Author: CW Spencer

by guest blogger Bonnie Spencer   Part 1, Part 2 April 25, 2017 CW and I are hiking the Burton section of the Buckeye Trail this week. It begins where we left off at Lake Erie our last trip up and runs south through Painesville, Chardon, and Burton. Since we’re back to hiking by ourselves, we’re also back to driving two cars. The forecast looks as though we’ll have two nice days followed by two days of rain and thunderstorms. Whatever the conditions, we need to knock out a lot of miles in four days …

by guest blogger Bonnie Spencer   Part 1, Part 3 April 11, 2017 This week the trail will take us northwest to Lake Erie as we hike the Bedford section. We have watched the weather forecast for several days. Though most days should be warm enough, basically we are seeing rain throughout the week, with possible snow on Friday. Not what we want to see. CW talked with Bob Morecki, the Bedford section supervisor. He told us there was a section that hikers call Muddy Lane. After our last week up, that should be a …

February 1, 2017 I still feel a little stupid for wandering off the trail on a hike I was on a couple weeks ago. Maybe it will help if I talk about it. I’ll tell you the sad details, make an excuse or two, and hope that by the time I’m done writing I’ll feel vindicated, or at least not quite as dumb. Here goes. I went hiking with my friend George, who is working on completion of a circuit hike of the Buckeye Trail. He had less than 300 miles to go and was …

December 18, 2016 For years I listened as my hiking buddies bragged about their smartphones. But I didn’t care. My antique flip phone did what I wanted it to at the time: call and text people. Besides, if I was careful it could hold a charge for a five-day backpacking trip while my friends scurried for ways to power up almost daily. They shelled out hundreds for their high-tech gadgets, plus more for high monthly service charges, while I spent only 19.99 for my phone and pay about 15 dollars monthly to TracFone. Pretty smart, …