JULY/AUGUST 2019
10 BACKPACKER.COM
TRAILCHAT
Your opinions, photos, and featsPHOTOS BY (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) COURTESY (2); LOUISA LABANESE; DR. OLIVER ZAHN; ISTOCK.COM / SUNYYXPLORERHigh Regard
After we published Will Cockrell’s story about Sam Kim,
the hiker who set out to climb Southern California’s
Mt. Baldy 1,000 times (“A Man and His Mountain,” May/
June 2019), our Facebook followers chimed in with their
own memories of the local trail legend. “Sam was my
neighbor,” wrote Mark Galanty. “No one loved trails and
the thrill of bottom-to-top-back-to-the-bottom days as
much as Sam.” Tim Sandovalremembered Sam’s unique
trail habits. “He loved his pictures. And his hard-boiled
eggs and avocados,” he wrote. Sean Jagow recalled an
encounter on Baldy: “I met him on a rainy day while
descending from the summit. He was coming up the
mountain and had his big poncho on, and he stopped
to talk with us,” Jagow wrote. “He was a genuine man
and I was glad to have shared a moment with him on the
mountain he loved.”SAY “I DO” TO HIKING
When we featured Texas’s
Enchanted Rock as our Hike of
the Week, it stirred up memories of
a special day for Bryon Emelander. “I got
married there on May 1, 1975, before it was
a state park, right on top,” he wrote. “Had a
reception down at the campground. We had
a pig roast with all the sides, and the Pearl
beer was fl owing like a river.”Our next Hike of the Week could be your next
favorite memory. Get the latest by following
the hashtag #HikeOf TheWeek on Instagram,
Facebook, and Twitter.INSPIRATION ALERT
Need a role model? In her new
book Women W ho Hike ($25;
falcon.com), BACKPACKER
contributor Heather Balogh
Rochfort profi les 20 of the
outdoors’ most accomplished
female adventurers, athletes, and business
executives, while providing trail beta for their
favorite hikes.TAKE A ROOKIE
Our newest hero: Eva Luna Harper-Zahn, who summited Mt. Whitney
with her father and brother at just 6 years old. (Read her story at
backpacker.com/evaluna.) Unfortunately, not everyone gets a chance
to start tearing up the trails at such a young age. Backpacking shouldbe for everyone, and this month, we’re celebrating by sharing our love
of the trail with new hikers. Want to join in? Take a newbie with you and
post about it with the hashtag #TakeARookieHiking, and you could
appear in an upcoming issue of BACKPACKER.BYE BYE BABY?
In “Backpack With a Baby” (page 44, May/June 2019), Elisabeth Kwak-Heff eran
confessed her fear of her adventurous toddler escaping the tent at night. A few
parents wrote in with their own tried-and-true suggestions for keeping Baby in bed.
“I always used a quilting safety pin to keep the tent zips together,” wrote Cookie
Stevens. “Maybe our tent is taller, but when we zip it up, we make sure the zippers
are at the top—out of young children’s reach,” saidAdael Sumner. Jeff Latka, on the
other hand, thought the problem would solve itself: Just wait “until they get a blast of
that chilly mountain air,” he wrote. “They’ll turn right around.”Sam Kim
hikes with his
wife, Sunny.