August 25, 2022 Campsite at mile 2191.4 to campsite just past the Sawtooth Mountain Trail junction at mile 2214.5 23.1 miles I can immediately feel yesterday in my feet when I start moving. I’d thought that my new insoles from Portland were really working some magic because my foot pain has decreased since the zeroes, …
Continue reading PCT Day 129: Trail Magic and Sawtooth Sunset
The semester is winding to a close, and I've been fortunate to be able to go out for some really great hikes recently. April is prime morel time, and though between Wiggs and me we only found a handful this year, it felt like a victory for our second-ever foraging season. We have been spending …
Wiggs and I were so impressed by our first visit to Great Seal on March 5 that when another Friday rolled around we decided to make a second visit. This time, on March 19, it was exactly two weeks later. In the spring, two weeks can make a big difference. The first time we went …
Continue reading Great Seal Sate Park Part 2: Signs of Spring
Ah, early March. Glorious, hope-filled, golden early March. The world hangs on the edge between melting winter and waiting spring. The days–crisp, but no longer frigid–grow steadily longer, stepping ever more quickly towards flowers. My eyes are pulled downwards for the first time since October, searching the forest floor for mushrooms that I know aren't …
I always think about hiking, but I think about hiking the most when it is winter. Ohio has been covered in over a foot of snow for the past few weeks. Just about when I was recovered from COVID-19, the world turned frigid and the sidewalks froze over. Every run becomes a perilous oscillation between …
Continue reading Mishaps Make an Adventure: Paint Creek State Park, January 5, 2021
A week and a half ago I started feeling the beginnings of a sore throat, and then the next day I woke up with a fever. I decided to get a Covid-19 test, and it was positive. I have been in self-isolation for the past nine days with persistent fatigue, lack of taste and smell, …
Keeping my writing up-to-date is one of my numerous New Year's resolutions. I struggle to write as often as I'd like, despite the fact that, if I'm honest with myself, I really do have the time. But instead of updating my blog I sometimes decide to do things like binging all of The Queen's Gambit …
After completing our little Zaleski State Forest backpacking loop on October 30, we loaded up in Wiggs's car and hit the road. We did not go straight back to Columbus, however. Instead, my very nice boyfriend agreed to reroute half an hour west so that I could visit three Ohio History Passport locations: Leo Petroglyphs, …
Sarahmarie Specht-Bird 