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This Week on the Road - September 25th-October 1st

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This Week on the Road - September 25th-October 1st

Hello Everybody! It’s hard to believe it’s October already. The leaves are definitely turning here in Washington State and the stores are filled with skeletons and pumpkins. It’s definitely starting to cool down and the days are getting noticeably shorter. This week has brought me from the heart of spectacular Olympic National Park to the state capital of Olympia with a couple of cool small towns sandwiched in between. I put in another 20 miles on the trail this week which I’m pretty proud of and finally got my views of Mount Olympus. After a couple of weeks of small towns and national park, it was nice to return to the city, although Olympia is hardly a thriving metropolis. I finished off my week with a night off the road in the classic Olympic Club hotel in Centralia. All in all, it’s been another great week on the road and I can’t wait to tell you all about it…

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This Week on the Road - September 3rd-10th

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This Week on the Road - September 3rd-10th

Jewett Boulevard in White Salmon

Hello Everyone! It is wonderful to be back on the coast here in Washington State where the weather is cool and shoulder season crowds are small and subdued. While I really enjoyed heading up the Columbia River Gorge, it was just too hot in the interior, and I had to make a beeline back to the coast. I will take my time as I head north and I know that by the time I head inland again it will be well into autumn and cooler temperatures will prevail. Despite a few hiccups, it’s been another great week all around and I’m very happy to be on the road in coastal Washington.

The Train Pulling “Quietly” Through Stevenson. WA

When I finished off writing this post last week, I was in Hood River, Oregon having just spent two fabulous days exploring the Columbia River Gorge. I had every intention of spending a few more days on the trail, chasing waterfalls and exploring the area, but as I mentioned, it was just too hot out there. I had been watching the weather, and while it had been hot for months it seemed like there was a bit of a cool spell coming through. That had held true for those first two days, but ended last Wednesday as temperatures climbed back into the 90s. It cooled down at night, but not very much and not until well after midnight. The heat is my biggest challenge when it comes to sleeping in my van as it absorbs heat on a hot day and it’s tough to cool it down (I don’t have a working a/c). I’ll take cold and rain and storms any day over a hot night. On top of the heat I found Hood River boxy and unattractive and while not altogether unpleasant, not particularly welcoming either. They had parking meters up all over town which I think are a terrible idea in a town that size, and really in most places including back at home in DC. Hood River wasn’t a bad place, but it wasn’t a place I would rush to get back to either. I did enjoy a few beers at Full Sail Brewery which is another old-school craft brewery which has been brewing beer longer than I’ve been drinking it. The beers were excellent and the bartender was quite pleasant as well. After a decent but unexciting stroll around downtown, I decided to call it a night, but it was just too hot to sleep, even with my “emergency fan” which I carry for just such an occasion. It served its purpose, but I still didn’t get much sleep. When it finally cooled down enough for me to doze off, my alarm was going off because they were going to start enforcing the meters at 8am (and they were out and doing just that not too long after).

The Main Dock in Stevenson, WA

When I don’t sleep, I don’t function well and I was on half-speed for most of Thursday. I headed up to a park just outside of town called Panorama Point where I had my coffee and breakfast. The smoke from the wildfires that are burning in Oregon took away most of the view, but I could at least see the outline of Mount Hood in the distance. Mount Hood is part of the Cascade Range which runs up the inland region of the west coast and includes spectacularly isolated, snow covered cone volcanoes which can be seen for miles around. They are absolutely stunning and always make me feel good and it definitely helped my mood a little bit. The overcast weather and cool breeze let me catch a short morning nap as well. When I got up, I headed down to the waterfront area to grab a cup of coffee and then decided it was time to cross the river and head west again towards cooler weather and save the rest of my exploration for another, cooler time. I remember doing the same thing a few years ago in Detroit and being very happy I did.

Looking Back Up River

The bridge there in Hood River is quite nerve wracking to cross as it is very narrow and the metal guardrails on either side have obviously been hit hundreds of times or more the entire way across. Bridges don’t generally make me nervous, but this one did. Right on the other side of the river was a little tourist information center (and a must-stop Welcome to Washington sign for this post), so I pulled in to take a photo and say hello. The lady in the Visitor Center couldn’t have been any nicer. She was born and raised in the area and told me that when she moved away she couldn’t wait to get back. She was a perfect representative of the communities on the Washington side of the gorge and helped with all of my questions, throwing in some stories of her own for good measure. She told me that the bridge I had just crossed was privately owned, hence the poor condition it was in. She also told me that it wasn’t very structurally sound and I was glad I wasn’t going back over it any time soon. When I asked her if it was always that hot in the beginning of September, she told me it was chilly for that time of year and motioned to her jeans and her sweater. That made me smile and, feeling a little better about the day, I decided to pop up the hill and check out the town of White Salmon at the top. White Salmon was small and charming and a big contrast to Hood River just across the bridge. I had a wonderful walk around town, taking some photos and enjoying its quirks (I especially loved that many of the crosswalks were actually painted with white salmon crossing the road). I stopped in the bakery for a snack and my mood was starting to take a real turn for the better. After wandering around town for a while, I headed down the hill and came into the neighboring town of Bingen. I was surprised that they were separate towns given how close they were and how small each of them was. It turns out that the rivalry goes back to the towns’ respective founding families, the Sukdorfs of Bingen and the Jewetts of White Salmon who were bitter enemies. I believe the towns are on better terms today, but I’ll bet their sports teams are still healthy rivals. Bingen had some neat little places to see as well and I especially loved a statue called “Oh Joy of Joys” which was a tribute to a beloved member of their community, Guillermo "Willy" Fisch. Willy had been born in Argentina and after years of traveling the world settled in tiny Bingen, Washington. He was apparently so well liked that he was often referred to as “Bingen’s Second Mayor”. I would be over the moon if a statue as joyous as this one was ever made of me and I’m sure Willy is out there somewhere smiling about it. I also stopped into Chips Tavern which was a perfect little neighborhood bar with lots of great old news stories and photos on the wall to keep me busy.

The Tower at Fort Vancouver

Leaving Bingen, I headed on down the gorge to Stevenson, another cute little town which caught my eye and had me hit the brakes and find a parking spot. Stevenson was super quaint and had some lovely waterfront parks to sit on a bench in the shade and look out over the Columbia River. I stopped in for a quick beer at the Walking Man Brewery which was absolutely adorable and had the feel of a small country pub somewhere in England or Ireland. Their hot water was out and the guy they had working on it was named Tom. He sat and had a beer with me and we ended up chatting for almost an hour. We had a lot in common and he was great to talk to and eventually he went out and got the hot water working again. During that time, one of the musicians who was playing that night at the brewery had wandered in and convinced me to stay and hear them play. It seemed cooler there than upriver, and my van was parked in the shade so I thought I might just stay the night there in Stevenson. I got some dinner, wandered around some more and came back for the music which was excellent. It was definitely cool enough for me to sleep that night, but I hadn’t counted on the trains that pull through town every hour in both directions all night long. While Stevenson is a “quiet town” so they don’t blow a whistle when they pull through, they’re still trains and they’re still loud. It was another night of bad sleep, but I did enjoy my time in Stevenson.

