There wasn't much of a question in any of our minds as to where our two week trip was going to take place for 2020. After our setback the previous year - see Exploring Colorado Becomes Redhead Down - much of the winter had been spent getting the Redhead ready to hit the trail. A few smaller excursions to iron out the wrinkles after all the work, and we were ready to go. Colorado was calling. We wouldn't know if we were really ready until the end.
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How could it be that we hadn’t explored this area? I have no idea, really. Most likely, it's simply a side effect of the total lack of exploration we've done in our home state of Washington - opting instead to explore areas in other surrounding states, where weather is consistently warmer, or at least drier. But, what could be viewed as an oversight, we viewed as opportunity. With dirt roads less than three hours from home, we didn't have to rush out in the dark of early morning - instead, we got a leisurely start around 9:30am, and made it…
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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.
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I've been asked by folks who don't go on as many trips as I do, "How do you know that the roads you plan on a route - using satalite imagery - are open?" The answer, of course, is that not every trip goes exactly as planned - and that's a good thing. It is what makes a trip into an adventure. This trip, to Idaho and Montana with Mike @Digiratus, Zane @Speedytech7 and Dan @drr was exactly that - an unplanned adventure - nearly every road we'd planned to take, CLOSED.
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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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Nevada's BDR is known to be a bit different than some of the others. Most interesting is the temperature differential between the northern and southern ends of the route - even as the north is still covered in snow, temps in the south reach over 100°F. For that reason, a lot of travelers split the trip into two - doing the southern route in winter or early spring and the northern bit come summer. But not us; we're not that smart. Well no, that's not it exactly - it's just that the time we had to do the trip happened…
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I can safely say that trips to with Pops have now become a tradition. I suppose I could have said that after the second trip to this special place, but with a third in as many years, I hope it continues for many more. This time, for the first time, @mrs.turbodb came along - and she, like everyone else who discovers this magical place, enjoyed herself thoroughly.
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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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It seems like we were just in the Owyhee Uplands - because we were! We'd wrapped up our previous trip from Idaho's Owyhee Uplands to Oregon's Alvord Desert less than a month earlier, but when a few buddies wanted to get together for a Memorial Day adventure, it seemed like a great place to return! This time, we'd start at the north end of the Owyhee Canyonlands near Lake Owyhee, and head south towards Three Fingers Rock and the north edge of Jordan Craters. Then, we'd turn east through Silver City, Idaho to the Big Jack Creek Wilderness and eventually…
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In all of our trips to the Owyhee area, we've only ever really explored the western half - the Owyhee Canyonlands. Of course, there's some really cool stuff there - Three Forks, Coffepot Crater, the Honeycombs, Snively Hot Springs, and Juniper Gulch - but the Owyhee area is quite a lot larger than its Oregon acreage. With this trip, we were going to change all that - and then some! Our plan - at least at the beginning - was to hit up the Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway, a ~100 mile journey from Grand View, Idaho to Jordan Valley, Oregon,…
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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!
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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 to light and large-scale cancellations and closures would become part of our world's lives. This was a trip like no other - and not for the normal reasons. Join us as we head south to spectacular hikes in the red rocks of St. George Utah. Follow along as we make…
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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 - that I planned to keep to myself, but I also hoped that this would be a trip of new beginnings and old friendships. See, I planned to meet - for the first time - a fellow adventurer that I'd been trying to cross paths with for the last two…
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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 Tacoma. We needed to redeem ourselves. Plus, I knew I needed to get back to explore this vast wonderland more than a single road could ever allow. With nearly two weeks over Christmas and New Years reserved on the calendar, our initial goal was to explore everything. Like as in…
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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 heading towards southern California, excited for the three-and-a-half days we'd have to explore. With too much planned for the time we had allotted (as always), we had an amazing time (again, as always), even as we confined ourselves to a small corner of the park - Eureka and Saline Valleys.…
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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 unfinished business to attend to in the region, and I'm not the type of person who likes to leave any sort of adventure, unfinished. Summiting Steens Mountain. It's been over three years now since we first laid eyes on this beauty, and with the highest road in Oregon, we needed…
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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, so we might as well take advantage of that. We met up in Wyoming and spent a couple days making our way south - hitting peaks along the Continental Divide - before diving across the border with 14,000 foot peaks in our sights. Through Medicine Bow - Routt National Forest…
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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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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 online about them, but I'd love to do more trips into the land of our northern neighbors. So it was with the Whipsaw Trail. One of the few trails that information exists for, the Whipsaw has a little bit of everything for everybody. There's mud if you want it, some…
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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 [her] life," according to her.
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