. While hiking the AZT, I couldn’t… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, appendix: serious saguaros
Day 0 (again*): 23 May 2024, 0.0 miles today, 742.2 miles total, Grand Canyon South Rim The best thing about modern airport toilets in that, no matter how frequently or how recently that have been… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, coda: finished business
Day 36: 23 May, 25.6 miles today, 700.5 miles total, Kaibab National Forest “I know it’s a silly thing,” I said to Sean Meadow, “but one of the things I was most looking forward to… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, part 6: an imperfect end
Day 31: 26 April, 15.5 miles today, 583.4 miles total, Coconino National Forest The upside to having to cross ten to twelve miles of snow in the next section was that in order to start… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, part 5: just a simple walk to one of America’s more notable holes
Day 25: 20 April, 4.4 miles today, 468.5 miles total,* Tonto National Forest I’d been off the AZT for nearly two weeks. A lot can change on trail in 13 days, and it was very… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, part 4: when it melts, it pours
Day 17: 31 March, 23.4 miles today, 328.5 miles total, Superstition Wilderness And I’d thought the day before had been exhausting. The day started with a gentle walk down to the Picketpost Mountain trailhead, where… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, part 3: hitting the wall
Day 9: 23 March, 21.8 miles today, 165.2 miles total, Coronado National Forest The morning wasn’t nearly as cold as I’d anticipated—in fact the chilly temp had somehow held more or less constant since afternoon… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, part 2: cold and alone
Day 0: 14 March, 0.0 miles today, 0.0 miles total, Tucson, AZ Waiting at the sparsely populated gate for the first leg of my flight to Arizona to board, I was started by an explosion… Read More »Random Misadventures on the Arizona Trail, part 1: the only way out is through
About a year after my friend Jamal killed himself, I decided that I’d made peace with it. The act itself hadn’t come as a surprise, after all. It was, rather, the culmination of a process… Read More »Endgame