We had high hopes for 2021, both in terms of hiking and the pandemic. Alas, our pandemic hopes were largely dashed by the third and fourth waves, despite our vaccinations. However, the hiking was good and we had some truly outstanding trips, although the season was very uneven weather-wise and it felt like it ended … Continue reading 2021 in review
Despite the stressful nature of 2020 and the spring-time lockdown, we managed to have an excellent year of hiking, covering the most distance since 2006 and setting a record for elevation gain. No one is more surprised by this than us! We hiked half-a-dozen new trails and revisited a few others, pushing further than we … Continue reading 2020 in review
It's that time of year again where we look back at the trips we enjoyed over the past 12 months. We had a pretty good year, setting a couple of records that will be hard to beat: finding glacier lilies on 7 hikes, and getting out hiking every weekend between the beginning of June and … Continue reading 2019 in review
For the third (and probably final) instalment of my reflections on 2019's adventures I thought I'd mention my favourite wildlife sighting of the year. Unlike the hundreds (and maybe thousands) of flowers admired over the past 12 months, our wildlife sightings have been much rarer. (Provided the mosquito encounters are excluded...!) While we had nothing … Continue reading Reflecting on 2019: an encounter with wildlife
To relive a moment A different take on our year's hiking, rather than a straight factual summary I wanted to write about a few different kinds of highlights. The first was a question I posed to myself one evening. If I could return to any moment during the year, which would I choose? I thought … Continue reading Reflecting on 2019: to relive a moment
Let's get this out of the way first. Did I find my ultimate glacier lily patch this year? No, I didn't; that is going to have to wait for another year. But did I find glacier lilies? Oh, you bet, and on a couple of hikes where I wasn't expecting to see them too. The … Continue reading The Great Glacier Lily Quest of 2019
Looking back at 2018 I couldn't help but feel that it was an odd year, something we seem to say most years lately! We hiked a lot of trails that we'd hiked before, and the weather in what would normally be peak hiking season turned for the worse, with forest fires in August followed by … Continue reading 2018 in review
It seems that 2017 was a pretty low-key year for us, covering barely 3/4 of the distance of last year, and only spending 4 nights out backpacking. However, we did fit in a few more nights in the tent as we car-camped on several weekends. It also seems we did more short hikes this year … Continue reading 2017 in review
Well that's another year of hiking under our boots. Safe to say that we felt we should have done more but the weather seemed to be against us for much of 2016. And yet it seems we did spend more days hiking this year than last (well, I did at any rate). Summer came and … Continue reading 2016 in review
Well that went by quickly. No, seriously - where did 2015 go? Despite a dry and relatively snow-free winter that led to a long hiking season, somehow we didn't feel that we made as much of it as we might have done. I certainly did a lot of hiking while I was looking for a … Continue reading 2015 in review
Being. Outdoors. 