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August on the Road

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August on the Road

Hello Everyone! I apologize for how long it’s been since I last wrote, but it’s been a hectic and crazy month out here on the road. Until this past weekend, I had not had a day off in over a month and I’ve covered a lot of ground during that time. I guided four trips in a row which took a lot out of me, but I had great passengers with me and we saw some amazing and beautiful places. I have another solid month of guiding beginning in just a day or two, but I wanted to drop you all a quick ‘hello’ and share some of my favorite photos from this last month on the road.

I started with an old favorite – a six day hiking tour in Yosemite for Intrepid Travel. While I’ve done this trip several times including twice earlier this summer, it’s still nice to spend so much time on the trail and to show people one of my favorite National Parks. The waterfalls were still going strong for August and it was the first time I’d been able to get up to hike Cathedral Lakes in the high country this year. These hikes left everyone pretty tired, but I know every one of those passengers had a great and memorable trip and will remember Yosemite fondly for the rest of their lives.

After bringing that group back to San Francisco, I left the following day for Seattle where I started a six day trip to Portland via Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. It had been 20 years since I was last in Olympic and it was really nice to be back in this beautiful and often overlooked park. We did a whale watching tour, explored the Hoh Rainforest and walked by the Pacific Ocean looking out at the beautiful sea stacks of Second Beach. While I used to spend a lot of time at Mount Rainier, that’s another park I haven’t been to since before the pandemic. On our first day there we got some fantastic clear views of the mountain and I’m glad we took advantage of them because our second day was almost entirely shrouded in fog. We still had a nice hike and then headed on to Portland where we visited the International Rose Test Garden (it is the City of Roses after all) and then had a quiet dinner in the park before calling it a trip.

Half of that group stayed on with me for the next six days and a lovely Swedish couple joined us as well. That week brought us from Portland all the way back to San Francisco. We visited Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, ate smoked salmon with a lovely couple who run an indigenous salmon business on the Warm Springs Reservation, Kayaked in a volcanic crater near Bend, Gazed out over Crater Lake National Park and cruised the California Coast feasting on some fresh oysters. We finished with a walk through Muir Woods and a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I got a day to wind down and wind back up again and the very next day I picked up my last group of that run for a fast and furious 15 day tromp through some of America’s best National Parks. We started off with a few days in Yosemite and then had to duck around Death Valley due to the rains from Hurricane Hillary, staying in Tonopah instead. After a quick trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park, we went on to Zion and then had two great days at the North Rim of Grand Canyon. You may remember that the last (and only) time I was at the North Rim, I was recovering from Covid so I didn’t push myself too hard out there. This time I headed deep into the Canyon on the North Kaibab Trail and it was really nice to see the Canyon from a different angle. We headed from there to Monument Valley to spend some time with the Navajo and then had two great nights in Moab visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. Then we were off to Salt Lake City to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from the Mormon missionaries at Temple Square. Finally we spent three days in the splendor of Yellowstone before winding up our journey in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.

It was a long but quiet ride back to San Francisco from there, but I did get a few days to catch up on some sleep and a few other things before turning north again to Seattle where I am writing to you from today. Tomorrow I will meet another group and we will be headed east from here to Glacier National Park, my favorite place in the whole world. Then we’ll have some nice days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before winding up in Salt Lake City. I’ll get a day to myself there and then turn around and do the same trip in reverse bringing me back to Seattle in the first week of October. It’s going to be cold in the Rockies by then, but it should be quiet and beautiful as well and I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t think I’m going to get much of a chance to do anything here on my blog over the next month, but I’ll check back in with you when these two trips are done in October. The summer sure flew by this year, but time flies when you’re having fun. I hope you’ve all had a great summer out there, wherever you are and that you’re looking forward to cooler days ahead. Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you enjoy this little sampling of photos of some of the spectacular places I’ve been this summer.

-Mike

(Click the link to see my favorite photos from this month)

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Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

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Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

Hello Everyone!

It’s been a great couple of weeks out here on the road. I spent two weeks guiding a tour for Austin College, a small university based in Sherman, Texas (far from Austin, Texas – the school is named for Texas hero Stephen Austin). The tour was for a class on environmental concerns in our National Parks, a topic quite near and dear to my heart. It consisted of 10 students and their professor and took us from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the desert. I really enjoyed these young people and I got along really well with the professor, Dr. Baker, as well.

I met the group two weeks ago on a Tuesday night here in San Francisco. They invited me to join them for dinner at House of Nanking in Chinatown which is a pretty cool place to eat as a group and we all enjoyed quite a feast. It was interesting to hear what the students were studying and what their specific area of interest was for this particular class. Their topics ranged from birds to flash floods to water conservation and all of them were really important to our western parks.

