Hiking Alone in the Weminuche Wilderness on the Continental Divide Trail 

There are a few shots I wish I had spent a little more time aligning with the horizon but hiking at elevation makes me lazy :P

Never heard of Farm to Summit but will definitely check them out, though my favorite backpacking meal of all time is the one featured in the video so it will have to be preeeeetty good to beat that :D

Great question! The past 6-7 years in Colorado and the western United States has seen a surge in a population of native mountain pine and spruce beetles that eat the tree from the inside out, suffocated and dehydrated by tiny beetles, the trees have been dead for years. In an area with fewer beetles and healthier trees, trees can actually push the beetles out with sap. But nature is out of sync right now and the current beetle infestations in the western US are made worse by drought and warmer temperatures. Longer summers allow local beetles to complete two reproductive cycles each year instead of just one and winter temperatures haven’t been cold enough to kill the beetles when the burrow into the trees' bark. On top of that, drought provides less water to the trees so they can’t pitch out the beetles. Here is a link if you would like to read more about this! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle_kill_in_Colorado