Category: Hiking

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Backpacking Biking California Hiking Mommy Diaries On the Water Outdoor Adventures Rock Climbing Utah

Join Me at REI’s Outessa Summit This Summer!

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In the last two years of traveling we really haven’t made an effort to attend any conferences or workshops. Pre-travel I would attend at least one photography workshop a year, and Sam would often have 2-3 tech conferences he attended. All part of keeping up our skills, networking, and getting inspiration for new projects or ideas. Conferences were also a way to get some dedicated “me time” in and I’ve missed that a lot!

This year we’ve decided to remedy our imbalance. I’m feeling a little stagnant and definitely ready for a weekend away where I can focus on my needs and projects without guilt or interruption. There’s just something about have at least 24 quiet, magnificent hours all to myself that lends itself to increased satisfaction and productivity when I get home. Sam already has a few tech conferences he’s been missing so we’ve added those to the calendar, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted.

As I searched around for blogger conferences or something along those lines (since photography isn’t my main focus at this point) a friend mentioned REI’s Outessa Summit. I knew instantly I wanted to attend.  After some discussion with Sam about logistics, travel schedules, and plans for the rest of the year we both agreed that this would be really good for me.  Even better, through some other connections I was able to talk with the co-founder, Julia Stamps Mallon, and volunteer as a photographer/blogger for the event in exchange for discounted admission. I’m looking forward to an awesome weekend of outdoor recreation and sharing it with all of you!

Outessa Summit is a women’s only weekend getaway at either Kirkwood, CA or Powder Mountain, UT. With over 200 activities to choose from, professional guides and mentors, plenty of healthy, fulfilling food, and beautiful mountain scenery I’m completely stoked for this event! I’ve signed up for the Powder Mountain event that will take place from September 9 -11, 2016 in Eden, UT. They are also setting up “Camp Outessa” where you can bring your own camping gear to sleep, but they provide showers (most appreciated!) & bathrooms.

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After registering, you’ll be able to log in and sign up for classes. While I would love to mountain bike ALL day, each type of sport is limited to one class so that everyone gets a chance to participate. I think this limitation also encourages women to sign up for activities they normally wouldn’t try. Have you always wanted to try rock climbing but don’t know how? What about trail running? Nervous about backpacking, kayaking, or even just how to cook around a campfire? They seriously have classes for all of the above!

I’ve signed up for an intermediate rock climbing class, intermediate mountain biking, GRID foam rolling, making healthy granola bars and snacks, a night trail run (Hello! NOT a runner!) as well as an ElliptoGO class. My goals are to hone and develop my skills for activities I already love while trying out some new sports as well.

After breaking into classes for most of the day, everyone comes back for a family-style dinner in the evening, campfire chats, and s’mores.

I’ll admit I was a little hesitant at first about the “women only” designation. I’ve never been one to need a girl’s night out, or feel more comfortable hanging out with my girlfriends rather than my family. Sam is, and always will be, my favorite choice for an outdoor adventure partner, even if it sometimes is logistically inconvenient for both of us to be away. However, recently I was able to go on a ride with a friend from Lehi who loves to mountain bike, as well as hike with Alyssa from Kidproject.org (and all of ours kids!). I’m learning there’s something powerful and comforting in finding like-minded girlfriends who love to be outdoors as much as I do.  So even though it may be a little outside my comfort zone, I’m looking forward to making connections with other women like me – those who love and live in the outdoors as much as they possibly can.

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Event Details:

REI Outessa Summit: Powder Mountain, Utah
Friday September 9 @ 8am – Sunday September 11 @ 5pm
Registration Link

REI Outessa Summit: Kirkwood, CA
Friday August 19 @ 8am – Sunday, August 21 @ 5pm
Registration Link

Categories
Backpacking Biking Hiking Rock Climbing

The Truth About Our Outdoor, Adventure-Focused Family

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During our recent trip to Utah we had a surprising conversation with my family when I mentioned I was past ready to go on a hike but my kids weren’t going to like it.

“They aren’t going to like it?” my dad asked.

“Oh no,” I said. “They are going to whine and complain.”

I received looks of skepticism from all the adults in the room. After seeing picture after picture of our outdoor adventures, my family had apparently reached the conclusion that our kids never resisted our activities.

