Hiking, web development, best practices, and general awesomeness
Over the last few backpacking posts I've mentioned that my pack has been getting lighter. I'm still pretty new to traditional backpacking, with only twelve adventures over the last year, and it's taking some time for me to understand my gear and comfort level. My first trip out on the Cabin Loop had…
The thermometer on the car read 112 when I stepped out into the parking lot in Apache Junction. Hot air rushed over me, feeling more like an oven than not, and I took an unsteady breath in. I was about to tackle a hike that I probably should not in temperatures that I probably should avoid and I was…
Several weeks had passed since the boys and I had gone out on a desert hike. I try to take them out on semi-regularly on a little loop in the San Tans near our house, an easy 1.3 miles that Noah is now running through and Thomas rides in the back carrier for the first half and wanders around the…
Now that Katie is freshly inducted into the cool backpacker's club it only made sense to try out something that I've been playing around with a long time now: a large group outing. Chris and I had gone on adventures, and then Katie and I - why not all three of us? Plus Kirsty, their cousin? Four…
Morning light shone bright over Mesquite Flat, the small clearing east of Tortilla Flat where Mesquite Creek crosses AZ-88. A number of low green trees crowd this area (maybe Mesquite trees?) and a winding network of tracks mark the passage of countless car campers from years past. I parked the van…
Deep blue water snaked up from Canyon Lake into lower La Barge, pushed back against its natural flow by an unnatural dam on the Salt River. Katie and I looked down at the cool waters, at the people swimming and splashing and kayaking, and wondered why we were doing it wrong. Instead of being near…
Temperatures dropped unnaturally low that night in the little valley near the Hoolie Bacon and Red Tanks Trail junction. Chris was in a sleeping bag rated to forty and I was in one rated to fifty and we both froze. When his alarm started going off it was a real struggle to get up and moving, to…
Cool morning temps and comfortable campsites led to a late start from Reed's Water. The sun was up, hiding behind the eastern ridges, before Chris and I even got out of our sleeping bags and began to move around. Plus we wanted to filter water and get back to full water capacity while we had the…
Several months had passed since Chris and I had a good adventure together. Outside of a quick afternoon outing with the boys over in the McDowells we have each been doing our own thing this year. He went out on an overnight in Bryce Canyon and on a few ski weekends while I've been venturing into the…
Sleep did not come easy on the banks of Horse Camp Seep, though it was mostly my fault. The campsite was perfect and the night sky was clear and beautiful, filled to the brim with stars with only a dim glow of city far to the southwest. I was just not prepared for the cold temperatures. My…