We spent the next three nights in Yosemite, hiking and meeting with the rangers to discuss the park’s key issues. There was still a lot of water in the valley and it was great to see everything so wet and green. On our first full day we hiked up the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls and there was a ton of water coming over those waterfalls. Everyone got absolutely soaked, but thankfully it was a sunny day and we dried out quickly. The last time I did that hike was last November when those waterfalls were barely a trickle and the trail was completely dry. The next day we went out and hiked to the Giant Sequoias in the Mariposa Grove in the south of the park and it’s always awesome to see these massive 2-3,000 year old giants. In our meetings with the rangers and staff, we discussed fire management and bear conservation and the conversation was quite interesting. Leaving the park we headed south and around the mountains and ended up in Barstow for the night. We did some serious grocery shopping and then enjoyed a nice dinner at Peggy Sue’s 1950s Diner just outside of town. That night we had our first group discussion and I really enjoyed hearing the student’s opinions about Yosemite and what they had seen and heard over the previous few days.

We left Barstow early the next day as we had a pretty long drive to Grand Canyon that day. We stopped in Seligman to get our kicks on Route 66 and then headed on to the South Rim…

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This Week on the Road - March 29th - April 4th

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This Week on the Road - March 29th - April 4th

Hello Everyone!

This week started and ended in L.A. but I spent the weekend out in Bakersfield. All of my California friends raised an eyebrow when I talked about going out to Bakersfield, but I really enjoyed it and was surprised at how much it had to offer. It was definitely a little rough around the edges, but the people were friendly and it was a beautiful, cool, sunny weekend to be there. I’m going to get this post done a day early this week because I’m headed out to Catalina Island first thing tomorrow morning and I’m leaving my computer behind. Catalina is in the same island group as Channel Islands National Park, but it is developed and has a year-round population of over 4,000 people. You guys know how much I love islands, so I’m really looking forward to it. The campground was full, so I’m staying in a hotel out there which also means I’ll only be there for a day, but I’m going to make the most of it. It hasn’t been the busiest of weeks, but I’m sure you’ll see that I’ve gotten a couple of bigger photo posts up this week. Let me tell you what else I’ve gotten into this week.

After I finished up this post last week I took a long drive through L.A. and up to Hollywood. I followed my GPS and it took me on a pleasantly winding route and down streets I’d never been down before. L.A. is a sprawling place and I could probably spend an entire month just exploring  around here, but it’s also a challenging place for the van life so it was just about time for me to move on. Before I went, there were three places I wanted to visit in Hollywood. The first is a tiny hole-in-the-wall spot called Tiki Ti. The whole tiki phenomenon in the U.S. began in 1933 by a guy called Don the Beachcomber right there in Hollywood. While that tiki bar is long gone, Tiki Ti remains. Tiki Ti was founded in 1961 by Ray Buhen who had been one of the early bartenders at Don the Beachcomber. He built his bar in an old violin repair shop so you can imagine how small it is. Today, it is one of the country’s most venerable tiki bars and a must-see for any tiki aficionado. I had been by it before, but never had the chance to stop in and I’m sure glad I did this time through. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the people and a couple of tropical cocktails but mostly I was just happy to soak up the history of the place.

From there I made my way back down the Sunset Strip to the Comedy Store to see Comedians You Should Know upstairs in the Belly Room. The Comedy Store is another well-known venue and another place I had never been before. The show was pretty good and some of the comedians were great (and one was downright terrible) and I was happy to have finally made it in to see a show. When it finished, I strolled down the street to Mel’s Drive-In for dinner which wasn’t great but it was fun to be there. It started to rain while I was eating my dinner, so I decided to just call it a night right there in Hollywood.

Thursday morning I was up and off to Bakersfield. I hit some rain and even about 10 seconds worth of snow on the drive, but it was sunny and perfect when I arrived. It was so nice to be in a quiet, open city again where parking was free and plentiful and I could walk wherever I wanted to go. I spent the afternoon wandering the streets and taking photos and then ended up at an old bar called Guthrie’s for happy hour. It’s a great old spot with a beautiful sign out front and a juke box and pool table in the back. From there I caught an acoustic set at The Padre Hotel and then went to The Pyrenees Café for dinner. Bakersfield has a Basque community which dates back to the gold rush. The Basque came to look for gold but found that herding sheep was more profitable because all of those prospectors needed food and clothing. There are still a handful of Basque restaurants in Bakersfield and they put out quite a spread. I had a lamb shank, and it came with soup and salad, marinated tongue, bread, pasta, vegetables and fries. The place was packed, but my dinner was really good. Full to the brim, I headed back downtown to check out Tiki-Ko, Bakersfield’s own tiki bar. It is an excellent spot – subdued but festive and with a good drink menu. I enjoyed a cocktail there before heading off to bed…

