Spring, 2022: Hiker Writer has been around for more tha 20 years, but until now (2022), I’ve mostly maintained it as a static site about my books about hiking. No mystery, there. But starting in 2022, I decided to expand the site to make it truly useful to hikers.
About me: my bio is at the Bio page, but short answers: I’m a Triple-Crown thru-hiker with 18,000 miles of global long-distance hikng. I’m also a NY Times travel books best selling author, as well as a National Outdoor Book Award winner and a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award winner (among others).
In the last year, I started work on my 20th book, Hiking America’s National Parks (to be published by Rizzoli in 2023). It occurred to me that with all the books I’ve done on hiking skills, and all the books I’ve done on trails — triple crown trails, national scenic trails, national historic trails, global trails, national parks trails — that I should really be thinking sbout distilling some of this information so people can find it online.
Last year a friend of mine turned 60 and decided she wanted to section hike the whole Appalachian Trail over the next few years. I joined her last summer and we completed the section from Vermont, through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, just about to the New Jersey border. It’s been 25 years since I did a U.S. national scenic trail thru-hike; after many trails in Europe and elsewhere, being back on the A.T. has been a home-coming of sorts.
I’m realizing now that a whole bunch of things have changed. Physically, I feel better than I ever have, but there’s no question that I am older. The gear available is better and lighter than ever…. my summer pack weighs in the teens, even fully loaded with food and water, and I can pick it up with two fingers. I’m seeing a ton of other women of all ages on trails.
I want Hikerwriter to be a place for inspiration and information.