Author: mahill23

A bite of big apple

Until this weekend, I’d never been to New York City, but thanks to movies, television shows, books, and music, I could picture it: the endless stretch of gleaming skyscrapers, the throngs of people on the sidewalks, the streets clogged with honking taxis, the rush and rumble of subway trains. My imagination helped me get close to the real thing, but… Read more →

Hiking through a white-out on Mount Rainier

A good friend is leaving Seattle this week after a six-year run here. He’s finished his PhD and is moving to Virginia for a fancy post-doc gig. As a last hurrah, a few of us ventured up the Muir Snowfield, a permanent slash of snow running up a few thousand feet from Paradise to Camp Muir, halfway up Mount Rainier.… Read more →

The more epic, the better

When I’m perusing potential hikes, I try to find the grandest, most epic places possible. But I don’t want to have to work too hard to get there. That’s been my M.O. this year, post-Rainier summit climb. Last year, I sweated my butt off getting to the tops of every mountain in the vicinity while I trained. And now I’m… Read more →

Cider in the sun

Until very recently, I’ve always thought of cider as “chick beer” — overly sweet, and, quite frankly, a lame substitute for beer haters. My, how that opinion has changed in the last few months. I picked up on a new trend in Washington booze-making: the increasingly hot market for local craft cider, and with that, an astounding quality that I… Read more →