At 1:30pm on November 15th, 2017, I’m giving a lecture/slideshow called “Machu Picchu: Exploring the Salkantay Trail.” We’ll talk about mountains, llamas, and pisco sours.

In honor of Thanksgiving — and all of my adventurous friends who are celebrating the holiday abroad, under the stars in a campground, or at the crag — I wrote a post for Verticulture (the Outdoor Research blog) about how to bake in cast iron.

My friend Julie and I went climbing in the North Cascades, then wrote about it for the MSR blog.

In August 2016, I was invited to be part of the Stay Wild EXPO at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon. They called the event “the world’s first adventure festival,” and I gave a backcountry cooking demonstration with Snow Peak. We made cobbler. And mimosas.

Last weekend the Washington State Poet Laureate and I hosted a literary reading. It was well-attended, and my favorite guests were wearing orange.

Rashaun is one of my best girlfriends: we’ve known each other since we battled our way through a biology class together in college. I’ve known Dampier since he met Rashaun at Dick’s Drive-In while Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were filming the White Walls music video. They’re both genuine, creative, loyal friends, so I couldn’t have been happier when Dampier told me he was going to propose to Rashaun.

My dear friend Alexander, artist and adventurer, responded to my essay with a beautiful piece of art.

It’s my dog’s third birthday! I’ve recently been getting questions about him, so I’m using this as an excuse to tell his story.

Huckleberry was given a gorgeous new coat, which was handmade by Janet. She designed it, sized it perfectly, and even hand-waxed the canvas. Obviously it needed to be taken for a romp in the snow.

My papa’s pants were featured on the Patagonia blog.

I love this time of year: after a wonderful and crazy year of being on the road, I’ve finally managed to carve out some time at home. I’m spending my days writing, catching up with my family, playing in the mountains, and reading—a lot.

When we got back from paddling the Columbia River, we had tons of gorgeous photos—and we wanted to share them! So we made these pretty little notecards, each with a photo from the river and a fun quote.

I travel a lot, so I’m always begging friends and family to watch Huckleberry, my two-year-old Lab/Great Dane mix. A couple of weeks ago, he was staying with a photographer who shoots weddings and engagement photos—and this happened.