Sunny Montgomery is a writer and editor for Chatter Magazine and Get Out Chattanooga. In 2018, she won third place in the Green Eyeshade Awards for her story covering autism in the outdoors. In addition to her magazine work, Sunny works on various digital products, and helped create and launch the popular newsletters Chattanooga Outdoor News and Good Day, Chattanooga! She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, a certified Tennessee State Naturalist and an avid outdoorsperson. She moved to Chattanooga from central Kentucky in 2013, and most recently traded her suburban home for a small cabin, which she built with her partner, at the edge of Cherokee National Forest.
Last year, the pandemic opened up a chasm of new needs in the community — needs that local nonprofits could not fill. Not alone, anyway.
by Sunny MontgomeryMelissa Hickson is not a thrill-seeker.
by Sunny MontgomeryIf you still have a CD collection, don't totally understand Snapchat or have read Gary Paulsen's "Hatchet" more than once, you might be a "geriatric millennial."
by Sunny MontgomeryEditor's note: By the time you read this, our mass emergence of spring cicadas may have already come and gone.
by Sunny MontgomeryRami Ayoub was awestruck by the coral reef he discovered just past the shoreline in Mahahual, Mexico.
by Sunny MontgomeryWhen Robby Eskridge and Lindsey Hardesty met, they shared more than just a profession.
by Sunny MontgomeryRandy Whorton likes a challenge, whether he's organizing trail cleanups and races as director of Wild Trails or competing in ultramarathons.
by Sunny MontgomeryIn late January, Chattanooga's first-ever snowy owl was spotted perched on a home near Chickamauga Lake, hundreds of miles south of its typical range.
by Sunny MontgomeryAs host of Head of the Hooch, one of the world's largest regattas, Chattanooga is known by many as a rowing hotspot. Fewer people, however, may know that Chattanooga also fosters a dynamic indoor rowing scene — and is home to two of the world's leading competitors.
by Sunny MontgomeryIn 2017, musician Solange Knowles won a Grammy for "Cranes in the Sky," a soulful song which chronicles the artist's attempts to distract herself from pain.
by Sunny MontgomeryLast summer was almost a bust for Gracie Fogo.
by Sunny MontgomeryAfter 17 years underground, billions of red-eyed creatures will soon arise from the Earth.
by Sunny MontgomeryBetween canceled flights and closed borders, 2020 changed the way we vacation.
by Sunny MontgomeryJohn Wiygul, at times in his life, has climbed seven days a week - a feat made easier by owning his own climbing gym.
by Sunny MontgomeryThe answer is no. Nathan Worthington and Cody Buell have never been bit by a turtle while noodling. Though, understandably, they get the question a lot.
by Sunny MontgomeryNature-lovers know the Southeast is a gem, worthy of protection.
by Sunny MontgomeryAt age 10, Jack Guin already knows his way around a canoe — and a number of local whitewater runs, too, including the Class IV North Chick, a steep creek in Soddy-Daisy that intimidates paddlers twice his age.
by Sunny MontgomeryAmid all that's surprising about asparagus, here's our favorite fact: The stalk vegetable makes a delicious soup.
by Sunny MontgomeryEric and Kaley Hayes dream of driving their Land Rover from Alaska to Argentina, following the 19,000-mile Pan-American Highway — regarded as the world's most famous overland trail.
by Sunny MontgomeryEach spring, the wood thrush returns to Tennessee — famished.
by Sunny Montgomery