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My Winter Trip to Europe

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My Winter Trip to Europe

Hello Everyone! Long time, no see. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful start to 2023. It’s nice to be back with you and to be back on the road, but I’ve had the most amazing time since last I wrote. As many of you know, I left right before the New Year for a 47 day trip to England, Wales, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, France and Belgium. At its core, it was a trip to see some old friends and catch up and to get my international traveling feet back underneath me, but it was also a very nice break from everything here in the U.S. I left my computer and my camera behind and brought only a small day-pack and my iPhone. Over the 47 days I was there, I caught up with 51 friends from the last 25 years of my life including a college friend from Penn State, three people I did my Divemaster course with in Honduras, four work colleagues and a whole lot of friends who were once clients of mine on tour here in the U.S. I saw people I took on tour during my very first season 23 years ago and people I took on tour just last summer. Some people could only meet up in the evening after work or for a quick drink and some took a whole day off from work to show me around their hometowns. Many opened their homes and their lives to me for a few hours or days and I met spouses, partners, kids, parents and pets along the way. All told, it was exhausting but also invigorating and inspiring and absolutely one of the best time periods in my entire life. It was truly a remarkable 7 weeks. I’ve come back feeling motivated and excited about all of my projects, my coming tour season and life in general. While there was a lot more to this trip, I thought I’d share a brief(ish) recap of where I went.

My journey began in London on the 29th of December. I touched down at Heathrow Airport and headed right into central London on the tube. It was so wonderful to be there after at least 15 years and I just enjoyed wandering around, looking at the buildings and taking in the sights.  Over the next couple of days I visited with my friends Vicky, Sal and Neil and enjoyed a quiet New Year’s Eve to myself. I watched the Rose Bowl with my friend Jamie, who I haven’t seen since I graduated from Penn State 25 years ago. I got some planning done for the rest of my trip and touched base with a lot of people over dates and times, travel routes and details. I also had some great fish and chips, steak pie, gelato and a couple of excellent pints of ale in some truly awesome old pubs, some dating back hundreds of years.

From London, I headed north to Bedford where I caught up with my friend Lucy who came with me on a weeklong trip to Hawaii back in 2019. She took me out to Bletchley Park, a fascinating historic site which housed a major codebreaking operation during World War II. Next I went to Kettering to see my old friend Ryan who came on a cross-country tour with me 20 years ago. I had stayed with Ryan on a more recent visit to England, but that was probably 17 years ago now. I met his wonderful family and we caught up over dinner and some excellent Scotch. From there I headed on to Warwick to see my buddy Chris who was one of my first-season passengers. He showed me around the medieval town of Warwick and Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon. He also kept me out way past my bedtime on a Friday night drinking beers with his friends. It was awesome to look through Chris’ photo album of the tour we took together so many years ago.

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An Update from Home - December 13th

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An Update from Home - December 13th

Hello Everyone! I know it’s been two months since last I wrote, and I’m sorry for the long pause between posts. As my tour season wore on, I began to wear out and had less and less energy to focus on anything but the job at hand. While not an exceptionally long season time-wise at six months, I ran 18 tours since May which was significantly more than I normally would. Some tours were 2-3 weeks as they would have been in the old days, but many were only 2-6 days. Each tour has a life of its own and shorter tours require a burst of energy which never really settles into a comfortable rhythm. Looking back at this past season, as I sit here warm and cozy on the other end of it at my mother’s dining room table here in Washington DC, it was amazing. I met hundreds of wonderful people from all over the world and took them to some truly awesome places. I got to see some old favorites and had plenty of new experiences as well. The summer was full of laughter and stories and joyful poses in front of the camera after long hikes led us to spectacular vistas. I found nothing but support and understanding from my new company and am already looking forward to working for them again next season. But first I have a winter full of my own adventures to plan and enjoy as I have no intention of going back to work before May.

When last I wrote, I was preparing for a 6 day tour through Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Yosemite gave us an easy and familiar start, and the smoke from summer fires had finally cleared from the valley. From there, we travelled to Sequoia National Park which had some beautiful vistas but was horrifically scarred by major fires in 2020 and 2021. I felt like a government fire assessor as we hiked through burned out forest to the lookout on Big Baldy and one of my passengers commented (humorously) that it felt like “hiking through Armageddon”.  Our drive down into Kings Canyon was excellent, though, and I enjoyed this short tour with a small group of just four people.

My next trip brought me on another 6 day adventure, this time to Napa and Sonoma for a “walking and wine” tour. Eight of my nine passengers on this trip were a group traveling together from New Jersey which made for an interesting dynamic. They were all wonderful people, but it was definitely different to have such a big group within my group. We did some magnificent hikes though, especially out to Tamales Bay on the coast where we spotted coyotes and elk along the way to fantastic overlooks of the Pacific Ocean. I also enjoyed getting back to Muir Woods after many years away on this trip. I found us some delicious places to eat out in wine country and my group enjoyed several wine tastings as well.

