Toft Point: Soft Spot for the Toft Spot

Toft Point is an absolute must-do when on the Door Peninsula. It is, however, more of a walk than a hike. Nonetheless, put this on your list of trails to take while in the area. It is near Ridges Sanctuary, another delightful area. I will post on Ridges next week; Toft Point is such an …

Deathdoor Bluff: Secret Pockets of Beauty

It was another glorious spring day in Door County, WI. We were standing in front of the Deathdoor Bluff trailhead at the Door Bluff Headlands County Park. From there, the trail descends thirty feet to a narrow bench (or flat ledge) partway down the bluff. It continues west, slowly circumnavigating the headland. But that loop …

Bay Shore Blufflands: Short and Sweet on the Door Peninsula

I ignored this hike for several years ... I am a fool. Why did ignore this hike? First, it's short. Second, it's 25 minutes away and in an area I rarely have reason to visit. Third, It just didn't look like a good hike. Don't ask me to explain that. Actually, my wife Lisa had …

Skaftafellsheiði Loop: Waterfalls, Scree, and the Local Jökulls

This hike started out inauspiciously. As is often the case, my excitement for getting on the trail led to a lack of mindfulness at the car, and, a half-mile up the Kvarnarkofalág Trail in the Skaftafell area of Vatnajökull National Park, I couldn't remember if I'd locked the damned thing. All we owned in Iceland …

Skógafoss and the Fimmvörðuháls Trail: Socked in on the Skógá River

We stood at the Fimmvörðuháls Trailhead in Skógar, near Iceland’s southern coast. Two days prior, we had completed our four-day trek from Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk on Iceland’s Laugavegur Trail (read here). The Fimmvörðuháls Trail tracks north to Þórsmörk where one may connect with the Laugavegur. These two trails are often connected to form a forty-eight …

Þingvellir National Park: The Þing About Iceland

Thing is, there’s a lot going on in Þingvellir National Park. That, by the way, is how you pronounce the first syllable of Þingvellir - “Thing”, or “Thing/vet/leer”. Þingvellir is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; it was the nation’s seat of government for 332 years, is one of the top SCUBA diving places in the …

GPS: Cutting Through the Coordinate Confusion

  Several times I have offhandedly suggested that my readers simply pop the provided GPS coordinates into their phones and zip on over to the trailhead. It occurred to me that not everyone routinely uses GPS coordinates to locate … well, anything. This is a shame because GPS coordinates can be used to find trails, …

Cromwell Valley Park: It’s Not Really Hidden

After years of hiking in the Baltimore/Washington area, I thought I knew about all the parks, even if I hadn’t tramped each and every trail in them. My friend Joe kept mentioning Cromwell Valley Park though, and every time he did I’d ask where exactly it was, making a mental note to try it out. …

Goblin & the Grocer: Gobblin’ with the Goblin

If you were going to borrow the tongue of a grocer’s wife, as the goblin does in Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of The Goblin and the Grocer, you should use it, not to allow a coffee mill to speak (“how it did chatter away”), but to eat at this establishment. I found Goblin & the …

Indiana Dunes State Park, Trail 10: I Hate Climbing Dunes

I have distant and unusual ties to the Indiana Dunes. One could argue that my very existence hinged on a missed travel connection in July of 1915, a connection to these same dunes on the Lake Michigan shore.  “On a warm July morning in 1915, a mother was planning to take her two children on …