The Big House at Fort Vancouver

Friday I headed straight back to Vancouver which is the city opposite Portland across the Columbia. I started out with a nice visit to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, which was once the administrative center for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia River region which covered the fur trading area from Alaska to Mexican California and from the Rockies to the Pacific. Built in 1829, the “fort” itself wasn’t much (and never fired their canons except in ceremonial ways), the community that grew up around it was really quite fascinating. There were obviously Brits there to represent the HBC and probably a few Americans, but also French Canadian fur trappers, representatives of 35 different American Indian bands and a surprising number of Hawaiians. These groups intermarried and had children and created quite a diverse community there. After 1840, Fort Vancouver would serve as the end point of the Oregon Trail and the cities of Vancouver and Portland would grow up around the fort. It would remain a fort when Oregon became an American territory and stay one through both World Wars, becoming a National Park Site in 1948. The reconstructed old fort is cool to visit and I especially enjoyed chatting with a volunteer in the old trading post (which was apparently run by the fort’s doctor). After my visit, I went up to the old Grant House in a more modern part of the fort, which now houses a small wine room and restaurant. It was lovely to poke around inside and the people working there were super friendly in letting me do so. Ulysses S. Grant never lived in the house which bears his name, but he had served as the quartermaster of the fort in the early 1850s and at some point people started calling this house the Grant House. I enjoyed a glass of wine there and then headed downtown. Downtown Vancouver is nice enough, but I was pretty tired so I didn’t stay down there too long. I did have a cocktail at the Wahi Hana tiki bar, a couple of beers at some of the old pubs around the neighborhood and a burrito at Muchas Gracias. I stayed right next to the fort and finally got a good night’s sleep.

Coming Down the River

The next morning, seeing as it was Saturday and I was right across the river from Portland, I decided to go watch my Penn State Nittany Lions square off against Florida International at the Satellite Bar I had been to the week before. It was a noon game on the east coast, so a bright and early 9am game in Oregon. The staff was ready with a breakfast menu and plenty of coffee and there was a reasonable showing for an early season, inconsequential game at 9am (which we won 34-0). After the game I had a bunch of errands to run so I set off to see what I could accomplish. Since there is no sales tax in Oregon, I got what I could over there before re-crossing the river and finally heading north in the late afternoon. I pulled into Kelso just as it was getting dark and found a quiet place to spend the night and slept like a baby.

The Church in Oysterville

I was up bright and early Sunday morning because I had a lot I wanted to accomplish before heading back to the coast. I hit the gym and then pulled into the back side of the mall to do a couple of maintenance projects on my van. I changed the oil which is always easy and the air filter, which is way more complicated in these old vans than it should be. Then I drained my radiator so I could flush it and that would be it for the day. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get my radiator plug (petcock) to go back in. Everything I put in my radiator flowed right out again. I couldn’t believe that this simple project, which I’ve done plenty of times, was going to be what caused me grief. But I couldn’t go anywhere without coolant in my engine and it was Sunday so no place was open. After a couple of hours of racking my brain trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I decided to call it a day on worrying. I filled it up with water and drove the 3 minutes down the street to a fortuitously placed radiator repair shop. Then I went to the movies and saw Caught Stealing. It was a little more violent than I would have liked, but very fast paced and watchable and excellent to distract me for a while which is exactly what I needed. After the movie I went to Papa Zuzu’s pizza for a hot pizza and some cold Rainier beers before calling it a night.

My Guide to Oysterville

I try and look at things through the lens of what went right instead of what went wrong whenever I can. Being able to wake up in front of a radiator repair shop which opened at 7:30am when I had radiator problems after spending a cool and quiet night in a pleasant little town – that’s all good stuff. A van issue could happen anywhere, and this was one of the best places this particular issue could have happened. The gentleman I spoke with at Hart Radiators told me that they only work on radiators which have been removed from the vehicle they come with, not actually on the vehicles themselves but told me he knew a thing or two about radiators and would have a look. He rolled underneath and told me that when it was screwed all the way out, it was closed and when it was screwed all the way in, it was open. This was something I knew but my brain just wasn’t letting me remember the day before. It’s counterintuitive which is why it should be easy to remember, but for whatever reason I didn’t and hadn’t been paying enough attention when I opened it the first time. Regardless of any of that, he fixed it for me in 20 seconds and rolled back out, shook my hand and sent me on my way (after asking a dozen genuinely inquisitive and good natured questions about Washington DC). Definitely good luck I would say and a huge thank you to Hart Radiators in Kelso, Washington – you not only represent your business well, but your whole community.

Shell Mound

With my van back in service, I headed to the gym for a workout and then to the library to work on this post for a while. Then I made a beeline for the coast. It was a really nice drive down the Columbia River and I was so happy to be headed west towards the beach, cooler temperatures and the setting sun. When I pulled onto the Long Beach Peninsula, I knew that my day was just getting better. This is the kind of coast I love with small town maritime vibes and just a touch of tourist kitsch. It was after 6pm when I arrived, so I decided to just head up the peninsula to Oysterville which has a Victorian church that I really wanted to see. Oysterville is a tiny little village with only about 20 permanent residents but a whole lot of character to go along with it. When I pulled up to the church, which was as beautiful as I imagined it would be, a big, happy dog came bounding up the road towards me with her tail wagging. She was a healthy dog with a collar and tags so I assume she was a local dog and she sure seemed to be the welcoming committee as well. I took some photos of the church and grabbed a walking tour map and she came with me as I wandered down to the old schoolhouse and past a number of the houses in town, many beautifully maintained. I felt bad when I had to leave, but she said goodbye and then strolled down the road. It almost broke my heart when I looked in my mirror on the way out of town and she was bounding after me at full speed. What a great dog and a wonderful town.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

I drove down the east side of the peninsula and stopped to check out some of the oyster fleet along the way. Huge piles of oyster shells lined the roads to the piers and the working boats were as captivating as ever. This area once shipped a lot of oysters up and down the coast which brought a lot of money to this little corner of the country. They’re still in the oystering business, but the demand isn’t as high as it once was. I passed some cranberry farms on the way back down the peninsula as well and made it back to Long Beach for a beautiful sunset over the ocean. I had a lovely evening just walking up and down the main street and looking at all of the statues and murals I would photograph in the morning. It was so nice to fall asleep in my van with my blanket on and the windows closed as the temperatures hovered in the 50s.

