The Long Trail spans from the Massachusetts/Vermont border 273 miles north to the Canadian border along the Green Mountains.

Having backpacked only once before moving to Vermont and subsequently falling in love with the sport/lifestyle within my first week of living here, it was only right to cap off my college career with a thru-hike of Vermont’s Long Trail (LT).

People often ask me how I ended up here in Vermont, having grown up outside of Chicago. When the college search began, my mom asked me what I wanted my chosen home to look and feel like. I loved this question and knew that what I wanted most was to be surrounded by mountains. I wanted to be in a landscape that inspired me. When choosing between going east or west, my sister being in Boston drew me to the Green Mountains.

This April, Patagonia was excited to once again award the Intervale Center with another $20,000 grant for their Riparian Restoration & Land Stewardship Project to continue their work in raising awareness within our community about the importance of riparian buffers for the health of our waterways and to continue to grow the conservation nursery itself.

When I first arrived in Burlington four years ago, the Intervale was something that I couldn’t fully wrap my brain around. The concept that there could be a large piece of land in the middle of a city that provides local food to its residents, while also caring for the land, hosting community events, and providing a shared space for small farms to seemed completely foreign to me. Over my years here, I have seen evidence of the Intervale everywhere.

A couple years ago, my roommate andRead More

I’d like to start by saying I hate running. I’ve never been particularly good at it, my asthmatic lungs and I are a prime example of Darwinism, had modern technology medicine not been created. I do, however, love the Vermont City Marathon and the Patagonia Burlington 5 person relay team I’ve gotten to be a part of for the past three years.

In 2017, the first year I was asked to be on the relay team I said yes and instantly regretted it. I was hopelessly under prepared to run the whopping 3.4 miles of the first leg. I had about a month or so to train, and race day came and I would have said I was in no way ready to go. I ran my leg at a nice little pace averaging 10 minute miles, something that is unimpressive to some but the fact that I kept running for the entirety of the leg was good enough for me.

In 1991, Patagonia famously conducted an audit of all of the materials in their product line, finding cotton to their surprise to be the most environmentally impactful. This discovery spurred a revolution; no industry existed at the time for organic cotton, but Patagonia was determined to eradicate harmful pesticides from its cotton production process.

With the cooperation of a big box store -- who, after some coercion, agreed to invest in making 1% of their styles with organic cotton -- Patagonia was able to grow organic cotton production enough to erase all non-organic new cotton material from its products.

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, the majority of my outdoor time was spent at the lakefront or in the forest preserve near my grandparent’s house. During the summer, we spent weekends camping in Wisconsin and Michigan or road tripping out west. By the time I was deciding where to head for college, I had a thirst to explore more mountainous terrain.

When I committed to the University of Vermont, I was ecstatic to take part in a Wilderness Trek trip. This program, sponsored by the University, offers incoming students a chance to spend six days in the backcountry with future classmates and two upper class leaders. Although I had only backpacked once before, I was excited to explore the Green Mountains right off the bat.

The sun’s beaming, the snow’s melting, and it's finally time to shed those layers! I love the winter, but this time of year is so special. Everyone is ridiculously happy and we get to see blue sky’s multiple days in a row. It almost makes you want to scream, “We made it!”

With the change of seasons comes a change in how we dress; especially while training in April for the Vermont City Marathon, where we get tastes of spring and flashbacks to winter. A great pro-tip would be to make sure that you keep a synthetic layer or wool and synthetic blend as your next-to-skin layer. This will help to wick moisture from your body, keep you dry, cool, happy, and out there for longer.

That being said, here are some of my new favorite pieces broken down by different scenarios.

Some things never change... this year is the 20th anniversary of the R1.

We’re celebrating two decades of wild adventures, first ascents, and classic moments with Patagonia Burlington staff stories, all done in an R1. #DoneInAnR1

As a locally owned and operated store, Patagonia Burlington is fortunate enough to collaborate with local action-oriented organizations. Through Patagonia’s environmental grant program, we partnered with Burlington’s Intervale Center and the Intervale Conservation Nursery to create a grant proposal. Over the last 2 years, the Intervale Conservation Nursery has been awarded $25,000 to raise awareness within our community about the importance of riparian buffers for the health of our waterways and to continue to grow the conservation nursery itself.

Last April, my family and I decided to embark on our dream adventure vacation to Japan. The traditional tour of Japan, in many readers minds’, may include visiting the numerous temples with extraordinary architecture, savoring the view from the top of the Tokyo tower, and admiring the beauty of Mount Fuji.

While we certainly did enjoy the unique beauty of Japan and even some “tourist traps,” the main purpose of our trip was to experience, first hand, the highly acclaimed JaPOW. Our dear friends of Arctic Heli Skiing, a ski touring and heli skiing company based out of Iceland, have worked with a local guiding company, Alpine Guide GAO, in Japan for several years. During this trip, we too would be able to connect with with local guide for a small and intimate tour of family, as well as old friends and new friends.

Join us for Treeline, a film celebrating the forests on which our species has always depended, and around which some skiers and snowboarders have based their entire lives.

Follow a group of snow-seekers, scientists and healers as they explore the birch forests of Japan, the red cedars of British Columbia and the bristlecone pines of Nevada, delving deeper into the rich environments they call home.