About the Author

Hi! My name is Sarahmarie (trail name: Passport). I am a hiker, a teacher, a runner, an aspiring writer, and a crafty person, among other things. This website is dedicated to my adventures. Primarily I write about long-distance hiking and travel.

I grew up in Northern Kentucky, right across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia for college, and then Flagstaff, Arizona for graduate school. In 2019 I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, and in in 2022 I thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.

In off-trail and non-traveling life, I’m an English teacher. After my AT thru-hike, I taught middle school writing and then college composition in Columbus, Ohio. I currently live in the Cincinnati area and teach AP English at a local high school as well as online grammar enrichment classes. I love teaching and I can’t imagine doing anything else for a career, but I miss the trail constantly when I’m not hiking.

About This Blog

This website is the home for my writing about long-distance hiking and travel. I originally started this blog as I was preparing to hike the 211-mile Nüümü Poyo (John Muir Trail) in California, which I completed in August 2017. It was my first major wilderness backpacking trip, and my gear, mindset, and abilities have changed a lot since then.

My Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2019 renewed my inspiration for writing, but it was the PCT in 2022 that really boosted my motivation to use this blog. I decided before that hike that I wanted to write a blog post every single day on the trail, and somehow, I did. You can find those posts, both from 2022 and my trip to the northern terminus in 2025, here.

Since the PCT I’ve been hooked on blogging daily during my hikes and sometimes on my travels. Check out my pages with linked posts covering the West Highland Way in 2023 and my monthlong trip to Ireland and the UK with my mom that same year, my cross-country route in the Brooks Range with Carrot Quinn in 2023, and the Superior Hiking Trail and the Tour du Mont Blanc in 2024.

Support My Writing

After the AT I wrote a zine called Blaze: A Zine About Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail. You can read about the zine and purchase a copy here. US orders only, please. For international, please contact me directly.

If you like what you read of my PCT posts, you may also want to order a copy of my zine called Absolute Creatures. You can do that here.

Both my AT and PCT zines feature gorgeous art by Amelia “Patches!” Cleveland. Absolute Creatures also includes several pages of full-color photos from the PCT.

If you enjoy my writing and would like to subscribe to my monthly Substack of random silliness, Somewhere Good, you can do that here.

If you like my writing and are interested in supporting my work in other ways, please visit the Support My Writing page to find out how.

Look for my my upcoming essay, “Love and Other Birds,” in the Fall 2025 issue of Catamaran Literary Reader!