Hiking Trails, Hiking Tips, Hiking Trips

The picture to the left is me, the hiker known as Ramkitten (on a really cold April morning in the Georgia mountains), here to share the wisdom gained from six...

On a recent snowed-in lazy day, I sat on the floor in front of my shelf full of scrapbooks and started flipping through some memories. Three of the scrapbooks...

When I finally made the decision that it was my year to go for it -- to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, from the beginning of April to sometime...

I attended my first Trail Days Festival in 1999 as a wanna-be Appalachian Trail thru-hiker. The following year, I hiked into Damascus, Virginia -- considered...

Choosing the day to begin a thru-hike of more than 2,100 miles over an average of six months' time is a big decision for many who set out with that goal....

It just gets under your skin. The fresh air. The sheer physical exertion. The camaraderie with others who walk with packs on their backs. Okay, and the rain...

April 1st, 2010, marked the ten-year anniversary of the day I began my Appalachian Trail adventure -- a 2,169-mile thru-hike from Springer Mountain in Georgia...

Are you interested in the Appalachian Trail? Have you hiked all or some of that famous long-distance footpath?
If you're looking for an Appalachian Trail guidebook,...

To read my trail journals from the Appalachian Trail, Pennsylvania's Laural Highlands Trail, the Kekekabic Trail in Minnesota, and more, visit my website:

Deb "Ramkitten" Lauman
a hiking writer

What got me using the internet in the first place (and I was reluctant back then, in 1998) was a search for information about the Appalachian Trail....

There is SO much one could write about hiking in the Grand Canyon, but I want to focus on hiking rim to rim using the popular "corridor" trails....

It was August 24th. I had things on my to-do list for the next several days, but I couldn't pass up the invitation from a friend to hike Grand Canyon's South...

I just did this 13-mile hike for the fourth time, and each time has been different. The same trails change with the season, the weather, the company (or lack...

My friend, Karrin, invited me and Steve to join her and a few others for the five-mile hike -- and wade and swim -- to, through and back from Salome Jug....

Located in the Coconino National Forest, twenty-five miles northwest of Flagstaff, you'll find a volcanic cinder cone called Red Mountain. Red Mountain is unusual...

Until a friend invited me on a hiking trip in northern Arizona and southern Utah, I'd not heard of The Wave. But I realized when we arrived that I'd seen...

Located 20 miles north of Flagstaff is an old volcano known as O'Leary Peak. On top of O'Leary, on it's 8,916-foot east summit (there are two), is a fire lookout,...

Spending our vacations with packs on our backs is not unusual for Steve and me. In fact, that's how we spent our honeymoon, when we went for a five-day....

It had been too long since my husband and I had done a multi-day backpacking trip together, and we were really looking forward to our first section-hike on the...

As a long-distance backpacker with an Appalachian Trail thru-hike under my feet and many other treks on my ever-growing bucket list, I love reading about the...

As a Search and Rescue volunteer, I've participated in many missions that wouldn't have happened in the first place had those we went looking for carried just...

In Search and Rescue, while each mission is unique, my teammates and I see a number of common errors, oversights, and decisions made by hikers that ultimately...

Because it's a good idea to have what you need in case the unexpected happens. Actually, I hope this pack I've put together with the recreational day-hiker...

If you've read other articles of mine, you may be rolling your eyes right now, thinking, ugh, is she harping on this stuff again? Well ... yeah. I can't help...

Often when I read news stories about solo hikers who've gotten lost or gone missing, I see many reader comments strongly criticizing the hikers for going alone....

So, how do I know this backpacking gear is so great if I haven't used it yet? Well, because I've watched lots of other people use this equipment and...

Before backpacking the Appalachian Trail, I'd done a lot of hiking, but the majority of those trips had lasted a day or two at most. So I'd been able to carry...

The trekking poles pictured here have at least 4,000 miles on them, including an Appalachian Trail thru-hike, a couple hundred miles on overgrown Minnesota trails....

I snowshoe a lot. Not only do I love getting out on fresh snow in the pine forest and on the meadows here in northern Arizona, but I also use my snowshoes on...

Catch features. Attack points. Handrails. Aiming off. Those are just some of the terms and techniques used when practicing alternative navigation. When I say...

I can't say there's just one thing you should never go without when heading into the backcountry -- in fact, I have a whole list of what I consider....

So, you've decided to purchase a GPS for some reason. You're a backcountry traveler perhaps, who wants another form of navigation. Or maybe you're...

When you use a GPS, it's important to not only have an understanding of how the unit works and receives the information it provides but also the languages...

At this point, you know how a GPS works and how to obtain a good signal and the most accurate position information. You also have an understanding of coordinate...

This is the fourth article in my "How To Use A GPS" series. Here, I'll briefly cover GPS routes and tracks -- what they are, how they're different....