Outdoor Travel Geek

  • the dome

    Gosh. I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. I had first tried to get my Half Dome permit in April, but I had overslept by 30 minutes, and by the time I had woken up and logged onto my computer all the permits were sold out. I tried again in…

  • yosemite backcountry

    Let me tell you something– when it comes to backpacking (or actually outdoor trips in general) I am lazy. It’s a weird kind of laziness. I will gladly drive two hundred plus miles to hike upwards of 20 miles. I will carry a 25 pound pack filled with gear up two thousand feet of elevation…

  • vintage photography

    A little less than one month. That’s how long this film had been sitting in my camera. And that’s how long it had been since my hike out at Loch Leven Lakes. I suppose that’s actually not that bad. After all, it took me over a year to finally upload the time lapse videos from…

  • barbecue and bachelors

    So apparently the Nugget Rib Cook-off in Reno is a pretty big deal. According to the website over half a million people visit it every year. I had been wanting to go for the past few years but for some reason or other I was never able to make it until this year. At the…

  • emeralds, rubies and hobos

    I have been to Emerald bay a few times now and the experience has been different each time. This time it was with some friends from college. I first started going to church in college, so these were among my first church friends. I’m not sure why this area is called Emerald Bay. Maybe it’s…

  • loch leven lakes

    It’s not often that I would hike the same place twice in two weeks. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve never done that before this weekend.  It ended up that way though, mostly because I don’t really pay attention to the emails I get. I just sorta skim them and then archive them away in…

  • scouting report

    I bet the mailman thinks that I’m the biggest gambling junkie in Davis. Every month I get offers from a ton of casinos. I think I’m a member of every casino rewards club in like a 250 mile radius. I’ve never played at most of those casinos. Most of them I’ve signed up for just…

  • christmas in july

    Starting location: Calistoga Village Inn & Spa, Calistoga, CA Ending location: Home. Davis, CA End of day cumulative mileage: 992.2 With my legs well rested from the spa I packed up my belongings and started my last day of riding. From Calistoga there was a short ride down Silverado Trail road back to highway 128. From…

  • the road home

    Starting location: Vagabond Inn, Ukiah, CA Ending location: Calistoga Village Inn & Spa, Calistoga, CA End of day cumulative mileage: 921.7 Today’s riding was supposed to be pretty easy and uneventful. My plan was to continue down highway 101 until it hit highway 128. Highway 128 is basically my road home. It takes me through Sonoma…

  • vagabond

    Starting location: Standish-Hickey State Park Ending location: Vagabond Inn, Ukiah, CA End of day cumulative mileage: 859.4 I woke up this morning and stared up at the clear blue sky framed by the redwood trees above my hammock. Sleeping in a hammock has its advantages. I had figured out a way to protect myself from bugs.…

  • underneath the giants

    Starting location: National 9 Inn, Fortuna, CA Ending location: Standish-Hickey State Park End of day cumulative mileage: 787.5 With my front rack broken I would need to send home two panniers and one trunk rack worth of gear home. So this morning the first thing I did was figure out which gear I didn’t need anymore.…

  • manic monday

    Starting location: The Palm Motel, Orick, CA Ending location: National 9 Inn, Fortuna, CA End of day cumulative mileage: 712.5 After over a week on the road on my bicycle braving rain, fog, and wind, I actually kind of miss work. Well not really the work part of work, but the fact that I’d be sitting…

  • good samaritans

    Starting location: Pacific Sunset Motel, Brookings, OR Ending location: The Palm Motel, Orick, CA End of day cumulative mileage: 649.1 This morning I was awoken by the sound of Harleys revving up. 6am. What the heck. What kind of biker gang wakes up at 6am?! They were actually not a biker gang, probably just a group…

  • rough riding

    Starting location: Battle Rock Motel, Port Orford, OR Ending location: Pacific Sunset Motel, Brookings, OR End of day cumulative mileage: 582.7 I woke up this morning, looked out the window and saw that it was raining again. As I checked out of the crappy motel, I met another cyclist, a pleasant older gentleman on his way…

  • achilles heel

    Starting location: Umpqua River State Park Ending location: Battle Rock Motel, Port Orford, OR End of day cumulative mileage: 526.5 If I remember correctly from my Greek mythology, Achilles was held by his heel and dipped in the river Styx, which made him invincible everywhere except for his heel. This really has nothing to do with…