Hello Everyone!
The weather is very strange here in California. There is a lot of snow up in the mountains and a lot of rain in the rest of the state. Even the desert is getting rain right now. We desperately need all of this water and it’s generally a very good thing but it doesn’t make for great traveling weather. My plans to head to the mountains first were changed to a nice drive down the coast, but then landslides closed Route 1 so I’ve been hanging around somewhere in between. I’ve gotten to some nice museums this week and eaten some delicious meals, but I haven’t done too much or traveled too far. The price of gas in California is outrageous, so when I’m driving it needs to be deliberate. I have been getting through some of my Arizona photos from last winter and working on my podcast and I’ve definitely been getting to the gym every day so that’s good. But I really want to explore California with the time I have and this week has been more about reacclimating to the van life and trying to stay out of the way of the weather.
I started this leg in Sacramento, where my buddy Dave had been watching my van while I was at home and in Europe. I was hoping to head up to Lake Tahoe from there to visit some friends and get some skiing in, but the snowstorms in the mountains closed the roads and kept me from going. I spent a couple of days in Sacramento trying to wait it out, visiting the State Capitol and a few museums and getting a few things fixed on my van before giving up on the mountains and making my way out to Napa Valley.
Napa Valley is not my favorite region of California. I have spent a fair bit of time there over the years trying to find some places I enjoy, but to no avail. It’s a beautiful valley and I enjoyed driving through it, especially with the early spring bloom going on, but it’s a very wealthy area which has been built up to welcome the moneyed elite and not the average Joe. It reminds me a lot of Hilton Head in South Carolina and I just feel very out of place there. I know some people really love it and return year after year, but it’s just not the place for me. I did enjoy a brief visit to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum in St. Helena which, while small, has some interesting artifacts from Stevenson’s life and his time in California. Stevenson spent his honeymoon squatting in an old miners’ cabin in Napa Valley, a story he recounts in his book The Sacramento Squatters. I also had a delightful meal at Bouchon in Yountville which is owned by Thomas Keller, one of America’s most famous chefs
Father Eusebio Francisco Kino established the Mission San Cayetano de Tumacácori on the east side of the Santa Cruz River in January of 1691, making this the oldest mission site in what is now Arizona. The name “Tumacácori” is an English bastardization of a Spanish interpretation of an O’odham (Pima) word, the meaning of which has been lost. It is how the native people referred to this region. After years of violence at the hands of the Spanish, the O’odham people rose up in the Pima Revolt of 1751. Laying blame on the abuse of the Jesuits missionaries, they were pardoned by the colonial governor and the Jesuits would be expelled from the colonies beginning in 1757. The mission was moved across the river and renamed Mission San José de Tumacácori and the first actual church was built on this new site.
Franciscans would try and pick up where the Jesuits left off and in 1800 they began work on an ambitious new church, trying to match the majesty of Mission San Xavier del Bac to the north (a photo of which appears at the very bottom of this post). The church was never fully completed as the missions were closed when the Mexicans won their independence in 1821. Today, the mission is a part of Tumacácori National Historical Park and a visit is a must when you’re in the area. You can learn more about the O’odham people, the Spanish missionaries and colonial life in the missions and it’s a very cool place for a wander.
Fort Apache was constructed between 1874 and 1932 and served as an important military outpost during the Apache Wars. It rests in the midst of the beautiful White Mountains of Eastern Arizona. and is well situated at the convergence of the North and East Forks of the White River. The area is the ancestral home of the Cibicue and White Mountain Apache tribes who welcomed the United States Army to build the fort there, as they had a common enemy in the Chiricahua Apache. The White Mountain Apache are very proud of their service as scouts in the U.S. Army, and the role they played in the defeat of the Chiricahua and the capture of the great Chiricahuan leader, Geronimo. I learned a lot about the Apache Scouts and their campaigns at the wonderful "Nohwike' Bagowa" (House of Our Footprints), more commonly referred to as the Apache Cultural Center & Museum. which should be everyone’s first stop on any visit to Fort Apache.
After visiting the museum, I set off to explore the rest of the fort on a self guided walking tour which took in all of the wonderful historic buildings which remain on the post. After Geronimo’s capture in 1886, the fort remained an active military post for many years, finally closing in 1924 (although several Apache scouts remained in the army until 1947). After the army pulled out, the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School was established and the land was transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The school is still there and functioning today. I had a great visit with the kind and welcoming people of the White Mountain Apache band and really enjoyed my visit to this fascinating historic fort. I hope you enjoy these photos from Fort Apache.
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.
