Our sleep was short-lived, the wind continuing to pick up as the night wore on. In fact, this chapter technically starts on February 15th, since it was 11:45pm when we awoke to the most violent shaking of the tent I've ever experienced - significantly more violent than the night I spent with Monte @Blackdawg and Mike @Digiratus at the base of the Henry Mountains in Utah. I'd already gotten up once to secure the ladder, tying it to a full 5-gallon jerry can of water and the slider of the truck to ensure that the fold-out half of the tent wouldn't make…
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The night passed much more peacefully than the one before and we slept extremely well on our new Exped Megamat Duo 10 - a great fit in the @cascadia tents Mt. Shasta, and significantly more comfortable than the foam mattress. Hoping for a dramatic sunrise, I was up early to explore camp. In the end, given our location in the pass - there wasn't much color in the sky, the weather seemed to be holding and the temps were warmer than the day before, and I was happy to explore the hilly area around camp to see what secrets it held.…
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The Day the Tent Closed...with Us Inside Before it even began, the trip was off to a rough start. See, we'd planned - if you can call deciding to go on a trip just a few days prior to departure, "planning" - to leave two weeks earlier, but inclement weather caused us to push the trip back. Even so, the weather report was iffy just a few days before the new date - something we decided we'd ignore so we could get out and explore. Plus, by pushing the date, we'd gotten a couple of friends - Ben @m3bassman, Zane @Speedytech7,…
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I'd returned from The Re-Tour a mere three weeks before our departure date, but that didn't mean there were only a few short days to plan for our next epic adventure. In fact, quite the contrary - we'd been planning our trip south to Arizona and Utah for nearly a year - knowing that there was way more ground than we could cover in the two weeks we had allocated for the excursion. Our plan was simple, if long. Start in St. George, Utah, and work our way east - first along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then…
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July 4-5, 2018. Having parted ways with Ben @m3bassman and Kirsten after a wonderful couple days in Idaho, our first and second stops were in Boise for some fuel and food. We'd hoped to hit up a place that @pizzaviolence suggested as "the best taco's in Idaho," but being the Fourth of July, it was unfortunately closed. Instead, we grabbed some burgers before heading south-east - a four-state day in store through Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and finally California where we planned to find a place to camp for the night. Off the dirt, we racked up miles quickly - many…
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April 14, 15, 2018. A couple hours after falling asleep just north of Saline Valley Warm Springs, I was awoken by what I initially thought was a gunshot in my dream. But, with the valley still echoing, I soon realized it was no dream. Unsure what was going on, I looked back towards the springs, to see how others were reacting. I saw no real reaction, but then a few minutes later, I heard a "thump-thump-thump" and saw streaks of light heading into the moonless sky. And then, light and explosions. Fireworks continued intermittently for the next 10-15 minutes. Ultimately,…
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January 21-22, 2018. It was a clear, snowless night - a big chilly out, but cozy under the down comforters in the tent. Morning light gave us a chance to explore our site a bit more - a big cave carved into the sandstone that had clearly been used by previous campers as well. The sky was clear of all clouds, so there was no dramatic sunrise, but after a bit, the sun was still low enough to paint the far wall of the canyon a brilliant orange. We set about making breakfast, packing up camp, and exploring the cave…
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The alarm woke us at 6:00am. We were cozy under the covers but it was cold. It hadn't rained or snowed overnight, but dew had covered the tent and frozen, so the tent went away wet - not ideal, but we had places to be and weren't about to wait a few hours for the sun to come up and dry things out. We decided to forego breakfast for the time being, and were on the road by 6:38am, heading south. After a quick breakfast stop in Luning, NV - a town of nothing except the Wild Kat brothel, and…
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Death Valley: Intro and Day 1 - A Day of Driving Winters in the Pacific Northwest, (but perhaps especially this one) are tough to swallow when you like to get outdoors to explore and experience new adventures. The weather gets cool and wet, and it often takes a multi-state trip south to escape the gray. No different from a weather perspective, this year is different for @mrs.turbodb and I from a availability perspective. And, because of that, when we heard that Ben (@m3bassman) and Zane (@Speedytech7) headed to Death Valley for New Years, we were immediately jealous. We'd been wanting…
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