Travel Logs

Amazing Trips and Adventures

California Adventures – June 2015

California Adventures – June 2015 – [ View the Full Album ]

With summer here, it was time to plan another adventure vacation.  Up this time, California!  The plan was to spend a week in California and experience a variety of what it had to offer — desert, Route 66, Sequoias, the beach, the Pacific Coast Highway, and Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach.

An aggressive itinerary, but we managed to find time to relax in between stops and really take in the sites.  California is a beautiful place and even just this one loop through the central region only barely scratched the surface of what there was to see.

The plan

The plan

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Suwannee Kayak Trip – April, 2015

Suwannee River Kayak Trip – April 2015 – [ View the Full Album ]

With spring in the air and summer not too far away, it was time to paddle another section of the Suwannee River near Live Oak, FL to continue our expedition down the river.

Kayaking the Suwannee River in North Florida.  The Suwannee River is 246 miles long and runs from the Okefenokee Swamp in Fargo, Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico.  This was trip number 2 in our efforts to “section hike” most of the river.  This time, instead of big metal canoes, we upgraded to lean and fast kayaks to make our 36 mile trek from the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park to the Dowling Park Ramp more fun.

All of our planning worked out perfectly with nothing other than minor tweaks for next time.  The trip was another great time on the river and we definitely look forward to the next one to continue further toward the goal of making it to the gulf.

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New York City – December, 2014

New York City – December, 2014 – [ View the Full Album ]

I’m a New York State (upstate) native, yet, I’d only ever visited New York City once — and that was after moving to Georgia.  As such, I’d never really gotten a chance to visit or explore.  December of 2014 presented the opportunity to go back for a few days and see a few of the sites in New York City and Long Island.

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Seattle Caching Run – Nov, 2014

Seattle Whirlwind Caching Run – November, 2014 – [ View the Full Album ]

This past week, I had the opportunity to visit Seattle, WA for a conference.  What to do with a couple of extra days before the conference?  Hit up a few local geocaches of course!

Over the course of my 3 day whirlwind tour, I started in Seattle to visit the Snoqualmie Tunnel area, then headed down to Portland where I hit a number of the heritage caches in the area, then swung back up to the Seattle area to visit many high favorite caches in the Seattle, WA area, including:  goblindust caches, the Totally Tubular caches, and HQ and the HQ Geotrail.

All in all, it was an amazing and exhausting trip.  I hit a number of amazing caches and saw so many great things.  For anyone who has never been, I highly recommend the trip.  And for me, I’m trying to figure out when I can go back!

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Suwannee Kayak Trip – Oct, 2014

Suwannee River Kayak Trip – October, 2014 – [ View the Full Album ]

The cool fall weather has rolled around again, which means it was time to head back down to the Suwannee River near Live Oak, FL to continue our expedition down the river.

Kayaking the Suwannee River in North Florida.  The Suwannee River is 246 miles long and runs from the Okefenokee Swamp in Fargo, Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico.  This was trip number 2 in our efforts to “section hike” most of the river.  This time, instead of big metal canoes, we upgraded to lean and fast kayaks to make our 36 mile trek from the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park to the Dowling Park Ramp more fun.

All of our planning worked out perfectly with nothing other than minor tweaks for next time.  The trip was another great time on the river and we definitely look forward to the next one to continue further toward the goal of making it to the gulf.

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Las Vegas – July, 2014

Las Vegas Insanity Tour 2014 – July, 2014 – [ View the Full Album ]

For our summer getaway this year, we decided to heat out to the desert and explore some of the sights in and around Las Vegas, NV.

On a trip with some friends, we planned a pretty diverse trip — seeing the Hoover Dam, hitting a portion of the ET Power Trail (Geocaching trail) on the Extraterrestrial Highway, exploring The Narrows in Zion National Park in Utah, seeing the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and relaxing by the giant pool at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV.

The trip went off without a hitch and we had a phenomenal time.  As with any trip, there certainly wasn’t enough time to do it all, but we did our best.  The Narrows (as well as some other sights) in Zion National Park in Utah is definitely on the list for a future return visit!

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Suwannee Canoe Trip – Nov, 2013

Suwannee River Canoe Trip – November, 2013 – [ View the Full Album ]

For our trip this year, we decided to try something a little bit different than our typical back-country backpacking or mountain climbing — a leisurely back-country canoe trip.

The Suwannee River starts in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and proceeds through much of Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.  The river itself is 240 miles long, most of which is traversable.

For our adventure, our first time on the Suwannee, we decided to do just a subset of the northern section.  The 38-mile stretch from Cone Bridge just north of White Springs, FL to the Suannee Canoe Outpost located in the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Part.

The trip was a great time for the four of us and will definitely be the first of many other future canoe or kayak overnight trips.

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West Coast Trail – June, 2011

The West Coast Trail – June, 2011 – [ View the Full Album ]

Every couple of years, we like to try an exotic hike or some other outdoorsy excursion. Two years ago, we climbed Mt. Shasta in Northern California and we enjoyed the region so much that we decided our next one would also have to be on the west coast.  This time, the Pacific Northwest!

