Year: 2026
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Backpacking to Heart Lake and Chickenfoot Lake
For the two older kids, this was supposed to be a breeze of a trip—one to two mile days, relatively flat, and many rest breaks. I intentionally picked this short flattish trail, because while Rakesh and his kids, Noah and Siri, have gone backpacking before, to Hilton Creek Lakes on a moderately strenuous hike, this…
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James Peak Wilderness
Planning This trip can be considered a twenty-year celebration, when in 2006, Brad first joined me on a backpacking trip. The other special thing about this excursion is that I chatted with artificial intelligence to plan it. From the beginning, I asked Claude.ai for suggestions for a loop or in-and-out trail within two hours of…
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First Utah Ski Trip
We’ve heard a lot about this place called Brian Head in Utah. Everyone tells us that it’s family-friendly, and we finally ventured out there. It’s only a little farther than Mammoth. Because Mammoth is in California, and getting to Brian Head involves crossing three state boundaries (California to Nevada to Arizona to Utah), it sounds…
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Black Rock and Jumbo Rocks at Joshua Tree
Getting a campsite reservation in Joshua Tree National Park is fairly elusive, especially on weekends for this time of year. A few weeks ago, at the nudging of the kids, I started browsing for sites, and to my surprise, a single site was available in Jumbo Rocks, so I grabbed it. We decided on two…