Modern Hiker Newsletter

4 weeks ago | modernhiker.substack.com | Casey Schreiner

Hey everybody. Sorry for the delay on this issue of the newsletter. Part of it was due to some work-related madness. Part of it was planning for a trip down to Los Angeles for a poetry conference this week (!), and honestly probably the biggest part of the delay was ::gestures broadly at the country::I probably don’t need to tell you that reading the news—even just news focused on the outdoors—has been a major bummer lately … but I’m going to do my best to find a silver lining here for you.

1 month ago | modernhiker.substack.com | Josh Jackson |Casey Schreiner

I first noticed Josh Jackson on his Instagram account, Forgotten Lands Project. Back when Instagram was focused on actual photography, Josh’s eye for the beauty of natural places was captivating—but so were his stories about all of these places. It helped, too, that he was focusing on Bureau of Land Management lands within the state of California—places that tend to fly under the radar of folks who tend to target national and state parks first.

2 months ago | modernhiker.substack.com | Casey Schreiner

A few weeks ago, I spent a few days up in beautiful British Columbia for some skiing at Whistler. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know this is a fairly big leap in my “Learning How to Ski as an Adult” journey, which really only began in earnest about five years ago. Skiing has become a new way for me to get outside (and get some sunshine) in the Northwest’s dark winter months.

2 months ago | modernhiker.substack.com | Casey Schreiner

As the dust settles, both figuratively and literally, people will be measuring the destruction and effects of the recent wildfires in Southern California for some time. With some recent light rain coming into the area, it seems like—at least for the moment—we will get a brief respite from burns. People in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and the City of Altadena were finally able to return home to start taking stock of the damages.

Jan 15, 2025 | modernhiker.substack.com | Casey Schreiner

Are private companies getting into the public land pass game these days? That’s what it seems like, according to a video from Cris Hazzard, a YouTube hiking and outdoor figure based in Southern California who’s been sharing trail news and gear reviews since 2014. My reader (and paid subscriber, thanks!) Sharon M. shared his most recent video with me in the comments of last week’s newsletter (another nice paid subscriber perk, just saying), and at first I wasn’t quite sure what the big deal was.