Archives for category: North America

This beautiful video highlights, in my view, a thoughtful man and a capable vehicle working together in service of others. I love it.

 

Very interesting story from YouTuber “Colorado Backcountry Adventures” who has been living and traveling in the west for about five years. He relates in the video that this experience was the strangest thing that’s happened to him in that time.

The Essential Geography USA, 2nd edition, David Imus, 2019

Cartographer David Imus has just released the 2nd edition of his map of the United States. In my view, it is the most beautiful, articulate map of this country ever made. The 1st edition of this map, called The Essential Geography USA, was awarded “Best of Show” in 2012 at a competition held by the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. The 2nd edition is even nicer in that the shading of the land forms is more delicate and interferes less with the place names. The image above is a sample from the 2nd edition. Below (Read more) is a sample of the 1st edition so you can see what I mean.

The clarity with which this map conveys information is stunning.

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Last week we got a bunch of snow in the Pacific Northwest. We made the most of it by having an off-road adventure day at Baker Lake in the North Cascades. Our destination was a foot bridge suspended over a river north of the lake.

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Here’s another more-torque-than-horsepower bike that’s an alternative to the Royal Enfield Himalayan that I posted the other day. It’s the made-since-the-’80s Yamaha TW 200. This cinematic, poetic video does it justice.

There’s a high pucker factor pass at the end. Video credit to MASS Expedition from YouTube.

Last Sunday I took Illabot Creek Rd., in Washington’s Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, up to the Slide Lake trailhead for some winter fun and snow driving. Here are some photos and some trip notes at the end in case you go.

Chained up and ready to go.
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NationalParksTrip

August of 2016 marks 100 years since the founding of the National Park Service. To celebrate, a data scientist, Dr. Randal S. Olson, created an optimized route map showing the fastest way to visit all 47 national parks.

Click the map image for a live Google Map.

Source:
The Optimal U.S. National Parks Centennial Road Trip | Dr. Randal S. Olson Read the rest of this entry »

This video made by YouTube user Robbie Bircher‘s dad back in 1989, offers a rare glimpse of basically stock trucks navigating one of America’s most difficult 4×4 routes, the Rubicon Trail. Along for the ride are a couple of Jeep CJs, a Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40, and an International Scout.

The pace of the video is slow but you feel like you’re there. And thankfully it’s been stabilized so you don’t have to sit through any camera shake. Really good stuff.