Tom Mangan, Dan Mitchell and others have motivated me to get off my butt and start writing about hiking.  I've been wanting to get a hiking blog started for quite some time but it didn't make sense for me to do it until I figured out how to tie my blog with my work on Hiking Ideas. I've got that now that we have blogging on the Hiking Ideas website.

I love backpacking and I live in Idaho which is the perfect combination.  We have almost unlimited hiking opportunities here. (this is where I plug Idaho)  Remember, Idaho is where Lewis and Clark almost died because of the ruggedness of the terrain.  Idaho has more wilderness than any other state in the lower 48 thanks to the Frank Church River of no Return Wilderness area.  The most well-known hiking area in Idaho is the Sawtooth Mountains. The Sawtooth Mountains are georgeous, full of beautiful lakes and very accessable. 

Now the bad news.  Hiking in the mountains of Idaho is a short season - that is if you are a 3-season hiker.  We pack our three-season hiking between (roughly) July 4th and the end of September.  There are a few exceptions but that's when most of the premier locations are easily accessable.

My plan for this blog is to write about some of the tools and techniques I've learned from backpacking and I also plan to write about some of the other hobbies I have tied in with hiking.  In particular, fly fishing and photography.  I'm an high-tech gear guy that tries to minimize the weight I carry but I'm in no way a minimalist.  Ryan Jordan would chuckle at the some of the items I carry.  A backpacking trip for me always includes a number of (lightweight) luxury items.