Justin & I wear many different hats, and one large one is Gear Testers for Backpacker Magazine (and a prototype tester for a few brands). We get a lot of questions surrounding this. How did you become gear testers? What the heck does that mean? Is that really a job? Do you get paid? I…
Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking Fenton Ranch in New Mexico! I believe our Jan. 21 snowstorm was retribution for getting off easy with the mild winter we’ve had (and continue to have). Their 3-inch prediction turned into 15 inches! It was beautiful and necessary, but did I mention our snowblower decided to break that…
GOODBYE 2017 AND HAPPY 2018 EVERYONE!!! I feel like this Currently post is a little long-winded, so consider yourselves warned … Currently living/working in: Caretaking Fenton Ranch in northern New Mexico. I have to say, while we love epic snowstorms, not having an ounce of snowfall around these parts has made our caretaking job much…
Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking the school’s property, Fenton Ranch, in the Jemez Mountains. More than property caretaking, though, we have spent most of the month chin deep in product specs, tester quotes and creative adjectives to describe “lightweight” to meet our magazine deadlines for our gear testing submissions. Current mood: Mentally exhausted with a…
Our summer nationwide speaking tour truly culminated when we turned the Sprinter van back over to Superfeet, which conveniently happened while we were at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City. Outdoor Retailer. Let me take this opportunity to write an ode to OR. When people ask us what this semi-annual trade show is all about,…
J & I spent Wednesday through Saturday in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Show. I mentioned this already, but this is the largest trade show for outdoor brands to showcase their newest products, geared toward every outdoor enthusiast, from backpackers to rock climbers to paddlers to much more, of the spring/summer 2017.…
Currently living/working in: One foot in Colorado and one foot in New Mexico. There has been a lot of adulting these last few weeks in Colorado, between tax preparation, car care and doctor’s appointments. That’s what our stable, stay-put periods are for. We will be diving into an actual regular work schedule in New Mexico starting…
After tucking 2015 into bed, J & I realized we’ve had quite a year. If you are a long-time reader, you know I love me some stats. I’m also quite wordy. For your benefit, I chose numbers over words for this post. 111 = Days we spent out of the US (mainly New Zealand,…
We celebrate 9 years of marriage today. And when I say celebrate, I mean it is like any other day because, well, we are on an island with no restaurants or other services. Not that we would do anything different if we weren’t on the island … but I digress. Recently, Backpacker Magazine wrote an article…
Currently living/working in: transitioning from one caretaking gig to another!!! I know, I know, you are getting dizzy trying to keep up with us. We finished up our season in Maine and are in route to a 2-month (possibly longer) stint to watch a small, private, residential island somewhere off the coast in New England. Location…
Back in May, we did a little scouting on the hardly used Chico Trail down in Joseph Creek Canyon in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest and created a loop trip that had all the makings of the perfect backpacking trip–no crowds, views, wildflowers, wildlife, good water source and challenging terrain. That trip was a little…
Cliche or not, I would like to jump on the bandwagon (albeit a few days too late) and tell you what I am most thankful for this year. Well, besides the obvious thankfulness for surviving my blood clots in my lungs, that is. I am most thankful for y’all. This summer while we traversed the…
Back when we started our contract with BP, we got an e-mail from our boss asking if we were available for a photo shoot on July 19. Of course we complied, thinking it was probably related to the tour. As the photo shoot got closer, we received the contract and were surprised to see so…
We’ve been in Colorado for 10 days now. And in no particular order, here are 10 highlights of our time here so far. 1) J’s Bday We celebrated J’s bday with football watching (that is a Sunday tradition regardless) and a home-cooked dinner and Rum Cake made by Rachel/DocDoc with some friends. 2) Speaking of…
We now have Phil Keoghan on speed dial. Okay, that’s a little of a stretch, but it was really fun to be chummy with Phil for a day. Earlier in the afternoon, we met Phil only briefly before our presentation, and thankfully, I don’t think I showed how star struck I was. Then the evening…
All summer long, friends and family asked if we would be coming to a town near them because they wanted to see us present (or maybe they just wanted a chance to win cool prizes). Well, the good news is if you are free Tuesday evening at 8:30pm EST, you can watch our presentation LIVE…
Our whole summer has been speckled with spur-of-the-moment decisions and seizing the opportunity because we’re there. This weekend was no different. We had 2-3 days in southeastern California and wondered what to do. We knew we couldn’t hit the high point of Nevada even though we were driving RIGHT BY IT because the 14-mile road…
There are only a few places this summer where we stayed for more than a few days. Texas was one of them. 10 hot days. I lost 2.5 lbs just by breathing in Texas. Thursday, it finally rained in Texas (yeah for them!) and Friday, as we were driving the last bit of the Longest…
We’ve traded in coniferous trees and high-alpine lakes in the Pacific Northwest high country for barren landscapes and prickly cacti in the Southwest. We had forgotten how HOT it is in the Southwest, even though it is approaching “fall,” but we’re still hiking! Lately, we’ve had local “guides” on our hikes. In New Mexico, we…
As I said in my last blog post, our time in the Pacific Northwest was wrapping up. But I couldn’t go without one last blast of pictures from Crater Lake National Park in Oregon because this place is too good to be true. Almost as unbelievable as its beauty is its formation. Something like 7,000…