I got up feeling great yesterday morning and stopped into Dylan’s Cottage Bakery for a bite. They honestly had one of the best bakery displays I’ve seen in a long time with a wonderful and diverse offering of pies and pastries. I had to settle on just two and a cup of coffee and used that to fuel my morning wander around town to take some photos. After an hour or two I headed just south of town to Cape Disappointment which houses a state park, two lighthouses and a wonderful museum about the journey of Lewis and Clark which ended right there at the mouth of the Columbia River (after a six day stretch in a gloomy and awful nook which they called the ‘Dismal Nitch’). Of all of the Lewis and Clark museums I’ve seen on this trip, this was one of my favorites. It was straight and to the point and moved right along, with plenty of great visuals to go along with the story. The Lewis and Clark story is of particular interest to me and this journey I’m on as my very first stop of this trip, way back in November of 2017, was in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia which was where Merriweather Lewis began the outfitting of his Corps of Discovery. It took them 18 months to make it to Cape Disappointment and it took me almost 8 years, but we both got here in the end. Nothing else to do but spend some time on the west coast and then head east again, which is exactly what they did and exactly what I plan to do. Much like Merriweather Lewis, I will probably return to Washington DC in the end, although I doubt any president will be waiting to greet me there. It brought me great joy to find several photos in this museum from the legendary Edward Curtis, the “Shadow Catcher”, after whom my van is named. Beyond the museum, I really enjoyed chatting with the volunteer manning the North Head Lighthouse about Fresnel lenses and lighthouse architecture before heading back north along the peninsula. I stopped in at Ilwaco for a nice walk along their marina and a lovely cider or two at the local cidery. Then I headed back to Long Beach where I had decided to take a room for the night because they are reasonably priced and I thought it was time for a little break. I had some delicious oysters for dinner at Castaways before calling it an early night in my quiet, cool hotel room.

And that’s where I am at the moment. I’m going to wrap up this post this morning before I go and then it’s time to say goodbye to Long Beach and time to head north again. I will stay tonight in South Bend, Washington and then continue up the coast for the rest of the week. I hope to find some great beaches, quiet towns, delicious seafood and maybe even a lighthouse or two. I’ll hopefully be getting real close to Olympic National Park by this time next week, but you’ll just have to check back in and see what I got up to. Whatever it is, it will be on the cooler side, and that is all I could ask for. Have a wonderful week out there, wherever you are and thank you, as always, for reading.

-Mike

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Sunset in Long Beach

Dusk at the Long Beach Arch

Oyster Boats

White Salmon Crosswalk and Town Hall

Chips in Bingen, WA

Oh Joy of Joys Statue in Bingen, WA

North Head Light

The Southern Cross in Ilwaco Harbor

Ilwaco Harbor

Old Rolls Royce Cars in Cape Disappointment State Park

Hanging With the Oyster Fleet

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This Week on the Road - August 27th-September 3rd

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This Week on the Road - August 27th-September 3rd

Portland Stag Sign

Hello Everyone. It’s been kind of a quiet week for me out here on the road. It was Labor Day Weekend here in the United States this week (for my international friends), which is always a busy travel weekend so I thought it would be best to lay low for it. I spent a good bit of this week in Portland, catching up with some friends and exploring the city. Since then, I’ve been cruising up the incredible Columbia River Gorge which is really just outside of Portland but has so much to offer. I’m writing this newsletter this week from Hood River, so I’m as far inland as I’m going to go for now but it has been spectacular and so good to be back out and hiking again. It is definitely noticeably and considerably warmer the further I get from the coast which is why I am headed back towards the Pacific starting tomorrow. I will save the rest of my time in Oregon for later in the year when it has had some time to cool down a bit. While not a particularly busy week, it’s definitely been a good one, so let me tell you what I’ve been up to.

Full Tiki Gear at Alibi

When I left you all last week, I did, in fact, drive all the way to Portland. There were some cute towns along the way as I drove up the Columbia River, but none that called out to me to stop and explore. When I got into Portland it was pretty late, so I decided I would go check out the two main tiki bars in town and see what they were up to. The first one I stopped at is a classic called Alibi which has been serving up delightful tiki cocktails since 1947. The décor was great and I loved the fish tanks and fountains. After a drink there, I made my way down to Hale Pele, a much more modern bar hidden behind an incredibly bland façade. Hale Pele is owned by Martin Cate who also owns some of the country’s best tiki bars – Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, Max’s South Seas Hideaway in Michigan and False Idol in San Diego. While I would say of those four, this was my least favorite, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I had a couple of great cocktails and they had an extensive rum list as well. It was small and very crowded, but I definitely enjoyed my visit. After a few cocktails, I was thrilled to find a Northern Thai restaurant called Sweet Basil open late and right up the street where I could get some spicy noodles to soak up the rum. It was a nice first evening in Portland.

It’s a Bus That’s a Bar

On Thursday I ran some errands around town and then went out to meet up with my friend, Andrew, in the north part of the city. Andrew is a fraternity brother of mine from Penn State and has been living in Portland for many years now. I try and catch him when I come through town, but usually I’m here with a tour group so it’s usually a short visit. This time I had more time so it was good to be able to spend the evening hanging out in his neighborhood. We went to an event called Last Thursdays in the Alberta Arts District which is a fun neighborhood street fair held on the last Thursday of the month. There were street musicians, food trucks and plenty of cool stalls selling all kinds of things. We wandered up and down the street, stopping here and there to check out a stall or watch some music (the break-dancers were particularly fun). We stopped for some good Mexican food and a beer and then headed back to his place for the night. As much as I enjoy my van, it was nice to spend a night inside for a change.

Keep Portland Weird

I left my van parked at their house in the morning and got a ride downtown from his girlfriend and I spent the day at the Oregon History Center. I spent several hours in their permanent exhibit on the third floor which covered Oregon’s history from its indigenous roots all the way to present day. There was a lot to see and to read and I was surprised when I checked my watch for the first time and realized I had been up there for over four hours. I had afternoon plans and I was also nearing the end of my attention span, so I whipped through the rest of the museum over the next hour and then headed out. I grabbed a quick lunch from a nearby food truck and a beer from a bar in a converted English double-decker bus and then hopped on the city bus back to where I was parked. From there it was just a quick 15 minute drive to my friend Josh’s house. Josh lived in the city just north of me when I lived in Japan many years ago and I particularly remember a wonderful ski trip we took together to Sapporo. I haven’t seen him since I left Japan and was really happy to catch up with him in Portland. He took me down to Mississippi St, another of Portland’s many business districts. We had a nice stroll up and down the street, stopping here and there for a beer. My favorite was at a spot called Moloko that had several big saltwater fish tanks lining the walls. I love tropical fish and I really enjoyed watching them swim around while we caught up. Some of Josh’s friends joined us and we wandered down the street for some barbecue from Matt’s BBQ which was pretty good. Right around the corner is an alley filled with Star Wars characters and lights and sound effects which was pretty cool and very Portland. From there we went to a cool little bar near Josh’s house in St. Johns which had some fun old video games and pinball machines before winding up at a great little dive bar which reminded me a lot of some of the places I used to hang out at in New Orleans. It was another fun day and so good to see Josh after a dozen years.

