TL;DR - We got a small Jetboil because we plan to have all of our cooking be for rehydrating meals. It seems spectacular for boiling water.
Two cups of boiling water in two minutes.
AdventureTaco Posts
TL;DR - I got a high-quality water filtration system a few years ago and never used it; we will definitely be using it this time!
Everyone needs water.
TL;DR - I'm a little worried we got the wrong tent. We couldn't pass up the price (at 50% off), but it's not entirely freestanding, so may be harder to use on impermeable surfaces, like slickrock.
Hopefully this tent works out.
TL;DR - I love my Exped Megamat in the rooftop tent, so I'm getting a lightweight version for backpacking.
Have I ever mentioned that I love my Exped Megamat? Yes, yes I have.
TL;DR - If I've discovered one thing sleeping under down comforters and on an Exped Megamat in the rooftop tent, it is that being comfortable when you're sleeping is important. Don't skimp on sleep.
The Western Mountaineering Alder MF should be the first and last bag I ever buy.
TL;DR - If I'm going to give backpacking a shot, I'm going to do it with the lightest, most versatile pack on the market today.
The ULA Ultra Circuit won a bunch of awards that I don't know anything about, so it must be good.
TL;DR - I thought I'd like these pillows more than I do. @mrs.turbodb on the other hand, likes hers so much that she wants to use it at home.
Feels like sleeping on an inflated plastic bag...because you are!
TL;DR - I upgraded my Canon R6 to an R5 in order to double the number of megapixels that I can claim as my own. So far, I love it.
The camera I always wanted.
After hiking 24 miles through Shangri-la Canyon - a few more miles of Grand Gulch than a sane person should in a day - cool temperatures made for one of the best night's sleep we've had in a long time. And, even waking up an hour before sunrise to "do it all over again, only in Water Canyon," we were well-rested, having fallen asleep just after 8:00pm, and only a few minutes after climbing up our ladder. All ready to go, no shadows yet playing across the land. From the little I'd been able to find about Water Canyon, it…
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TL;DR - Everyone should hike in a pair of these gaiters.
Keep debris out of your shoes.
Every time I go to Utah's Cedar Mesa, I find myself wondering why I don't visit more often. When I really think about it, the answer is a combination of factors, with the largest being: Distance - It's a 24-hour drive from home. Anything over 19 hours is a slog - even for the younger me, who could conquer long drives and still hike the next day. Even when the Tacoma is stored in Las Vegas, it's a 9-hour trek - nearly a full day of driving - just to get there! Death Valley - Much of the time I'd…
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Comb Ridge. There, somewhere, is a ruin that I've been searching for over the course of several years. While not unknown, this ruin - with walls supported by a Juniper Tree trunk - is infrequently visited and photographed, and the location is kept well under wraps by those who have been lucky enough to visit. And I'm fine with that. I appreciate it and understand why. Still, even as I've failed to find it on several previous occasions, I knew I'd have to keep searching until I found it. This would be our third full day with feet on the…
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Just out of the park. Setup on an old mining road just east of Furnace Creek, our flight home was a little later than usual, so we planned to get a hike in before heading back to Las Vegas. This meant a third morning in a row of awake-before-sunrise, but with early sunsets and bedtimes around 7:30pm, we were still getting more sleep we generally get at home! It'd been a windy night, but our spot - between a hillside and a road berm - had been chosen carefully to reduce wind noise on the tent, and as we shoveled…
21 Comments
Having discovered the existence of a few rock art sites in the Greenwater Valley area, I put on my best Sherlock Holmes hat (note: it is strikingly similar to the Cal Poly baseball cap I always wear) to scour the interwebs for clues. Of the three sites, I was able to pinpoint one reasonably quickly, and reached out to a few fellow rock art enthusiasts for hints on another. The third - somewhere on the hike up Funeral Peak - was out of the question on this particular trip, though I'll surely return to find those in the future. Mostly,…
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At first glance, Greenwater Valley seems - especially compared to the other valleys of Death Valley National Park - downright boring. In fact, it is. Even its most-visited attraction - Dante's View - is what I would describe as "just OK," if someone asked my opinion, before volunteering several alternative views in the park that I feel are significantly more amazing. Thankfully, few people ask - and even fewer care - for my opinion, and the world continues to spin. Still, it was with great excitement that we entered the southern end of Greenwater Valley on the first evening of…
36 Comments
Every time I visit Death Valley, I cover some amount of ground. I know this because I fill every daylight hour with hiking, driving, climbing, and poking my head into places that a younger, smarter me would certainly avoid. Somehow, though, at the end of each trip, I realize that my list of places to explore has inexplicably gotten longer. It happens without fail. Every. Single. Time. In 2018 - when @mrs.turbodb and I were exploring the Ibex Dunes and the talc mines near Saratoga and Ibex Spring - I noticed a little valley on the eastern flank of the…
20 Comments
Over the last three months of winter - which I suppose we're still sort of in, but we're soon to come out the other side - the Tacoma has been doing great. This time of year, it lives down in Las Vegas, so there's relatively little I can do from a maintenance perspective. As such, this Rig Review focuses on things that are working (or not), but doesn't really address any of them with fixes. In that time, we squeezed in four adventures (and a couple other family vacations to more... civilized accommodations). While that might be fewer trips than…
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Back at the Tacoma, and after consuming breakfast a smidge late, I packed up the tent and hit the road immediately. I'd hoped to tackle a top-secret hike - to some allegedly amazing rock art - for much of the afternoon, but my late arrival back at camp left no time for such activities. Instead, I needed to turn on the afterburners to reach my next camp site; even then, I'd was almost certain I'd be arriving in the dark. Rolling out of Snake Gulch. Amazing how places can look so different from the air. It took a couple hours…
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There's almost nowhere I like to camp more than on the edge of a cliff or on the top of a mountain. The expansive views and feeling of being on the edge - literally, I suppose - are the reason I love to explore. So, it was with a good dose of hesitation that I made the decision to leave my campsite on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon less than two hours before sunset, opting instead to camp at a trailhead parking area. At least it would allow me to get an early start on the following day's…
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Our night - near the Tuckup Trail - wasn't nearly as miserable as we imagined it would be. I don't know if Mike ever turned his engine to warm up his cab, but my earplugs and heated socks made for sound sleep on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Photos of deep canyons are difficult to capture once the sun is blazing down from above. With one side of the canyon bathed in light, the other is deep in shadow, a contrast that's hard to balance with anything but the human eye. And so, as is often the case,…
8 Comments