Over the last four years I've spent months each summer running around outdoors. And one of the biggest ongoing challenges has been managing trail dinners that I haven't burned out on. And when you factor in the need to keep costs down and availability in the more remote sections of trail that's not been a trivial task.

The store bought backpacker meals I used to lean on heavily are now unsustainably expensive on the scale I need them. When I did the PCT and soon after the Eastern Continental Trail I did a lot of the cheap and ever avaliable Knorr sides but by the time I started the CDT I was burned out on pretty much every variety.

Fortunately I came across instant refried beans and they quickly became our favorite dinner.

After putting it off for years I completed my scuba open water certification in December of 2018 and have spent the intervening months joyously diving pretty much every chance I get. I hit 25 dives in January, 50 in April, 75 in June, and after the recent Indonesia diving trip I was sitting at 95. Which after the big summer multi-sport road trip became 98. Then it was only logical to do a shore dive the morning I came back into town leaving me at the ever important 100th dive milestone.

In addition to being a nice satisfying number some people will tell you that the 100th dive is supposed to be done naked to celebrate the milestone. This seems to mostly be done in tropical areas and if Instagram is to be believed there seems to be a bit more female divers than males taking part (though that could possibly be due to the fact cold water is a bit more friendly to the female physique vs say your average pudgy white male.)

Several friends who have been diving for years hadn't heard of the whole 100th dive = naked dive thing but there's plenty of validation on the internet and I'm not one to buck a tradition. That is as long as I find it amusing.

And since I wasn't about to stop diving for any length of time until I could make it someplace tropical that left a southern California shore dive. So on a Tuesday morning Jen Blackie and myself headed out to my favorite local spot Shaw's Cove to get things done.

July 30th, 2019

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The Sayward Canoe Route is a 48 -ish mile loop on Vancouver Island Canada involving 12 lakes connected with 13 portage sections where you have to transport your craft along trails and gravel roads. (This is actually much harder than it sounds!) It’s most commonly done in 3-5 days but we decided to hit it a little more aggressively and started at 4 pm on a Saturday at the southern end of Gosling Lake heading counter clockwise and finished about 2 pm Monday.

We ended up doing this route almost by accident. When planning our big 17 day road trip I'd come across mention of how amazing the cold water diving was off Vancouver Island and so we started to look for complimentary activities to justify the sizable drive out west from Banff. And since we had been itching to get out on another major paddle adventure after the awesome experience out in the San Juan Islands last summer this jumped out immediately when we came across it.

This was one of the major activities during out 17 day road trip across 8 western states and 2 Canadian provinces.  The previous few days had been spent in Banff and Jasper which were spectacular but our initial peakbagging plans had been scaled back due to the constant rain / snow.

July 20th to 22nd, 2019
Sayward Canoe Route

Day 1: 9.5 miles Gosling to Goose

Day 2: 14.3 miles Goose to Grey

Day 3: 8.4 miles Grey to Gosling

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

I've made a solid attempt of late to stop saying no to more involved trips on account of them being too much time away from work or too expensive since quite frankly the events of the last year or two have shown the things I've been sacrificing for just aren't worth it. And so you're seeing more trips like this, Florida, and the oncoming onslaught of Summer 2019.

This was one of those bucket list trips that I'd looked at for years. Buckskin Gulch is considered the longest and deepest slot canyon in the southwest United States and possibly the world.  It's claim to fame is that you can backpack through it and them meet up with the Paria River and spend several days descending down to the Colorado River. Compare this with other slot canyons in the area where you're lucky to get the better part of the day.

I of course love me some slot canyon. So then the limiter became getting the permit which are rather limited (more on that below) but this year Jen got lucky and so the week after the Wilderness Travel Course Snow Camp wrapped up we were off!

March 30th to April 4th

Day 1: 15 -ish miles 

Day 2: 14 -ish miles 

Day 3: 12 -ish miles

Day 4: 10 -ish miles

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This trip is a little different from my usual mountain related activities but it's something that I've been talking about doing for quite some time. Ever since Kristen, Jen, and I bought our sea kayaks we've been wanting to do more kayak touring and destination paddling in general.

So this 4th of July weekend off to Washington we went! 5 days! Winds! Currents! Islands! And a Gilligans Island style stranding / minor marine rescue which put us in danger of not making our flights back home!

June 30th to July 4th, 2018

Day 1: 11.75 miles - Smugglers Cove To Jones Island

Day 2: 8.6 miles - Jones Island To Turn Island

Day 3: 12.4 miles - Turn Island To Posey Island

Day 4: 18.5 miles - Posey Island To Stewart Island

Day 5: 12.5 miles - Stewart Island To Point Gilligan

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Santa Catalina is one of several islands located a relatively short distance off the coast of Southern California.


