It Took 10 Years But I’ve Finally Surpassed 300,000 Words Here

Not including this post, 300,290 words to be exact within 214 posts. I’m sure many of the words adding up to that total include lots of “filler words” such as; “of”, “the”, as well as “and” and more than a few usages of “douche” (and rightfully so) so I am not getting too full of …

Pulling Threads, A Mystery…Solved

In early Spring 2017, over the course of several weeks, Willow and I did some extensive exploring around Green Peter Reservoir outside of Sweet Home, Oregon. This happens to be all of 30 minutes from my home so it is quick, easy and cheap (with gas prices as they are and a Tacoma that would …

Picking Up The Pieces

When we find ourselves in the Santa Cruz, CA area we inevitably end up at  Lighthouse Field State Beach. The official “State Beach” encompasses a 38-acre (15 ha) area including parking areas, grasslands and hiking trails on the East side of West Cliff Drive as well as the beach itself to the west. We are …

Heading High(er) For Some Snow Camping

My last dog, Kuma, was a Northern Breed (predominantly Karelian Bear Dog). When he was in his prime we played and camped in snowy conditions regularly. With Willow being a shorter-haired sun and heat enthusiast I have substantially cut back on my normal winter camping schedule. To keep both of us on our toes we …

The Hall of the Mountain King

Arriving in the area just in time for the annual chili cook-off sponsored by the Whiskey Runners Motorcycle Club we decided to find a different spot from our normal place near the base of Saddle Mountain. Turning off of West Courthouse Rd onto West Salome Highway right under the Highline power lines we saw some …

Fish Creek Primitive Camp

Heading back west for more desert exploration we stopped first in order to check out the Ocotillo Wells SVRA. That first night, instead of camping in the SVRA itself, we took the opportunity to stay on the fringes of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, camp near the mouth of Fish Creek Wash and use the primitive …

Ocotillo Wells SVRA

Heading back west we decided to spend some time in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park but first stopped by the Ocotillo Wells SVRA information center and decided to explore that area for a bit. Since this was a Tuesday in December the place was virtually empty. After speaking with both a volunteer and a ranger in …

Four Waterfalls, One Spring, One Lake, 11 Miles, One Day

Fair Warning: This is going to be a longer, more picture-heavy post because this was a longer, picture-heavy day. We’ve used our camping spot in the Deschutes National Forest as a base of operations to visit several attractions within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument but weren’t finished with the area just yet. Knowing we were …

Potato Lake

When we first drove off road into the Coconino National Forest we came across the sign pointing us towards several different destinations. One we found our camping spot near the Rim and were finally situated we pulled up a map to take in our surroundings. Looking at the map we could see that Potato Lake …