The final trip of my season took me back to the desert for a nice eight day loop taking in Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. We spent Thanksgiving in Grand Canyon and were treated to a real feast at Yavapai Lodge. I also had the opportunity to climb Angels Landing in Zion, a hike I haven’t done in many years…

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An Update from the Road - October 18th

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An Update from the Road - October 18th

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is having a pleasant October so far. I haven’t seen much in the way of leaves changing color out here in California, but the window decorations in the stores are telling me that Halloween is right around the corner. It’s always a fun time of year and it usually means that the end of my tour season is also in sight. Three more trips and I’m a free man for the winter and while it’s been an amazing season, I’m looking forward to being back on my own for a while.

Since I last wrote, I’ve run two 3 day tours to Yosemite and had a week in between all to myself. The trips were both really good, with excellent groups and decent weather. It’s starting to cool off a bit in the mountains, and the smoke from this summer’s fires seems to be mostly gone. I ran both trips in pretty much the same way, with wonderful hikes in the valley, the high country and down to see the giant sequoias. I can definitely say I’ve come to know Yosemite better this summer than I could have ever imagined, which is something I’ve really enjoyed. It used to be my favorite park in the country, but traffic and crowded trails dropped it down my list a few notches over the years. With the introduction of a reservation system, the number of people in the park seemed much more reasonable this summer, and I’ve really enjoyed my time there. I’ve gotten to hike most of my favorite trails, and discovered plenty of new ones as well. I have one more trip to Yosemite this summer, but I’m already looking forward to returning next year when the waterfalls are back and spring is in the air.

Between these trips, I got out of the bay area for a week, and Shadow Catcher and I got to spend some serious time together while I got out and explored a little more of California. We started by heading down to the coast at Santa Cruz, a nice little beach community about an hour south of San Francisco. It was the filming location for the beach scenes in the 1980s classic horror film The Lost Boys, so it’s always had a special place in my heart. As a kid who had never been to the west coast, I imagined all California beach towns looked like Santa Cruz. It was pretty quiet when I was there and I enjoyed wandering around the boardwalk, hanging out with the sea lions out on the pier, photographing the lighthouses and just enjoying the smell of the salt air and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. I even found a great little dive bar called Brady’s Yacht Club with $2 beers, by far the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere in California in a very long time.

I spent an afternoon and evening there and the following morning as well before heading down the coast to Monterey. I’ve spent some time in Monterey before and have always wanted to visit the aquarium and this seemed like a good chance to do it..

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An Update From The Road - August 7th

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An Update From The Road - August 7th

Hello Everyone! Happy August to you! It’s been an intensely busy few weeks out here on the road and I have barely had time to think, much less right a blog post. These last few weeks I’ve been on a mad dash around the Sierra Nevada Mountains and through the desert and it has been really great to be back in some of my favorite places. I’ve had good groups with me who have been supportive and enthusiastic, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them. It’s monsoon season out in the desert, so rain clouds have been a constant companion, but the desert needs all the rain it can get and I’ve been able to work around them for the most part. Temperatures have soared as high as 114° out here and I’ve been doing my best to stay hydrated and healthy in the extreme conditions. All of that being said, it’s been a heck of a few weeks as I’ve spent most of it on the kind of trip I cut my teeth on many years ago. It’s always good to get back to your roots now and again.

When last I wrote, I was headed off on a 5 day walking tour in the mountains. The Wawona Fire was blazing in Yosemite, so we had to make adjustments to make it work. We still got into the Valley, but it was quite hazy and the air quality was poor. We made up for it with a hike out at Hetch Hetchy and a hike up Lembert Dome in the high country. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I could do and my group was very appreciative that they could at least see the highlights of the park. From there we headed out to Mammoth for the night.

The next day we hiked out and around Convict Lake, a first for me. It’s always nice to check out some new places and this trip had a few new spots in store for me. Convict Lake gets its name from a standoff between a local posse and a group of 29 convicts who had escaped from the prison in Carson City. It was a beautiful place for a walk and my group enjoyed a nice swim afterwards while I pulled the van around. From there we made our way north to the South Tufa area of Mono Lake. Mono Lake has several inlets but no outlets, making it one of the saltier lakes in the country as the water evaporates and the minerals remain. Natural springs under the lake percolate calcium rich water which deposits as calcium carbonate, leaving fascinating formations called Tufa Pinnacles. After some time there, we headed north again to the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe. There was music, beer and food trucks at the public beach, so we spent our evening there – swimming in the lake and enjoying the show. It was a heck of a way to spend the last evening of our trip. We hiked to the postcard-perfect Echo Lake the next morning before returning to San Francisco.

