I love nearly every aspect of getting out to explore. The research when I'm at home. The anticipation of what will be found along the way. The unexpected discoveries along the journey. And, of course, the excitement of finding the destinations themselves. Usually. The Back Story Even the best-laid plans - of which mine rarely qualify - run into a snag every now and then. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to find what we are looking for - if we ever find it at all - as I learned in the case of a singular rock along the Pahranagat Trail over…
5 CommentsTag: trip start (small)
First post of a small outing, good place to start reading.
With @mini.turbodb getting bigger, only two viable seats in the Tacoma, and having sold the family 4Runner, it's a lot harder to get the whole family out to our favorite camp site on a regular basis. Of course, with @mini.turbodb getting older, the thought of spending time in the woods - away from showers, mirrors, and technology - and having to put up with parents - peskier creatures than mosquitoes - isn't all that appealing anyway. And yet, several times over the last six months, she has mentioned the desire to try fishing for the first time. So, when @mrs.turbodb…
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More than 30 years ago, my dad found what is now his only camp spot. For the last five of those, I've been lucky enough to join him at least once over the course of the summer for a few days of relaxation and soaking in of the sights, fresh air, and some staying-in-one-place rather than the usual travels of my adventures. This year - like last - was up in the air for a while. Much of the Sierra National Forest is still recovering from the Creek Fire of 2020, and there are quite a few places that are…
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I didn't discover Nine Mile Canyon in my own research. Rather, after posting a story of one of my trips to some fantastic place in the western United States, a reader - Tim - reached out to me to suggest a few places he'd discovered over his years of exploration. At the top of his list was Nine Mile Canyon, and a photo he shared with me was enough to make me add it to my list without any further information. Under a blazing blue sky, a panel of petroglyphs overlooked a green valley surrounded by the patinaed red rock;…
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For the last week or so, I've had the itch. That's because - for the last couple of weeks - a family vacation to the Mt. Shasta area in California has kept us occupied and off the trail. Not that I'm complaining - we were duly pampered with fabulous food and plush accommodations - but once we got back, it seemed like a good idea to get out a little bit. @mrs.turbodb wasn't quite so enthusiastic as I was, but when she learned that it was u-pick peach season near one of our favorite camp sites on the east side…
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Having had my week-long trip to Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains cut short by smoke, I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. Then, I realized that the answer was in my own backyard - or at least nearby! We've been lucky so far this year to not have a ton of smoke in Western Washington, so what better place to go hang out than the forests around Mt. Rainier. Great weather and clear skies would make it the perfect place to just go hang out and enjoy the outdoors! So, after less than 24 hours at home - and luckily…
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It's been over a year since I was last in Idaho, and boy did I miss it! So, after spending a few weeks at home upon returning from the New Mexico Backcountry Discovery Route (NMBDR), and with @mrs.turbodb heading out on a camping trip with her dad, late July seemed like the perfect time for me to whip up a little something in the Sawtooths. The key word there being "seemed." I'd been collecting places to go - some of them from roads not travelled on earlier trips, others discovered online one way or the other, and one in particular…
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Having recently visited the Volcanic Tablelands for the first time in search of and petroglyphs, we'd been delighted with what we'd found. So delighted, in fact, that I started researching the area for a return trip as soon as we got home! As I searched, I realized we could spend several days in the area, wandering. Additional petroglyph sites, old mines, and views - of the Sierra Mountains to the west and the White Mountains to the east - would fill our days. That sounded great to us. Unfortunately, things had a way of working themselves out just a little…
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Summer is a great time in the state of Washington. While much of the rest of the year might be dreary and gray, the long days and clear air between mid-July and September are nothing short of perfection for getting out to enjoy the mountainous terrain in the western part of the state. And this time, we were headed as far west as we could go - all the way to the Olympic Peninsula, for an epic hike along one of the highest ridges around. Keen to get the trip off to a good start, we made a quick stop…
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Having just completed the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR), we now found ourselves in at the southern most tip of Nevada, quite a distance between us and home. We found ourselves there with a week to spare, having finished the trip a few days sooner than we'd originally expected. Only the timing was unplanned however, as we'd run the BDR this direction on purpose. By doing so, we hoped that we could meet up with Pops on our way home at the same spot we'd spent a few days with him just a month before. Well, as it turned out,…
