trails + tents

Winter Camping; I Hate You.

I have been winter camping a handful of times and every. single. time. I hate it with every fiber of my body. People who love it will tell you it's awesome and "not that cold" and so much better than summer camping because you can eat all the foods...okay, maybe. But, what they don't tell you is that it's approximately 4x more work than summer camping and "not that cold" is a very subjective term [shivering is "not that cold" compared to toes so frozen they ache for hours]. That said, I'm a very ssslllooowww learner and I went winter camping again last weekend. I hated it. To the point of tears more than once. (more…)

By Heidi Kumm, ago
trails + tents

Exploring Geneva Basin

Like everyone else on the planet I tend to overuse the “life gets in the way” excuse. Why didn’t I change the oil in my Forester before it hit the 9K-since-last-change mark? Life got in the way. Why do I have way too many flagged emails that need my attention? Life got in the way. Why is there a 7 year gap in my dental history? Life got in the way. And I hate the dentist. Why is the teeny, tiny apartment we moved into over a month ago still not unpacked? Well, this time the mountains were calling, but you get my point. (more…)

By Heidi Kumm, ago
trails + tents

Learning the Cold Way {Winter Camping}

Remember that one time when we went winter camping with Sierra Trading Post? Turns out it was more than just a weekend in the wilderness. For us it doubled as a bit of a learning experience. Of course we expected a learning curve of some sort but we weren’t prepared for one quite as cold… As I mentioned earlier we were a little under prepared in the gear department. We knew that going in and we knew it wouldn’t be a perfectly comfortable night. Heck, Chris and I are yet to figure out how to have a “perfectly comfortable night” while camping. We tend to be rather minimalist in our packing and I think we pay for it while attempting to sleep. This time we packed everything we owned but when you don’t have quite the right gear it doesn’t matter. (more…)

By Heidi Kumm, ago
trails + tents

Camping. In the snow!

:: Fun Fact :: About 99.9% of the photos in this post are kidnapped from other people…because somehow I managed to factory reset my phone and lose every single photo because I’m too lazy to empty out my overflowing DropBox. Basically, I suck, so enjoy everyone else’s photography! A few months ago I jumped at the chance to go hiking off the Bierstadt Trailhead with Andy and Chris, two fairly cool dudes behind the social media platforms of Sierra Trading Post. An impromptu 9 mile hike up two mountains the day before my first 50K sounded like a fantastic idea…or not. But I still went, had a blast, rocked the 50K and look back saying it was all worth it! (more…)

By Heidi Kumm, ago