Let me clear this up: Our kids whine ALL the time about going outside to hike or bike or just even a walk. “Mom! This is NOT a short walk”, or “I’m tired” and even “I don’t want to go” are very common phrases in our household. Many days the kids would rather stay inside reading books (Rachel and Andrew), playing Lego’s (Cara), or sitting in front of a device playing Minecraft (all three).

The thing that makes the difference is that we go anyway, even when it’s hard. 90% of the difficulty is getting out the door and not giving up when ten things go wrong in the five minutes before you turn on the car and drive away. We’ve tested this theory over and over again throughout the last two years and every single time we all come home in a better mood. Every. Single. Time. With that kind of a track record, how can we not go?

I admitted in a past blog post that we are cheaters. Suburbia IS hard to get away from. Outdoor sports are less conveniently located, and its difficult to find wilderness (or even something resembling wilderness) in many places. In that sense, we have it easy because often just the act of getting OUT of the trailer is enough. There’s usually a bike path, or trails, or something in every state park we’ve stayed at so proximity is not the problem. We just have to overcome our mental laziness, which can sometimes be extremely difficult to do.

Just yesterday, our experience proved true yet again. After hearing complaints from ALL three children, we all went mountain biking as a family. It was chilly, difficult, and long. Cara even fell off her bike three times during the ride. It was very dark when we finished, and everyone was tired. But we were happy. We had accomplished something difficult together and all three children had smiles on their faces.

Categories
Backpacking Hiking Outdoor Gear Photo Gear

Gear Review: MindShift 180 Bag Rigged as a Backcountry Backpack

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While we would have loved to receive this item for free to review, we actually spent money to purchase it. This post contains Amazon affiliate links which help to fund the blog in a small, small way. Thanks for helping us out!

I’ve been on a quest to find the perfect bag. When you don’t have a lot of space to store equipment, each piece of gear needs to have multiple functions. I have a great over the shoulder camera bag (see that post here) but for longer hikes it just wasn’t cutting it. Plus, I wanted to be able to tote multiple lenses in a safe and easy to access manner.

Enter the Mind Shift Gear Rotation 180.

We ran into this bag at a camera shop downtown in Petaluma, CA. It piqued my interest as a solid, hiking/camera bag and even better when I found out they are made by Think Tank Photo who are leaders in the camera bag space.

The Mind Shift 180’s star feature is the accessible waist belt pack that swings around from inside the main bag. Hard to visualize? Here’s some photos to help out. The whole waist belt slides around and its super easy to get in and out which gives me access to extra lenses or even my camera if I’m not carrying it with the Capture Pro on a strap.
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The clip is easy to slip in and out without looking at it, but is also secure. There’s also a tether just in case the waist belt somehow comes undone so my gear won’t hit the dirt.

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Unfortunately, when we were planning our first backpacking trip in the Apostle Islands we just didn’t have enough room for all the gear. Sam has a huge regular backpack, but even with that we were having to give the kids too much weight. The Mind Shift 180 has a fairly large top storage compartment which is great for jackets, or food (which is heavier and better for an adult to carry), but it still wasn’t enough space.

Our solution? A dry bag roped to the outside. Fancy, right? We picked up this dry bag at Walmart for like $6. Its pretty heavy, but also durable which made it great for being on the outside. We stuffed a sleeping bag, everyone’s pajamas, and all the electronics in it and then tied it on to the Mind Shift 180 with these Sea to Summit Accessory Cords.

It worked surprisingly well. Because the Mind Shift is rather small, the pack overall wasn’t too heavy (my total pack weight for the Apostle Islands was 31 lbs) and I had no problems with unbalanced weight.

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It may not be the prettiest solution, but it totally worked! I would love for Mind Shift to come up with a legit attachment to the outside of this bag. They make a larger camera bag, but on shorter day hikes it would just be overkill and we don’t have the space anyway! This guy fits perfectly under the dinette seat for easy access and safe storage.

When I have easy access to lenses and even my camera, I am more likely to take photos along the way. Its also important for me to have my (fairly expensive) gear safe and I feel like the padding in this is definitely adequate. If you are looking for a bag to take out hiking, I definitely recommend this one!

