Off the trail
Because I’m not just a walking and running machine.
In about six weeks Amanda and I expect to move into our newly renovated home. It’ll have been almost two years in the making, and we can’t wait. Around the time of move-in, we’ll have a choice to make about our current townhome at 3909 Apache Ct E, Boulder CO 80303: sell it, rent it,…
Earlier this week Amanda and I went under contract for a 1962 ranch in Boulder, less than a mile away from our current home. We’re excited about its potential and also intimidated by the work ahead — it’s like a time capsule, complete with its original intercom system, whole house vacuum, mid-mod hallway sconces, and…
Esmerelda (“Esme”), our 7-year-old foster cat, really likes it here, and we really like her, too. But it’s time to find her a more permanent home — we achieved our goal in getting her out of a high-stress setting with a toddler and dog, but we’re not ready yet for a “foster fail” after losing…
In late-November I tried calling Dr. Jason Cordeiro to schedule an at-home euthanasia appointment for Oden, our beloved 17 year-old orange tabby cat. I couldn’t hold myself together long enough to leave a coherent voice message, so we confirmed over text a date for the following week. But Oden bounced back before that dreaded day…
When I suggested to Andrew that I write a guest blog on the subject of wildfires, I wouldn’t have imagined that there would still be wildfires roaring in December. Indeed, this year has been truly devastating on the West coast. Over 5 million acres have burnt in Oregon and California. Wildfires remained active in Colorado…
Amanda and I have long known that our fur baby Oden would not outlive us, and in 2020 we began to acknowledge that he probably had only months left, no longer years. The ultimate timing or cause was unclear, but his trajectory was visibly downwards — his weight was dropping, his arthritis was worsening, his…
My fire season started in August, when our views were badly obscured on a seven-day trip in the San Juan Mountains by smoke from the Pine Gulch Fire, which briefly became the largest wildfire in Colorado state history. In September, I cancelled five trips in Yosemite because of toxic air quality due to the Creek…
In this series we have covered a wide range of topics meant to help aid and educate women in preparation for backcountry travel. It was brainstormed a year ago and designed to add to this website a woman’s perspective on some fundamental outdoor topics. Our final post was to be about “Giving Back” and would…
Here’s a sampling of client emails that were awaiting me when I exited the field late last week, with commentary below that: (Names have been changed in the interest of privacy.) From Sam After much deliberation I have reluctantly decided to forgo my participation in the Colorado Adventure this year. I am aware of the…
When I sat down on Monday morning to map out blog and social content for the week, everything seemed unimportant. I know that hundreds of thousands of Americans were protesting the unnecessary death of another black man and systemic racism more broadly this weekend, but let me tell you about how much I love the…