We’re socked in, stuck in a cloud, with visibility only a few feet at best. It’s snowing, and we’re lined up for a long tour. Rocks give us a slight sense of depth, but it’s too hard to see cracks and subtle undulations in the...
The “Welcome to Michigan” sign feels like a release. After an hour or two of driving east from Chicago, past the smokestacks and train tracks, the jammed freeways of Illinois and Indiana, you loosen your grip on the steering wheel. You turn up the radio and...
There’s a rich, hilarious vein of #HikeTok TikTok videos skewering Western hikers on their first visit to the Adirondack Mountains in eastern Upstate New York. The bit goes something like this: A Westerner poo-poos the “little” Adirondacks, which top out just over 5,300 feet. We scale...
Looking up at what we just experienced, my eyes glossed over. It was an emotional moment. The climbing, the skiing, the people—it all seemed to coalesce in this one moment....
There we were, jet-lagged, overdressed in rhinestone-studded velour Sweatsedos and out of sorts in an unattractive industrial area of Dubai. Our Tahoe band was nowhere near the 2,700-foot Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and we were not about to board some sheik’s mega yacht...
Summer skiing has never been high on my priority list. Unlike some of my Tahoe friends—like TQ contributor Brennan Lagasse, who has skied 226 consecutive months—my winter-centric brain cells are usually laid to rest by May, pushed aside by ambitions of hiking, biking and jumping...
In the spring of 2017, I salvaged an old Chevy Astro from my home near Lake Tahoe, built a bed frame in the back, and traveled around the western half of America and mainland Mexico. In the spring of 2020, I bought a colonial house...
Fear of missing out is real for many Napa Valley visitors. Both first-timers and veterans often arrive at the epicurean playground brandishing a packed agenda that leaves no tasting room or table unturned. Guilty....
We took our final trip together in the fall of 2018. I was 28 with no job and no money. She was 14 with no suspension and no reliable air conditioning. As an undisciplined freelance writer earning tens of dollars a month, I could no longer...
Sitting in the shade of a makeshift awning made out of an old vinyl billboard, we’re poured into our camp chairs like melted cheddar. The visceral desert heat wilts any ambition to move from our slumped positions. Icy drinks and breezy conversations are about all...