I am a historian, a podcaster, a hiker and backpacker, a photographer, an author, and an award-winning educator at George Mason University. I maintain one of the most historic shelters on the Appalachian Trail and am the archivist of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC). I’ve been hiking on the Appalachian Trail since 1971, which seems like a very long time these days. During those years I’ve logged more than 600 miles of the trail in 10 of the 14 states the trail traverses. Many sections I’ve hiked several times just because I like them.
I live half time in Manassas, Virginia and half time in Linden, Virginia. I’ve been a volunteer with the PATC for more than a dozen years, taking care of the trail, working as a co-maintainer of a historic cabin in Shenandoah National Park, and since 2018 I’ve been the maintainer of the Manassas Gap Shelter, one of the original shelters built along the trail in the 1930s.
As an educator I’ve always pushed against the conventional wisdom on how we ought to teach history. I was one of the first historians to teach his students how to create websites to present their research. And sometimes my teaching methods ended up being a little controversial. I’m okay with controversy if it means my students learn better than they would have otherwise.