We Are Penn State!

I stayed in my van that night, but right at Josh’s house, so we were able to have breakfast together in the morning before parting ways. I made my way down the road to Satellite Bar, which is the Penn State Oregon Alumni Association’s official viewing site for football season. Andrew joined me for the game, as did my friend Cristen who also went to school with me. There were probably about 80 people there to watch our Nittany Lions sail to an easy win over the Nevada Wolf Pack. The weather was a little cooler than it has been in Portland recently and it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the game. Afterwards I went back to Cristen’s house for the night. Her husband and daughter came home soon after we got there and we had a wonderful dinner and some great conversation before calling it a very early night, which was much needed at that point.

Star Wars Alley

I stayed with them for breakfast in the morning and then said my goodbyes and headed just up the road to Firestone. Shadow Catcher has been making some noises and I figured since they were open on a Sunday, it was as good a time as any to get it looked at. As I mentioned above, it was Labor Day weekend, so I knew it would be super busy everywhere nearby and I figured I’d get the work done and be ready to hit the road when everyone else was headed back to town (plus school started Tuesday in Oregon). I spent the day in Starbucks catching up on some work and editing some photos while I waited. They closed at 6 and when I hadn’t heard anything I wandered back over at 5:45, only to be told that they weren’t going to get it done that day (despite having promised that they would). That was incredibly frustrating and made more-so by their complete lack of communication about the whole thing. It was half done and they at least pulled it out of the garage and parked it in their lot so I had somewhere to sleep. Getting repairs done when I’m on the road is always a pain, but at least I didn’t have to go find a hotel somewhere. That left me with the night to explore a bit of Tigard which is a cute little suburb of Portland. I got some food and had a few beers and met some really nice people which made for a pleasant evening.

McMennamins’ Crystal Hotel

I didn’t sleep great though, in part because I was right next to a busy road and in part because I don’t like confrontations and I knew I was going to have one first thing in the morning. I didn’t roll in right when they opened at 7, but gave them a half-hour to get the lights on and their opening work taken care of. When I did come in, the manager was expecting me and knew I wasn’t going to be happy. He told me the situation and apologized profusely. I told him that I didn’t know if I could trust them to do the work and he assured me he would get his guy on it immediately, check the work himself and get me out the door as soon as possible. He seemed genuine and was true to his word and even knocked about 20% off of the price. It was way more expensive than it should have been in the first place so that helped, and I couldn’t drive much further down the road with it clinking and clanking away back there so I’m glad I got it done. At the end of the day it’s all part of life on the road.

Q D’s Bar in Portland

Shadow Catcher did sound a lot better and it felt as though they did a good job, so we headed up the road to the gym and then I drove back to the north side of Portland and took the train into the city. It was nice to have an afternoon to myself to just wander around. I stopped here and there for a beer, ate some dinner at one of the food truck courts, checked out Powell Books (the largest independent bookstore in the country), and generally had a good time of it. I think my favorite spots that I hit were QD’s which had an old school Americana vibe, Kelly’s Olympian which is just full of old-school neon, inside and out, and Raven’s Manor which is decked out like Halloween every day of the year.  I’ve been slowly getting to know Portland over the years, but I’ve rarely been able to just wander aimlessly about and see what I can find and it was nice to do just that. While Portland definitely has some problems that it needs to address as far as drugs, homelessness and the general state of its downtown area, everywhere outside of that central core is pretty nice. Within the city center there is still a lot to do and it is getting better, but there’s still a long way to go.

Shadow Catcher at Vista House

Bright and early Monday morning I put Portland in my rear view mirror and started heading east for the first time in a long time. I made my first stop in Troutsdale at a place called Edgefield. Edgefield was once the Multnomah County Poor Farm, but today is a part of the McMenamins enterprise. The McMenamins brothers are pretty famous in Oregon and especially in the Portland area. They take over old bars, hotels, restaurants and other properties and rehabilitate them into something special. I’ve been to a few of their places since arriving in Oregon, but after visiting Edgefield I will definitely be paying more attention. They have turned this institutional property into a beautiful and whimsical hotel with a brewery, a winery, several bars, a restaurant, a live event venue, a glass-blowing studio, a golf course and a spa. It was fabulous to walk around and see what can be done to a place like this with the right amount of inspiration (and money, of course). I often seek out old institutions in my travels because they are architecturally interesting to me, but more often than not they are abandoned and falling apart. I always think how amazing it would be if someone would invest the time and money to restore these old buildings and I’m happy to see that in this part of the country they are doing just that. And by the looks of the place they are doing quite well with it too.

Latourell Falls

Just outside of Troutsdale I headed into the Columbia River Gorge. The Gorge has been a transportation route for centuries as the American Indians used it as a trade and travel route. Lewis and Clark came down the Gorge on the last leg of their overland trip to the Pacific Ocean. It was the last obstacle that emigrants faced on their way down the Oregon Trail and the road that runs through it was the very first paved highway in the Pacific Northwest and the first designated scenic corridor in the country. I have been up the Gorge several times in my life, but always with a tour group in tow and always on a tight schedule. It was nice to be able to just take my time and get out and explore. I started my day up at Vista House which sits high above the Gorge and offers nice views over the road and the river. Just down the road, I stopped at Latourell Falls and hiked the scenic loop trail to the upper falls and back. At the top, I met Helen and KC and their sons Chase and Liam. I had actually taken their photo at the start of the trail and was taking some photos at the top when they caught up with me. The boys took off behind the falls, laughing and having a blast which was good to see. I chatted with their parents for a while about my trip and my photos and they gave me some places to check out when I move into Washington State. It was nice to meet them and I really enjoyed the conversation, but I said my goodbyes and then headed back down to the base of the falls and back to my van.

