The Bigoted Making of the Outdoors Expert

[A view toward Monte Cristo, Columbia, and Kyes Peaks in Washington State. The backdrop is a blue sky and white yarrow wildflowers are blooming in the foreground.]

The past two years

Something strange started happening two years ago. I would be out hiking on a trail I’d never visited before and someone would stop me for advice. “How much longer to the top?” they’d ask, though I was still on my way up as well. Or, it might be a query from a stranger in the parking lot about which distant mountains were called by which names. Sometimes, it’s a…