I had a couple of days to get ready for my next trip and then made a beeline for Los Angeles where it would begin

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This Week on the Road - June 2nd-8th

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This Week on the Road - June 2nd-8th

Hello Everyone! Well, we made it. Shadow Catcher and I have officially made it all the way across the country. This was my 27th drive across the continent and, as far as I know, her first. It was also my longest cross-country drive by far, taking just about 4 months, as opposed to the one to five weeks I normally take. While we didn’t actually see the Pacific Ocean yet, we did make it to the San Francisco Bay which will have to be close enough for the time being. Shadow Catcher has been parked in storage where she will remain for the next few months as I go back to work, but she’s only an hour outside of the city so I hope I can get out and check on her and take her for a spin when I’m in town. She certainly deserves a rest after the last few months, and with California gas prices hovering between $6 and $7 a gallon, it’s very good timing for a break. I’ve spent my week hanging out with old friends and catching up on some much-needed rest and feel very ready and prepared to begin my summer tour season this coming weekend.

When I left you last week, I was headed up to South Lake Tahoe to visit my very good friend Rob and his family. I met Rob in high school, but didn’t really get to know him until after college when we lived together for about a year in a beautiful house in Chevy Chase, Maryland. We have been good friends ever since, and it is always truly a pleasure to spend time with him. I remember visiting him soon after he moved to California and being one of the first in our friend-group to meet his new girlfriend, Tara. I was here for their wedding and have been blessed to watch their children grow from toddlers to ‘tweens. I visited them a few years ago in their vacation home in Tahoe which has since become their full-time home, and I was thrilled to be able to spend a few days there with them this week.

On Thursday I spent a few hours giving Shadow Catcher’s interior a deep-cleaning and reorganizing which it desperately needed. I spent my Friday on a beautiful sandy beach on the shore of Lake Tahoe with Rob and his family. We went kayaking, threw the Frisbee and I even went for a very short dip in the cold, clear water of the lake. That evening we went to cheer on young Nolan as he took to the field in the first playoff game of his little league baseball career. They made a valiant effort, but came up short of a win. Nolan walked and stole a base which was definitely the highlight of the game for us. It was great to just sit and watch the game under the trees as the day came to a close. Saturday was a pretty relaxed day for us all. We went for a few little walks around the lake in the morning and then I got both of the children to show me their musical skills. Mazie plays the violin and Nolan plays the guitar, both of which I just happen to have in the back of my van. I was really impressed by their skills and had a blast jamming with them for a little while in the afternoon. In the evening, Tara cooked up an incredible feast of lasagna, salad and a delightful apple crisp with some homemade ice cream. We stayed up late chatting and drinking beer and listening to some wonderfully nostalgic 1980s movie theme music. It was an awesome few days up in the woods and I’m so very lucky to have such wonderful friends who would take me in for a while.

On a rainy Sunday morning I headed down out of the mountains to Lincoln, California – just north of Sacramento – to catch up with another old friend, Dave Flood. I met Dave when I was a rookie tour leader way back in the summer of 2000. We ran into each other a lot on the road during the next few years, and he was always good for a laugh. I haven’t seen Dave in probably at least 15 years, but we’ve kept in contact on Facebook and talk on the phone every couple of weeks. He’s been trying to get me to come visit him in Lincoln for a many years now, and I was glad to finally be able to take him up on the offer. He made me promise that I would arrive at 11:30am so that I could participate in his weekly ukulele lesson at noon

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This Week on the Road - April 21st-27th

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This Week on the Road - April 21st-27th

Hello Everyone! It is hot, hot, hot here in Southern Arizona – too hot in fact. Yesterday’s temperature hit 100° Fahrenheit in Phoenix and it has been above 90 for most of the week. It’s wonderfully pleasant in the mornings and the late evenings, but the days have just been too hot and my productivity, enjoyment and morale have all suffered as a result. I spent most of the last week in Tucson for various reasons, but don’t feel as though I accomplished much. I was thrilled to finally get out to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument this week, but when I got there I ended up scouting out some shade to sit in until the sun started going down. I decided yesterday that I will throw in the towel and head north to higher elevations. I’m in my last couple of weeks of freedom before I head back to work for the summer and I want to enjoy them instead of suffering through them. I will stay in Arizona for now, but I will not get to see all of the places I wanted to at these low elevations. I’m sure this part of the country will be quite pleasant in December when I return. That all being said, I did have some nice experiences this week which I am happy to share with you all, but this will be a shorter newsletter than usual.

When I left off last week, I had only just arrived in Tucson and had been out exploring the wonders of Saguaro National Park. When I finished my hikes out there, I stopped off to get a wonderfully refreshing Eegee, an interesting brand of smoothie found only in Tucson. I also got my first of two “Sonoran Dogs” - bacon wrapped hot dogs with a southwestern array of toppings. The one I got on Wednesday was from El Guero Canelo and it was delicious, but I preferred the one I got at BK’s later in the week.

I spent much of Thursday in the library but headed out to the opening day of the Pima County Fair in the late afternoon. It was a cute midsized fair with plenty of rides and games and places to eat. I enjoyed the sea lion show and the pig races and, of course, taking photos of the wildly colorful carnival. The food was terribly overpriced even by fair standards in my opinion, so I settled for a funnel cake which was sadly quite small and not very fresh for my $11. It was definitely fun to be there, though, and I have really missed these types of events. I had a couple of beers and saw some live music, but called it a night pretty early.

