Ryan and Debi

Category: hiking

  • Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 4 – Rainbow Falls

    Following the same pattern, we got up fairly early to do another hike – Rainbow Falls. This one was in the Jones Gap State Park, which does require a $6 parking fee per person (kids and seniors are less). The hike was to Rainbow Falls. Here’s the route: Per my watch, the route was 5.01…

  • Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 3 – Twin Falls Trail

    With our friends from North Carolina joining us, we headed out for our second hike – Twin Falls Trail on Reedy Cove Creek. This one was a little weird as it isn’t part of a state park, so the parking for the beginning of the trail was really just a pull out on the side…

  • Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 2 – Raven Rock Loop Trail

    The plan was to do a hike every morning while it was cooler, then head back to the cabin and relax, playing games, watching movies, cooking, and chatting. We also had some friends who live in North Carolina who were going to visit for a couple of days. Our first hike was the Raven Rock…

  • WY-Gannett Peak

    Summit Date August 3, 2019 Party Ryan Cragun and Tom Triplett (with logistical support from Mark Woolley, who almost made it) Trip Report Eighteen years after completing my first state highpoint (Utah’s King’s Peak), Wyoming is likely my last state highpoint – #49. While not the highest state highpoint, Wyoming is the longest hike as…

  • WA-Mt. Rainier

    Summit Date July 31st, around 6:30 am Party Ryan Cragun & Tom Triplett (plus our guides – Travis and Matt – and two other clients – Drew Herdener and Olivier Colle) Trip Report While I do a fair amount of hiking, mountains like Mt. Rainier are really at the upper end of the types of…

  • Salkantay Trek

    For my work, a colleague and I decided to propose a new travel study course that would involve a combination of our interests – sociology of sport (hiking, specifically) and exercise science. Our original course proposal wasn’t approved, but our International Programs Office agreed to fund us to scout out a trek in Peru to…

  • Greece – Mount Olympus

    Traveling all the way to Greece for a week-long colloquium for work without taking any time to do some touristy stuff seemed like a waste of a flight across the Atlantic to me. When I thought of what I’d like to do if I had a few extra days in Greece I, of course, thought about…

  • Greece Trip – Metochi

    Thanks to my work on nonreligion and atheism, I was invited to participate in a week-long colloquium (May 13th through May 20th) in Greece by LeRon Shults in which I would serve as a “subject matter expert” helping LeRon and his team develop computer models to better predict who joins atheist organizations. You can learn more…

  • NY-Mount Marcy

    Summit Date August 12, 2017 (around 11:00 am) Party Ryan Cragun, Mark Woolley, Tom Triplett Trip Report In my big swing across the US that allowed me to complete most of the highpoints in the Northeast in 2013, I didn’t manage to fit in Mount Marcy. It’s a solid day hike, and I just didn’t…

  • Triple Falls Trail – Dupont Forest, North Carolina

    I was attending a conference in Asheville, NC, and had half of a day free.  Rather than stay cooped up in my hotel, and knowing there were hills in the area, myself and my colleagues, took a trip out to Dupont Forest to hike Triple Falls. We didn’t have a lot of time – just…