Tumbleweed

Welcome back to Tumbleweed! I had put this blog post on ice for the last six months as we weren't traveling much and therefore there wasn't much to report on. But Ginny and I just returned from a 3+ week visit to Taiwan and South Korea so it seems like a good time to get the blog going again!  We were visiting Ginny's parents in Taipei (yes, they and all of Ginny's family are fine after the recent earthquake...thanks for the many messages!) and decided to add a side trip to South Korea since it's a fairly short flight from Taipei. We know Taipei pretty well as Ginny's parents have lived there for more than twenty years and we've visited many times during that period. Nevertheless, we always discover new things as it's such a vibrant and bustling city. One of the things that we really love about Taipei is how easy it is to get around. The city is very walkable and when we have to travel longer distances we take the subway which is very clean, affordable, ...

After spending most of the summer in the Pacific Northwest, we wrapped up the trip with a climb up South Sister which is part of the Three Sisters and is the third highest peak in Oregon. It's a real slog of a climb as you ascend nearly 5,000 feet from the trailhead (5,500') to the summit at 10,363'. The first few miles were pretty nice as we were in the forest and the gradient was fairly gradual. Then there's this exposed sandy plateau for the next couple miles which isn't too steep and provides some great views of the summit and surrounding mountains. Then the real fun begins with a really grueling climb up rugged volcanic rock and loose scree for the final mile and a half. We had a fair amount of company on the climb so we were all providing each other emotional support and encouragement. The view was definitely spectacular at the top although I'm not sure it was worth all of the effort. However, if you don't think you'll ever make it to the moon, you...

We’ve had an action packed few weeks and are just wrapping up our PNW van tour with a final week in the Bend area before we head south to California. We were discussing how this summer compared to our summer last year in Colorado and agreed that while Colorado likely has more pristine outdoor opportunities with fewer people, the PNW is also quite spectacular and seems to provide a more diverse multi-faceted experience. For example, we’ve loved visiting the farms and orchards of the PNW and have loved all of the greenery which was harder to come by in Colorado.   I go backpacking with a core group of friends nearly every summer and this year was a special 50th birthday trip for both my friend Joel and myself. In celebration of the special occasion, we expanded the group from the four OG friends to include our friends Andy, Andrew and Dan. Miraculously, everyone was interested and we managed to schedule it such that everyone could make the trip! So we all converged on the Eagle Cap W...