On Friday I headed down into Old Town Tucson to see what it had to offer. I started my visit at the old Presidio, which is a re-creation of the fort that once stood high above the river to protect the area. I was thrilled to get a guided tour of the Presidio by Raul, a lifelong Tucson resident, now retired, who was both pleasant and knowledgeable. I found it fascinating that the man in charge of building many of the old Spanish forts, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Tucson along New Spain’s northern frontier, was an Irishman named Hugo O’Connor who had fled religious persecution and joined his fellow Catholics in Spain. I also enjoyed reading about Jose de Urrea, one of Tucson’s most famous native sons. He joined the Spanish army in 1807, but later joined the Mexican call for independence. He went on to fight for Mexico against the Texans in their war for independence, and I first heard his name at Goliad in Texas, which I visited right before the pandemic sent me home. He later served as governor of the Mexican state of Sonora, but later returned to the military to fight against future U.S. president Zachary Taylor in the Mexican-American War. His was definitely an interesting story, one of many I found in the small but informative Presidio.

From there, I went just up the street to the old courthouse, a beautiful building which now houses the main visitor center for the city. Upstairs there is a small museum which looks at some of the crime and justice aspects of Tucson history. I was intrigued by the Arizona Supreme Court case of Ann Jordan and Henry Oyama which challenged the state’s interracial marriage policy. After so much time in the Deep South, it’s easy to forget that these laws were not simply Black and White. Oyama was an American-born World War II veteran with a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, but his Japanese ancestry prohibited him from marrying Ms. Jordan, who was White. The courthouse was also the site of the trial of Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger, one of America’s most infamous bank robbers…

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This Week on the Road - April 13th-20th

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This Week on the Road - April 13th-20th

Hello Everyone! First and foremost I wanted to wish those of you who celebrate a belated Happy Passover and/or a belated Happy Easter. As those of you who have been following me for several years already know, I was brought up in the Eastern Orthodox tradition so we do not celebrate Easter before or during Passover. Our Easter will be this coming Sunday this year so it totally slipped my mind last week. I hope if you were celebrating that it was a wonderful day however you chose to spend it. This week has had considerably fewer headaches than last week which I’m very grateful for. I have traveled down the east coast and across Southeastern Arizona this week, visiting with and learning about the Apache, exploring Arizona’s copper mining past and present and checking out some beautiful National Park Sites along the way. Since I’ve come down about 5000’ in elevation from the high desert to the low desert, the temperature has risen considerably with daily highs reaching into the 90s. Thankfully it is a dry heat, which really does make a huge difference, and it cools off at night which is the most important thing. I am trying to avoid being outside and/or driving in the heat of the day at this point, but overall it hasn’t caused me any problems. I’ve certainly seen some fascinating places this week, so let’s get right to it.

When I left you last week, I was in the interestingly named town of Show Low which was a quaint and quiet vacation town which seemed nice enough but didn’t have much of interest to me. I spent Wednesday night just a little bit south of there in Pinetop and was up and off early the next day. I headed straight for the White Mountain Apache Reservation which is centered around the old Fort Apache. Fort Apache was built there at the confluence of the East and North Forks of the White River beginning in 1870. The fort was built in that location with the permission of the White Mountain Apache, and many members of that band served as scouts in the U.S. Army during the Apache War which was waged mostly with the Chiricahua Apache. I was fascinated to learn about this conflict between the different bands at the wonderful museum and cultural center located there at the old fort, and it seemed to me as though they were proud of the role their ancestors played in that campaign. The fort remained an active one until 1924 and after it closed the buildings were converted into the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School which educated both Navajo and Apache children. I’m not a huge fan of the Indian Boarding Schools, which sought to strip young Native Americans of their culture, but I do believe there were good intentions involved. The campus is still a school today, but run locally by the White Mountain Apache. I spent the morning at the museum which, while it discussed some of this history, was clearly designed to present the White Mountain Apache as a modern community proud of its heritage and working towards the future. I spent the afternoon touring the old fort and trying to soak it in. Everyone I met there was incredibly friendly and welcoming and I spent considerably longer there than I had planned. I did get out to visit the Kinishiba Ruins in the afternoon which is a small Ancestral Puebloan site just down the road. It is protected and managed jointly by the White Mountain Apache, the Hopi and the Zuni, all of whom claim ancestry at Kinishiba. From there I was off to the twin cities of Eager and Springerville for a quiet and an early night.