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Photo Credit: Amazon

 

Categories
Arizona Biking Hiking State Parks

Lost Dutchman State Park: Hiking Flat Iron & Introducing Our Kids to MTB

 

We had heard from fellow travelers that Lost Dutchman State Park was pretty amazing, so when we swung through Phoenix last winter we decided to give it a try. Not really knowing the layout of the park beforehand, we managed to snag a pretty sweet spot with an epic view of the Superstition Mountains.

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When We Visited: March 14-19, 2015
Ages of Kids: 9.5, 7.5, 4.5
Site #: 103
Website: http://azstateparks.com/Parks/LODU/
Link to Flatiron Trail

After a brief, but dramatic, total freak out by me (read all about that here) we settled into the park and really loved it. A lot. The Superstition Mountains are ragged, majestic, and beautiful and are quite the prominent feature of the area.

We had friends staying in the overflow area at the same time (@livinginthemomentum) so the kids had some great play time with them in addition to earning their state park Jr. Ranger Badge. Our site was water and electric only, but the showers were great and we managed to go all 6 days without needing to dump the tanks. Hooray!

My two favorite activities, however were: introducing my kids to mountain biking, and hiking to the top of Flat Iron with Sam.

Introducing Our Kids to Mountain Biking

Around the outer edge of the park is a 4 mile mountain bike loop. While that may not seem like a long ride to some, it was perfect for introducing our kids to mountain biking. The trail was pretty smooth and flowy in some places, but also had some good ups and down through the various washes. The kids were all pretty tentative at first, but soon I couldn’t keep up with them as I hung back and made sure Cara did okay on her strider bike.

Our biggest success was just taking it slow and letting the kids learn at their own pace. Riding on dirt is definitely different than pavement and just takes some getting used to. We taught the kids to stand up on their pedals and get behind their seats on the downhill, and to keep their pedals level so they don’t whack them on rocks. Those were the two big lessons of the week.

Sam and I were also able to ride the loop a few times (it took us about 30 minutes), and it was great to get back into the saddle. I don’t think either one of us had really mountain biked in years.

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Hiking Flatiron

Right up against the the boundaries of the state park is the Tonto National Forest with the ragged Superstition Mountains. One of the more popular trails is Flatiron which tops out at 4861 feet elevation with some serious gain over the last mile or so.

Since we knew the hike would be too much for the kids, Sam and I decided to wake up at 5am one morning and tackle it. Rachel is getting old enough that we feel comfortable leaving her in charge of the other two (really it’s probably Andrew’s and Cara’s ages that matter more – they are quite independent). She can manage pulling out cereal in the morning and we just told them to stay in the trailer to play and we’d call from the top to see how things were going. We also knew we had friends nearby in case anything went seriously wrong, and she knows the phone number for grandma if she has non-emergency questions.

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The hike was brutal. Up to the Basin it was a pretty even uphill, and then after that it was some serious rock scrambling. The trail was marked on rocks with blue/white dots since there wasn’t actually anywhere to make a trail, and in some places we had to guess where it went but overall I felt we did pretty well.

We made it to the top, had a small snack, enjoyed the view and then started back down the trail.

Holy people. I’m so glad we left as early as we did because the trail was CROWDED on the way back down. Especially after the Basin. So, my advice if you want to hike this trail during Spring Break: get out of bed and get yourself up the mountain early. It’ll be way better.

Overall, I’m super happy we tackled it, and the kids did great on their own and were a little disappointed when we got back (heaven help us when they are teenagers).

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We absolutely loved staying at this park, but since there are a few others in the area (McDowell Mountain being top on our list) we’ll probably wait awhile before staying here again. Definitely recommend it though!

Categories
Arizona Hiking National Parks Outdoor Adventures

Our Awesome Hike at Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona

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We visited Chiricahua National Monument in eastern Arizona. It was a mountain oasis in a desert of grass. The landscape was pretty cool. And there were TREES. We hadn’t seen trees in a month – just cactus.

Mom and dad decided that we were going to hike. A long one! I didn’t really want to go, as hiking is not my favorite thing to do. Long hikes are boring and I get tired way too fast, but I decided to make the best of it and have fun along the way!

When We Visited: March 8-9, 2015

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Where We Stayed: Bonita Campground inside the park. The have a max trailer length of 29′ feet because of the sharp turns and deep washes inside the campground.

