It’s been four months since my last entry. It feels longer, a lot longer. Flashback to an incredible start of summer. A week in Park City visiting friends and hiking new trails. Then off to Montana, where a friend invited me to be his guest at his beautiful home overlooking Big Arm Lake. Al’s place …
We needed a break. It had been a busy and stressful past couple of months. We had reservations in May for a week on the beach in Maui to celebrate our anniversary but canceled them due to family issues. Happily, the planets aligned in June and we were able to steal away for a couple …
Continue reading Three Bottles of Wine: Three Nights in Ojai
I didn’t start out early morning on May Day planning to complete all five segments of the Coast-to-Crest challenge in a single day. Two or three hikes at most, then come back another day and finish what was left. According to the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy’s Coast to Crest Trail Challenge website, the total …
Continue reading A Day of Five Trails: Completing The 2018-2019 Coast to Crest Trail Challenge
It has been six long months since my last post. What the heck happened? How did so much time go by? Has it really been half a year? The answer to the last question is a simple “yes.” The other two queries require a longer explanation, one that has less to do with big adventures, …
The end of my second week in Park City, Utah was rapidly approaching, and with it the final days of summer, and the end of another multi-week road trip. 2018 was another banner year for wildfires, and a major blaze was burning to the south of me. Fortunately, about an hour to the east, in …
This is a different kind of essay, and a very personal one. It was previously published on our class Facebook page. I’ll be posting about my time at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival soon. This past Saturday [November 10, 2018] was the 40th Reunion of Valencia High School’s Class of ’78. It was …
Longtime readers of this blog may recognize the name, Maria Schur. I had heard her interviewed on the Sprocket Podcast a couple of years ago, and we exchanged a couple of emails. In 2017, we met in the Sprocket Podcast studio. Maria continues to be an inspiration, a muse, and a person I admire. Earlier this year, …
Continue reading Relationships Are More Important Than Adventure
While planning/replanning the second part of my road trip, I was determined not to let one unfortunate event define the entire summer’s adventure. On the drive home I found myself more grateful for Kiah (Eddie Bauer), Jimmie (Action Auto Glass), the staff of Next Adventure, Judy & Ken, Nayerah (Eddie Bauer), Jo, and Karen (Columbia …
What a sunrise! I was riding an emotional high. My road trip was into its fifth week. Sure, there had been a minor hiccup here and there (the fires in Glacier National Park caused me to replan part of the trip), but there was always a great alternative to take advantage of (e.g., spending the …
GORP, more commonly called ‘trail mix,’ is a staple of backcountry enthusiasts everywhere. I love the stuff. I used to buy four-pound bags of Kirkland brand Trail Mix at Costco. “Used to” is the key phrase. But first, a little history of GORP. What does GORP stand for? According to Wiktionary (remember: the internet is …
Adventure-to-Adventure 