It's permanently inhabited by around 4,000 people most of whom are centered around the main settlement / tourist attraction known as Avalon.  Most of the rest of the island is controlled by the Catalina Island Conservancy and has a more rustic feel to it despite the existence of dirt roads and cell service almost everywhere.  They do control vehicle access but you can pay to get almost anything including yourself delivered to one of only 5 campgrounds.

The island is also famous for the buffalo herds that were originally transported to the island for a movie only to be abandoned and have lived there ever since.  And there's also a unique species of fox that is only found on the island.

There is a trail that runs from one side to the other called the Trans-Catalina Trail that's been on my radar for years.  Since I'd only ever been to Avalon it seemed like an ideal way to see more of the island.  I never got around to it before now mostly due to the cost and extra hassles involved vs my usual Sierra or desert based weekend adventures.  You have to reserve campsites, pay for a boat ride, and I'd heard from others that it was mostly a steep hike on fire roads.

Then this year I let Jen Blackie convince me to finally take a precious four day weekend in between WTC and AMP and head out there.  And it turned out to be one of my favorite trips of the past few years despite the odd mix of civilization (cellphone coverage, vehicle access to the entire island) intruding into the wilderness-y experience I'm generally looking for.

Silver Peak (1,804')
61 miles, 14,000'
[CalTopo] [Map]

Wheeeeeeee!  The previous day had been a mad dash flying back from Sacramento where I'd spent Christmas with my parents only to stay in Orange County just long enough to throw all my climbing gear into the jeep and take off east with Jeff and Jen reaching Tucson late that night.

A long long drive later we found ourselves driving down a slightly less remote dirt road that I generally prefer in order to find a quiet -ish place to bivy for the night.  We settled down amid the scattered debris and passed out.

The only reason we were camped this close to a major city was because the following morning we were picking up a key for Crystal Cave which would kick off 5 days, 3 caves, 2 5th class peaks, and a fair amount of driving.  Throw in a middle of nowhere speeding ticket, a technical peak bailout, and one skunk attack to the face while sleeping (yes skunk and yes to the FACE), and we were in for a suitably eventful few days.

December 27th, 2013

Chiricahua Crystal Cave

[PicsM] [PicsJ] [Map]

While I spend a good portion of my time running up and down peaks I have a fascination with caves and mines that I don't get to exercise very often.

So when I happened across this trip report mentioning a rather neat cave requiring a 30 ft rappel / rope ascent sitting on the side of a 3rd/4th class peak in Nevada it was something I was eager to make happen.

As of 2015 this is now a part of the newly created Basin & Range National Monument.

December 14th, 2013

Leviathan Cave, Basin and Range National Monument

[PicsMatt] [PicsRon] [Map]

I came out of a four day Yosemite trip Tuesday night and had three long days of working from home before I could disappear off to the wilderness again. Three days after a long period of being in Boise every week so there was the usual pile of things that needed my attention in addition to trying to remind several friends that I exist as something other than an overactive Flickr account.

Still, it wasn't all unpleasant.


Then it was time for the next adventure: a 4 day trip to climb Grand Teton out of Jackson Hole Wyoming. I had been invited out of the blue by Kathy Rich several months before and as it fell on an open weekend I said yes on a whim. Originally I was one of 6 climbers but after a few injuries we were down to Kathy Rich, Daryn Dodge, and myself with me as the lead climber.

July 9th  to 12th, 2011

Grand Teton (13,770')

[Pics] [Map]

Ah winter / early spring. Nothing like looking back at what was supposed to be a tightly packed climbing schedule to see the scattered weather wrecked remains.

Admittedly I’d set out a rather optimistic schedule trying to fit in Snowcreek, Whitney Mountaineer’s Route, and Red Slate all within a one month period but hey, one can dream.

Snowcreek was canceled due to a large snow dump leading to dangerous avalanche conditions and instead I ran around the desert with James Barlow grabbing 3 DPS peaks and poking around a few mines.

Whitney MR was initially derailed at the last minute to an unpleasant cold front sweeping in. The forecast called for 40-50 mph winds with a low of 9 degrees and my partner Steve Eckert neglected to be blown off the ridge like a frozen mountaineer shaped kite. Not wanting to do something drastic like stay home I repurposed the weekend and ran up three 3rd class DPS peaks out near Las Vegas with Jen Blackie and Kim Breul.

When Red Slate rolled around I was eyeing snow conditions and not liking what I was seeing. Things were still unconsolidated with fresh snow falling just the weekend before. After chatting with Steve we decided to repurpose the weekend and go grab Whitney MR as the weather looked much more promising.

April 16th to 18th, 2011

Mount Whitney (14,495')

[Pics] [Map]