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TRIP REPORT Day 1 // Bikepacking the GAP and C&O Canal Trail in 4 Days | DC to Pittsburgh

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

Distance Vertical Gain Duration 83.6 Miles 1,257 Feet 8 Hours 17 Minutes With grand ambitions of being in the saddle first thing in the morning, just after breakfast burritos and coffee, reality set in and we were not even close to being ready to go. And by we, I mean Ben. While Pat and I squared away everything the night before, Ben still had a litany of items to complete before we could roll away from his home in Alexandria, VA. The list included installing a new chain, mounting handlebars, installing brake levers, wrapping said handlebars, the exhausting task of mounting …

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Bikepacking the GAP and C&O Trail in 4 Days | D.C. to Pittsburgh // VIDEO

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Setting out from Washington D.C. to check off my buddy Ben’s bucket list item of riding all the way to Pittsburgh on the C&O and GAP trails. We also, easily, convinced our other college friend Pat to join us. Over the 4 days, we had such a blast riding this trail and cannot recommend it enough to those who enjoy riding, scenery, history, and nature. Long days in the saddle and so much American history viewed along the way.

The C&O section of trail, that runs from D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland is a cinder gravel trail that is mostly smooth. Following alongside the Potomac, you pass through a history of this country. One where towns relied heavily on their proximity to a navigable river, or in this case, a canal to ferry goods inland from the port cities. These small towns, once wealthy from extraction industries like coal, are all a shell of themselves and depend mostly on weekend tourism from the nearby cities.

The Great Allegheny Passage, or GAP trail, that runs from the continental divide downhill to Pittsburgh ended up being mostly paved, with a handful of crushed gravel sections. Nearly complete opposite from the previous days trail of rural, remote riding, the GAP trail cuts through one old town to the next.

For more information, check out this source: https://gaptrail.org/two-scenic-trails/

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Celebrating Thanksgiving Camping in the Moab Desert

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

Turns out, you can nearly cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner over a campfire in the Moab desert, green bean casserole and all. The turkey however, well that was deep fried. In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, a group of friends got together, inviting their other friends as well, and pretty much anyone else who wasn’t going home for the holiday. Of course, we were late to this tradition, which our friends had been taking part in for a handful of years now. Yet, somehow getting a group of 18 people to meet up miles down a dirt road on public …

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Planing Your Trip to the West End of Roatan, Honduras

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If you tell someone you’re headed to Roatan, blank stares and a questioning look are sure to be the immediate response. This little island off the north coast of Honduras in the turquoise Caribbean waters has not found itself on many tourists bucket lists… yet. Roatan has been a scuba divers destination since the early 90s, with more dive sites within 100 yds of the island’s shoreline than I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Lucky for me, my wife, Courtney, had always knew about this little slice of paradise and we planed our diving trip here for 2025! West Bay …

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First time Riding a Dirt Bike… at 33

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

Talk about a childhood dream come true. I still remember riding “make-believe” dirt bikes with my cousin around the neighborhood like we were on hobby horses. Of course, there was always the baseball card in the spokes of my BMX bike making the most obnoxious staccato from the back of the bike. I’m not sure how I managed to let 33 years of my life go by before actually getting the chance to ride a real dirt bike. Needless to say, flying down the dirt roads through the desert landscape of Moab exceeded every expectation I ever had about riding dirt …

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Finally, My First Successful Archery Deer Hunt!

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After a week of getting up hours before sunrise and evenings sticking around until the last bits of sunlight passed through the woods, I thought I was going to get nothing again. Just like all the other years of hunting up until this point. The deer would always be just out of range, a change in wind would spook them, there would only be doe when I’m targeting a buck, or more than not, the deer just all seem to disappear. And to be clear, I’m not out there looking for trophies. All I care about is the challenge of …

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Review: Olympus TG-7  Dive Camera + SeaFrogs Housing // SCUBA Diving Photography

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After 8 years of trying to capture videos of the underwater world with various GoPros, I finally made the upgrade to a proper underwater camera! The OLYMPUS TG- 7 Series of waterproof cameras by Olympus, paired with the SeaFrogs Housing, seems to be the place most people start. Having captured videos with my GoPro on dive trips to Hawaii, the Keys, Tahiti, and even in Thailand, I thought the videos were fine, good enough even. But I was wrong, the ability to capture macro images of the smallest critters on the reef without the wide angle distortion, plus zoom into …

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Incredible Natural Hot Springs of São Miguel, Azores

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I don’t care how many hot springs you may have visited, whether they are in a remote wilderness, or in a fancy hotel, the hot springs in the Azores should be on everyone’s travel list. In just the week we visited São Miguel, the largest island in the Azores, we soaked in 3 very different hot springs. There was the traditional large pool and small soaking tubs of Parque Terra Nostra in the valley of Furnas. Then there were the small pools of Caldeira Velha Hot Springs up in the jungle on the volcanic slope of Volcano Água de Pau. …

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First Night SCUBA Dive in Roatan, Honduras | Octopus and String of Pearls

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SCUBA diving at night, in the pitch black Caribbean ocean, is one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever been lucky enough to say I’ve done. Up until the boat ride out to the reef, the only difference I expected from a normal dive, would be the nocturnal animals out cruising the reef. Little did I know, after the sun set below the horizon, the dive briefing talked about the potential to see an octopus, an anemone hunting, lobsters out crawling around, but best of all, the string of pearls. All 8 of us divers were absolutely buzzing and couldn’t …

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El Aguila | Diving My First Shipwreck Dive going below 100ft

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

So far, in my short diving career, I’ve had some amazing experiences. From the massive sea turtles in Hawaii to the underwater aquarium that is Richelieu Rock in Thailand. But there was one dive I still haven’t had the opportunity to swim down, and that was a shipwreck, even though Courtney has had many experiences on shipwrecks. The idea of diving on the sunken remains of an engineering marvel that has taken on a new life as an artificial reef was so exciting to me. It was a no-brainer when we reached out to Native Sons dive shop on Roatan …

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