Archives for category: PLACES

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.

My friend Nathan told me recently about the Royal Enfield Himalayan, a back-to-basics, 411cc adventure bike from India. From reviews I’ve read the bike is more pack mule than race horse. Or said another way, the long-stroke engine provides more useful torque than it does useful horsepower. But often that’s just what’s needed off-road.

I think the YouTube review above does a good job of laying out the bike’s pros and cons. After the jump there’s another video of bike on an adventure in the Himalayas. And here’s a review of the bike in Cycle World to round things out.  Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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All photos: Gregory McDonald

This is the last post about 2015’s Overland Expo, West. If you’d like to go this year, it’s taking place in Flagstaff May 20–22.

These are some shots of last year’s obstacle course. Read the rest of this entry »

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All photos: Gregory McDonald

Overland Expo West, the rally, camping, and training experience, held every year in Flagstaff, Arizona, starts in a week.

Here are some more photos of our friend Greg’s trip there last year. Read the rest of this entry »