Desert Rats Trail Festival Half Marathon (21K) in Fruita, Colorado

A half marathon, in the desert of Colorado, right along the mighty Colorado River, what else could we ask for? Although we were reluctant to sign up for a spring race, because that meant we would most likely have to be training in the snow, Courtney and I both signed up for the Desert Rats Half Marathon in Fruita, Colorado. Better yet, this race would coincide with our third wedding anniversary right next to the town of Palisade, where we go every year to celebrate in Colorado’s wine country! Talk about a win-win! Well, it would be a lot of …

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Climbing the Roadside Crag – Wall Street down in Moab

There are only a handful of climbing crags that it seems like every climber in Utah has checked off, as sort of a right of passage, if you will. There are the classics in the Cottonwood Canyons near salt lake, the conglomerate caves in American Fork, the boulders down in Joe’s Valley, and of course the most easily accessible of them all, Wall Street down in red rock desert of Moab. Sure, people come here for the classic slab and crack climbs that run parallel to the mellow Colorado River that runs through the desert. But the true reason why …

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Stanley Idaho | Paradise in the Sawtooth Mountains

I am not sure a more perfect representation of a mountain exists than the one that sits in Stanley, Idaho. A town whose population, of mere 121 people, is outnumbered by the number of mountain peaks that surround it. Stanley sits in a valley at 6,000ft, tucked underneath one of the most incredible mountain ranges in the world, the Sawtooths. This mountainscape is what you picture when you imagine jagged, rocky peaks that hold snow well into the summer months. And at the base of those mountains are unimaginably blue lakes that drain into river filled with sockeye salmon and …

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Visiting McCall, Idaho | Lakeside Paradise in the Mountains

I’ll be honest, I never thought a place like this could exist in the state of Idaho. You know, Idaho, the state famous for potatoes, right? Well, over the past few years, we’ve been up to a few mountain towns in Idaho like Salmon, Ketchum, Boise, Pocatello, and Driggs, but nothing has come even close to McCall. McCall is a town that sits right on the edge of the pristine Payette Lake, surrounded by rocky mountains, dense pine forest, and of course, at the base of of Brundage Mountain ski resort. Between the boating opportunities, endless mountain sports, breweries, fly …

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For the Love of Gravel Biking

I’ll never forget the conversation I had with my friend Bill, shortly after getting my first gravel bike. It was the Trek 920, and I fell in love with how I could ride from my place, on the road, to any trail system in town, and go for a mountain bike ride as well! I told him, “This bike is amazing, without the suspension, it makes even the easiest of trails fun and exciting!” He responded, bluntly, with, “Yeah, its’s nothing new. Gravel bikes are exactly like the mountain bikes of the 90s, which were already awesome!” He had a …

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Scuba Diving with Sharks & Turtles on the Island of Moorea in Tahiti (VIDEO)

Getting to dive with Black Tip Reef Sharks was a dream come true, and not just one, but a handful that surrounded us throughout our dives! This island is a true paradise that hasn’t been corrupted by tourism or resource extraction. Tahiti and Moorea was pure beauty both above and below the water! I cannot recommend this dive enough. Enjoy watching the video, as it’s the closest I can try to share the experience with you! Even watching it over again, has transported me back below the water and surrounded by those beautiful sharks again! The two dive shops that …

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Race Report: Cirque Series Brighton Trail Race

What an absolutely incredible race course for the Brighton Cirque Series! The Cirque Series is a group of mountain running aces around the West that primarily climb up ski resorts in the summer, highlighted by the steep vertical climbing required in a short distance. And of the three ski resorts that host a Cirque Series race in the summer, I think the Brighton resort has, by far, the most incredible race course & trail of them all. The stats for this race were 3,000 ft of climbing in 6.7miles. It had everything, from ridgeline boulder scrambling, 5 mountain peaks, technical …

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Rafting & Camping the Moab Daily at 20,000CFS with our Dog

The Moab Daily is the iconic section of whitewater, just outside the town of Moab, on the Colorado River. It’s popularity doesn’t come from having massive rapids, but as the name suggests, it’s a very easy section of river to do in a day, or just an afternoon. The river section is only about 13 miles long if you put in at Hittle Bottom Campground, and snakes its way through the desert landscape, down 6 sets of rapids that range from Class I to Class III. The rapids are fun, the ease of shuttling to and from the takeout is …

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Thailand SCUBA Liveaboard Experience: Days 2 & 3

Wake up, dive #1, eat breakfast, dive #2, eat lunch dive #3, snack, dive #4, dinner and beers, go to sleep, and repeat. This pretty much sums up the average day on a liveaboard dive boat. As you can imagine, the purpose of liveaboard is to dive as much as possible from sun-up to sun-down, and even sometimes at night! We chose to go through Similan 7 Seas Diving Shop (No Troubles Just Bubbles), aboard the MV Lapat, which offered a 3 day 2 night liveaboard trip that would take us from Lamu Pier, near Khaolak, to the Similan Islands …

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Thailand SCUBA Liveaboard Experience: Day #1

Wake up, dive #1, eat breakfast, dive #2, eat lunch dive #3, snack, dive #4, dinner and beers, go to sleep, and repeat. This pretty much sums up the average day on a liveaboard dive boat. As you can imagine, the purpose of liveaboard is to dive as much as possible from sun-up to sun-down, and even sometimes at night! And even though my wife, Courtney, has been diving for 20 years, this was both of our first experiences on a liveaboard dive boat, and to add to this, it was going to be off the coast of Phuket, Thailand …

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