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A Glacial Confluence – Glacier National Park
I was hoping to have a job by July or August, but despite my job hunting efforts, I was still drifting through the summer. Maggie and I talked on the phone almost every night. As it became clear that my job prospects were still months out, Maggie convinced me to fly up to Montana for…
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A Brief Stint as a River Rat (Featuring Motion Pictures!)
I don’t exclusively climb mountains. As skiing is to winter, rafting is to summer. How cool is it that you get to float on the very water you skied on?! While I don’t actively seek out water sports, I have a few friends that have worked as raft guides. When an invite comes my way,…
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Fourteener Frenzy – Colorado
I spent a majority of my summer in Salida, CO, a place where several fourteen thousand foot peaks dominate the skyline. The draw to climb them is inescapable…. With temperatures routinely soaring into the mid-nineties, I often felt trapped indoors. Without Maggie or any appreciable community in town, I also felt quite lonely. The job…
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Throw Them Peaks in the Bag – CO & NM High Country
In between the dreadful days of job hunting this past summer, I got out peak bagging in the Rocky Mountains. As the snow finally melted out above treeline in mid-June, I set my sights high. There is something wonderful about the alpine that I can’t put into words. The clear air, the wide open views,…
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Una Boda en Colombia – Cali
15-20 June 2023 No, not that Cali. My cousin invited Maggie and me to his wedding in Cali, Colombia. This wasn’t necessarily intended to be a destination wedding. Rather, his fiancé (now wife) is from Cali and it made the most sense for the American invitees to make the trip instead of the reverse. Maggie…
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Dune Cool Stuff With Cool People – Great Sand Dunes National Park
1 June 2023 It’s hard to express the bond formed between thru hikers. Even though Maggie and I rarely spent more than a handful of days with the friends we made on the PCT, there is something special about the shared experience. When I got a text from Noodle that he was passing through Salida,…
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Strike While the Flatiron is Hot – Boulder, CO
27 May 2023 To round out my road trip from Montana to New Mexico, I stopped in Boulder to visit my friends, Evan and Erica. Having recently purchased a truck and hefty fifth wheel, they were starting their own transition from normal working life to living on the road. I was stoked to catch them…
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The Solo Road Part 4 – Nebraska
22-25 May 2023 Connecting the dots between the Black Hills and Denver, CO, my route was taking me through the panhandle of Nebraska. Until recently, I had no reason to stop in Nebraska, but my sister and her husband moved their cattle ranch to Nebraska last summer. First, I had to find my way into…
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The Solo Road Part 3 – South Dakota
18-22 May 2023 Equally popular and overlooked, the Black Hills of South Dakota are a true gem. It would be a stretch to include the Black Hills in discussions about the Rocky Mountains, as it should be, since they have a character uniquely their own. I spent five days romping around the Black Hills, hiking,…
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The Solo Road Part 2 – Wyoming
16 May 2023 Next up on my route south was Yellowstone National Park. My past experiences with Yellowstone left something to be desired… Given that I missed the eruption at Old Faithful some years ago, it is the parking lots, gift shops, and crowds that stand out in my memory. Another attempt to explore a…
Boldly going nowhere in particular