After doing the same thing annually - for five years running - it's probably safe to call it a tradition. Backcountry Discover Routes (BDRs) have become that for us. Oregon got us hooked, and after adding Washington, Idaho, and Nevada over the last several summers, this year we decided that…
5 CommentsTrip Destination: National Park | Preserve | Monument
National Park | Preserve | Monument
I was naive. I thought that returning to Cedar Mesa in search of more Native American Ruins (see Utah, Re-Ruined) would get me to the point where I'd have seen most of what we'd missed on our first trip to the area some two years earlier (see Ruining Around Utah).…
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We had unfinished business in Utah, after our Ruining Around Utah trip back in spring of 2019. An unseasonably wet winter meant that the higher elevation roads were still impassable due to snow, so one of our primary goals - the Lewis Lodge ruins - remained just out of reach.…
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When my buddy Ben asked if I wanted to go to the Island District of Canyonlands National Park in order to run the White Rim Trail, I was pretty pumped. While I've been to the other districts - The Maze and The Needles - I've never been to The Island…
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Smack in the middle of winter, we found ourselves with a little extra time and nothing planned to fill the days. That, in addition to the fact that it was going to be cold and snowy in nearly all of Washington state, signaled to us that an escape down south…
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Visiting the Mojave National Preserve has - unconsciously - become a traditional "last trip of the year." For three years now, the pull of the desert sun has drawn us south - out of the gloomy grey of the Pacific Northwest. This year the trip would center around foot travel…
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I don't know whether it's an "oh, duh!" moment, or "can you believe it?" situation, but less than two weeks after returning from our Death Valley trip along the Nadeau Trail, we were headed back for more! I was jazzed, and - a little surprisingly to me - so was…
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The Nadeau Trail follows the west side of Panamint Valley, roughly in a north-south direction between the Argus Range and the valley's paved roads. Measuring a scant 27 miles long - and for the most part completely straight - the casual observer may wonder if allotting three days to travel…
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Nevada's BDR is known to be a bit different than some of the others. Most interesting is the temperature differential between the northern and southern ends of the route - even as the north is still covered in snow, temps in the south reach over 100°F. For that reason, a…
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Leaving home for adventure was a little different this time. Looking back now, as we headed south out of the Seattle area, we were leaving behind what would turn out to be one of the early epicenters of the Covid-19 outbreak, just before more info on the severity would come…
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Death Valley is always full of wonderful surprises. Experienced where they are never expected, they make for memorable trips and are one of the reasons I keep going back. This time, I was going solo; sort of. Sure, there were a couple spots - Hidden Dunes being the most prominent…
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After visiting the Mojave National Preserve in December 2018 to run the historic Mojave Road, and test out the new rear shocks I'd installed, we ended up having remove the shocks after less than a mile and the run the entire trip with no shocks on the rear of the…
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Death Valley is not nearby, and yet - it continues to call time after time, urging us to make the 20 hour journey south to explore its wonders. It's hard to say no. That's how - on a Wednesday morning - we found ourselves packed up in the truck and…
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In what would become nearly a month in the state of Idaho, we left for our first trip as the calendar ticked over to July. On the schedule were two places I'd had on my list for a while - Indian Hot Springs and Idaho's City of Rocks State Park.…
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I've been to Canyonlands National Park before, but only to The Maze District. This, my first trip to The Needles District would be an experience I won't soon forget. We'd spend a week roaming around Utah, running the Elephant Hill trail and making our way into Beef Basin. We'd hike…
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The plan for this trip to Death Valley was to do something completely different than normal - spend the vast majority of our time out of the trucks, hiking some of the beautiful canyons that the desert has to offer. Looking back now, a little over a year since the…
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Having never visited the Mojave National Preserve, and being down in the area already to do some work on the Tacoma, the Mojave Road seemed like the perfect place to test out the recent modifications (to the suspension) while seeing some new terrain at the same time. It was quickly…
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Our plan was simple, if long. Start in St. George, Utah, and work our way east - first along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then through Glen Canyon National Monument (Lake Powell), and then through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to Bears Ears National Monument and Natural Bridges National…
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If our first trip to Death Valley taught us anything, it was that our adventures there were far from complete. The three days of exploration had just scratched the surface of the vast wilderness before us. So, when I found out that @mrs.turbodb was headed out of town for a week, I was quick…
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This was our first trip to Canyonlands, and as such, our first to The Maze District as well. With three days to explore, we made the most of our time - entering the park from Poison Springs Canyon Road, and making our way out to the Doll House. A night…
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