***Don’t miss out on entering our giveaway contest two posts back*** J & I did our third 10th Mountain Division Hut trip in Colorado. Our first was to Polar Star Inn in 2012 and we did a second trip in 2013 to Shrine Mountain Inn. J’s sister Jamie (SILAdventure) and her partner Rachel (DocDoc) are all about…
***Don’t miss out on entering our giveaway contest one post back*** As we planned, we did a lot of snowshoeing and XC skiing this week while staying at the cabin. We mainly stuck to local trails in Pike and Arapaho National Forests. There was also one hut trip which will get a separate post. Thought…
We have wrapped up our Te Araroa Speaking Tour. I plan to do a full recap soon, but let me just say it was more successful than we ever imagined and we are trying to figure out how to launch a longer tour. With the presentations behind us, we intend to regroup, switch gears and…
J & I took our first snowshoeing trip of the season on Saturday. We headed to Echo Lake/Chicago Lakes in Arapaho National Forest with a friend (Grant) we met during our Wilderness First Responder course. The Echo Lake Trailhead is a little over an hour from Denver … except when you decide to go on…
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,…
Before anyone freaks out with these pictures, know it is all makeup!! It was all part of Wilderness First Responder training and certification we achieved last week. J & I have both been Wilderness First Aid certified, but becoming a Wilderness First Responder (WFR – pronounced “woofer”) has always been a goal of ours for personal and…
Te Araroa is trending. While the Te Araroa Trust estimates there were 200 hikers on the trail last season when we were out there, those numbers are surely doubling this season. And because I’ve written about Te Araroa every which way—for Backpacker Magazine, the Appalachian Trials blog, Gregory’s blog, the Therm-a-rest blog, Superfeet’s blog and…
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…
We have settled in for our 2-month caretaking job on an island off the coast of New England. Some of you have been quite curious about this gig! There is only so much I will reveal on the blog and it is merely to protect the privacy of the island’s residents. They have entrusted us…
Who wants to win this lantern????????? We are partnering with Princeton Tec for a giveaway of a Helix Basecamp lantern!! This lantern is highly versatile. Not only is it good for camping, but it’s been the perfect addition to our stash as we roam the country (portable! multiple hanging and placement options!), especially when living…
You might have heard the big news. President Obama changed the name of North America’s highest peak from “Mount McKinley” back to “Denali.” You also might have heard that Denali shrunk from 20,320 feet to 20,310 feet. Denali sure is making the news a lot lately, huh? We are going to add to it. J…
Nearly every person we meet in the North Maine Woods spews off something along these lines: “You don’t have a spare tire??” No, we don’t. First of all, we had no idea what the roads were like in northern Maine (to be fair, our AWD car is delicate). Second of all, we actually didn’t realize…
Today we are coming to you with a review of the gear we used on Te Araroa in New Zealand. We realize it’s been 4 months since our trek ended, but there are lots of people prepping for the TA right now and asking questions in the forums, so we thought no better time to…
Hope you enjoyed our first batch of pictures, because I have a second batch! Our life is still full of peace and quiet, but we’ve had more guest activity lately, which, of course, is good. However, our moose count is still higher than our guest count. Moose number 5, 6 and 7 reporting for duty:…
It’s been 1 week since we’ve been up here and we are getting more and more acquainted. Rainy days have outnumbered sunny days, so we’ve been doing more indoor than outdoor activities, like experimenting with baking bread (want to get it right before guests get here), making granola, and reading (J finished TWO books already!).…
Our goal of reaching all 50 high points has really taken a back seat to some other adventures of lately. We didn’t bag any high points in 2014. But being we had a little more flexibility this summer, we thought we’d put it back on our agenda. We took a little road trip last week…
The U.S. manufacturing sector may appear to be shrinking, but it’s making a comeback at the same time. American production remains as hip as recycling and microbrews, particularly in the outdoor industry. We are proud that a few of our preferred gear companies produce homegrown gear. We visited our first stateside factory in April 2013, when…
J & I engage in plenty of outdoor sports–hiking, paddling, biking, rock climbing, XC skiing, etc. Our participation in them depends on the area where we live and how much time we have. Mountain biking has never really been in our rotation of activities. J has done it a few times, but is definitely a…
We hopped over the state line this weekend to go camping and paddling with some Danville peeps. Now that we’ve been back in the good ol’ South for almost 2 months, it really just feels like we never left. Which is probably why when I didn’t flinch when one of our group members said, “Oh…
We spent the weekend in Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. We stayed right on the lake, which is gorgeous in itself. Te Anau Lake is the second largest lake in NZ and the largest freshwater body of water in the Southern Hemisphere. Our main activity in Te Anau was to…