Trips reports and guides for multi-day walks, including backcountry backpacking, hut-to-hut hikes, and village-to-village walks.
These overnights allow us to spend more time on the trail and less time in transit. We also get to see sunrise and sunset in different places.
Our first three stages of the Tour of the Bernina were varied. We began with a short stage to Chamanna Coaz, followed by a long balcony walk that brought us to the town of Maloja. From Maloja, we ascended into the mountains, where we stayed at Fornohütte, perched high above Forno Glacier.
After hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc in 2018, we were eager to complete another long hut-to-hut circuit in the Alps. For this, we again prioritized fantastic scenery and comfortable huts. We also hoped to visit a quieter set of huts and trails than the Tour du Mont Blanc and to visit a different part of the Alps. After considering many routes, we decided on the Tour of the Bernina, circling the Piz Bernina massif on the Swiss-Italian border. We hiked our 90-mile route in 10 days.
There are many different approaches to packing for backpacking. Some people pack ultralight, others pack for maximal comfort in camp at the expense of carrying a lot on the trail. I think we’re somewhere in between: we like to be reasonably comfortable and not re-wear clothes too much, but we also like to pack light enough that we have energy for side trips.
On our 2020 and 2021 trips to the Wind River Range, we explored the central and southern ends of the range. For 2022, we decided to visit the northern end of the range. On this trip, we entered at the Green River Lakes trailhead and spent five stunning days on the trail.
The view over the Green River Lakes to Square Top is, for many, one of the four iconic views of the Wind River Range, along with Titcomb Basin, Island Lake and Mount Fremont, and Cirque of the Towers. Less obvious from those photos, though is that not far past the lakes, the trail reaches spectacular meadows and then climbs to a high country of equally magnificent alpine lakes.
In August 2022, we backpacked a new part of the North Cascades for us: the Devil’s Dome Loop on the western edge of the Pasayten Wilderness. We hiked the route clockwise, from the East Bank Trailhead, taking four days and three nights.
This was a stunning loop that took us to parts of the North Cascades we had not visited. We enjoyed excellent weather and beautiful views.
Our total distance, including a side trip, was about 41 miles, and 10,800′ of elevation gain. Trail conditions made the route more difficult than the stats would imply.
For our second trip to the Wind River Range, we did a four-day, three-night backpacking loop through the Middle Fork Valley. This took us to Middle Fork Lake, Bewmark Lake, Lee Lake, Lake Donna, and Pronghorn Peak. This route offered stunning landscapes and solitude.
The centerpiece of our summer 2021 Wyoming trip was five days backpacking the Teton Crest Trail. We started at Granite Canyon and camped at Marion Lake, Death Canyon Shelf, South Fork of Cascade Canyon, and Holly Lake.
As with many summer backpacking trips in the west, storms shaped our experience on the Teton Crest Trail. We were glad to be prepared and fortunate to mostly be in camp when they hit, but the weather also curtailed some of our explorations.
We backpacked the Teton Crest Trail in August 2021, adding on a stop in Yellowstone National Park before and backpacking in the Wind River Range after. Our two-week Wyoming trip included two days of walks and day hikes in Yellowstone, five days on the Teton Crest Trail, and four days in the Winds.
The highlight of our July 2021 road trip was backpacking to Ediza Lake and Thousand Island Lake, in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. To get an early start, we stayed in Lee Vining the night before, which also gave us a chance to visit Mono Lake.
One summer at Cold River Camp, another guest presented on backpacking the Muir Trail and through the Ansel Adams Wilderness. This presentation inspired our summer 2016 backpacking trip from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley. The image that most stayed in my mind, though, was a sunset photo at Thousand Island Lake.
Kyle & I finally visited in July 2021, stopping at Newberry National Volcanic Monument and Crater Lake National Park on the way there, and Lassen Volcanic National Park on the way back. This made for a one-week road trip with three days of backpacking in the middle.
Compared to the photo that inspired our trip, the sunset over Thousand Island Lake sunset was muted, but it was still excellent.