A very warm welcome to Marking The Miles! My name is Leah LaRocco. I’m originally from the North Fork of Long Island and now live in Townsend, TN at the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

     As a writer, I’ve had pieces published in Huffington Post, former editorial site Women You Should Know, All Women All Trails, The Suffolk Times, Backpacker magazine, and Smokies LIVE blog. My personal ability to craft the stories found here stems from a lifelong passion for conservation and recreation in the outdoors. I currently serve on the board of directors for Smokies Life, a cooperating nonprofit partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and am also a national park volunteer.

     Before moving to the Smokies, I lived in Franklin, TN and volunteered for several years with Warner Parks in Nashville as part of the BIRD Research team. The dedicated researchers there trained me to become a USGS licensed hummingbird bander and I am currently studying the movements of these birds in and around the Great Smoky Mountains. On visits to the Smokies during this season of life, I also obtained a Southern Appalachian Naturalist Certification from University of Tennessee through programming at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, and actively continue to learn awe-inspiring things about the natural world, especially in my own backyard.

     For years, I immersed myself in the outdoors as an experienced long distance hiker, backpacking sections of the Appalachian Trail, completing Vermont’s Long Trail, the West Highland Way in Scotland, Northville Placid Trail in the Adirondacks, Laugavegur Trail in Iceland, and many other trails in national parks, including nearing completion of every one of the 900 miles of trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

     May the stories shared here inspire you to take a walk, see the world through a different lens, and grab hold of the magic life bestows to those brave enough to “do it afraid.”