Punchbowl Falls

My next stop was Bridalveil Falls which was just a short walk from the parking area, but also very nice. Then I went to the Wahkeena Falls trailhead and took another nice walk up past Fairy Falls to the Wahkeena Spring. This walk was beautiful and I felt good doing it but it’s definitely been a while since I did any hiking and my legs were feeling it. It was starting to get late by the time I got down from this hike, but I did make a quick stop at Multnomah Falls on my way past. This is probably the most famous stop in the Gorge and one of the more famous waterfalls in the country. Funnily enough it is the bridge in front of the falls that makes it such a photogenic and beloved spot. I have been to Multnomah several times before, but I’m still glad I stopped. From there it was just a quick 20 minutes into the little town of Cascade Locks. I made it to Thunder Island Brewery just before last call so at least I could have a quick beer to celebrate the day. Cascade Locks is the town where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Columbia River via Bridge of the Gods, so there were a lot of hikers in town on their long walk from the Mexican border to Canada. They looked tired, but seemed in good spirits and I’m sure the beer tasted even better to them.

Dusk on the Gorge

Another early start this morning got me to the Eagle Creek trailhead nice and early after a quick photo stop at Horsetail Falls. This was a hike recommended by my friend Cristen and it was definitely a good one. The hike travels up Eagle Creek which comes down a pretty impressive gorge of its own. The trail ascends above the creek and is sometimes narrow enough that the Forest Service has installed a metal cable into the rocks to hold onto. It was absolutely beautiful the whole way up and down, but also more exposed than a lot of the trails in the area so I’m glad I started early. I only went as far as Punch Bowl Falls, but it was a wonderful 5ish mile walk and a really nice way to start the day. I returned to Cascade Locks because I had spotted a little burger stand called the East Wind Drive-In last night and thought I would treat myself to a burger and fries and a little bit of ice cream as well. It was excellent and fresh and a real treat. After lunch I made my way on to Hood River, grabbed a shower at the Aquatic Center and have tucked myself into the library to finish this week’s This Week. I have added a few photos from my time in the Gorge, but hope to take some more and do a full photo post this coming week.

Tomorrow I will leave Oregon behind as I cross the Columbia River Gorge into Washington State. My normal plan is to spend my 6-8 weeks in each state in one continuous push, but it is still too hot in the inland parts of Oregon. I don’t love the heat and it’s especially hard to sleep in so I am moving on back to the coast and will pick up where I left off in Oregon later in the year. Since there was no way to get to Washington from California without traveling through Oregon, I started my exploration en-route and have really enjoyed it so far and am looking forward to getting back here in late October. Tomorrow will begin my time in Washington and I hope to be there for all of September and a good bit of October as well. I will make my way back down the Gorge and back out to the coast and head north again along the Pacific. I hope to explore some coastal towns, do some backpacking in Olympic National Park and then head out to the San Juan Islands on my way to Tacoma and Seattle. That’s about as far into things as I’ve thought right now, but I’m really looking forward to it. By this time next week I hope to be getting back to the coast and hope I’ve had some good adventures along the way to share. I’m definitely excited for what lays ahead. I hope you’ll come back next week and see what I’ve gotten up to. Until then, have fun out there and thank you, as always, for reading.

-Mike

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Portland’s Chinatown

Last Thursday Street Fair

The Portland Theater

Multnomah Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

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August on the Road

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August on the Road

Hello Everyone! I apologize for how long it’s been since I last wrote, but it’s been a hectic and crazy month out here on the road. Until this past weekend, I had not had a day off in over a month and I’ve covered a lot of ground during that time. I guided four trips in a row which took a lot out of me, but I had great passengers with me and we saw some amazing and beautiful places. I have another solid month of guiding beginning in just a day or two, but I wanted to drop you all a quick ‘hello’ and share some of my favorite photos from this last month on the road.

I started with an old favorite – a six day hiking tour in Yosemite for Intrepid Travel. While I’ve done this trip several times including twice earlier this summer, it’s still nice to spend so much time on the trail and to show people one of my favorite National Parks. The waterfalls were still going strong for August and it was the first time I’d been able to get up to hike Cathedral Lakes in the high country this year. These hikes left everyone pretty tired, but I know every one of those passengers had a great and memorable trip and will remember Yosemite fondly for the rest of their lives.

After bringing that group back to San Francisco, I left the following day for Seattle where I started a six day trip to Portland via Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. It had been 20 years since I was last in Olympic and it was really nice to be back in this beautiful and often overlooked park. We did a whale watching tour, explored the Hoh Rainforest and walked by the Pacific Ocean looking out at the beautiful sea stacks of Second Beach. While I used to spend a lot of time at Mount Rainier, that’s another park I haven’t been to since before the pandemic. On our first day there we got some fantastic clear views of the mountain and I’m glad we took advantage of them because our second day was almost entirely shrouded in fog. We still had a nice hike and then headed on to Portland where we visited the International Rose Test Garden (it is the City of Roses after all) and then had a quiet dinner in the park before calling it a trip.

Half of that group stayed on with me for the next six days and a lovely Swedish couple joined us as well. That week brought us from Portland all the way back to San Francisco. We visited Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, ate smoked salmon with a lovely couple who run an indigenous salmon business on the Warm Springs Reservation, Kayaked in a volcanic crater near Bend, Gazed out over Crater Lake National Park and cruised the California Coast feasting on some fresh oysters. We finished with a walk through Muir Woods and a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I got a day to wind down and wind back up again and the very next day I picked up my last group of that run for a fast and furious 15 day tromp through some of America’s best National Parks. We started off with a few days in Yosemite and then had to duck around Death Valley due to the rains from Hurricane Hillary, staying in Tonopah instead. After a quick trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park, we went on to Zion and then had two great days at the North Rim of Grand Canyon. You may remember that the last (and only) time I was at the North Rim, I was recovering from Covid so I didn’t push myself too hard out there. This time I headed deep into the Canyon on the North Kaibab Trail and it was really nice to see the Canyon from a different angle. We headed from there to Monument Valley to spend some time with the Navajo and then had two great nights in Moab visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. Then we were off to Salt Lake City to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from the Mormon missionaries at Temple Square. Finally we spent three days in the splendor of Yellowstone before winding up our journey in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.

It was a long but quiet ride back to San Francisco from there, but I did get a few days to catch up on some sleep and a few other things before turning north again to Seattle where I am writing to you from today. Tomorrow I will meet another group and we will be headed east from here to Glacier National Park, my favorite place in the whole world. Then we’ll have some nice days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before winding up in Salt Lake City. I’ll get a day to myself there and then turn around and do the same trip in reverse bringing me back to Seattle in the first week of October. It’s going to be cold in the Rockies by then, but it should be quiet and beautiful as well and I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t think I’m going to get much of a chance to do anything here on my blog over the next month, but I’ll check back in with you when these two trips are done in October. The summer sure flew by this year, but time flies when you’re having fun. I hope you’ve all had a great summer out there, wherever you are and that you’re looking forward to cooler days ahead. Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you enjoy this little sampling of photos of some of the spectacular places I’ve been this summer.

-Mike

(Click the link to see my favorite photos from this month)

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Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

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Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

Hello Everyone!

