Tag: Adventure

It seems I’ve found a new favorite place on the planet (for now). I’ve spent last two winters teaching skiing at Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah to build funds for our travels. While at Solitude, I’d heard tales of the legendary Fantasy Ridge and the serious nature of the skiing that lay within its chutes and rock-laden ridges. It wasn’t until I chose to venture up the Ridge myself that I realized the brevity of this wintry world which overlooked Solitude’s resort boundaries.   Read more

I must admit I was actually nervous for this hike. My knee was most definitely still in recovery mode and somehow I’d decided that it was a good idea to backpack 20 plus miles up and over a couple of large peaks in Glacier’s backcountry. But the allure of snow covered vistas, pristine alpine lakes, and wild mountain goats was too much. This had to be done. Perhaps it was never a real choice at all.  Read more

Our adventure truly began as the van rolled out of Anderson Camp and towards Twin Falls.  For the past few months, we'd known that our early August destination would be Eden, Idaho for a family reunion.  This limited our ability to spontaneously travel, but was worth it.  Leaving camp behind, we once again experienced one of the most refreshing feelings in the world, the feeling we refer to as "The Blank Page".

As it turned out, our fellow vagabonding van-based friend Jared had just left Oregon to pursue his own adventures on the open road.  We found out he was going to be in the same part of Idaho at the same time so we had to meet up!  We decided to meet up at the Shoshone Indian Ice Caves just outside of Shoshone, Idaho.  As we were driving, we passed Mammoth Cave and thought maybe it might be better.  We called Jared and everyone decided to give Mammoth a try instead.  The immediate vibe of the place was creepy with old junker cars, strange Hawaiian-ish carved stone heads decorating the entrance.  We walked in through the entrance and met an (unsurprisingly) creepy old man who let us know what the entrance fees were.  We paid the man and our adventure began...   Read more

3:45 A.M. came early (which I suppose is to be expected) and we rolled off our benches to prep for the approaching insanity.  Half of team "Hood to Whose Idea Was This" climbed in and Van 1 of 2 was off and rolling out of Hood River towards Mt. Hood.   The mountain was still enveloped in darkness as we parked near the relay's starting point.  A quick check of the weather confirms that my run was going to be quite brisk at 36 degrees.  Nerves and excitement set in as team names are announced over the loud speaker and the sun began to peak over Mt. Hood's conical snow line.  This is it... we try to wrap our minds around the fact that some time tomorrow afternoon we're going to have run as a team to the Oregon Coast 200 miles away, as long as we can actually make it.   We were about to attempt the possibly impossible task of completing the Hood to Coast Relay along with 12,816 other runners. Read more