Tag: camping Posts

This morning I woke up and decided to make some plans. Strangely enough, that line from Shawshank Redemption kept going through my head — “get busy living, or get busy dying. You god damn right.” Anyways, it also didn’t help matters that Dave and Lauren took off the other day, as well as Tanya and Gus. Even Dale left yesterday to go do some relaxing at a cottage. So Instead of just heading south without a plan (something I’ve done many times before and been burned for), I decided to call a few campgrounds first. Thankfully the little KOA right outside of Portland had one tenting spot available, so I made a reservation and then started to pack my car. Unfortunately for me, someone was moving in at the time, so I had to carry about six loads of camping gear down four flights of stairs to my car. It […]

So yesterday I was sitting on my patio trying to figure out when to take a vacation. I still have a few small client-related items to finish off, so I’ve been waiting around for that. While going over everything in my head though I remembered that because I work from a laptop, there’s really no reason why I can’t work remotely. All I need is an internet connection once and a while to check email, and I’m basically golden. With that in mind, I’m thinking about testing my Nexus pass out in the next few days and heading south. Pretty much every KOA nowadays has free Wi-Fi, so I could easily do a bunch of work while camping on the coast. Given that I have some friends in Seattle and Portland, I’m debating loading my camping stuff and a guitar in the car and leisurely making my way down to […]

As most people already know, I am a big fan of camping. I’m not really sure why to be honest, but there’s something about being in the wilderness with nothing but a bit of nylon between you and the outdoors that I’ve always found appealing. Maybe it started years ago when my dad and I used to crash out in his camper when I was a kid. Maybe it was all those trips I did with Brennen and Jeff in the old days. Needless to say, it’s one of the things about summer I always look forward to. Last summer was unique — it was the only summer in ages where I looked back and actually felt like I did enough camping. I did a road trip by myself through the North Cascade mountains in Washington, hit Cultus Lake with the usual suspects, and even did a weekend trip up […]

I gotta say — I’m fairly amazed that it’s still snowing on the west coast. I woke up to a white coating on the local mountains and houses here. I actually spent a few years living in Ottawa, and one of the reasons I came back was because the weather was so much warmer out here. But this is without a doubt one of the craziest winters I can remember. Cultus Lake provincial park is only a few weeks away from opening, so it’s pretty incredible that we’re still plagued by this cold snap. I sure hope we’re privileged enough to have an extra warm summer as payback for this dismal winter. Anyone have any cool plans for the summer? Vacation, camping? Let us know!

Well, I’m not actually sure if it’s today, but Dave Olsen recently had a birthday. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Dave in the last year or so through Rebecca and John, and he’s an outstanding guy with a real love for the Internet and his friends. Not only is he an amazing podcaster, but if he were about 75 pounds heavier I’m pretty sure he’d be one of the few people to keep up with me at the bar, no doubt about it. In addition, Dave and I have actually been cooking up a little web kung-fu that we’ll be talking about real soon. I was down in San Francisco this weekend, but had I been in town I would have gone camping with Dave and had a few beers. But hopefully Dave and I will get to hang out soon and have a few cold ones. […]

Two more people have donated recently to the Union Gospel Mission. They are: Kevin Haggerty Grant Jordan Thanks for your support. If anyone else pledges before my next entry, drop a comment or an email and I’ll make sure I add your name. I don’t have the exact number, but I think that brings us close to $300, with a goal of $1000. So if you can help us hit that goal, please head on over to the pledge page and lend some support. To sweeten the deal, I’ll give any person who donates $50 or more to the Union Gospel Mission an 8×12 photo of your choosing from my HDR gallery located at SmugMug. One of the techniques I’ve played with a lot over the past year is in the area of high dynamic range (HDR) photography. It’s essentially a way to capture far more dynamic range of a […]

I love camping. It’s perhaps the second most enjoyable thing in my life these days, the first being a nice, toasty warm plate of nachos. There’s something magical about a campfire next to a lake, or sitting around drinking a few beers under the stars with people you care about. I have always, for as long as I can remember, had trouble sleeping. Part of the reason is that I have a bad back (due to an injury I obtained in high school), and frequently wake up when I have an achy back. I also find that most city noises wake me up, and that I generally toss and turn most nights. The only time I find I can sleep easily is when I’m either lying in bed with my arm around someone warm, or when I’m curled up in a sleeping bag with the sound of a running stream […]

Well, thus marks the end of my first two-week vacation stint. This vacation saw me bounce from San Francisco, to Los Angeles, back up to Vancouver, to a Matthew Good show, then to the North Cascades, up to Whistler, and then back home. Not bad for just over two weeks. Golden Gate Bridge, taken during my trip It was great getting to hang out with my sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids down in Disneyland. Despite only being an hour and a bit away, I don’t get a chance to head home that often. Plus, I haven’t really spent much time with my niece and nephew (although I was there in Chilliwack Hospital when my niece popped out), so it was a good bonding experience with both of them. I gave up caffeine again a few days ago, and already I feel a ton better. To be quite honest, most […]

Here’s a shot I took the other day while camping with my friend Rob. It was a great trip, and I had a really good time catching up with and old friend.

Birkenhead Lake, last summer At the Matthew Good show the other night I ran into a good friend of mine from high school. We ended up chatting and drinking beers over at Doolin’s after, and it was great to catch up. Rob and I became friends back when I was working at Bonanza when I was 16, and I haven’t talked to him in a few years. Birkenhead Lake, photo by wenno on flickr It turns out that both Rob and I are on vacation this week with not a whole lot to do, so we decided to head up to Birkenhead Lake tomorrow and just chill out over a few beers. Birkenhead was the biggest surprise of last summer, and it’s one of the nicest campgrounds I’ve been in. It’s close to Whistler, and it boasts huge campgrounds with a nice glacier fed lake. So it should be a […]