It’s been a great couple of weeks out here on the road. I spent two weeks guiding a tour for Austin College, a small university based in Sherman, Texas (far from Austin, Texas – the school is named for Texas hero Stephen Austin). The tour was for a class on environmental concerns in our National Parks, a topic quite near and dear to my heart. It consisted of 10 students and their professor and took us from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the desert. I really enjoyed these young people and I got along really well with the professor, Dr. Baker, as well.

I met the group two weeks ago on a Tuesday night here in San Francisco. They invited me to join them for dinner at House of Nanking in Chinatown which is a pretty cool place to eat as a group and we all enjoyed quite a feast. It was interesting to hear what the students were studying and what their specific area of interest was for this particular class. Their topics ranged from birds to flash floods to water conservation and all of them were really important to our western parks.

We spent the next three nights in Yosemite, hiking and meeting with the rangers to discuss the park’s key issues. There was still a lot of water in the valley and it was great to see everything so wet and green. On our first full day we hiked up the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls and there was a ton of water coming over those waterfalls. Everyone got absolutely soaked, but thankfully it was a sunny day and we dried out quickly. The last time I did that hike was last November when those waterfalls were barely a trickle and the trail was completely dry. The next day we went out and hiked to the Giant Sequoias in the Mariposa Grove in the south of the park and it’s always awesome to see these massive 2-3,000 year old giants. In our meetings with the rangers and staff, we discussed fire management and bear conservation and the conversation was quite interesting. Leaving the park we headed south and around the mountains and ended up in Barstow for the night. We did some serious grocery shopping and then enjoyed a nice dinner at Peggy Sue’s 1950s Diner just outside of town. That night we had our first group discussion and I really enjoyed hearing the student’s opinions about Yosemite and what they had seen and heard over the previous few days.

We left Barstow early the next day as we had a pretty long drive to Grand Canyon that day. We stopped in Seligman to get our kicks on Route 66 and then headed on to the South Rim…

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This Week on the Road - April 5th-12th

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This Week on the Road - April 5th-12th

Hello Everyone!

I’m writing to you this week from grey and chilly San Diego. I began this week with a trip to Catalina Island and have spent the rest of it moving down the coast and catching up with friends along the way. It’s been great to see so many familiar faces and catch up on what they’ve been up to, but I haven’t gotten any photos edited or published this week as a result. I do have some great photo posts lined up though and I will definitely get to a few of them this week. I’ve had some fun adventures this week but it’s also been fairly quiet.

I was up early on Wednesday and off to Catalina Island from Long Beach. Parking at the terminal wasn’t cheap, but it was quick and easy and very convenient to the boat. The Catalina Express is huge and very comfortable and stable. It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I nabbed a seat on the top deck and got a little bit of sun on the way out to the island. When we arrived in Avalon (the main town on Catalina), I was a bit overwhelmed with how crowded it was. There was a cruise ship in that day so there were hundreds of people going here and there and everywhere but the crowds would die down as the day progressed. I had a room booked at the Catalina Island Inn, so I popped in to see if I could leave my bag there for the day. They couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating and even took my number so they could call me when my room was ready. I left my bag, took my camera and headed out into the day.

I very quickly started to feel the charms of Avalon despite the hustle and bustle of a busy day. Catalina is known for its glazed clay tiles and they adorned buildings, benches and fountains in colorful mosaics. I wandered down the waterfront and past the Tuna Club and the Yacht Club, both open to members only but both housed in beautiful old buildings that I enjoyed looking at. Then I came to the Casino which towers above the town of Avalon like the Coliseum in Ancient Rome, visible from almost everywhere you go. Built almost a hundred years ago, the Casino has never been a place for gambling, but rather takes its name from an old Italian word for a small house, but which generally meant a place to socialize and dance. I took a tour of the Casino which, while it cost more than my visit to the Hearst Castle, was excellent. Downstairs is home to a grand theater which was the first theater in the country built specifically to show “talkies” or movies with sound. It’s still used as a theater today, showing movies on Friday and Saturday nights. My tour also included the dressing rooms and the incredible upstairs ballroom – the largest circular, free standing ballroom in the world which has a 180 foot diameter dancefloor and can accommodate 3,000 dancers (which it does on New Year’s Eve and other special occasions).

The Casino was built by William Wrigley Jr. who had purchased almost all of Catalina Island back in 1919 with money made from his chewing gum empire. Wrigley was responsible for most of what we see on Catalina today, including the 85% of the island controlled by the Catalina Conservancy which will remain undeveloped in perpetuity. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs who played (and still play) at Wrigley Field and for many years they had their Spring Training on Catalina Island…

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This Week on the Road - March 29th - April 4th

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This Week on the Road - March 29th - April 4th

Hello Everyone!

This week started and ended in L.A. but I spent the weekend out in Bakersfield. All of my California friends raised an eyebrow when I talked about going out to Bakersfield, but I really enjoyed it and was surprised at how much it had to offer. It was definitely a little rough around the edges, but the people were friendly and it was a beautiful, cool, sunny weekend to be there. I’m going to get this post done a day early this week because I’m headed out to Catalina Island first thing tomorrow morning and I’m leaving my computer behind. Catalina is in the same island group as Channel Islands National Park, but it is developed and has a year-round population of over 4,000 people. You guys know how much I love islands, so I’m really looking forward to it. The campground was full, so I’m staying in a hotel out there which also means I’ll only be there for a day, but I’m going to make the most of it. It hasn’t been the busiest of weeks, but I’m sure you’ll see that I’ve gotten a couple of bigger photo posts up this week. Let me tell you what else I’ve gotten into this week.

After I finished up this post last week I took a long drive through L.A. and up to Hollywood. I followed my GPS and it took me on a pleasantly winding route and down streets I’d never been down before. L.A. is a sprawling place and I could probably spend an entire month just exploring  around here, but it’s also a challenging place for the van life so it was just about time for me to move on. Before I went, there were three places I wanted to visit in Hollywood. The first is a tiny hole-in-the-wall spot called Tiki Ti. The whole tiki phenomenon in the U.S. began in 1933 by a guy called Don the Beachcomber right there in Hollywood. While that tiki bar is long gone, Tiki Ti remains. Tiki Ti was founded in 1961 by Ray Buhen who had been one of the early bartenders at Don the Beachcomber. He built his bar in an old violin repair shop so you can imagine how small it is. Today, it is one of the country’s most venerable tiki bars and a must-see for any tiki aficionado. I had been by it before, but never had the chance to stop in and I’m sure glad I did this time through. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the people and a couple of tropical cocktails but mostly I was just happy to soak up the history of the place.

