Backpacker January/February 2021

Psst. It’s not “that” year anymore. It’s this one. That fact alone feels pretty good. The annual reset of hope and positivity is especially strong with this year’s flip of the calendar. Air-fives, anyone? That said, while the passing of time can heal many wounds, we still have work to do: Staying safe and healthy as vaccines become more widespread; doing our individual parts to be more welcoming on the trail (p. 20); staying vigilant as wild spaces are exploited (see right). And, perhaps most importantly, taking as much time as we can to get outside. To sweat, to move, to smile when a dark-eyed junco lands nearby during your snack break (p. 31), to hear wind and cascades or just a refreshingly deep silence, to laugh with hiking pals,…

1 Synthetic fleece shedding microplastics in the wash (backpacker.com/cancelfleece) ♥“I’ve switched to wool. It’s better than it used to be and doesn’t shed microplastics.” –Miriam Stevens ♥“The basic message here is to take care of the environment, which as hikers I agree we need to do.” –Craig Sharp ✖ “Let’s just wear fig leaves. Oh wait! The environmental cost!” –Ken Milton ✖“No mention of cotton, which accounts for a substantial amount of pesticide use.” –Terri Radon “Wait, you guys wash your fleece?” –Randy Tayler 2 Rethinking how we manage hunting and conservation (backpacker.com/hunting) ♥“I agree with the premise (to alter how we manage some public lands from hunter-first to ecosystem-first), but hikers should be willing to pay an annual fee as hunters and fishers do to aid conservation efforts.” –Casey Dorsey ✖ “None of the proposed solutions have been tried…

The 19-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the northeast edge of Alaska has been a site of conflict for decades. Beneath the wilderness—home to caribou and polar bears, and essential hunting grounds to the Gwich’in and Iñupiat people—lies a fortune in oil and gas. In 2017, the fossil fuel industry successfully lobbied the Trump administration to add a provision to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that would open the refuge to drilling. Now, with that administration’s time running out, legislators and industry professionals are racing to get the contracts in before they can be blocked. On November 16, 2020, the Department of the Interior announced that it had finished the required reviews and were ready to move the oil and gas leases to auction (slated for January 6th…

I stop to take a breather at the transition point between two worlds. Above, I can see the barren volcanic landscape of Hawaii’s highlands, a far cry from the tropical forest of ohia trees where I stand now. Just a couple miles across the broad valley is the summit of Kīilauea, the world’s most active volcano, where new earth spills down the mountain every couple of years. Six years ago, I looked down upon Halema’uma’u, Kīilauea’s crater, on this same hike, from nearly this same spot. Smoke billowed out of it at the time, and a lake of lava bubbled at the bottom. At night, the glow lit up the forest all around. I hardly recognize it now. The crater, once only.6 mile in diameter, is now more than a mile wide.…

The icy crunch of my snowshoes ripples into the silence and then falls away. Another step, and my breath fogs before me in miniature echo of the gray clouds obscuring the valley below. Here on Artist Point, though, all is crystalline sunlight. Beyond the ridgeline, the hanging glaciers of Mt. Shuksan cling to ancient greenschist cliffs. Approaching a steep hillock, I flip up the heel risers of my snowshoes and dig in my poles, eager to see what view waits at the top. I’ve been climbing for a while, leaving the clouds behind as more and more peaks come into view on either side; now I’m at the crest at last. For the first time all morning I can see the looming, 10,781-foot dome of Mt. Baker, a wisp of…

There’s something special about lake hikes—a peacefulness that settles into every hiker who embarks on one. When you wander every inch of a shore it leaves you with a feeling of belonging, of knowing the whole of a place. There’s nothing quite like watching the shifting play of light across the water as the sun drifts from horizon to horizon. 1 Watson Lake Loop Watson Lake Park, AZ The wind-rounded orange pillars of Prescott’s Granite Dells frame this lake, shaping a veritable hiker’s playground for rock-hopping. A gentle waterfall partway through the 4.8-mile hike provides a reprieve from the dry desert air. Info bit.do/watsonlake Trailhead 34.5902, -112.4209 2 Shadow Lake-Sunrise Camp Loop Mt. Rainier National Park, WA Talus fields full of hidden pikas, a quick swoop around tiny Shadow Lake, and the distant icefields of Mt. Rainier await…