For the "unofficial start to summer", 8 men who love the mountains spent a good part of their Memorial Day weekend giving back to the mountains which have given them so much, by working on the Smarts Brook Trail in Waterville Valley, NH. This trail, adopted by Gay Outdoors President Mike Boisvert and his partner Jon Normand, is a lesser-known way of ascending to the ridge between Sandwich Mountain and its little brother, Jennings Peak.

Mt. Potash fit our requirements perfectly on May 17, off the Kancamagus Highway, near Lincoln NH. It offers a great intro hike without any significant snow. The principal difficulty, if there was one, would come right in the beginning with the crossing of Downes Brook.

It was a perfect day for a low elevation hike to a backcountry pond, Lonesome Lake, that start’s from New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch on May 10. It’s a great location to snap photos of the Franconia Ridge and to introduce new guys to the wonders of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Just over fifteen years ago a small group of guys gathered to discuss organizing a group of gay men in Atlanta who shared the common love of outdoor activities.

I am sitting in today for Lineatus, who is out banding raptors.  Lineatus asked me to write a diary about our Bird Explorers Project. This is a conservation and environmental education project created by my partner, Polish Chef, and I to promote birds and wildlife generally through digital photography with a particular focus on endangered species and species in very remote areas.

In late March, 24 souls looking to enjoy early spring, gathered for a hike at the Buck Hill Wildlife Management Area in Burrillville, RI.  The group consisted of members from GO, Chiltern, and PRIOG (Providence Rhode Island Outdoors Group).

So where do you go when *every* national and state park in SoCal, except one, is closed due to wildfires and/or extreme fire damage? Obviously you go to the one that's not closed. I thought that this was going to be a "closing time" hike-i.e., you've got no other options, so might as well settle. But this was actually pretty darn cool (Score! Good job Mike)

Wind chills were now below zero so we put on our goggles. Any exposed flesh would put us in danger of frostbite. Visibility dropped to about 50 feet between the snow falling, blowing snow and the clouds/fog. We thought about turning around because we could no longer find the trail but saw some large rocks ahead where the hut is usually situated.

Beautiful day to be out in New Hampshire's White Mountains to hike up one the best hikes in the East over the Franconia Ridge that includes Mt. Lafayette (5260') and Mt. Lincoln (5089')! Alex, Jim, Steve, John, Bob, Markus, Jon, and myself met at the Old Bridle Path trailhead around 8:00 am.

Beautiful day to be out in New Hampshire's White Mountains with 12 GO members!

On January 12, twelve GO members took advantage of the great weather and headed up to Waterville Valley, NH to hike up Mt. Tecumseh (4003').

Saturday morning it was about 2F degrees with windchill when Jon and I started up the Welch/Dickey trail at 11:30.

Woody, Tom and I hiked up Monadnock the Saturday night after Thanksgiving.

Saturday's hike to the summit of Iron Mountain was my first with Perfect Pace, and it was a memorable experience.

The hike was held on Saturday, September 29, 2007 and we had a total of six individuals who joined us...three Steve's, two Mike's and a Marcus. It was a beautiful fall day in the lower 60's. It started out a little on the cloudy side, but cleared up as the day went on. Originally this hike was posted as an up and back to the two 4000' peaks, but was modified into a loop hike based on a suggestion from Mike B.