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Trail Running Across Marin: Four Days, 42 Miles, Inn-to-Inn
“You have to embrace the hills.” That subtly foreshadowing line from an e-mail my running partner today, Janet Bowman, sent me a few days ago leaps to mind, as we struggle to run up a trail pitched at...
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The Magic of Hiking to Yosemite’s Waterfalls
My seven-year-old daughter, Alex, is engaged in some heavy intellectual lifting. I can tell by the way she stares quietly, her brow knitted in thought, at Upper Yosemite Falls. We’ve hiked for 90...
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In the Land of Dr. Seuss: Exploring Joshua Tree
I feel the familiar nervous excitement just walking up to the base of the sun-warmed granite cliff, climbing gear jangling on my harness, rope over my shoulder. For various reasons, I haven’t gotten on...
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In the Footsteps of John Muir: Finding Solitude in the High Sierra
I’m slogging up a long ramp of beach-like sand toward Cox Col, an off-trail pass sitting a few ticks over 13,000 feet in California’s John Muir Wilderness. The high-altitude sun feels like a...
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Photo Gallery: Backpacking the John Muir Wilderness
By Michael Lanza Want to know where I shot the mountains photo in the banner across the top of The Big Outside? It was on a 32-mile traverse of one of the highest and most achingly gorgeous sections of...
View ArticleOne Photo, One Story: Trail Running (or Hiking) Across California’s Marin...
By Michael Lanza Pausing along the Coastal Trail, which slithers across crumbling bluffs that plunge 400 feet to the ocean in the rugged hills of Northern California’s Golden Gate National Recreation...
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Ask Me: What Clothing Do You Recommend for August in the High Sierra?
Hi Michael, I have been enjoying your adventure posts immensely; keep up the great work! I lead hikes for the local chapter of the Sierra Club in Tucson, and in mid-August we’ll be doing a 7-day...
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Heavy Lifting: Backpacking Sequoia National Park
By Michael Lanza I stare at the backpack on the ground in front of me. At 85 liters, with every milliliter of it stuffed with about 60 pounds of gear and food, it looks like something that should be...
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Celebrating The Wilderness Act: Photo Gallery of Backpacking the John Muir...
By Michael Lanza Today marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing The Wilderness Act, the law that codified the 19th-century conservationist John Muir’s vision of preserving...
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Ask Me: Where Can I Hike in Yosemite in Late Fall?
Michael, First, let me say that I enjoy your trip reports, gear reviews and especially the photographs. I also love kids and your adventures with them are a joy to read. Your website inspires me to...
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10 Favorite Photos From 2014 Adventures
By Michael Lanza Was 2014 a good year for you? After poring through thousands of photos I shot on more than a dozen trips this year, including return visits to iconic national parks like Yosemite and...
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New Year Inspiration: My Top 10 Adventure Trips
By Michael Lanza I often get asked, “What’s your favorite trip?” And I can’t answer that one. To pick just one from all the amazing adventures I’ve had the good fortune to take feels like an impossible...
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One Photo, One Story: Exploring Joshua Tree National Park
By Michael Lanza On a recent, balmy morning in the sprawling and primordial Wonderland of Rocks area of Joshua Tree National Park, my friend David Ports and I had just climbed a route called Mental...
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Ask Me: Hiking Yosemite’s Half Dome
Hi Michael! I contacted you a while back about hiking and backpacking with my toddler. Your advice was amazing and my two-year-old is getting better and better when it comes to distance. He is walking...
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Ask Me: Can You Recommend Rafting Outfitters and Trips?
Hi Michael, I just found your blog today after starting my research for a summer guided rafting tour for families. In my next life I’d like to come back as one of your offspring! My husband would like...
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Photo Gallery: Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail
By Michael Lanza Are you planning to hike the John Muir Trail, aka “America’s Most Beautiful Trail?” There may be no more gorgeous long backpacking trip, step for step, than a thru-hike of the JMT...
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Video: Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail
“America’s most beautiful trail.” That’s a lofty claim, but the description has stuck hard to the John Muir Trail for many years, despite some serious competition. Meandering 211 miles from Yosemite...
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Ask Me: Tips On Backpacking Glacier National Park and the John Muir Trail
[Note: I recently received these similar questions from two different readers] Michael, I wrote you last year about the Teton Crest Trail and my buddies and I completed it back in July. It was amazing....
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Photo Gallery: 15 Nicest Backcountry Campsites I’ve Hiked Past
By Michael Lanza It is one of those unfortunate inevitabilities of life, like death and taxes: Occasionally on backpacking trips you will hike past one of the most sublime patches of wilderness real...
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Ask Me: How Early in the Season Can I Hike the John Muir Trail?
Hi Michael, I hope you’re doing great. I had a quick question for you regarding the JMT. I’ve read in Backpacker Magazine that you recommend late August/early September as the best time of the year to...
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