Intro

I am out of free photo space on Wordpress, so I am trying out blogger to see if it plays nice with google photos.

My old blog is here:
http://www.mossreport.wordpress.com

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Oregon's Outback

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I remember sitting in the living room of our Schaumburg, Illinois home reading this National Geographic article about the empty southeast corner of Oregon. It was 1997. Nathan was a handful of months old. We were on the precipice of moving to Seattle, a leap of faith that we may not be capable of now at our wiser ages. The skin on my neck prickled. The haunting photographs and stoic prose by William Least Heat-Moon resonated with the viral wanderlust that infected me in those days. The article described a place empty and lonesome and sere and also dry, harsh, and caustic.  The photos and prose depicted a massive ridge called Steens Mountain, longer than the Rhode Island-Connecticut border, rising over 2 vertical miles on the east face above an alkili plain. It described lakes that appear and disappear with the seasons. It showed empty roads and bullet-ridden signs. I didn't know shit about the West but knew I wanted to be there. Somehow, a few short years, from birth to age 7, a li...
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Central Washington Bike Tour, 2021/5/23-5/27

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"If you don't go, you won't go."  Prelude I have long had an appreciation for bike touring but with a background in racing and rec riding, I have never dove headfirst into this pursuit. Years spent working hard for other people and supporting my dear family have postponed the cross-country trip that has been a hope and dream for a long time.  Every summer I try to squeeze in a week-long backpack trip. I have dialed in my pack and list of gear that allows me to traverse the Washington backcountry with confidence and comfort. But I have never been sure how this set of gear and backcountry knowledge can transfer to either a longer, multi-week (or multi-month) hike or to a similar trip on the road on a bike. Inspiration As a project to jumpstart my cross-country dream, I decided to create a limited bike touring adventure this summer. Several years ago, I discovered an ultra-endurance racing event called the Steens-Mazama Race. It is a 1000 mile loop that passes through th...
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Mt. Adams Loop Trip, Day 2, Devils Gardens to Camp above Bird Creek Meadows (2018/07/23)

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Even though I only went 7 miles, the day was super challenging. As I lay in my tent at the end of the day, I was so tired and just wanted the sun to go away. The sun had been shining on me since 7am. I left camp at 5:40am. It was nice and cool and there was plenty of light. I was prepared for an entire day of route-finding and solitude as conditions would change from meadow to creek-crossings, trail-less schwacking and clambering across a snowfield or two. The day turned out to be all that and nothing that I could not handle. Mt. Adams shoulder above Devil's Gardens First I had to cross a creek. I determined it was too deep to cross without wet feet so I changed out of my shoes and stepped into the icy water. I found the faint trail through Devil's Gardens and followed this up and up and up a gentle slope to the top of the ridge on the shoulder of Mt. Adams. This immediately crossed over into the Yakima Reservation. This is where I was prepared for the trail to s...
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