The morning after we got there, we had a great breakfast of eggs & toast and then walked to the bathrooms where we waited for the shuttle. It was pretty crowded inside and we had to climb all the way into the back! They took us to the top of the mountain at Echo Canyon and we started our hike.

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At the beginning, the hike was pretty much downhill, and it was steep and rocky. It got steeper and steeper as we got progress, and I’m glad I had one of the four hiking poles. I used the pole to lean on so I didn’t hurt my knees.

We hiked on a little further down the green and brown mountain and came to the rocks. The rocks were made of Volcanic ash covered in bright green lichen. It was pretty unique. Echo Grotto Canyon is a collection of rock tunnels. The place was very tall. We had lots of fun climbing around it. Dad found a cool ledge lifted Andrew up so he could take a picture of Andrew siting on the ledge. Andrew loved it, but there was no way I was going up there! Mom and Dad took more pictures of us and then we headed on our way. I loved to see the rocks, because it reminded me of Bryce Canyon and we love to rock scramble.

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Mom and dad are pretty good at keeping us distracted and helping us hike long distances. Sometimes we listen to music (Frozen is Cara’s favorite), we eat yummy snacks and I love to suck the sugar off the peach rings.  We also play a math game where you line up single file and skip by twos. Each person has a turn saying a number while you skip count. It is very fun. We played a state and capital game, and had some more snacks. Andrew and I started to talk about Minecraft while Cara was counting to Mom and Dad. I started to draw numbers in the trail for Cara to practice her counting. I went to twenty probably about ten times then Cara and Andrew took over with the numbers.

The views on this trail were amazing! There was rocks everywhere.  It was like Bryce Canyon and Yosemite mixed together but totally different at the same time. We loved it. Its in our top three Favorite parks with Crater lake and Bryce Canyon.

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After hiking down for a couple of hours, we hiked pretty flat along the Hailstone Trail but then climbed up the Mushroom Rock Trail to the top of the hill to have lunch. We got to the top of the mountain we were climbing up, and found a good spot with a view for lunch. We had egg sandwiches for lunch. It was very messy. I was the best at keeping my spot clean. We all had to go to the bathroom but there was none there! We had to go in a hole! It was so disgusting, but kind of fun at the same time!

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After lunch, we got to a loop called Heart of Rocks Loop, and started on it. It was boring for a wile, but then we came to the awesome rock formations. There was Thor’s Hammer, though it did not look like a hammer. There also was Duck Rock, it looked like a rubber ducky, I loved it the most. Kissing Rocks was one, Punch and Judy, (it looked like two people, and Pinnacle Balanced Rock. There was a huge step in the loop it was hard to go up it. The steps up and down were made of flat rocks.

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The hike down to the Visitor Center was the longest! We would through lots of trees and tried to keep ourselves entertained. Andrew, Cara, and I talked about things we wanted to build in Minecraft. When we got to a fork in the road, we were so tired that mom & dad had us lie down and put our feet up to give them a rest!

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Andrew and I got ahead of our little hiking group, and I started needing to go to the bathroom. I ignored it. Then, I started needing to go to the bathroom so bad. I stopped to wait for mom and dad, but Andrew and I were to far ahead. I looked down to the ground. Not to far down, I’ll make it to the visitor center in time, I thought. I walked as fast as my legs could carry me down the trail. I went faster and faster, that I got ahead of Andrew too. The trail started to the get flat, and I was hoping I was close to the visitor center. I passed some other hikers and said hello and then hurried down the trail again. I started to feel like I was going to explode. I went faster and faster. I suddenly almost peed in my pants, so I veered of the trail and into the wilderness. I found a good spot and went to the bathroom managing it all by myself!

I got back to the trail and sat on a rock to wait for my family to catch up. I heard Cara talking and started back up the trail. I met my family and told them what  happened. We  started on the trail, and maybe 10 minutes from where I went to the bathroom was the Visitor Center! I was very mad at myself for not going any farther. At least I didn’t have a huge accident!

We asked some one to take our picture at the sign for the trail then headed home. When we got there I went straight to my bed and lay down because I was so tired!

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The next day, I looked back to the day before, and felt that I had done something important that most people would not be able to do. I felt really proud of myself for doing an eleven mile hike. Too bad we had to leave the awesome oasis so soon! I hope that someday we will get to back to Chiricahua National Monument.