Reading contour lines at dusk
The trick to a topographic map in low light is to stop reading elevation and start reading water. Every valley is a story the rain already told.
A short defense of paper maps
A folded map never loses signal, never needs charging, and never asks you to accept an update halfway up a ridgeline. It just waits in your pocket.
Barometric pressure and bad decisions
Notes from a week of watching the needle fall and choosing, each time wrongly, to go anyway.