sweetwilder

SweetWilder went quiet for a while.

Not because the wild went away, but because life asked for a different kind of attention. Less summit chasing, more staying put. Less counting miles, more counting moments. The last couple of years were not barren. They were busy in a deeper register. I became a full participant in my own life again.

The Year of Jonathan

This past year was, intentionally, the Year of Jonathan, but it was guided by my daughter. After my divorce, I didn’t rush to rebuild the old version of myself. I stayed single. I let things remain dismantled long enough to be present in the ways she needed most. I spent more time at home, more time paying attention. I dated again, carefully, as a different man. I love hiking, but it doesn’t begin to compare to the love I have for my daughter. She set the pace this year, and I followed. I said yes to the things that brought me closer to who I want to be for her, and let the rest fall away.

I learned to dance. Not metaphorically. Literally. Contra dancing, turning in circles with strangers, learning that movement doesn’t have to be solitary to be meaningful.

I flew. I had been afraid of flying for years, and then one day I wasn’t. New York happened. So did tattoos. Arms, legs. Permanent marks of a year that asked me to inhabit my body again instead of treating it like a vehicle to the next trailhead.

I didn’t hike much. And that was okay.

The Work That Anchors You

Running underneath, all of this was work that mattered in a way that doesn’t photograph well.

Hurricane Helene changed the cadence of my year. As a pro bono attorney, I spent long days in the field helping people who had lost homes, paperwork, footing. It wasn’t glamorous. It was necessary. It pulled me away from ridgelines and into parking lots, FEMA stations, borrowed folding tables.

That work reminded me why I care about place in the first place. Land isn’t abstract. It’s where people live their lives.

SweetWilder has always been about wilderness, yes, but also about paying attention. This year sharpened that.

Why I’m Writing Again

I’m rekindling this blog not to perform adventure, but to document a life that keeps widening.

In 2026, the trail miles return.

I have 35 miles left to complete the Smoky 900. Every trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I’ll finish that chapter.

I plan to thru-hike the Bartram Trail. Hopefully the Foothills Trail too. I want to visit every North Carolina state park, not as a checklist, but as a slow acquaintance. I want to spend more nights under unfamiliar skies. I want to visit national parks with a steadier gaze and less urgency.

This will be a year of travel, yes. But also, a year of noticing. Of walking and then sitting still long enough for the place to speak back.

What SweetWilder Is Becoming

This space won’t just be trip reports and gear lists, though there will be trails, maps, and practical notes. It will also hold reflections on work, fatherhood, healing, and the quiet recalibration that happens when you stop running from your own life.

Less conquest. More conversation.

If you’ve been here before, welcome back. If you’re new, pull up a log.

The trail is open again.