Friday morning I was up early and headed down the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway which at some point likely crosses the trail Coronado took in 1540 on what was the first European penetration into the region. What their exact route was is unknown as there were no maps of the region for them to follow, but there is evidence that they spent time in that general vicinity. The scenic byway was a beautiful, winding 120 mile route which took every bit of four hours to travel. There were some stunning viewpoints along the way as I descended out of the White Mountains and into the desert below. It was a great road to crank up some good tunes, roll my windows down and cruise. At the other end of it, I found myself in the heart of the Morenci Mine, the largest copper mine in North America. It’s not pretty by any measure, but it is massive and definitely something to see. The small town of Clifton, on the other end of the mine, was an interesting little place to visit. The main street through town was a dirt road and a narrow one at that. The buildings were definitely a century old and not necessarily in very good repair for what should be a prosperous mining town. Everything seemed coated in red dust. It was unlike anywhere I’ve seen in the US and reminded me of some of the small mining communities I visited in Western Australia. They did have a beautiful old train station though. From there I was off and running towards Safford, another 45 minutes or so down the road. When I got there I was excited to see a Jack in the Box, one of the only fast food restaurants that I actually like. I don’t eat fast food as a general rule, but I haven’t seen a Jack in the Box in years, so I treated myself. Then I headed out to a great little private hot springs park called the Essence of Tranquility. The owner was super friendly and I had a wonderful night there soaking in the tubs and kicking my feet up in the communal areas. While I stayed in my van, they do offer little casitas and dorm beds as well. It’s definitely a worthwhile little stop and it was a nice respite from the road for a night.

I had a quick soak in the morning as well and then set off to Fort Bowie National Historic Site high up on Apache Pass…

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This Week on the Road - March 30th - April 6th

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This Week on the Road - March 30th - April 6th

Hello Everyone! It’s been another amazing week out here in New Mexico and I can’t wait to tell you about it, but I’m going to start out this week with my most exciting news. As most of you know, I will be going back to my regular gig as an overland tour guide this summer. I’ll be working for a company called Incredible Adventures which is currently being run by my last two managers from my old company. I got a call from one of them yesterday with some thoughts on my start-up tour and I will be heading to Hawaii next month. Of all the places I thought I might go this summer, Hawaii was not on my list and I am so excited for this opportunity. It will be in the midst of my time in Arizona, but I will fly out and then back and be able to finish up my time there before heading on to San Francisco to begin my season in earnest. I am definitely looking forward to walking barefoot on a white sand beach and swimming in beautiful turquoise water. So with mai tais and sea turtles dancing in my head, let me tell you about my exciting week here in New Mexico.

When I left you last week, I was planning on heading to a place called Meow Wolf the following morning. Meow Wolf was an incredible experience which is really hard to explain. It’s essentially a big funhouse, full of fascinating and beautiful art installations. You enter it through the front door of a Victorian house and then you choose your own adventure from there. You can go through the fireplace into an ice cave with a mammoth skeleton which you can play like a xylophone. You can go through the refrigerator which takes you to a strange vacationland. You can go through the bookcase and come out in a circus-like room. You end up in treehouses and lighthouses and flying buses. It really is quite a place to experience and I was there for probably three hours and continued finding new rooms and passages right up until the end, and I’m sure I missed some along the way. It was weird and wonderful and I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Santa Fe (or Denver or Las Vegas).

My Thursday afternoon was definitely one of ups and downs. I got a call from my dad telling me he had fallen and broken his ankle. He’ll be okay and is in a recovery facility, but I worry about some of these places and what floats around in them with Covid only being one such worry. On the flip-side, I got a nice email telling me one of my photos has been accepted to be published in a book of hiking trails from National Geographic called 100 Trails, 5000 Ideas. As a photographer, National Geographic is obviously one of the biggest names in the industry and while it will be a small photo in a big book, I’m still very happy to be included. In the afternoon I headed over to visit the Montezuma Masonic Lodge, where the gentleman I met in Taos told me I could find Kit Carson’s rifle. I met several of the Masons who were a part of the Lodge when I walked in, and they were incredibly warm and welcoming. The Secretary, Don, told me the whole story of the rifle and how Kit himself had instructed that it be hand delivered to the Lodge upon his death. It was, and they’ve been caring for it ever since. I had to put on a pair of gloves to hold it, but it was amazing to have this piece of history in my hands. I’m very grateful to the gentlemen of the Montezuma Lodge for their hospitality and all of the fascinating stories they shared with me while I was there. I decided to celebrate the day with a few beers at La Fonda, a wonderful must-see hotel right off the central Plaza in downtown Santa Fe. Mark has been bartending at La Fonda for years and it’s always a pleasure to stop in and say hello and have a drink in historic surroundings. From there, I said goodbye to Santa Fe and headed up the highway to the Buffalo Thunder casino for the night.