From there I made my way back down the Sunset Strip to the Comedy Store to see Comedians You Should Know upstairs in the Belly Room. The Comedy Store is another well-known venue and another place I had never been before. The show was pretty good and some of the comedians were great (and one was downright terrible) and I was happy to have finally made it in to see a show. When it finished, I strolled down the street to Mel’s Drive-In for dinner which wasn’t great but it was fun to be there. It started to rain while I was eating my dinner, so I decided to just call it a night right there in Hollywood.

Thursday morning I was up and off to Bakersfield. I hit some rain and even about 10 seconds worth of snow on the drive, but it was sunny and perfect when I arrived. It was so nice to be in a quiet, open city again where parking was free and plentiful and I could walk wherever I wanted to go. I spent the afternoon wandering the streets and taking photos and then ended up at an old bar called Guthrie’s for happy hour. It’s a great old spot with a beautiful sign out front and a juke box and pool table in the back. From there I caught an acoustic set at The Padre Hotel and then went to The Pyrenees Café for dinner. Bakersfield has a Basque community which dates back to the gold rush. The Basque came to look for gold but found that herding sheep was more profitable because all of those prospectors needed food and clothing. There are still a handful of Basque restaurants in Bakersfield and they put out quite a spread. I had a lamb shank, and it came with soup and salad, marinated tongue, bread, pasta, vegetables and fries. The place was packed, but my dinner was really good. Full to the brim, I headed back downtown to check out Tiki-Ko, Bakersfield’s own tiki bar. It is an excellent spot – subdued but festive and with a good drink menu. I enjoyed a cocktail there before heading off to bed…

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This Week on the Road - March 22nd-29th

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This Week on the Road - March 22nd-29th

Hello Everyone,

It’s been another busy week here in Southern California. I spent half of the week out on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park which was an absolutely wonderful experience. When I returned to the mainland, I made my way south to Los Angeles and have been here since, catching up with old friends and visiting some old haunts and some new places as well. I haven’t traveled far this week, so this probably won’t be a particularly long post, but it’s been nice to get some hiking in and the sun is finally shining again.

Last Wednesday, I packed up my backpack and hopped on The Islander in Ventura for the one our crossing to Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The water was rough, but it wasn’t too bad and thankfully it wasn’t a long voyage. When we arrived, we met briefly with the ranger and then headed off to set up camp. It had been raining all night and most of the morning, but the sun was out and it’s always easier to set up a tent in the sun than in the rain. The campground was pretty soggy and we had been warned about branches falling from the eucalyptus trees, so choosing a good spot to set up was essential. After getting my tent up and ready, I decided to use whatever sunshine was left to hike up to the Potato Harbor overlook. This was only about a 4 mile round-trip hike, but it was really muddy on the trail. The mud had a high clay content too, so it stuck to my shoes and it caked on so thick that it looked like I was wearing snowshoes. I made it to the overlook which was absolutely stunning and on the way there I saw several endemic Santa Cruz grey foxes. These foxes have evolved to be much smaller than their mainland cousins, and growing up on an island with no predators, they’re also very friendly. I loved watching them wander around the island and found they made me smile every time I saw them.

After having my lunch at the overlook, I could see the rain coming towards me across the ocean so I started to make my way back to camp. Unfortunately the rain caught up with me before I got there, but worse it turned the clay trail into a slick downhill path. I almost made it back to camp without falling. In fact, I could see the campground from where I fell, but my feet just went out from under me and I landed pretty hard on my shoulder. While I didn’t do any damage and didn’t even get a bruise, it hurt for a few days and I didn’t have any pain killers with me in my pack. I wasn’t happy about it, but it could’ve been worse, too. I headed back to my tent and caught a nap while the rain kept pounding down. It eased up in the evening and hasn’t been back since. That night I ate the first freeze-dried meal I’ve had in many years. When I was a teenager, I spent two summers working at a Boy Scout backpacking camp in Virginia and we ate freeze dried food most of the time. It’s come a long way since I tried it last and I must admit that it was actually pretty tasty. After dinner, the sun went down and there wasn’t much to do so I slipped into my tent and called it an early night…

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This Week on the Road - February 26th-March 8th

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This Week on the Road - February 26th-March 8th

Hello Everyone!

The weather is very strange here in California. There is a lot of snow up in the mountains and a lot of rain in the rest of the state. Even the desert is getting rain right now. We desperately need all of this water and it’s generally a very good thing but it doesn’t make for great traveling weather. My plans to head to the mountains first were changed to a nice drive down the coast, but then landslides closed Route 1 so I’ve been hanging around somewhere in between. I’ve gotten to some nice museums this week and eaten some delicious meals, but I haven’t done too much or traveled too far. The price of gas in California is outrageous, so when I’m driving it needs to be deliberate. I have been getting through some of my Arizona photos from last winter and working on my podcast and I’ve definitely been getting to the gym every day so that’s good. But I really want to explore California with the time I have and this week has been more about reacclimating to the van life and trying to stay out of the way of the weather.

I started this leg in Sacramento, where my buddy Dave had been watching my van while I was at home and in Europe. I was hoping to head up to Lake Tahoe from there to visit some friends and get some skiing in, but the snowstorms in the mountains closed the roads and kept me from going. I spent a couple of days in Sacramento trying to wait it out, visiting the State Capitol and a few museums and getting a few things fixed on my van before giving up on the mountains and making my way out to Napa Valley.

Napa Valley is not my favorite region of California. I have spent a fair bit of time there over the years trying to find some places I enjoy, but to no avail. It’s a beautiful valley and I enjoyed driving through it, especially with the early spring bloom going on, but it’s a very wealthy area which has been built up to welcome the moneyed elite and not the average Joe. It reminds me a lot of Hilton Head in South Carolina and I just feel very out of place there. I know some people really love it and return year after year, but it’s just not the place for me. I did enjoy a brief visit to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum in St. Helena which, while small, has some interesting artifacts from Stevenson’s life and his time in California. Stevenson spent his honeymoon squatting in an old miners’ cabin in Napa Valley, a story he recounts in his book The Sacramento Squatters. I also had a delightful meal at Bouchon in Yountville which is owned by Thomas Keller, one of America’s most famous chefs

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My Winter Trip to Europe

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My Winter Trip to Europe

Hello Everyone! Long time, no see. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful start to 2023. It’s nice to be back with you and to be back on the road, but I’ve had the most amazing time since last I wrote. As many of you know, I left right before the New Year for a 47 day trip to England, Wales, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, France and Belgium. At its core, it was a trip to see some old friends and catch up and to get my international traveling feet back underneath me, but it was also a very nice break from everything here in the U.S. I left my computer and my camera behind and brought only a small day-pack and my iPhone. Over the 47 days I was there, I caught up with 51 friends from the last 25 years of my life including a college friend from Penn State, three people I did my Divemaster course with in Honduras, four work colleagues and a whole lot of friends who were once clients of mine on tour here in the U.S. I saw people I took on tour during my very first season 23 years ago and people I took on tour just last summer. Some people could only meet up in the evening after work or for a quick drink and some took a whole day off from work to show me around their hometowns. Many opened their homes and their lives to me for a few hours or days and I met spouses, partners, kids, parents and pets along the way. All told, it was exhausting but also invigorating and inspiring and absolutely one of the best time periods in my entire life. It was truly a remarkable 7 weeks. I’ve come back feeling motivated and excited about all of my projects, my coming tour season and life in general. While there was a lot more to this trip, I thought I’d share a brief(ish) recap of where I went.

