Trip Reports

The Mountain Wanderer Bookstore is a bookstore in Lincoln, NH that carries excellent maps and a unique selection of books that focus on the natural areas in New England, including the Catskills, Adirondacks, Vermont, and the White Mountains. For example, they have a …

I took Friday off from work this week and headed up to the Whites for some backpacking. It's been a few months since I had a chance to sleep outdoors and I was looking forward to tryng out some new gear in …

Mt Osceola (4,340 ft) On Sunday, I climbed another two 4,000 footers in the White Mountains, Mt Osceola (4,340 ft) and its neighbor East Osceola (4,156). These peaks are located in an area of the Whites that I haven't done much hiking …

I’m writing this post at the request of one of our regular readers. He had a bad experience camping at an Appalachian Trail Shelter over the Columbus Day weekend with his children. Some other campers showed up and were drinking heavily. They …

South Twin Mountain (4,900 ft.) I was supposed to go backpacking on the Appalachian Trail last weekend, but I decided that it would be prudent to cancel the trip. Winter had arrived about 1 month early, quite unexpectedly, with snow and ice …

  I took a break from section hiking the Appalachian Trail this weekend and climbed Mt. Carrigain (4,700 ft), the 14th highest peak on the White Mountain 4,000 footer list. Fall foliage is at its peak in the mountains and Carrigain is …

I finally got back to the White Mountains on Sunday after a 4 week hiatus and did a short 2.6 mile hike from Crawford Notch to Ethan Pond. This was a little section of the Appalachian Trail that I had missed and …

The White Mountain 4000 footer list is maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club. It was introduced in 1957 to get climbers to hike some of the more remote peaks in the range and to help disperse the wear and tear being inflicted …

Last week my wife and I were touring the Borders Region in southern Scotland, about 50 miles south of Edinburgh, and just over the "historical border" from England (and the rest of Rome.) We had originally intended to hike the 60 mile …

I think I gave the night porter a fright this morning when I came bounding down the hotel stairs before dawn. It was raining and cold outside as I set out, determined to climb Cademuir Hill just outside of Peebles, Scotland. I …

This morning I climbed Arthur’s Seat (250 m), an extinct volcano that towers over the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, at dawn. I climbed this same hill almost 26 years ago, to the day, after arriving here as a graduate student in 1983. …

This past Saturday, I finished hiking the last section of the Southern Presidentials on the New Hampshire Appalachian Trail. The weather was incredible, with bright sunshine. However, winds on the western, exposed sections of Mt Washington (above) reached 40 miles an hour, …

I had a magnificent hike last Sunday, completing the lower half of the Southern Presidential Range in the White Mountains. During this hike, I completed another 9.0 miles of the AT. Total distance for the day was 13.1 miles over 9 hours …

Chris and I attempted to complete a 5.3 mile segment of the Appalachian Trail on Saturday from Mt. Wolf (3,498 ft)  to South Kinsman Mountain (4,358 ft). But mid-August weather conditions were typically atrocious with very high humidity,  nearly continuous rain, and …