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Prologue This was a trip I'd been waiting for. Well, not this trip exactly, but a trip to this location - - in the Sierra National Forest. See, after our last trip there, Pops and I regularly chatted about our next chance to visit this special place - we'd planned for it to happen in early July, but we'd both been keeping an eye on snow levels and road-and-forest status since January. At that time, COVID-19 wasn't something we were concerned about at all, but as winter turned to spring... and as the snow levels dropped, the closed status of…
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Any other year, a trip to Icicle Creek near Leavenworth, WA in early June would be our second or third visit of the season. But with everything going on this year, the Forest Service delayed opening of the road - generally used to access campgrounds and trailheads until after Memorial Day weekend. In fact, even as we visited, all of the developed campgrounds and several of the trailhead parking lots were still closed to encourage social distancing and prevent the spread of the virus. Still, as we drove up Icicle Creek Road, we found ourselves happy to be able to…
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The day started off like so many others in the last several weeks - we woke up in our own beds. We didn't wake up early... or late, it was just the normal time. And, we knew - or at least, I thought we knew - what we were going to do today: like the days before, we were going to shelter in place! Now, that wasn't all bad. See, yesterday @mini.turbdb and I had - unless you talk to her, in which case she would say she had - made up a batch of cinnamon rolls, which we were…
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Well, it's not every day that I get to go camping with my dad, and it's not that often that I camp in the same spot for more than one night. I mean, I guess we camped in the same spot two nights in a row on the Idaho BDR when a brake caliper seized up, but that was clearly an exceptional situation! Plus, after last year's adventure - my first time experiencing one of Pops favorite spots in the Sierras - I knew this was a place that I wanted to return. Likely, for years to come. It really…
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July 31 - Aug 1, 2019. We hadn't been back from our adventure on the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route (IDBDR) long when we decided that we should really get out with the child. After all, we had this nice 4Runner for her to sleep in and the last time we'd gone had been - to our surprise - the "best day of [her] life," according to her. Hoping to best our previous success, we figured that this time, we'd pair the camping with a nice restaurant for dinner and some pick-your-own peaches the following day. Oh, no naive we were to…
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Every year, during the month of October, a really great thing happens at Microsoft. Teams of all sizes - from just a few folks, to organizations thousands strong - rally around a common cause. Every year, that rallying cry gets stronger - millions of dollars stronger than just the year before. And every one of those millions is matched by the company - dollar for dollar, as high as it can go. Last year, over $163 million dollars and 760,000 volunteer hours were donated to various charities and causes that employees cared about. That is the power of the Microsoft…
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Having wrapped up the dual battery install approximately 12 hours before departure time, we were off the next morning for a couple relaxed days of camping and hiking in one of our favorite areas of the Cascades, near Leavenworth, WA. Not only would this be the first trip with the redundant power - a good thing since we didn't plan on much driving, it would also be the first time we'd see the newly painted wheels in the great outdoors. Well, those look great, I think. We arrived at camp just after 1:30pm - on a Wednesday. This is key,…
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An astute reader may recall that we'd headed east a few days before Memorial Day - not just to explore Hells Canyon, but to meet up with Mike @Digiratus, Monte @Blackdawg, and Devin @MissBlackdawg. At least, those were the folks we knew; we were also rendezvousing with @BabyTaco Gage and his wife, and a couple of their friends - long overdue if you ask me. From our current location at Hells Canyon Dam, it was some 5 hours north to Lewiston, ID, where we'd all planned to meet for lunch, so we were up early - for sunrise if it'd…
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With all the recent work on the 4Runner, I wasn't the only one who wanted to put it all to the test. Upon seeing the storage/sleeping platform, @mini.turbodb had declared, "We need to go camping right away!" I don't know if she's been well-trained or it was just a wrinkle in the space-time continuum, but it was music to my ears. So, we found the first weekend that we possibly could and scheduled a single night camping trip to one of our favorite "quick getaway" spots outside Leavenworth, WA. And then we watched the weather. As the weekend drew near,…
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With Christmas vacation in full swing, we've been having a great time. There are lots of new toys to play with around the house, there are activities to keep us busy during the day, and the newly introduced household chores - and associated weekly allowance - have @mini.turbodb in high spirits. Oh, to be eight years old. But, when @mrs.turbodb suggested that we get bundled up and head up into the mountains to get in some sledding and enjoy the snow, the child was having none of it. "I hate the snow, it's too cold." - The words spilled out…
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