Wow I love Ohiopyle! If only my phone hadn’t died on me I could have taken some photos of this amazing tiny town. It’s got so many activities for the outdoors. We crossed a pretty high bridge over the beautiful, fat river which was hilariously signposted something along the lines of, “No jumping, fishing or

Backpack blogging: There have been amazing views, interesting people along the way, greenery, cute animals and long luscious nights of dead tired sleep. Its raining and freezing cold tonight though – a fire would have been amazing if we had some dry wood… I cant stop thinking about home comforts… snuggling my boys, enjoying a

Backpack blogging: On day two we figured out Anna’s shoes were a half size too small too late – she’d already lost most of the skin on both her heels. So for the rest of this trip Anna’s been hiking in her flip-flops! In the rain, through mud and sludgy steep downhills, no arch support

Backpack blogging: Filtering water at our lunch break spot as the water will be contaminated at our shelter area. It’s been fun hiking with Anna for a lot of reasons. She packs awesomely delicious food and snacks which have been life savers on cold rainy days. Anna’s also a great spotter of cute snails, amazing

Backpack blogging: On our maps it says 10, but its a mile each way to walk down to the shelter areas. Its adding more miles than we anticipated. The shelters are so cute and are a huge relief on rainy days but they don’t have bunks in them like I anticipated from other hiking trips.

Backpack blogging: Finally a site with pumpable water! It was a treat to not have to filter water from a river this morning. Its such a gorgeous old relic and works fast! I have all new clean clothes after hanging them off to dry on the backpack today. —–

Backpack blogging: … and continued for the whole 10 miles. Clothes soaked, boots and socks soaked, change of clothes also soaked, we arrive at the cabin to find the firewood soaked… Its still pouring outside and getting dark. It will rain all night. We need to find a water source too. An hour later its

Backpack blogging: Today’s forecast – sunny, tomorrow sunny, the rest of the week… thunderstorms. —–

Today I’ve been scrambling around town looking for the only Solio in Pittsburgh to keep my phone charged. As it turns out Nathan’s cute little Hymini doesn’t power iPhones and for a few hours today I was panicking that I’d not even have emergency phone contact after a few days. The crisis is over –

That being the rugged 70-mile Laurel Highlands Backpacking Adventure! I’ve been looking forward to it for months. Anna and I are taking up the challenge to complete Pennsylvania’s famously gorgeous, scenic trail over 7 days. It starts in Ohiopyle, PA and ends near Johnstown, PA, though we will be doing it backwards. Check out the