Leaving home for adventure was a little different this time. Looking back now, as we headed south out of the Seattle area, we were leaving behind what would turn out to be one of the early epicenters of the Covid-19 outbreak, just before more info on the severity would come…
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Death Valley is always full of wonderful surprises. Experienced where they are never expected, they make for memorable trips and are one of the reasons I keep going back. This time, I was going solo; sort of. Sure, there were a couple spots - Hidden Dunes being the most prominent…
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After visiting the Mojave National Preserve in December 2018 to run the historic Mojave Road, and test out the new rear shocks I'd installed, we ended up having remove the shocks after less than a mile and the run the entire trip with no shocks on the rear of the…
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Death Valley is not nearby, and yet - it continues to call time after time, urging us to make the 20 hour journey south to explore its wonders. It's hard to say no. That's how - on a Wednesday morning - we found ourselves packed up in the truck and…
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The Alvord Playa (and Alvord Desert around it) has become one of our favorite sort-of-nearby-places to visit. Remote, beautiful, and full of seldom-explored wonders, we've been back several times and I'm sure will return for years to come. Our trip this time however, was with a purpose - we have…
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The plan for our trip to Colorado was simple: tour the state, taking in as many of the high mountain roads and views as we possibly could. After all, this was my first time really exploring the state in any real capacity, and we had a local Coloradoian with us,…
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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…
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I'll probably say this for many trips to come, but I have found it extremely difficult to find trails to run in Canada. I don't know if it's just that Canadians do a better job of keeping their trails "secret," or if there really isn't as much info to find…
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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…
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If you’ve ever wanted to travel endless twisty mountain roads, the Idaho BDR will throw corners at you for days on end. You also won’t get many digital interruptions because your cell phone won’t have reception on much of this route. It’s a true off- the-grid ride with plenty 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…
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In what has become a two-year tradition, the 4th of July weekend found us back in Idaho with Ben and Kirsten, exploring around the central part of the state. This year, we made our way to a few places we'd been before - namely Railroad Ridge (the highest road in…
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In what would become nearly a month in the state of Idaho, we left for our first trip as the calendar ticked over to July. On the schedule were two places I'd had on my list for a while - Indian Hot Springs and Idaho's City of Rocks State Park.…
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...a little over 4 miles after we'd started, we crested the ridge holding back the lake to a view that's worth every minute of the climb. (And - if your knees don't kill you on the way down - descent!)
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After paralleling the road for about 12 miles, Eagle Creek drains into the Salmon River - and we found ourselves at this point after passing several ATVs, UTVs, and dirt bikes, but without running into the rest of our group. Had we gone the wrong way? We were sure we…
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Hell's Canyon straddles the border between Oregon and Idaho, but neither allows easy access to the depths of this great gorge. Carved by the waters of the Snake River, which flows more than a mile below the canyon's west rim on the Oregon side and 7,400 feet below the peaks…
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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…
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We've been to the Alvord Playa - and to some extent, the Desert that surrounds it - before, but we've never really done that much exploring of the roads that wind their way through this remote section of Oregon. We planned to change that on this trip, checking out several…
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I've been to Canyonlands National Park before, but only to The Maze District. This, my first trip to The Needles District would be an experience I won't soon forget. We'd spend a week roaming around Utah, running the Elephant Hill trail and making our way into Beef Basin. We'd hike…
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Oh man, was this going to be fun. A trip like no other (so far). A trip with a twist. A trip that was actually two. Over the course of two weeks, we spent eight days in the park, split in half by a 10-day break where we headed back…
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