As a contributing writer and editor for The Trek—a digital magazine covering backpacking on America’s long trails—I’ve pitched, researched, interviewed, and fact-checked for news, feature, and interview stories. If it happened on or near a long trail, The Trek has probably covered it.
The Trek
Featured Stories
Yellow Finch Tree Sitters Continue to Defy Mountain Valley Pipeline
Sitting high in the trees in Montgomery County, Virginia, the tree sitters off Yellow Finch Lane are in their 853rd day of blockading construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and the 50th day of defying a court order to vacate. Mountain Valley Pipeline, an in-progress 303-mile natural gas pipeline traversing through West Virginia and Virginia, is currently embattled in a sea of legal challenges, contentious approval processes, and intense scrutiny from land defenders and conservationists. The Yellow Finch tree sitters have long been on the frontlines of the anti-pipeline movement.
Brood X Cicadas to Emerge on Appalachian Trail After 17 Years
This May, billions of periodical cicadas will emerge from the soil in the eastern United States after 17 years underground, including in Appalachian Trail states from Georgia to New Jersey. Born in 2004, the Great Eastern Brood of cicadas (also called Brood X) have been biding their time underground, feeding on tree roots and waiting for the perfect spring day to come out en masse, likely in early May.
Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Heather Anderson on Her New Book
Heather sat down in the middle of the trail and thought to herself, “I really am incapable.” Tears streaming down her face and blood running down her legs from cuts, she contended with the possibility of failure. It’s a feeling we’ve all experienced, long-distance backpacker or not. Everything’s going wrong, you’re tired, frustrated, probably hungry, and the three-year-old child inside you attempts to take over and force you to give up. The difference is, Heather isn’t on just any hike. She’s attempting to set the speed record for a self-supported thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail—2189 miles from Maine to Georgia.