Such – Going Down The Trail

A Few of My Favorite Pics from Past Year’s Adventures

June 1, 2019June 1, 2019My Favorite Things, Opting Outside, Such4 Comments

While I think we all know that no picture of an amazing outdoor scene truly does it justice, you can still capture some great shots. I think I’ve gotten some cool shots for some guy snapping pictures with his phone’s camera while hiking around, so here’s some of my favorites.

All pics taken with various models of iPhone and some have been instagramed.

Colorado

I’ve been taking a backpacking trip to Colorado every summer for the past 3 years, it is not hard to find some beautiful views,

Trail to Fuller Lake with Ice Lake in the background

Mining shack remnants with Fuller Prak in background

Grand Canyon

Last year was my first time hiking Grand Canyon and it was awesome, so awesome I’m going again this September! If you took a picture of every amazing view you’d never get to the bottom,

And there’s always more pics on the ol’ Instagram.

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A post shared by Travis Moore (@thm74)

This Summer’s Adventures

May 17, 2019May 18, 2019Backpacking, Life, Opting Outside, Such, SUPingLeave a Comment

Working in the restaurant industry in Phoenix necessitates taking vacations during the summer. While it can be a little warm in Phoenix, I’m still able to do a decent amount of outdoor activities and get away for some cool backpacking.

One of the first escapes should be a few days car camping with my wife. I just recently got us a 6 man tent, for excellent comfort in the campgrounds. While I enjoy the backpacking experience immensely, some comfy car camping is fun as well!

Only place in the yard I could try to set up the tent

After that comes the Colorado backpacking trip, usually the highlight of the year for outdoor adventures. The past few years, for various reasons (impressive volumes of rain and wind or serious lack of precipitations), we haven’t been able to have a campfire. Really hoping for a few small campfires to sit around this time. Heading to an area around the continental divide, moving between some lakes. After a long hectic season of work the simplicity of backpacking and the beauty of the mountains help recharge the spirit. I feel like I can live pretty comfortably while backpacking, the REI Co-op Double Shot Press Mug doesn’t hurt (apparently it’s not available anymore, but I bet you can something similar). A real cup of coffee sure makes mornings in the mountains exceedingly nice.

This was my view for 12 hours 2 years ago waiting out a torrential downpour

Then in early September it’s back to the Grand Canyon! There will be four of us this time, should be a fun group. We’re going about two weeks later than last year, but it’s early September so it will probably still be pretty hot! As usual, i’m sure we’ll challenge ourselves. So we’ve got that goin’ for us , which is fun. The canyon is such an amazing place, around every turn is another incredible picture!

If I mix in some SUPing out at the lakes around Phoenix, it should be a good summer.

Who else has some sweet summer adventure plans?

Ironman Arizona Volunteering and Such

November 22, 2014May 18, 2019Such, Triathlon2 Comments

My two friends and I decided to sign up for Ironman Arizona 2015. It’s a very popular race, so to guarantee a spot we volunteered for this year’s race. My friend, Bill, decided we were volunteering for boat duty during the swim, it ended up being awesome! While it was an early morning, we had a greatl vantage point, and it was really cool to be in a powered boat out on Tempe Town Lake!

I was able to get a great view of the race start and the washing machine of the first few hundreds meters. Cruising around the lake was really cool, it’s amazing how much that area has changed just in the 16 years I’ve been here. I ended up watching over a guy who was struggling about halfway through the swim. There was a group of guys cheering him on whom I assumed were his buddies, traveling here to support him, because of how passionate they were in their cheering for him. It turns out that they were just some cool local tri peole cheering on a guy who was having a rough day, I think that is awesome! I ended up having to give him a ride in the boat back to the swim finish, because he missed the swim cut-off time. I felt bad for him, he had traveled from St. Louis, a long way to go for your day to end so soon!

After that we cleaned up the buoys, loaded up the boats, and headed out.

The next morning I got up to stand in line with the other volunteers to register for next year’s race. It set a record for the quickest sellout of a US Ironman! So now, I’m all registered for next year with a fun year of lots of swimming, biking, and running with two good friends!

Here’s a few pics from the morning, and I’m going to attempt to do many posts about his year’s training fun!

Our #Cat is a hedonist…

September 13, 2014May 18, 2019Life, Stuff, SuchLeave a Comment

Lucy lives the good life, she also gets many pets! And yes we watch Law & Order…

Spring San Antonio Trip

March 16, 2014May 18, 2019Life, SuchLeave a Comment

We just got back from a visit to Amy’s home town, San Antonio. The main purpose of the trip was to see Wicked at the Majestic Theater, but we also got to visit with her family and good friend and cruise around the Riverwalk!

We got to the airport 2 hours ahead of our flight time thinking we would have plenty of time to get bags checked/through security. The place was crazy packed, we made it but not my much. After a kind of bumpy ride, we arrived in San Antonio. We got checked into our hotel and cruised around downtown with Amy’s Aunt and Uncle, it’s such a cool city! Everything down there was so crowded, they were getting quite the Spring Break action!

The next day we did some more walking around, went to the Alamo (couldn’t find my bike in the basement), took a carriage ride, and got ready for the matinee showing of Wicked with Amy’s parents. Fortunately, our hotel was about 200 yards from the theater, so it was a quick walk over. The play was fantastic, an excellent examination of good and evil, and how it can be interpreted. The Majestic Theater is beautiful, and they did such a great job casting and performing the play! Afterward, we had a nice dinner on the patio of the Little Rhein Steakhouse with a great view of the riverwalk!

The next day we trekked on over to the San Antonio Zoo. It had been quite a while since I visited a zoo and we had a great time! We took the bus over (first time on a city’s public bus), it was super easy and super cheap, and had a nice walk through a park to the zoo. We got to see lions and tigers and bears (oh my), and a bunch of other cool animals. I think the Rhino was the size of my truck!

That night we met up with Amy’s childhood best friend and had a nice night out. We started out at The Esquire Tavern, a cool bar and restaurant, had some great burgers and a few drinks. The next place we stopped had a live band to check out, Amy’s friend knew a band member and they were pretty good! This place had the coolest entrance, you walk into a 15 x 15 ft room with red painted walls. The door girl said cover was $3, but you got $1 off if you hula hooped, I was by far the worst. After that the door girl hits a button on the wall and a secret door opens up allowing us to enter the bar, it was sweet! We finished off the night at the local piano bar, it was a fun night!

The next day was a little more family time. I went with Amy’s dad while he got some new speakers from his friend’s home theater store, Bjorn’s. Got the nickel tour from the sales manager and it was pretty impressive. The highlight was the home theater demo, comfy chairs in a room with 165″ front projection screen 9 speakers and 6 sub-woofers. To top it all off, the chairs move and vibrate with the movie. We watched the open scene of Quantum of Solace, it was impressive! After that we had some lunch and headed to the airport. It was a great trip, but as always it was nice to get back home!

Pics from the trip: