New Years at Joshua Tree

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="182,183,184,178,185,202,186,187,201,188,189,190,191,180,181,195,177,179,196,197,199,200,198,192,194,193"] Saveria and I had been planning New Year's starting six months ago when Saveria booked our favorite camp site at Joshua Tree National Park, in Indian Cove Campground. I'm leaving out the camp site numbers, because we don't want to give away everything. We invited our friends and the trip was set. We talked about it about once a week till the date finally arrived.

Saveria, her brother Sebastian and I went up early to set up and our great friend Bob joined us. The next morning we were joined by more of our friends and some new friends too. We woke to a beautiful day with a brilliant blue sky and set up some fun climbing routes. After doing a few climbs, we are in the desert just to remind everyone, it started to SNOW, only for a little but real flakes and the rock got pretty slippery not to mention we were freezing. We returned to our camp, built a giant fire and our friend Ian cooked us some spectacular chili.

The next day we set up some great routes near our site and everyone had a great time and did really well. The best part was that we had people of all experience levels and everyone was able to successfully climb a route or two proving that anyone can be AdventurUs!

After a long day of climbing I was tired and was deciding to celebrate east coast New Year's, but this was not allowed and I reluctantly stayed up till midnight. It was very cool because despite the strict noise code we could hear all the camp sites around the desert celebrate when the clock struck midnight. We even had neighbors come and serenade us with a ukulele and a song. One of the coolest things about Joshua tree is night-time with a full or mostly full moon. The way the light hits the rocks making them glow brightly and the sound the sand makes crunching under your feet all under the moonlight makes you feel like you are in a snowy winter wonderland.

This was Sebastian's first time at Joshua Tree NP, so we took the scenic route home and traveled through the main part of the park. We bought an annual National Park Pass good at all parks. I like to think of it as a challenge to visit enough National Parks this year to make it worth it!

It was great to be out in the desert, under the stars, with our friends having fun and laughing, I could not imagine a better end or start to the any year.

Oh...and Norman was with us too. Another great family adventure for The AdventurUs!

Machu Picchu, Looking Back on an Unforgettable New Year Adventure

We sit here looking to our future trips in the new year and I can't help remember a trip that kick started our adventures. Saveria and I were in the middle of training for Wildflower Long course triathlon with Oceanside 70.3 and Ironman Couer d' Alene on the horizon. We had gone into shut down mode...all training-all the time, no social life, just work and working out. One day Saveria got a call from our friend Mark and he asked if she wanted to hike the Inca Trail for New Years, Saveria answered with "Sure, if you do Wildflower with us." Both agreed and after a bit of convincing, I figured a week at altitude would help my cycling.

I had not hiked or backpacked since Boy Scouts, more than a few years ago at this point, but I decided to go along anyway, we borrowed most of the gear we needed, got stuck like a pin cushion at our local travel doctor and off we went.

We flew into Lima, then quickly on to Cusco where we had a couple days to rest, acclimate to the altitude, meet our guide, explore ruins and sites around the city and fall in love with coca tea. It was a bit of a rainy season, that comes into play later, but that just made it more beautiful.

The hiking part of the trip was 4 days and 3 nights finishing with a day at Machu Picchu and an optional second day for exploring the ruins. The first was a surprise to some in our group as our guide had told us that it was flat after many miles of hiking up hill we began to tease our guide that this was hardly flat. He kept insisting that it was flat. We came to realize in the coming days that by "flat" he meant the trail didn't have steps or rocks. Apparently hiking straight up hill could also be "flat" and after day the next few ays we would have to agree! On day 2, we hiked up and over a 14,000 ft. peak in rain and wind, I was warmed up by a sugar based spirit one of the porters made and kept in a water bottle. The way down the mountain to the next campsite could be described as a torrential down pour. Day 3 brought us up and over multiple passes and through some impressive ruins. There were steps, more steps, then some more steps... Keep in mind the steps are uneven, slippery, off kilter rocks making the trail a bit technical at times.

Our last night, New Years Eve, was spent at Winay Wayna, the terrace our tents were set up on would be washed completely away a few weeks later. We celebrated New Years Eve in the bar area that was set up, it was our group and about 100 other people from all over the world, it was a great experience. The next morning we made our way to the Sun Gate and we looked down to see a beautiful valley and a single cloud below, "Where is Machu Piccu?" I wondered and as I said that the wind picked up just so and the cloud moved on to reveal the city, it was pretty amazing. Couldn't have been planned better.

We spent the rest of that day waking around the ruins with our guide and then heading to the restaurants buffet where we ate and ate and ate. We boarded busses and headed down a crazy switchback road to Aquas Calientes for an hour long shower in the room of the posh spa we were staying at. The Inca Terra was heavenly after four days of hiking. The next day we returned to Machu Picchu and explored more before heading back to Cusco, then Lima, then home.

This trip was something I did not think I would do, Saveria and I encourage each other to get out of our comfort zone while supporting each other as well. It makes us a great team.

Outdoor Retailer Winter Market....We are going!

Exciting news has crossed the desks of The AdventurUs, we will be attending Outdoor Retailer, the largest outdoor industry tradeshow, in Salt Lake City, Utah at the end of January. We will be posting each day with highlights of our day, stay tuned.

Coming soon....

Cycling in Spain... Treking to Machu Pichu...

Training & celebrating in Baja...

Taking The AdventurUs On the Road

As much as we love our comfy bed and chilling on the couch watching TV, sometimes you need to head outta town to change it up a bit. Whether we are heading to the Sierra's with our packs for some backcountry adventure or jumping on a plane to visit family and friends there is usually adventure to be found. It is all of these experiences that make our lives just a little more AdventurUs! :)