The first day of summer? What kid dreads the start of summer?
Not summer per se. Rather, what that “start” represented.
The demise.
The demise, curiously, of sunlight. For June 21 (or thereabouts) marks the longest period of daylight of the year: 14 hours and 39 minutes. But from then on we start getting shortchanged, imperceptibly at first, on sunshine. A few seconds a day at first. At the end of June, the sun set at 8:37 p.m.; tonight (Sept. 3), it will be down at 7:42 p.m. By the end of September the sun will set at 7:02 p.m. and come Halloween it will be down at 6:22 p.m. Let’s not even talk about November and the end of Daylight Saving Time.read more
I used to love hiking in summer heat. The past couple years, though, not so much. Coming into this summer I got to wondering why.
As we’ve settled in to summer’s steady drumbeat of 90/90 — temperature/humidity — days, I’ve been trying to sort out what I don’t like about summer hiking, as well as what keeps me on the trail. The latter first.read more
It was coming up on 4 p.m. on New Year’s Day when I got the nagging feeling I’d forgotten something. Black-eyed peas, check. Resolutions for 2026, check. Sticky notes all around to remind me to write “2026,” check. What could it —
We’ve reached late fall, the transition between glorious fall hiking and winter, a period many see as a three-month hiatus from the trail. Why? Well, we know not why: for us, it has become our favorite season to be on the trail. It’s a topic we’ve waxed on at length; here, for instance.read more
