"You should get a 4Runner." is what I tell just about anyone with kids who asks what kind of car they should get. Of course, nothing generally comes of that - people opt for something more racy - a Tesla, or an Audi, those kinds of things. So, you can imagine my surprise when Dave and Joe - a couple guys I worked with - each came home with a 4Runner and reached out to go "offroading"! Now that's cool.
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If our first trip to Death Valley taught us anything, it was that our adventures there were far from complete. The three days of exploration had just scratched the surface of the vast wilderness before us. So, when I found out that @mrs.turbodb was headed out of town for a week, I was quick to make plans for a return trip. Going solo, my route did include a few of our favorite spots (Butte Valley and Goler Wash), but focused on several new areas as well - most outside of Death Valley proper (West Side Road, Charcoal Kilns, Saline Valley + Warm Springs, Steel…
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This was our first trip to Canyonlands, and as such, our first to The Maze District as well. With three days to explore, we made the most of our time - entering the park from Poison Springs Canyon Road, and making our way out to the Doll House. A night there is like no other, and I highly recommend it if your vehicle is capable of the arduous journey. From there, we headed up the Flint Trail switchbacks to Panorama Point - a view unlike any other we'd seen to date. Of course, the view was a little different when…
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Death Valley always seemed so far away. Nearly 20 hours by truck, that's what kept us from visiting to this point. That, and the fact that I always thought there wasn't much there. Boy, was I wrong. Looking back now (in 2020), this trip really kicked off a new love of an awesome place for both @mrs.turbodb and me. Our first journey took us to some amazing places - Titus Canyon, Obehebe Crater, The Racetrack, Goler Wash and Butte Valley (not to mention the tourist destinations we hit as well) - but little did we know that there was so…
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This is a whole different kind of trip report. In fact, it doesn't involve my truck at all, and is yet perhaps the most Tacoma-heavy trip report I'll ever make (and that has perhaps been made to date) on TW! You see, we have somewhat of a tradition each winter - as the weather gets cold and gloomy in the Pacific Northwest, we escape for a week to Kauai. We always try to stay in the same cottage; we eat lunch every day at our favorite café on the island. We walk the beach, we snorkel, and we relax.
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Last year's hunt for a Christmas tree hunt went nothing like we planned it, so this year we were itching to get out and see what the adventure would bring. It turns out, everything went exactly as planned, perhaps making up for last year. We headed out around 10am, with three goals in mind: Test out the APRS setup. Check the clearance of the new tires as the rear of the truck flexed. Get a Christmas tree.
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Billed as an epic journey through some of Monte @Blackdawg's favorite places in Montana and Wyoming over the course of two weeks in fall of 2017, The De-Tour quickly became a trip for the ages - and not because of the epic views or grand overlooks. Rather, it was the weather that made this trip memorable. Record cold temperatures for this time of year, and a weather system that stuck with us for days meant we were wet, cold, and muddy much of the time. After a week, we'd had enough. Tails tucked, much of the group split for home,…
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We’ve been wanting to go to some of Canada’s National Parks for a while. So, in late 2016 when we discovered that Canada was celebrating their 150th anniversary by giving away free access to their national parks for 2017, we jumped on the opportunity to get a pass, and we started working out plans to hit Banff and Jasper during the summer. Little did we know that not only would we nearly scrap the trip, but that we’d then end up seeing two additional Parks Canada. Early June rolled around and I started planning, and we got a great itinerary.…
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Back in May (full trip), we'd attempted to run the northern 40% of the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route, from Seneca to the Washington border. A day in, we chose a more reasonable goal: Seneca to Unity. And at day three, we called it quits - less than 50 miles from our start point. So you can imagine that we were excited for a second chance. Redemption as it were. Our plan was to run Route 5 - from New Pine Creek, California to Walla Walla, Washington - in a week. It would mean approximately 150 miles per day (assuming no…
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This trip was special - not only were we going to explore some new places in Oregon - Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Diamond Craters, and the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (OBDR), we were also picking up a new toy - our Cascadia Tents RTT. By its finale, the trip turned out to be even more exciting than we ever thought it could be!
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Cutting down our own Christmas Tree has become a tradition in the last five years or so. We've got our favorite place to go ( off I-90 by Snoqualmie Pass), our favorite species of tree (Hemlock), and our favorite "dinner after" (Mexican). This year, only "dinner after" happened as planned.
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I've been itching to get away the last few weeks, and with rainy weather here for the next six months, we decided that we'd head to Sleeping Lady rather than on a camping/hiking trip. But, to make it a bit more of an adventure, I decided that we'd drive part of the way on the WABDR (WA Backcountry Discovery Route) - specifically, we'd join up with Stage 3 from Cle Elum to Wenatchee as it passed the town of Liberty and Table Mountain, and then we'd follow it through Wenatchee and to Cashmere - some 50 miles of trail.
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Back from a work trip to India on a Friday morning at 6:30am (again), we packed up the truck and headed to Crater Lake National Park in central Oregon. The idea was to get in some great sites, but also spend a day or so exploring the back roads, finding camp sites, and putting the truck through some paces.
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The trip started out on the iffy side. We wanted a beautiful weekend for a stunning hike, and instead it was raining, there was a faint hiss coming from the back left tire, and 20 miles up a Forest Service road I had no tire patch kit.
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It was just like any other work week. Or at least, any other week where you go to work for half a day Monday; take a 24-hour flight to India at 6pm; work in India for 34 hours; and then arrive back in Seattle at 7am Friday morning after 24 more hours in the air. Except it wasn't. Memorial Day the following Monday meant a four-day weekend, and that meant that this was the perfect week for an extended camping trip. Where would we go? Being May, our normal haunts in the Pacific Northwest were still largely under snow, and…
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