My journey began in London on the 29th of December. I touched down at Heathrow Airport and headed right into central London on the tube. It was so wonderful to be there after at least 15 years and I just enjoyed wandering around, looking at the buildings and taking in the sights.  Over the next couple of days I visited with my friends Vicky, Sal and Neil and enjoyed a quiet New Year’s Eve to myself. I watched the Rose Bowl with my friend Jamie, who I haven’t seen since I graduated from Penn State 25 years ago. I got some planning done for the rest of my trip and touched base with a lot of people over dates and times, travel routes and details. I also had some great fish and chips, steak pie, gelato and a couple of excellent pints of ale in some truly awesome old pubs, some dating back hundreds of years.

From London, I headed north to Bedford where I caught up with my friend Lucy who came with me on a weeklong trip to Hawaii back in 2019. She took me out to Bletchley Park, a fascinating historic site which housed a major codebreaking operation during World War II. Next I went to Kettering to see my old friend Ryan who came on a cross-country tour with me 20 years ago. I had stayed with Ryan on a more recent visit to England, but that was probably 17 years ago now. I met his wonderful family and we caught up over dinner and some excellent Scotch. From there I headed on to Warwick to see my buddy Chris who was one of my first-season passengers. He showed me around the medieval town of Warwick and Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon. He also kept me out way past my bedtime on a Friday night drinking beers with his friends. It was awesome to look through Chris’ photo album of the tour we took together so many years ago.

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An Update from Home - December 13th

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An Update from Home - December 13th

Hello Everyone! I know it’s been two months since last I wrote, and I’m sorry for the long pause between posts. As my tour season wore on, I began to wear out and had less and less energy to focus on anything but the job at hand. While not an exceptionally long season time-wise at six months, I ran 18 tours since May which was significantly more than I normally would. Some tours were 2-3 weeks as they would have been in the old days, but many were only 2-6 days. Each tour has a life of its own and shorter tours require a burst of energy which never really settles into a comfortable rhythm. Looking back at this past season, as I sit here warm and cozy on the other end of it at my mother’s dining room table here in Washington DC, it was amazing. I met hundreds of wonderful people from all over the world and took them to some truly awesome places. I got to see some old favorites and had plenty of new experiences as well. The summer was full of laughter and stories and joyful poses in front of the camera after long hikes led us to spectacular vistas. I found nothing but support and understanding from my new company and am already looking forward to working for them again next season. But first I have a winter full of my own adventures to plan and enjoy as I have no intention of going back to work before May.

When last I wrote, I was preparing for a 6 day tour through Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Yosemite gave us an easy and familiar start, and the smoke from summer fires had finally cleared from the valley. From there, we travelled to Sequoia National Park which had some beautiful vistas but was horrifically scarred by major fires in 2020 and 2021. I felt like a government fire assessor as we hiked through burned out forest to the lookout on Big Baldy and one of my passengers commented (humorously) that it felt like “hiking through Armageddon”.  Our drive down into Kings Canyon was excellent, though, and I enjoyed this short tour with a small group of just four people.

My next trip brought me on another 6 day adventure, this time to Napa and Sonoma for a “walking and wine” tour. Eight of my nine passengers on this trip were a group traveling together from New Jersey which made for an interesting dynamic. They were all wonderful people, but it was definitely different to have such a big group within my group. We did some magnificent hikes though, especially out to Tamales Bay on the coast where we spotted coyotes and elk along the way to fantastic overlooks of the Pacific Ocean. I also enjoyed getting back to Muir Woods after many years away on this trip. I found us some delicious places to eat out in wine country and my group enjoyed several wine tastings as well.

The final trip of my season took me back to the desert for a nice eight day loop taking in Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. We spent Thanksgiving in Grand Canyon and were treated to a real feast at Yavapai Lodge. I also had the opportunity to climb Angels Landing in Zion, a hike I haven’t done in many years…

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An Update from the Road - October 18th

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An Update from the Road - October 18th

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is having a pleasant October so far. I haven’t seen much in the way of leaves changing color out here in California, but the window decorations in the stores are telling me that Halloween is right around the corner. It’s always a fun time of year and it usually means that the end of my tour season is also in sight. Three more trips and I’m a free man for the winter and while it’s been an amazing season, I’m looking forward to being back on my own for a while.

Since I last wrote, I’ve run two 3 day tours to Yosemite and had a week in between all to myself. The trips were both really good, with excellent groups and decent weather. It’s starting to cool off a bit in the mountains, and the smoke from this summer’s fires seems to be mostly gone. I ran both trips in pretty much the same way, with wonderful hikes in the valley, the high country and down to see the giant sequoias. I can definitely say I’ve come to know Yosemite better this summer than I could have ever imagined, which is something I’ve really enjoyed. It used to be my favorite park in the country, but traffic and crowded trails dropped it down my list a few notches over the years. With the introduction of a reservation system, the number of people in the park seemed much more reasonable this summer, and I’ve really enjoyed my time there. I’ve gotten to hike most of my favorite trails, and discovered plenty of new ones as well. I have one more trip to Yosemite this summer, but I’m already looking forward to returning next year when the waterfalls are back and spring is in the air.

Between these trips, I got out of the bay area for a week, and Shadow Catcher and I got to spend some serious time together while I got out and explored a little more of California. We started by heading down to the coast at Santa Cruz, a nice little beach community about an hour south of San Francisco. It was the filming location for the beach scenes in the 1980s classic horror film The Lost Boys, so it’s always had a special place in my heart. As a kid who had never been to the west coast, I imagined all California beach towns looked like Santa Cruz. It was pretty quiet when I was there and I enjoyed wandering around the boardwalk, hanging out with the sea lions out on the pier, photographing the lighthouses and just enjoying the smell of the salt air and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. I even found a great little dive bar called Brady’s Yacht Club with $2 beers, by far the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere in California in a very long time.

I spent an afternoon and evening there and the following morning as well before heading down the coast to Monterey. I’ve spent some time in Monterey before and have always wanted to visit the aquarium and this seemed like a good chance to do it..

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