In early May 2025, I set out on a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail as the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s first artist-in-residence. I’m blogging periodically about my progress, so stay tuned for future updates. Thanks for following along!
Trans Catalina Trail, Black Jack CG to Little Harbor CG
By 7:45, we were packed up and hiking. A few hours later, we passed by Airport in the Sky, where we spent a leisurely amount of time sitting at the cafe, eating breakfast burritos and drinking coffee. Today was a shorter day, with more absurd views for most of the day. We could see the Little Harbor Campground for a while as we approached in the early afternoon. A cove with a beach, palm trees, and campsites dotting the surrounding hills. After an 8-mile day, we rolled in around 1:30. In the November low season, we were able to reserve a premium campsite right off the beach.
Trans Catalina Trail, Avalon to Black Jack CG
In November 2021, my best friends Leslie, Emily, and I decided to thru-hike the Trans Catalina Trail (TCT) during our fall break. Catalina is a small island off the coast of Los Angeles, and the TCT snakes through the island from top to bottom. After all the hiking I had done over the summer, I was so excited to finally do my first baby thru-hike. This was also the first time backpacking for Emily and me, and it turns out this trail was a great choice. TCT hikers must stay at established campgrounds along the route, and each one had bathrooms and potable water, so we were able to ease into the experience. I had spent the weeks leading up to our departure buying my first pieces of backpacking gear, and we painstakingly planned all the logistics. The day before we started, the three of us met in LA and got a hotel in Long Beach for the night.
Bryce Canyon NP/Escalante, July 2021
For the last few days of our trip, we headed further East through Utah, stopping in Bryce Canyon and Escalante. This was more of a mishmash of different locations, loosely focused around seeing some slot canyons. Here are some of our hikes:
Peek-a-Boo Canyon (3.3 miles)
Wall Street and Queens Garden Loop (3.7 miles)
Willis Creek Narrows Trail (6.0 miles)
Zion NP, July 2021
After spending a solid week in California, we packed up our campsite and drove several hours across Nevada and into Southern Utah. Alex’s sister, Callie, was working as a park ranger at Zion National Park, so we planned to spend another week visiting with her and exploring the area. This turned out to be a really generous amount of time, and it allowed us to visit some more remote areas of the park. Here are a few of our hikes from the week:
Angels Landing via West Rim Trail (5.9 Miles)
Observation Point via East Mesa Trail (7.3 Miles)
Northgate Peaks via Kolob Terrace (5.2 Miles)
West Rim Trail, Top-Down (16.4 Miles)
Yosemite NP/Mammoth Lakes, July 2021
West Coast road trip continued! After spending a few days in Sequoia, Alex and I drove North toward Yosemite. This was our first time in the park and we decided to drive from East to West on Tioga Pass Road to get to where we would be camping in Mammoth Lakes. It was a massive detour, but worth it for the scenery. We spent a few days hiking in and around Mammoth and then went back into Yosemite for a full day. Here’s a few of the highlights:
Little Lakes Valley to Gem Lakes (9.8 miles)
Tuolumne River Loop: Dana and Lyell Forks (3.9 miles)
Vernal and Nevada Falls via the Mist Trail (9.0 miles)
Rainbow Falls via Devils Postpile (4.6 miles)
Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP, July 2021
In July 2021, Alex and I set off on an incredible West Coast road trip. We flew into Las Vegas and rented a car to travel around Nevada, California, and Utah for about two weeks. Our first stop was a few days at Sequoia NP. We camped just outside the park in the town of Three Rivers. We spent our time day hiking and had a brush of excitement after our rental car nearly ran out of gas on the first day driving within the park. Here are some of the hikes we did:
Tokopah Falls via the Tokopah Valley Trail (4.5 miles)
Giant Forest Loop Trail (8.1)
Heather Lake, Emerald Lake, and Pear Lake (11.7 miles)
- Alta Via 1
- Angels Landing
- Appalachian Trail
- Appalachian Trail Conservancy
- ATC Artist Residency
- Avalon
- Backpacking
- Black Jack Campground
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- California
- Cinque Torri
- Coldai
- Damascus
- Day Hiking
- Dismal Falls
- Dolomites
- Erwin
- Escalante
- Fontana Dam
- Forcella di Lago
- Gatlinburg
- Gear
- Georgia
- Giant Forest Loop
- Greyson Highlands
- Hiawassee
- Hot Springs
- Italy
- John Muir Trail
- Lagazuoi
- Lago di Brais
- Little Harbor Campground
- Mammoth Lakes
- Marion
- Mist Trail
- North Carolina
- Parsons Landing Campground
- Peek-a-Boo
- Philadelphia
- Roan Highlands
- Sequoia National Park
- Smokey Mountain National Park
- Tennessee
- Three Rivers
- Thru-Hiking
- Tokopah Falls
- Trans Catalina Trail
- Tuolumne Meadows
- Two Harbors
- Utah
- Virginia
- West Rim Trail
- Willis Creek Narrows
- Woods Hole Hostel
- Yosemite National Park
- Zion National Park