Aaron isn’t sure exactly how he stumbled upon the trail.  I wanted to visit Vancouver and he searched for difficult hiking trails and before you knew it, we were talking about the West Coast Trail.  So, in July of 2010, Aaron proposed that we aim to hike the West Coast Trail in the summer of 2011.

After talking about it on and off over the course of the next year, we finally became serious and the studying began.  I purchased the excellent Blisters and Bliss guide and we diligently reviewed many trip reports, including Brett’s amazing write-ups (http://www.brettonstuff.com)

We spent weeks gathering the recommended gear for the arduous trek (things like gaiters and trekking poles are an absolute must!) and then finally the day arrived.  We’d had the best intentions of being as light as possible and didn’t feel like we were packing in the frills, but we still weighed in with 45+ lb packs…doh!

The West Coast Trail officially opens on May 1st and closes on September 30th.  From May 1st to June 14th, it is considered the early shoulder season in which trail reservations are not needed due to lower hiker volume.  This was our target.  We planned to start on June 3rd, just before the busy season, to allow us some cooler weather and emptier campsites.  The risk, of course, was a higher chance of inclement weather.

Finally it was time to begin our journey.  We flew into Seattle and rented a car.  From there, we parked our rental car at the southern trailhead (Port Renfew / Gordon River — Evan’s facilities are excellent) and took the roller-coaster-esque insane Trailbus up the dusty logging roads to Bamfield (Pachena Bay) where we ultimately began our trek.  While the sky was pretty overcast, fortunately it wasn’t raining.  Apparently it had been raining for the entire week prior to our start day making for some absolutely miserable and soggy trekking for many.  Such is the risk with the early season hikes.

Our trek itself was textbook except for the absolutely phenomenal weather which we had.  While it rained the entire week prior to our arrival — making the ground very wet and muddy for us, we had clear skies and no rain during our entire 6 days out on the trail.  Pretty amazing for the shoulder season!  On top of that, we had mostly cool weather and the seagulls weren’t out in force yet – though it did get warm lugging all that heavy gear on the sunny beaches.

Despite the phenomenal weather, the hike was incredibly difficult.  Far, far, far moreso than we had anticipated or imagined.  I honestly don’t know how you’d complete it in the rain and have an insane amount of respect for those that do.  The decaying boardwalks, roots, and wooden ladders must turn to sheets of ice in the rain.  I’m glad I didn’t witness that.

Anyway, we had an incredible, if not grueling time on the trail.  Each day took far longer to hike than we’d anticipated and we ended up with no real “free” time to speak of while in camp, but we managed to finish without any major injuries or incidents which is the mark of a successful trip.  Monique’s was everything the legends spoke of and the landscape and scenery was amazing.  We took the beach route whenever it was feasible to do so.  For any future travelers, I’d highly recommend the beach routes as well — even if it means waiting for low tide.  The sandy, rocky, and scenic beaches are well worth it.

It’s hard to not take a million pictures when walking through these remote and beautiful areas having never hiked in anything like it before, but I did my best.  During this trip, I saw more ladders, tree roots, and mud pits that I’d ever seen in my life or ever care to again.  Enjoy the pictures!

This wasn’t us (obviously) but it is an amazing undertaking.  And some really good video:  WCT Speed Record

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California – June, 2009

California and Oregon – July, 2009 – [ View the Full Album ]

After surviving our grueling climb of Mt. Shasta, some relaxing sightseeing was well deserved.  We made a loop to see the sights of Northern Carolina and Southern Oregon, including Crater Lake, Klamath Falls, Redwoods, and of course Alcatraz at night.

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Mt. Shasta – June, 2009

Climbing Mt. Shasta – June, 2009 – [ View the Full Album ]

I’m not really sure where the idea to go climb a mountain came from — we’d never climbed a mountain before, but when it was brought up, it certainly sounded like a good idea!

And it was an amazing accomplishment to climb a 14k mountain!  But it was also one of the most excruciating feats of my life!

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Las Vegas – July, 2008

Las Vegas – July, 2008 – [ View the Full Album ]

My first trip out to Vegas to see the carnival, and it doesn’t disappoint!  While Vegas itself is amazing, the area surrounding Vegas — Red Rock Canyon, Death Valley, etc. is just as interesting.  And, Vegas is surprisingly affordable…if you’re foolish enough to visit the desert in July…

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Hawaii: Oahu – November, 2005

Hawaii:  Oahu – November, 2005 – [ View the Full Album ]

We wanted to do an international trip, but just couldn’t get the finances and logistics to line up among everybody wanting to go.  Then, a thought.  Hawaii!  It’s practically international, but far more easy logistically!  So, we took a week long trip out to Hawaii (which is actually surprisingly affordable if you go over Thanksgiving) and explored what sights there were to be had on the island of Oahu.

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Cozumel, Mexico – October, 2004

Cozumel, Mexico – October, 2004 – [ View the Full Album ]

My first trip outside of the country (not counting Canada) and my first cruise all in one.  We took a cruise from Tampa to Cozumel and had an amazing time doing so.  Digital cameras were not all that popular yet and the high humidity fogged up the lens constantly.  As such, I took virtually no pictures the entire trip!  Ah, how things would change…

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