Travel Stories

  • Backpacking … for real

    After our jaunt to the fire tower on Shorty Peak, we decided to go out for a more conventional backpacking trip – the kind where we bring everything we need with us, including the shelter. We chose the upper priest river, a relatively mild trail to get us started. This trail goes 8 miles along the upper Priest River through lush old-growth forest, ending at a waterfall just miles from the Canadian border. In many ways, this trip reminded me of backpacking in the eastern US. If you’re looking for grand mountain views and high alpine lakes and meadows, this…

  • Backpacking… sort of

    It’s good to be back on the trail. Backpacking has been absent from my life for quite some time, and I am excited to change that. On this trip, I hiked 2.5 miles and 1500 feet up to a forest service fire lookout that has been converted into a cabin for rent. Shorty Peak tops out at an elevation of around 6500 feet above sea level with a view that is as spectacular as it sounds. The mountain is located in Idaho’s Selkirk Mountains on a ridge adjacent to the ridge that hosts the US-Canadian border. When Heather found that…

  • What’s your travel style?

    When I think about the way I travel and the way others travel, there are two extremes at the ends of a spectrum: on one side, we fit in everything we can see during our limited time at a destination; on the other side, we stick to a small area and get to know it really well. Where do you typically fit on this spectrum? When we book trips to major destinations, there is extensive planning involved as well as the expense of the trip. On top of that, there are seemingly infinite places in the world that we would…

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    Fourth of July

    For many years, I have spent my Fourth of July basking in the part of America that I enjoy the most: its wild and natural beauty. It started in 2011 when I explored the Hobo Cedar Grove for the first time. Then again in 2013 when I hiked Grandmother Mountain. In 2015, I spent the fourth in the Seven Devils with friends. This year, I returned to Grandmother Mountain for what may be my last visit to one of my favorite peaks in the vicinity of Moscow.

  • Sand Mountain Trail

    I don’t get out hiking or geocaching often these days. With geocaching, it makes sense. I’ve found nearly all of the geocaches in a close distance to home and town, forcing me to travel farther distances just to make a find. But when it comes to hiking, I have less of an excuse. I don’t live in Moscow. I live near Deary, 25 miles east, which puts me 25 miles closer to the mountains. It puts me at the edge of the mountains, the foothills if you prefer. There are hiking trails all around. The closest is spud hill, from…

  • Moscow Mountain Snowshoe

    Saturday, January 14, 2017 It’s not often that I get out to hike these days. But we’ve had a fantastic winter so far, and after a week of insanely cold temperatures and clear weather, I just had to get out and take advantage before the warm weather and rains took over. I’ve always wanted to hike to the lookout on East Moscow Mountain in the winter, but on every attempt, I was thwarted with people who just couldn’t make it all the way up. So on Saturday, I had a nice sunny day and some time to go for a…

  • Adventures with Clara: Hobo Cedar Grove

    The Hobo Cedar Grove is a nice easy 1-mile hike through a grove of giant old-growth trees. It is the perfect hike for toddlers to explore nature, which is why we brought Clara up there on Sunday. She enjoyed the large trees, but wasn’t into walking the trail much. Eventually Erin had to carry her for most of the hike. In hindsight, she may not have completely gotten over her illness from Friday and Saturday.

  • Grandmother Mountain

    I finally got some time to get up to Freezeout to hike Grandmother Mountain. The flowers are out and it’s quite pretty, though it’s not the best year for flowers that I’ve seen. It could be that I got up there a little late. Everything seems to be coming out a little earlier this year than normal. But then, all of the flowers that are out still seem to be in peak bloom. I was especially hoping for a great beargrass year like I got to see three years ago. But even with the lower abundance of flowers, the ones…

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    July 4 Update and Clara in Spokane

    It’s been over a month since my last update. There haven’t been any major adventures due to time and financial constraints. As I aim to write and finish my dissertation, the time for such outings decreases and thus this summer will be nicknamed “the summer of no fun.” Fun isn’t completely off the table, but the number and scope of such expeditions will be reduced compared to past years. I did have one bit of adventure in June. I traveled to Austin for the 2016 Evolution meeting where I presented some results from our behavioral simulation experiments. With our latest…

  • White Pine Loop & Bomber Too

    Last week, Clara and I had a day to ourselves, so we had a little adventure on a nearby trail. The white pine loop is a 3-mile hike from the White Pine campground off of Idaho Rt. 6. A one-mile (one-way) out and back spur takes us to the site of a WWII bomber crash site with some pieces of the wreckage still littered throughout the woods. But rather than write a lengthy post with a few photos, I’ve decided to try a video series that I’m calling Adventures with Clara to highlight just how adventurous she is.   [map style=”width: auto;…