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On her 20th birthday, Natalie woke up to fresh white snow, deep in the Tennessee woods, just south of the Virginia border. It had been just one day shy of a month since she started hiking and she had well over 1,000 miles left to go. When most college students want to take a semester away from Ann Arbor they enroll in a study abroad program. Our women’s tech employee Natalie Burr, however, didn’t cross any international borders when she went through the incredibly transformative experience of hi … read more

I recently had the chance to spend eight days climbing mountains and hiking trails all across the great state of Colorado. If you’ve been following the blog at all, you’ve likely seen some trail and city-specific posts about my adventures across the Rocky Mountain State. Rather than waste words and recap those in detail, I wanted to do something else. I wanted to give anyone interested the best possible resource with which to plan their own outdoors pilgrimage to the Mountain West! This trip … read more

I am a bit of black sheep in the outdoors community. I like hiking; I live for thin air and ascents through the timber line. I set pre-dawn alarms so I can watch a summit sunrise. But all of that goes out the window the second I say the following: I like front country hiking. My ideal day consists of waking up pre-dawn, hitting the trail as soon as possible, and hiking until afternoon convection currents (and the thunderstorms they generate) physically force me off the summit. Where I go once … read more

This June, I had the opportunity to go on my first ever mountaineering excursion. The hill? Mt. Adams, a nearly 12,500′ peak in Washington State’s Cascade Range. Mt. Adams is the largest active volcano in the Cascades, although its last eruption was over 3,800 years ago. On a clear day, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Saint Helens are all visible from the summit. As far as “first peaks” go, I picked a mighty good one.Before I even bought my plane tickets, I had to meticulously research and plan t … read more

Southern Utah has always been a place near and dear to my heart. Growing up in Salt Lake City, outdoors destinations like Moab, Torrey, and Escalante were just a short drive away and made for the perfect weekend getaway. This past May, I went back to my happy place for the first time since moving to Ann Arbor. Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, I packed up my car with various gear and hit the road. Four hours later, I arrived at my campsite outside of Canyonlands National Park ready to relive my f … read more