June 26, 2024 Judge C. R. Magney State Park to Cliff Creek 13.4 miles I woke up to the sound of raindrops again. I had to poke my head out of my tent to roll down my vestibule (which Machine calls a “vegetable”) and decided that if I had to be awake, I may as …
I miss writing about the trail every day. I miss posting things on the Internet and having people read them. I'm not on a thru-hike right now, it's true, but there are still so many words inside me that are itching to get out. That's why I decided to start a newsletter! It's called Somewhere …
Continue reading I Made a Newsletter, and Here’s Why You Should Subscribe
One whole rotation of the sun ago, I stood at the monument in Campo, California, and started walking north on the Pacific Crest Trail. I wanted to write a long, meandering, weepy reflection on this day like I tend to do, but I don't think I have it in me. I really should be grading. …
Hi readers. Are you there? Are you still subscribed? Are you missing my PCT posts? I am too. Every single day. I'm meant to be grading papers right now, but that's clearly not what I'm doing. I'm drinking an IPA and listening to a Big Thief record and thinking about the trail. It's February in …
It was 3 degrees this morning. Frosty! I am very proud of how I got up before 7 and survived without coffee for a whole half an hour before we stopped at The Baker's Wife pastry shop for breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and coffee, all of which were delicious. As a bonus, they had a very …
Continue reading Minnesota, Day 2: Friday, February 25, 2022
In which I run and think about George Floyd, not breathing.
In late October I went backpacking at Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio. It had only been a few weeks since completing the Appalachian Trail, but in those odd days following my summit of Katahdin, every day of not hiking felt like a confused century. The opportunity to walk again—through a forest heavy with the …
I loved the New Jersey section of the AT, but mostly I loved New Jersey because it was not Pennsylvania. That being said, the Garden State had some lovely features, including marshlands and the Pochuck Boardwalk—a mile of easy, flat walking through cattails and swamplands, which was a very pleasant change from the unforgiving and …
A little reflection on a story, a trail, and why we need things that keep us going.
I'm continuing with my reflections from early on in the trail. Here are a few selected highlights from North Carolina and Tennessee. April 23, just before Hot Springs, NC, eveningWalking down the hill to camp, I couldn’t stop breathing in. That air, that green smell of oxygen, made me instinctually inhale. It smelled like summer, …
Sarahmarie Specht-Bird 