Hiking, web development, best practices, and general awesomeness
Every time a winter storm rolls through the mountains outside of Phoenix, I think about taking the kids out to experience what winter is really like. They loved the few snowy adventures we've had, trudging through the white stuff and making angels and stuffing frozen handfuls of water into their…
A brisk wind whipped around the Lost Goldmine parking lot, whistling through the saguaros and shaking the creosote bushes and snatching one of my gloves from the car seat. Grumbling, I reached down and picked it up, stuffing my hand into the stiff folds before the wind took it again. I was stiff…
Near the end of September, when the school year had started for Noah and the Arizona temperatures were still unbearably hot, we decided to go for another camping trip in the higher elevations. As usual, it was just me and the kids, as Katie's work schedule has her busy on the weekends. I decided to…
For the last two years I've been working on a little side-hustle. A side-hustle that took up more than forty hours a month, pulled me away from a ton of family events, pushed me physically, and didn't pay a cent. I'm talking about Mountain Rescue, of course. And earlier this year I found out the…
For the third camping trip with the kids I decided to take things easy. We drove up towards Payson for the familiar Mogollon Rim and found a small campsite along Forest Road 139, which is a stone's throw from U-Bar Trail. There we met Chris and Kirsty and we all set up our gear. Having three adults…
This summer I haven't had much free time to pursue my usual passion of solo hiking and backpacking. Instead, my weekends have been full of Mountain Rescue and parenting. Sure, the kids and I go hiking together, it's just not the same as the epic twenty-plus mile death marches that I prefer. Anyways,…
Arizona's 2019 winter was, to say the least, enjoyable. There were a number of days that showered the Phoenix valley and sprinkled white snow in the higher elevations. After one such wet event I decided to take the kids for a hike - not an epic snow hike, like our adventure in the Mazatzals, but…
A few months ago I had a unique opportunity - an entire weekday with Noah. Usually he's at school or I have work or I'm stuck with all three kids. On this day, this random holiday in January, it was just Noah and I, and there was only one hike on my mind. It was time to take my five year old son to…
On New Year's Eve a storm rolled across central Arizona. In Phoenix, the valley of the sun, we saw intermittent rain under gloomy skies, though the mountains surrounding our valley were dusted by a more wintery mix. When I woke up on the new year and saw white on the upper portions of Superstition…
Waking about an hour before sunrise, I was initially slow moving under the dark sky. As soon as I was dressed and heard the pitter-patter of raindrops on my undersized tarp I sped up, though, worried about my quilt and other gear getting wet. Once everything was protected I began making breakfast,…