I’m Tam and I love outdoor adventure. I set up this blog when I decided to thru-hike the 272 mile long “Long Trail” of Vermont so that I could update my friends and family with pictures and stories along the way. I hiked Southbound from the Vermont/Canadian border into Massachusetts in August of 2016. It took me 26 days including 2 days off (“zeros” in trail lingo). It was my first and only “thru-hike” (meaning hiking an entire trail all at once). You can read the whole story here. My longest backpacking trip before the Long Trail was a 5 night section of the Appalachian Trail in Maine. Other then that I’ve done a handful of 2 and 3-day backpacking trips and lots of big day hikes.
In 2018 I completed the NH48 (This refers to the Forty-Eight recognized Four Thousand Footers of New Hampshire). I am now loosely working on the NE67 (New England 4,000 footers that include Vermont and Maine)
I started hiking in my early 30’s. Before I got into hiking, my skateboard was my main vehicle of adventure and I’ve been back and forth across the country and up and down both coasts seeking the empty swimming pools of southern California, the dry drainage ditches of the Southwest and concrete skateparks with bowls designed to replicate the empty swimming pools that inspired them. I would read about the newest biggest skateparks in the magazines and then plan a trip to go skate them. On these road trips I would often detour into National Parks and take short hikes across landscapes that blew my mind that I had no prior knowledge of. I first saw PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) Hikers with huge packs in the late 90’s while driving thru the Mohave Desert. I had no idea what the PCT was at the time but I had great curiosity about these backpackers staggering out of the 120º desert and wondered what the heck they were doing out there and how they even got there.
“Cariboose” was my first trail name and I used it on the Long Trail. A trail name is like a nickname or pseudonym or alias that hikers sometimes use on long distance hiking trails when writing in trail logs which are notebooks often located at shelters along the trail. In these logs, hikers can write about their day, leave notes for each other, communicate about lost and found items and share bits of trail news like bear activity, water info and trail detours. I make up new trail names every time I go hiking, inspired by whatever arises with my hiking companion, and its one of many amusing ways I like to entertain myself on a long hike, its also one of the many ways I weave together these adventure stories.
Thanks for visiting! 
Cariboose's Blog 