An article on the GPT recently appeared in Sierra Magazine (Winter 2022) titled “Work in Progress.”
Here is the link. (Not sure. You may have to scroll through a list of articles from that issue to find it).
It was written by Jacqueline Kehoe and it paints a realistic picture of the GPT as it currently stands. I’m very excited and honored to be featured in a magazine like Sierra, and I have reason to believe that positive developments will emanate from this article.
Jacqueline and I met in Nebraska in May of 2021, and took a couple of short hikes on the White River Trail near Crawford and Ft. Robinson, and checked out the then brand new section of trail in Nebraska National Forest along the Pine Ridge escarpment. The White River Trail wasn’t going to be part of the trip, but as the article mentions in the very first sentence, the fog was unbelievably thick. I didn’t want to get lost on a new trail I didn’t know looking for the next post that we wouldn’t be able to see in a fog that had me driving 25 miles per hour. It turns out that starting on the White River Trail was a great way to see some nice scenery of the Ft. Robinson bluffs and get some good photographs. The fog lifted after a while and we did hike the new section of Pine Ridge Trail which was truly stunning. It crosses several very steep and deep ravines and climbs high above the valley and offers excellent views. Here are some shots from that day that show the scenery but did not make the magazine:
It was also stunning in one other aspect – after a night of rain, the ticks were out in numbers that were both impressive and disconcerting. We both spent a good bit of that short hike flicking them off our pants.
Pro Tip: Be sure to tuck your pants into your socks. Looks bad, but keeps the ticks where you can see them and get rid of them. More than worth the fashion faux pas.
The good news is, I went back to the same area just four months later in September after a dry summer, and dealt with exactly zero ticks on what was a full-day hike (this time with Luke “Strider” Jordan). Here are some photos from that hike as well:
