The Crooked Trail

  • Notes from the Trail #10: Montana, Glacier, and the North Cascades

    Notes from the Trail #10: Montana, Glacier, and the North Cascades

    Back to Montana I’ve been bouncing around a lot this summer between Montana, Washington, and Oregon, and that theme continued over the last month since I completed the Washington BDR. From Central Washington, we headed back East to Helena where we spent a couple more nights with Jocelyn’s family before going back to my parent’s…

  • Notes from the trail #9: Washington Backcountry Discovery Route

    Notes from the trail #9: Washington Backcountry Discovery Route

    I recently spent 4 days on a motorcycle trip traveling 400 miles on the Northern half of the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route (WABDR) with one of my oldest and closest friends. I’ve had this friend for over 30 years in fact, which is a little hard to believe. We’ve literally grown up together and despite…

  • Notes from the Trail #8: Montana Roots

    Notes from the Trail #8: Montana Roots

    I’ve been in Montana for the past couple of weeks, Southwest Montana to be exact, in the tiny town of Dillon (population 4,000) where my parents live. I grew up in this part of the world and have made a tradition of spending a few weeks here in the spring and early summer visiting my…

  • Never Enough: How We Tie Self-Worth to Productivity

    Never Enough: How We Tie Self-Worth to Productivity

    I recently had a day that ended up having nothing planned. It was a bit of an accident as I had actually been planning to be on the road to Montana to visit family. However, I was recovering from a cold and had been out a bit late the previous night. I ended up sleeping…

  • Fencing for Beavers: Four Days of Hard Work in the Oregon High Desert

    Fencing for Beavers: Four Days of Hard Work in the Oregon High Desert

    I just returned from four days in Eastern Oregon working on a habitat restoration project with the Oregon Natural Desert Association. Fifteen of us backpacked in 3 miles and spent two days building about a third of a mile of fence across the mouth of 12 Mile Creek canyon. The goal of the project is…

  • Rooted and Restless: Four Months Into Life After My Tech Career

    Rooted and Restless: Four Months Into Life After My Tech Career

    The award for the most surreal experience in the last two weeks goes to the meeting I had with my replacement at my previous company. I left on good terms and I wanted to make sure the transition was as smooth as possible once they hired someone, so I had offered to provide some support…

  • How to Train Your Adventure Cat or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love The Harness

    How to Train Your Adventure Cat or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love The Harness

    Our cat, named Asha, is a seven pound gray tabby that we brought home from the Humane Society twelve years ago. On past long trips, we’ve left her at home with a house sitter instead of taking her with us. On our recent trip earlier this year to the desert southwest and Baja we decided…

  • Dirt, Snow, and Good Company: A Week Well Spent

    Dirt, Snow, and Good Company: A Week Well Spent

    The past week was a perfect microcosm of how I want to be spending my time in this next chapter of life. It included service and habitat restoration, music and dancing with friends into the wee hours, meaningful work on the land with people I care about, and a great day of adventure in the…

  • I Left My Tech Career at 46: Here’s the Honest Truth Three Months Later

    I Left My Tech Career at 46: Here’s the Honest Truth Three Months Later

    There’s a memory from our recent trip through the desert Southwest and Baja that I keep coming back to. We were in Kofa Wildlife refuge at a spot we’ve been to twice now. I had woken up early to hike up the hill behind our camp to look for Bighorn Sheep. I walked out onto…

  • Notes from the trail #7: Homeward bound

    Notes from the trail #7: Homeward bound

    Stocking Up in Ciudad Insurgentes For our trip back North, we decided to circle around the Pacific side of Baja to see some new territory that we hadn’t encountered on the way down. Our first stop was Ciudad Insurgentes to restock groceries, water, and of course, tortillas. The city is named in honor of the…