2021 New Mexico

This year's end-of-year trip firmed up several months ago, with some last minute (minor) adjustments arriving as late as yesterday (we couldn't go all the way to New Mexico without seeing Billy the Kid's grave, could we?).

We're braving an American Airlines flight from National Airport to DFW at the moment. The flight is packed, with lots of kids and more than a few coughing travelers. Back to "normal", it would appear.

County Chasing (update)

It's been a very productive Geocaching county-hunting year (so far)! I'm almost to 1000, after more than 17 years of Geocaching. The Christmas / New Year trip will knock out quite a few in New Mexico, with Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado thrown in for good measure.

2023 Summer

The 50th anniversary of the big hike that Don Wilson and I took across the Sierra Nevada is coming up in just two years. I've thought about how best to commemorate that trip, and have settled on trying to be in Lone Pine, California on 4 July 2023. I should be able to add that in to the mix of everything that we want to get done that summer, and it'll be a nice remembrance of the time we looked down upon a fireworks display, as we hiked east from Whitney Portal those 48 years ago.

2021 Pacific Northwest trip preps

Among my least favorite planning and packing chores is riding gear cleaning. Motorcycle riding gear has armored padding that must be removed before the rest of the garment can be cleaned (and made more water resistant). 

Removing this armored padding is a time-consuming nuisance, wrangling the padding and lots of hook-and-loop fasteners, all while having your arms in the legs and arms of the riding gear. 

I'm happy to report that I've completed that tedious chore in advance of this next ride!

"Hiking light until 9"

 My uncle Don (Wilson) was an avid backpacker. He loved to hike the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. In June and July 1973, we hiked across Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, summiting Mount Whitney, arriving in Lone Pine on 4 July 1973. It was great to see fireworks below us, as we traveled down the road from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine!

One of the things he taught me, on that long hike, was the notion of "hiking light". Of course I had no idea at the time just how useful the notion of "hiking light" would become. More than a few times I've stretched the notion of "daylight" with regard to endurance motorcycling bonus hunting, learning to rely on photographing objects against a lighted sky to prove I was there in "daylight"!

County Chasing

 As of today, 23 May 2021, I've found and logged a geocache in each of 775 counties (parishes, boroughs, census areas) in the United States. All the way from Washington County in Maine (GC943D, For Whom the Bell Tolls) to the Aleutians West borough in Alaska (GCJ5C4, Shemya Island - The Rock at the Edge of the Earth).

There are 3143 counties (parishes, boroughs) in the U.S., so I have a few more to work on. The Cape Girardeau trip in April and May 2021 got us quite a few new counties, filling in along the Ohio River (except in a few places where we got "rained out") -- we'll go back to fill those in later.

One of the goals of the 2021 Pacific Northwest trip is to fill in a few missing counties; I'd like to have a contiguous path from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by the end of summer.

Ride preparations

Ride preparations are usually tedious -- there are a lot of small chores and maintenance items that have to be completed. Tire replacement is coming up this Tuesday. That's the last major item on the bike (that I know of) that needs work before departure. The sketchy rear tire pressure sensor hadn't completely failed  during the last long ride, so it will likely wait until our return to be replaced. Not ideal.

Our helmet visors and Pinlocks took a lot of abuse over the last couple of years; mine, especially. The gravel and dust in 2020 put the whammy on my visor, and blew a lot of dust up under the Pinlock that I'm sure I could get completely removed. Both visors and Pinlocks were replaced today, along with a little cleaning and lubrication of the hinges. That parts replacement should get us through a few more years.

I bought a new air compressor to replace the last one I'd purchased years ago. I've gone with the Dynaplug Micro Pro, which is getting good reviews these days. I don't plan on using it, but if I need a compressor, I'll have one with me (along with the plugging kit).

The Google Pixel 5 that I had to buy on the Cape Girardeau trip has turned out to be fantastic. I've been able to catch up with six years of technology development -- the extra processing power, more storage, and 5G (where it's available) have combined to give me so much more capability than I had on the last ride. I've put a new SlipGrip mount on the bike, along with wiring up a charging capability for when I need it.

2023 American Rockies and the American West

 In the "it's almost never too early to think about the next trip (or in this case, the trip after that)" category, the early favorite is a long trip to New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Getting out there just after the snow clears at the upper elevations will keep the temperatures down, and might help with crowd control as well.

Alaska 2022

Under the theory that it's never (really) too early to plan complex trips, I restarted the planning for the Alaska 2022 trip this past weekend. This trip has some tricky reservations, and I'm assuming that the demand for Alaska trips will be very heavy in 2022 (given the scarcity of supply in 2020 and 2021). High demand places like Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Denali National Park all require reservations a year in advance. Some other remote locations also demand early attention.

So, to get working on the trip details early, I sketched out the route out and back, and are more-or-less ready to go with reservations when June rolls around. I'll be executing one trip while planning the next. Nothing like a little concurrency!

End-of-year vacation trip 2020 (and a little of 2021)

 Donna and I took a wonderful end-of-year trip to Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah this year. We started out in Las Vegas (briefly) -- we picked up a Camaro convertible (?), then headed to Beatty, Nevada to get the party started.

I've had Death Valley on my winter travel trip list for a long time, and 2020 was a good enough excuse to make that plan a reality this year. Lodging at Death Valley was closed right before our trip, so we did a quick re-plan to stay in Beatty (which turned out to be a great idea, anyway). 

We then headed out through Rhyolite, Nevada and Death Valley to enjoy the sights (and much cooler temperatures), with an overnight stop in Laughlin, Nevada. I've never been to Laughlin, so this was a new experience for me.

Grand Canyon National Park was our next overnight destination. We stopped off in Kingman, Arizona to see a little of historic U.S. Route 66, then continued to Williams, Arizona to see a bit more. Both of these towns deserve a more detailed visit, especially Williams. The weather was getting a bit more interesting as we headed north from Williams, and quickly turned to snow as the temperatures dipped. The Camaro didn't appreciate the road conditions, but we took it slow as we got to the park. Grand Canyon is amazing enough, but the snow cover highlighted the impressive geology by affecting the contrast of the geology and the sky.

Because Navajo Nation closed the east entrance to Grand Canyon earlier in 2020, we took the long way to Zion -- back to Williams, then east to Flagstaff. More U.S. Route 66 sightseeing (much more is required), then north through Cameron, Arizona to Zion National Park.

We spent two nights in Zion National Park, to allow for some serious hiking in the canyon. We didn't make it all the way to Angel's Landing (the ice was a bit much), but we saw wonderful scenery on the portion that we did. I'm glad I spent a lot of time pre-trip studying up on the geology of the area; it made the trip more enjoyable for me, as I was able to spot specific features in the park.

From Zion National Park, we headed to Las Vegas to see 2020 out the door. There weren't specific festivities available in Las Vegas this year, so we enjoyed walking up and down the strip. 

We drove to Boulder City for the last night of our trip, staying in the Boulder Dam Hotel. We enjoyed hiking around the town, and our stay at the hotel. This was the third dam-related stay of the past year: Fort Peck, Riverton, and now Boulder City. I highly recommend the Boulder Dam Hotel for comfort and historic charm.

We wound up the trip with a drive to Hoover Dam, and a meandering trip back to Las Vegas. We took the red-eye back to IAD, arriving after noon on Sunday.

It was a great trip; I'll likely put in more details shortly, as I dive through the photographs and videos.