Portrait of a Hiker

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Portrait of a Hiker

Some people say I have too much time on my hands. I say it's my feet.

👑👑👑

08/20/2026

Check out this adorable little fluffball 😍

08/19/2026

Western Tanager in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

I started birding as a way to keep myself occupied while in Ohio. It has since become a serious interest, and tanagers and warblers are among my favorites. I've been extremely busy lately, but I did set aside an hour to take my camera for a little walk by a creek. I got some really fun pictures of some very pretty birds.

08/17/2026

Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas.

In 2021, I had intended to hike Big Bend National Park during the first week of the year. The park got hit by the first significant snow in decades, and they lack the infrastructure to deal with that. The road into the park was closed. BBNP is way out in the middle of nowhere, which is a major part of its appeal. It's extremely difficult to get to.

I drove out to GMNP, across the vast desert of Texas. The background in most of these photos shows how hostile the environment is. I had gallons of extra water on my floorboards and extra food for days. If my old car broke down, I'd have hit my SOS button and I'd have been totally fine until help came. Walking across that would have been insanity. Big Bend is even more remote.

That's one of the reasons the bulldozers in Big Bend are so heartbreaking: it's a monumentally stupid waste of money. The idea of climbing up and down mountains only to reach an enormous, inhospitable desert is ridiculous. They're tearing down our national parks just for political optics, and the message they're projecting is one of pure ignorance. Technology has advanced enough during the last three millenia that "put a wall on the border" isn't all that effective most places.

It does destroy ecosystems and vital wildlife pathways. It does damage our national parks, which were once seen as "America's Best Idea." We're bulldozing precious wilderness areas to incorporate technology from the Iron Age, and proudly exclaiming how smart we are for doing it.

It's embarassing. And the only point of it is to rile up people who desperately want a group of "other" people to hate.

If you'd like an up-close view of what's really going on day by day at Big Bend NP, go check out Natalie Newman.

08/13/2026

Portrait of a hiker, Pacific Crest Trail

If I'm going to share a picture of Loud Cloud in the Sierra, it's only fitting to use a photo of Samwise next.

08/10/2026

Portrait of a hiker, Pacific Crest Trail

Taco duhhh (T Sav)

08/08/2026

I got to meet Mary Badass near the beginning of the Continental Divide Trail.

I've been working on a proper story about my time in Glacier National Park. I met a slew of interesting characters out there, and I also ran into some old friends. I was just beginning this bizarre project of hiking all over America and gathering other thru hikers' stories.

I wandered around the park, taking pictures of other CDT hikers. Because I've been writing about this period of time, I've been going through old photos for memories. I found this shot of a hiker enjoying a sunset.

This is Mary Anderson who has her own stories to tell. She's done a ton of incredibly amazing stuff and has written a lot about her adventures. Rather than summarizing anything she's written, I'll point you to her profile - where you can find her blogs and her books.

08/05/2026

A yellow-headed blackbird giving some serious side eye.

08/04/2026

A little more from Utah.

08/02/2026

Along the Pacific Crest Trail, high in the Sierra Nevada, you'll find some absolutely gorgeous lakes. When northbound thru hikers get there early in the season, the lakes are expected to be at least somewhat frozen. Some years they're completely buried under ice and snow. When I NoBo'ed the PCT, the edges were frozen and the water was still. It's perfect for reflection photography.

I was still very much a beginner photographer at the time. I took many, many photos from many, many vantage points. If I get the opportunity to hike through some of the world's most picturesque places, I'm going to try as hard as I can to practice as I go. I learned a lot by looking at other photographers, then looking at my own photos, then reading, thinking, and taking more photos.

When I was on the Continental Divide Trail the next year - around 6500 backpacking miles later - I stopped in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Ghost Ranch marks the end of the big mountains for SoBo hikers. It's also an area where Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe spent a significant amount of time. The library on site has a room dedicated to artists, especially those two.

While flipping through books, I saw a photo that looked extremely familiar. Snow levels are different, the composition is slightly different, but the place and the idea are the same. By that time, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition had been using my photos for a few months. That was a huge confidence boost. I felt like I was figuring out this photography thing. Seeing one of my photos being a near-match to the artist who was one of my biggest influences was another huge boost.

Ansel Adams very likely stood in one spot, painstakingly setting up the perfect photograph. I was skittering around like a madman shooting constantly. I had a digital camera and determination, not film and expertise. Still, the fact that one of my favorite shots from the PCT might have been taken from exactly the same spot where Adams stood nearly a century before was breathtaking.

08/01/2026

I've not shared many photos of Zion yet. I also haven't been spending much effort writing captions here. My creative efforts have been going into a format not restricted by character length or format.

One more written in the margin of my notebook says, "Don't write for instagram. Just write. [...] I am a better writer than instagram allows."

Some day I'll share these stories properly. For now, here's a picture I took during an April road trip through Zion National Park with my girlfriend.

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