Hello everyone and a very Happy New Year to you all. This is obviously a great time of year for reflection on the year gone past and planning for the year ahead. 2022 had a lot of ups and downs in my world, but at the end of the day, I would consider it to have been a very good year in my life. I spent the first half of 2022 traveling across the country, exploring, taking photos and trying to get myself back in the mindset of having a regular job for a while. I learned a lot about the desert southwest, the indigenous people who call and called it home and the colonial powers which have moved through the region over the last five centuries. Shadow Catcher and I made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean and it was great to finally get there on this particular journey. I’ve spent a lot of my adult life on the west coast, but it may have been my van’s first time and it was good to be there together.
In May I started working for a new company in a new place. Getting back into a career which has spanned 15 seasons over the last 22 years wasn’t quite like riding a bike. There were pitfalls and stumbles which weren’t helped any by the pandemic, floods, fires and earthquakes. But my management team was incredibly supportive and my passengers were almost all wonderful people who had learned to roll with the punches pretty well over the last couple of years. My first trip brought me back to Hawaii - which was like a dream for a few days until Covid finally caught up with me there. I had to try and deal with it on the road, something I had tried so hard to avoid. I got through it, but Covid would poke its ugly head out several more times over the next few months.
It wasn’t all work though. In August I got out to a five day reunion for my old company, Trek America, which was to celebrate the 50th anniversary which never came to be. It was an amazing five days out in the redwoods of Northern California, catching up with some really old friends and making new ones it seemed I had known forever. I also got out to spend a long weekend with some other friends and our historical society The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus. I’ve known some of those guys for 22 years (one of whom I trained with as a tour guide back in April of 2000) and it was wonderful to catch up with them as well. I even dated someone for a few months this summer, which was fun right up until she met someone who lived in her town and would be a more stable fit. It was a familiar story for me, but I wish them all the best. I’m grateful for the time we had and it was nice to have some companionship for a change. I also got to catch up with several of my west coast friends this summer who I haven’t seen since before the pandemic and it was amazing to see them all…
Hello Everyone. Christmas week is upon us! It snuck up on me pretty quickly this year, but I’m very grateful to have been able to spend the holiday season with friends and family at home. It’s always nice to be home in Washington this time of year as I truly think it’s the best time of the year to be in our nation’s capital. I’m writing to you this week from my brother’s house here in New Hampshire where I’ve only just arrived this evening. I figured it would be good to spend a few days in New England before heading off to old England for the New Year.
It’s been a fun and festive week here and I hope you are all enjoying the season however and wherever you celebrate it. We’ve certainly been busy and I’d love to tell you what we’ve gotten into this week. Last Tuesday my folks and I took a wonderful candlelit tour of the Tudor House, one of Washington’s oldest homes, the oldest parts of which date back to the late 18th century. We drank cocoa, ate mince pies and pound cake and heard the story of the family which called Tudor House home for 6 generations. Many of the furnishings are original to the house and the whole house was decorated for Christmas which was really special. After our tour we had a great dinner at Farmers, Fishers and Bakers on the Georgetown Waterfront while watching ice skaters cruise around the rink.
Wednesday we got up early and headed up to Columbia, Maryland to check out an afternoon matinee at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. We started with a really delicious buffet brunch and then enjoyed a fabulous production of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life performed in the round. The actors were great and the adaptation was incredibly well done. This was definitely a highlight of the season and I will absolutely be returning to Toby’s in the future. After the show we took a spin around Historic Ellicott City, a town I’ve really enjoyed visiting over the last couple of years. The town was decorated for the season and it was fun to wind around the hills and rivers for an hour or so. We wound up the day with a few craft beers at the nearby Sapwood Cellars Brewery.
On Thursday I spent the day cleaning and packing and then headed over to my friend Sandy’s house for dinner. Sandy was my date to my senior prom and has become one of my very good friends over the last thirty years.
Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona preserves a magical landscape created by a 27 million year old volcanic eruption. The lava hardened into rhyolite and erosion has carved out a wonderland of rock spires, balanced rocks and hoodoos. This little visited park site is truly spectacular and definitely worth a detour.
I arrived in the park late in the day so I didn’t have a ton of time to explore. After a quick stop at the Visitor Center, I made my way all the way up to Masai Point at the end of the 8 mile scenic drive and did the short nature loop there to get a good overview of the area. Then I set off on the magnificent 3.3 mile Echo Canyon/Hailstone/Ed Riggs loop trail which was really fantastic. When I finished this hike, the sun was on its way down and I enjoyed the glow on the rocks as I made my way back down the hill and on down the road.
While I was only in Chiricahua for a few hours, I really enjoyed my stay and look forward to returning again in the future. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Chiricahua National Monument.
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…
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..
