Afternoon reader(s). What a day! Look outside! Doesn’t it make you want to go CAMPING??? … Maybe? … please … for Earth Day?

Okay. For those of you that thought “yes!! what an idea! Wait. I have no tent, no idea where to go, god, SO tired, do I really want to spend time organizing this?? I mean I could just go sit in an outdoor patio with a beer then read in a park, a park is nature-y right? RIGHT???” then I sympathize. Because although I love hiking, camping just stresses me out. Like the planning and the renting and the driving and the possibility (especially around the District) that although I imagine this:

I could easily end up with this:

Continue reading →

Views from Old Rag in Autumn (from http://dardenblogs.com)

One of my pastimes is buying hiking gear and never using it. I can’t help it. It’s just so attractive in the store. Boots that water just glides off of, a fancy pack that melds to your back, a camelbak water pouch that attaches to your backpack so you don’t need to even open a water bottle but can just drink through a little tube without breaking stride like this:

Oh. You think it’s nerdy? Just you wait, dear reader. Wait until you are out hiking and thirsty and tiredly drop your nalgene and get dirt all in your water rendering it undrinkable while I have a camelbak so that can’t happen. And I just laugh. ANWAYS, like so many people, I own the stuff but never actually go. I just put it off. That is, until my fitness brother made me actually go. We hiked Old Rag Mountain. Arguably the most famous DC hike. It looks like this…..

Continue reading →