I started my day on Friday at Bandelier National Monument, not far up the road. Due to its proximity to Santa Fe it’s a busy park and it was fairly crowded when I was there, but there were some great old ruins to poke around at the base of some beautiful cliffs. When I had had my fill of the ruins, I had some lunch and then set off up the other side of the canyon on the Frijoles Rim Trail. It was a wonderful and beautiful trail and, in contrast to the valley, I didn’t see a single person along the whole hike. The trail took me up to the top of the canyon and along its rim for a mile or so and there were wonderful views down the canyon and off to the mountains in the distance. When I made it back to my van, we were off and running to Los Alamos to have a short look around Manhattan Project National Historical Park before it closed. I had been to another section of this park several years ago in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where they had enriched the uranium which was then transported to Los Alamos and built into the atomic bombs. They tested their first bomb at the Trinity Site down near what is now White Sands National Park…

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This Week on the Road - March 23rd-30th

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This Week on the Road - March 23rd-30th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a wildlife viewing week out here on the roads of Northern New Mexico. I’ve seen eagles and hawks in the air, deer, bighorn sheep and pronghorns in the fields and lots of prairie dogs running around searching for their underground tunnels. I like seeing wildlife. These animals make me smile. I’ve actually done a lot of smiling this week as I’ve found myself in wild places surrounded by beautiful landscapes and breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. I’ve managed to keep most of the demons in my head at bay this week and have felt pretty good all around. The weather has generally been great this week as well which hasn’t hurt. Warm, sunny days and cool, pleasant nights work really well for me. I do find that I need to change from shorts to long pants very soon after the sun goes down – it doesn’t take long to cool down in this dry air. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in New Mexico for over a month at this point, but I’m starting to make plans for the final stretch of my time here and then I’m off to Arizona for the rest of my winter/spring. My month in New Mexico has been special and memorable and I definitely understand why they call it The Land of Enchantment.

When I left you last week, I was in tiny Clayton, New Mexico in the far northeast of the state. I did head out to Clayton Lake State Park that evening which has a fascinating “pad” of over 200 dinosaur footprints from when the area was the muddy shoreline of a vast inland sea. Some of the footprints were very pronounced in the evening light and while it was very windy out there it was still really cool to see. I decided to spend the night at one of the campgrounds by the lake and ended up having the whole place to myself which was really nice. It was windy and cold, but I stayed out to watch the sunset and then popped out periodically to check out the stars which were really bright and mesmerizing.

Thursday morning I stuck around my campsite for a bit, enjoying my coffee and the warm sun on my face by the lake. I’ve been rereading the book Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides which essentially tells the history of early American New Mexico. It’s an excellent book, and I’m enjoying it even more now that I’ve been to a lot of the places he writes about. A pair of bald eagles were cruising around the lake while I read which was awesome. Eventually I pulled up stakes and headed back into town to take a few more photos and then got on the road west to Capulin Volcano National Monument. I had noticed on my way out to Clayton Lake the evening before that the landscape was much more volcanic in that part of the state and it became even more pronounced as I went west. I drove past Sierra Grande, which is an incredible example of a shield volcano and then headed towards Capulin which is one of the country’s best specimens of a cinder cone volcano. This volatile and quick-forming volcano (which looks like what you imagine in your head when you think of a volcano) formed sometime around 60,000 years ago. The fertile soil it produced made for some fine grazing land so ranchers have used the land around the volcano for centuries and its distinct and easily recognizable shape made it a landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. Today, you can drive right to the top which is pretty cool but probably not for the faint of heart as there is a pretty severe drop-off and not many guardrails on the road. Once you get up there, though, you are rewarded with remarkable views in all directions and you can hike around the rim and down into the crater. You can look east at the seemingly endless plains stretching to the horizon and west to where they run into the Rocky Mountains. When I left the park, I headed north to Folsom and planned on taking the road over Johnson Mesa to Raton so I could drive past the Folsom Man Site, an archaeological area similar to the Clovis Man Site I talked about last week when I visited the Blackwater Draw museum. Somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going a half hour down the wrong road but it was a beautiful road and a nice detour. When I finally figured out I had gone astray, I returned to Folsom and found the road I wanted to take. It was poorly marked and when I made the turn, I found it was also closed. Two hours later, I was back at Capulin but thankfully it was only a short drive from there to Raton. Raton is a cute little town on the railroad line with an old theatre and an older train station. I did wander around town a little bit but I was pretty tired and didn’t find out much about it. I stopped in for a great craft beer and one of the best burritos I’ve ever had at the Cellar Brewery (which is actually on the first floor, but they brew the beer in the basement) and then called it a night.

On Friday morning I headed just down the road to the town of Cimarron. Their sign reads “Where the Plains Meet the Mountains” and you can look west from town and see the Rockies emerging from the flat plains. Cimarron is also home to the Philmont Scout Ranch, a massive wilderness area donated by oilman Waite Phillips to the Boy Scouts in 1938. Way back in 1992, I came to Philmont on my very first trip to New Mexico and my first trip anywhere west of the Mississippi. My Boy Scout troop spent 10 days backpacking through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and covered about a hundred miles on foot if my memory serves. It was an amazing experience for a city kid like me and a formative one…

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