
At the Mercy of Marcy
My Christmas trip to the Adirondacks could not be topped. The trails were quiet and Jordan’s marriage proposal just below the windy summit of Mount Marcy was more than I could fathom in my wildest dreams. Yet, in the days following that trip, I was left with a nagging feeling of failure. The mountains had served us a heaping slice of humble pie, but I was still hungry. In my inbox I found an email from Pat from two years prior outlining a Marcy-Skylight-Gray route from Tah

Dear National Park Service: Confessions about Shenandoah National Park
Dear National Park Service, Let me begin by wishing you a happy belated birthday! One hundred years is no joke! You’re in good company with other centarians Speedo, the Panama Canal, and Merrill Lynch. Surviving, let alone growing and thriving, over the course of ten decades is no easy task. Congratulations and Godspeed. NPS, I sent your present last summer and for the first time ever bought an annual, America the Beautiful Park Pass. The pass paid for itself a few time