Author: Josh

We now carry bear spray with us. What a strange feeling. Three "mountain" kids traveling together and all of us are more-or-less completely inexperienced with bears. Yesterday, we stopped at a porting supply store for camping advice and I couldn't help but be thoroughly entertained as Jared had to ask the man at them store how bear spray worked. I felt pretty silly when Jared explained its proper use to and I wondered if I might have fumbled with it in a pinch had I not had said explanation. We're exploring new country indeed.   Read more

As we left Ketchum and made our way up the winding mountain roads, it became clear that we were in for a different experience of the sawtooth range than expect (although we generally don't know what to expect). Smoke began to fill the air and the sun struggled to burn through it, resulting in a brilliant orange sunset glow in the middle of the afternoon. I'll never forget the moment we crested the last ridge as the sawtooths came into full view. I'd heard stories of these jagged mountains, but had never seen a picture. There's just something about snarled and dramatic mountain peaks that makes my blood pump faster and renews my zest for life. Read more

As it turns out, Southern Idaho was full of unexplored natural wonders for us!  I knew that the Snake River flowed through this area, but had no idea how amazing and gorgeous the Snake River Canyon could be! We'd taken several trips to Idaho to visit Meisha's family in the past, but really hadn't gone out and explored the area much at all. We'd heard tales of the beauty that the Snake River Plateau had to offer, but somehow the surrounding rolling brown hills and abundance of potato fields always left me with a bit of skepticism.   Read more

We rolled into Almo Idaho around 1AM and came immediately realized something... we don't exactly know how or where to stealth camp in the van when in small towns!  Somehow small town cops weird us out a lot more than big city cops and our comfort in having an explanation as to why we're sleeping in our van is greatly diminished.  After much debate and a bit of driving around, we decided to park at a pullout just outside the city limits of Almo with the intention to vacate early in the morning.  We successfully slept through the night without harassment and headed into the City of Rocks around 6AM to finish our night's sleep among the mountains and crazy rock formations.   Read more