Backpacking Routes Founders
Jeff Garmire
Jeff grew up backpacking with his family in the Pacific Northwest. It was far from ultralight backpacking, but loading up 50 pounds each and hiking 3 miles to a lake to fish and camp for the weekend. At 2 years old Jeff got giardia on one of these trips and on another he had so many mosquito bites the daycare thought he had chickenpox. Backpacking went right along with fishing, building log rafts, and catching crawdads. Jeff didn’t know about thru-hiking, fastpacking, or long-distance trails.
In the middle of college, Jeff decided to take a term off and hike the Pacific Crest Trail. The idea was born out of one of the ultra-heavy backpacking trips where his family met Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers, and the idea never left his mind. In 2011 a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike became a reality. After the first thru-hike the obsession grew, now totaling over 30,000 miles of long-distance hiking, 18 trail records, and a love of building routes. Beyond the backpack, Jeff is an outdoor industry writer, skier, runner, author, and satirical videographer. With essays in Huffington Post, Outside, Digital Trends, and Gear Junkie, Jeff balances adventures with imparting stories and lessons learned from them. His favorite adventures have been the Calendar Year Triple Crown (8,000 miles) and the Great Western Loop (7,000 miles). Jeff’s top BPR post is his Top 2020 Gear.
Maggie Slepian
Maggie started hiking and backpacking in the White Mountains in high school, continuing to tick off the 48 4,000-footers throughout college. She I moved out west after graduating, and got into backpacking in earnest. She thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2015, and since then spends as much time outdoors as possible, including mountain biking, kayaking, climbing, bikepacking, skiing, and backpacking.
Maggie is a full-time freelance writer, with articles in Backpacker and Huffington Post, plus forthcoming work in Outside. She is a columnist with Backpacking Light and a contributor to REI Co-op Journal, and has more than a dozen clients in the outdoor industry. Writing clips and contact info can be found here. Maggie’s top post for Backpacking Routes is her trail profile on the Ouachita Trail.
Andrew Marshall
Andrew grew up near the AT’s southern terminus, and after losing his job in 2012, he set out on a SOBO thru-hike. He has walked across Scotland with his wife, contracted giardia on the Colorado Trail, and completed technical off-trail routes in Wyoming and Montana.
He is an ultrarunner, mountain biker, and downhill skier, and enjoys paddlesports in the summer near his home in Tahoe. When Andrew isn’t working on Backpacking Routes, he is the managing editor and podcast producer of Backpacking Light. His essays, photographs, illustrations, and paintings have appeared everywhere from niche internet publications to prestigious literary journals.
Backpacking Routes Contributors
Hugh Owen
After more than 40 years in the bowels of newspaper newsrooms, Hugh is combining his two passions- writing and backpacking.
Rebecca Sperry
Rebecca is an avid New Hampshire hiker, has a mildly unhealthy obsession with seeing every trail in The White Mountains, and is a connoisseur of cat memes.
Find out more details on the team and the idea behind BPR here
