planner girl / trail chaser / bird watcher
I actually tried to do this hike a few Sundays earlier, but the trailhead parking lot was full. Rather than wait around hoping for a spot to open up, I decided to come back another day. I figured a Tuesday evening would be much quieter, and since Josh was working…
Hudson and I headed out to explore the Francis J. Dean Farm Heritage Trails today, and I have to admit that I vastly underestimated this trail system. Since it’s a historical and nature preserve area, I assumed the trails would be mostly flat and easy. While there certainly were some…
I had the day off from work today, and I’ve been trying to make a point of hiking with Hudson whenever my days off don’t line up with Josh’s. My original plan was to hike O.K. Slip Falls, but while catching up on old blog posts and hiking journals the…
Today, Hudson and I checked off hike number four of eight for the Adirondack Gateway Challenge: Hadley Mountain. I’ll admit, I almost turned around a few times on the drive there. Dark, rain-filled clouds seemed to be following us the entire way, growing larger and more threatening with every mile.…
Hudson and I are on a roll with these Adirondack Gateway Challenge hikes. One of the things I enjoy most about this challenge is that many of the hikes are only about an hour—or less—from home, making them perfect for a day trip. Today, we decided to check out Potash…
Sometimes the hikes you have the lowest expectations for end up being the ones that completely surprise you. That was definitely the case with Bear Slides. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much from this hike. The mileage was short, it wasn’t too far from home, and it seemed like the…
This was not the original plan for the day. My first choice had been Stonewall, another hike on the Adirondack Gateway Challenge. But when I arrived where the trailhead was supposed to be, I found myself at the end of a residential road. There were houses surrounding the area, people…
Technically, I started this challenge when Darby and I hiked Lake Bonita and Lake Ann last July. But after saying goodbye to Darby in October 2025 and welcoming Hudson into our lives in December, I decided to start over so that Hudson and I could both be official finishers. My…
Darby is now an almost 6 year old chocolate lab. She has been our wild mountain biking dog since 4 months old… sadly she’s got some arthritis issues that we’ve been working through – so biking is on the back burner (for now)…. Enter her HIKING era… This is our…
This post was updated on 6/19/2026. I first came across the 4-3-2-1 Way Hiking Challenge back in 2017 and figured it would be a breeze to complete. After all, it only requires ten hikes total. Then life happened. Eight years later, I’m close—but still not quite finished. The challenge requires…