We returned from our Eastern Caribbean Holland America Cruise with our niece, Sarah, and we have 2 revelations. 1st Revelation – We like cruising!! This was actually my 3rd, Justin’s 2nd, and truly, we enjoyed. Frankly, how could you not revel in a floating resort where meals appeared and dirty dishes disappeared like magic? Our…
Much of our time as Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers this winter has been spent setting up a booth at Subaru Winterfest weekend festival events, which take place at popular ski areas around the country. Our schedule took us to the ones at Copper Mountain (CO), Eldora (CO) and Snowbird (UT). Justin and I are…
It’s hard to believe this, but Justin’s Denali Climb (Take 2) is less than 2 months away!! The team is arriving in Anchorage May 10, then hoping to fly onto the mountain May 13 (obviously weather-dependent). I’ve always joked Justin’s training regimen for anything is less than stellar (he trained for a triathlon in 2010…
Justin & I have a goal of visiting all the national parks. Which, on a side note, has increased to 61!! So now we are at 46/61 (still close). But I digress. National Parks are just one of the types of units in the National Park System. There are also National Monuments, National Historic Sites,…
Justin & I wrapped up a week’s worth of Leave No Trace work in northern Arizona/southern Utah (and are now in the mountains for back-to-back Winterfest events). The Arizona trip had multiple purposes. We were shadowing another Traveling Trainer team to learn some of the ropes, like video-making, but also for outreach in a heavily…
Earlier this month, when we landed back in Denver from Baja, Mexico (sea level), we decided Denver’s 5,000 feet of elevation wasn’t enough gain for one day. So we picked up Justin’s sister’s cats and dog and drove to their cabin for a long weekend of pet sitting. We, of all people, know going from…
About a year ago, our nomadic/hiker friends, BJ and Clara (also known by their trail names Shadow and Country Mouse) starting putting down roots again after 7 years on the road and purchased a casita on the peninsula of Baja, Mexico. Come visit, they said! We will, we said! Between its warm winters and cheap…
I definitely have been silent on the blog lately. It was sort of intentional, as I just needed a small break from social media. But also, we’ve been quite consumed with some personal matters, as well as lots of writing deadlines. One of the other things keeping us busy has been what I am calling…
Justin & I do not like to boast, but when it comes to backpacking, we eat miles for breakfast. So I think we were both a bit surprised when our most recent backpacking trip gave us a major kick in the butt. Let me back it up. Knowing we’d have all of September in California…
There are a 9 national parks in California (not to mention many more monuments, historic parks, etc) and the last 2 on our list to visit were Sequoia and Kings Canyon. A few weeks, we took a short road trip south to them from our home base in Yosemite National Park. While the eastern side of…
For my 40th birthday, we decided to celebrate in style by visiting one of the many obscure and remote National Parks in Alaska: Katmai National Park. If you’ve ever seen those iconic pictures of bears catching salmon, the source is most likely Brooks Falls at Katmai National Park. Let me just say, pictures don’t even…
Before I get into storytelling mode, here is the overall summary of our single backpacking trip we took in Denali National Park: Unit 9 – East Branch Toklat River Total mileage: 15.2 miles Elevation Gain: 1578 feet Elevation Loss: 1567 feet Max Elevation: 3465 Number of Nights: 2 I was equally nervous as I was…
I already boasted about day hiking in Denali National Park in my last blog post and we are definitely NP lovers, but if you are looking for some less crowded hidden gems, the place to go would be Denali State Park. The State Park has 300,000+ acres and borders the east side of the National…
Justin & I tried to balance our time while working Denali National Park in Alaska a little better than we did in Wyoming. The long daylight hours really made for no excuses, because we could actually work and still fit in a hike, even if it were at 10pm! Denali National Park is a unique park…
Warning: Picture-heavy post ahead! When you think of the whole United States, most people don’t realize just how far north Alaska is. Go take a look at a geographically correct map. Cue collective “WHOA” There are only so many ways you can drive to Alaska and most journeys take days (even the ferry). And while…
We are *almost* to Alaska! Middle of nowhere Canada actually!! But, in an effort not to get too backlogged on posts, let’s just pretend we are still in Wyoming. Because I want to recap our hikes from our 3 weeks there. I’ll keep it short and sweet (with lots of pictures!). With its regal 40-mile…
Road life. I’ve forgotten how chaotic it is! Actually, the truth is we’ve been going 150 mph even before we hit the road. As my brother-in-law said to us, “it’s kind of interesting to see you two stressed out and actually working like the rest of us!” Anyway, I knew I owed everyone an update.…
Currently living/working in: Nearly done with our 5-week spring teaching session at Fenton Ranch. The teaching schedule is so busy, but it goes so fast! Current mood: Pumped for our summer 2018! A few currently posts ago, I lamented that our summer was looking pretty boring. Boy was I wrong. Currently amazed by and proud…
Justin and I have thoroughly loved working at Fenton Ranch teaching kids K-5 about nature. We try our darnedest to impart everlasting knowledge, particularly Leave No Trace lessons on the young minds. Maybe out of the 50+ kids in every grade level, 3-5 learn something. Maybe they don’t retain the facts, but I am comforted…
In addition to our bylines in Backpacker‘s Spring 2018 Gear Guide, there are also some full-page pictures of us tucked in the pages and I wanted to share our photo shoot story before the issue leaves the newsstands (you know, in case you want to pick up a copy for us to autograph). This…