by Collin Stuart Chambers
Déjà Vu on the Appalachian Trail: What three section hikers taught me about perseverance, trail magic, and squeeze cheese. After my Sunday Trail Ambassador patrol on Max Patch, I did what any reasonable person would do after eight hours of hiking around and around the...
by Collin Stuart Chambers
Satan’s Candy: (A Betrayal) I held that clear, translucent plastic cup in my small hands for a long time. Within those few inches of soil grew a whole mysterious world. Roots reaching down, tiny leaves unfurling upward, an entire plant emerging from what had...
by Collin Stuart Chambers
Look up in a maritime forest where live oaks reign, and you might catch one of nature’s most elegant mysteries: crown shyness. There, against the sky, the canopy creates a living jigsaw puzzle—each tree’s leaves stopping just short of its neighbor’s,...
by Collin Stuart Chambers
My first adult backpacking trip was with a hiking club I discovered in a Creative Loafing magazine classified ad after moving back to my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1998. Little did I know that joining that first hike would set me on the incredible path I walk...
by Collin Stuart Chambers
I have to be honest. My first two “hitches” (each 4-day stretch on the trail is called a hitch) have been relatively intense. I knew the weather could potentially be brutal in the Smokies… in February. But until you experience it firsthand, it is hard to imagine the...