Hey y’all! Gosh, it’s been awhile. My summer has been really busy and hectic, but it’s finally starting to slow down a little bit. I just got back from a two week trip to Montana and Wyoming and the leaves are already changing up there. Football is back on the television and pumpkin-spiced everything is showing up in stores and on menus. That must mean fall has arrived. While I’m going to continue working through November, my trips will be more spread out and I’ll have a little bit more time to catch up with you guys and on some of my other projects. It’s been a busy summer, but a good one and it’s taken me to beautiful places with wonderful people.
When last I wrote, I was on my way to Northern California for a reunion with a bunch of my old tour guiding friends. It was a truly magical 5 days in the redwoods in a beautiful, secluded, private camp with a hundred really wonderful people. Some were old friends I haven’t seen in 20 years while others I knew only by reputation. We laughed a lot and shared stories of our similar but vastly different experiences on the roads of North America (and beyond, for some). It’s been rare that I’ve felt so much a part of something, and my 20 years of involvement with the company meant I could bridge a lot of gaps and fill in a lot of missing chapters to the story. The founders of the company were there, and they shared their story about the humble beginnings of TrekAmerica way back in 1972. It was fascinating to hear how it all began, and we had tour guides there from every season from the very start to the very end, when the company closed its doors during the pandemic. I’m glad we had a full five days out there as a weekend just wouldn’t have been enough.
I took an extra day after the reunion to make my way back down the coast and be sure that Shadow Catcher put some miles on. She handled like a dream and it was nice to be driving her down the Pacific coast. As far as I know, it was the first time she’d seen the Pacific and it meant that after 5 years we had finally made it all the way across the country together from sea to shining sea.
After the reunion, I returned to San Francisco and ran a quick little tour out to Yosemite. While on the trail, I ran into two friends I had taken on tour way back in 2015. It was great to see them and to catch up for a few minutes and reminisce about our trip together.
My next trip was an enjoyable San Francisco/Yosemite/Lake Tahoe combination with a fun group of British passengers in their 30s and 40s. The trip included a full day of sightseeing in the city, a great sunset cruise on Lake Tahoe and a stand-up paddleboard lesson
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
Hello Everyone! I hope all of my American readers had a fabulous 4th of July. I spent mine in Yosemite National Park, which is a beautiful tribute to so much of what’s right with this country. Ken Burns was definitely onto something when he called our national parks “America’s greatest idea”. This country has had its ups and downs and the pendulum continues to swing, but I’m sure you know by now how passionate I am about our national parks and public lands in general. While there were definitely no fireworks allowed anywhere in the vicinity of Yosemite do to extreme drought and fire hazards, I was happy to spend some of the day in the shadow of the mountain known as Liberty Cap – it seemed quite fitting.
Since I am back to work and will be incredibly busy these next few months, these updates are going to come sporadically throughout the summer and early fall. During the last few years, I’ve tried to get them out pretty religiously on Wednesdays with an excellent success rate, but when I’m working it’s a different story. I’m slowly starting to shake the rust off from three years without guiding a tour and I’ve definitely been enjoying being back on the road and being back on payroll. It’s always good to see my accounts rolling up instead of down. I’ve also loved being back in front of a group, sharing my passion for nature and history and sharing travel stories and laughs over dinner and drinks. I have strangely been asked on two of my first four trips to give a brief overview of the American Civil War. Neither was brief, but I like to think they have a significantly better idea of what the war was about.
I’ve been really hoping to have one trip go off without a hitch as most of my trips did for many years before the pandemic. I’ve always been good at covering my bases so that even when things go wrong, most of my passengers will never know the difference. That’s been hard so far this season, and this current trip was no different. I only had four passengers scheduled on this current trip to Yosemite, but only two showed up on our first night together. Thankfully the other two at least left word as to where they were and by the evening of the second day I had all my ducklings gathered ‘round me. This was another 5 day hiking tour to Yosemite and the weather really couldn’t have been better. It was in the mid-60s to low-70s all week and not a cloud in the sky – perfect Yosemite hiking weather. The snow-melt-fed waterfalls are still going strong and the wildflowers are in full bloom. Once I had all of my passengers with me, I could tell we were in for a wonderful week.
And a wonderful week it was. On Sunday we went for lunch at the Iron Door Saloon, the oldest saloon in California dating back to 1852. Then we went out and hiked to see the giant sequoias, the largest living things on earth. Spending time among the sequoias is always humbling and awe-inspiring. When Jesus walked the earth, some of these trees were already a thousand years old.
Monday found us on the Mist Trail, hiking up 1600’ past the beautiful Vernal and Nevada Falls. This is a heavily traveled route and because of that is one I haven’t hiked in many years. I prefer to spend my time in Yosemite in quieter corners of the park. It has been nice to revisit this hike this season as it was the very first hike I ever did in Yosemite, 22 years ago when I was on my training trip to become a guide.
