First off, Summer was great

I have been happily enjoying my summer in Bend Oregon, despite all the wildfires which have been making air quality extremely poor. I was able to make some fun trips out to Smith Rock and Trout Creek Recreation area, near Madras Oregon. Trout is pretty well known in the climbing community for burly crack climbing. It doesn't take many climbs to leave you feeling like you just tried to wrestle a freight train all day, but thats what is so awesome about it. Towards the end of my time in Central Oregon, I had the pleasure of photographing some of my good friends, as they crushed the basalt splitter crack systems.

Other then climbing, I have been spending a lot of the summer trying to finish up my van so that it is a livable space. This has been an overall frustrating experience, as I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am not a very good craftsman. Respect to carpenters and the like, because the result of my work has turned out to have that middle schooler tree fort sort of look and I've given up on trying to change that. But as for now its pretty much where I want it with the essentials. I've got a ceiling fan (although temporarily out of commission because my Goal Zero Battery kicked the bucket ) , platform bed with storage underneath, and a cooking set up, among other small additions. Kind of in a time crunch because I need to hit the road for work soon. I'm waiting on a roof rack that was delivered to the wrong address and still hasn't shown up after a month of ordering it, and my Goal Zero Battery that needs to be warrantied... but whatever I guess these are just small #vanlife problems. It has since actually been working really well. I insulated the walls a little, and made a simple bed platform. All of my climbing equipment fits really well underneath. I thought for a long time about if I should use sliding cargo bins or hinged doors to open up for access, but in the end decided simple was better. I went with removable wood sections that have cut outs so they can easily be picked up in order to access whatever stuff I have underneath.

I plan on doing some more work on it when I get a chance. But for now there is no time, I have to hit the road!

Fall Hits

After leaving Oregon, the first place I went was Montana for a friend's wedding. It was a great time, and I was able to catch up with a lot of good people that I haven't seen in a while.

I have been on a work trip around the Midwestern States. I left Montana and have since been in; North Dakota, Minnesota Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. It has been a busy trip, but I have enjoyed sneaking time here and there to get out in the gorgeous fall colors. In Minnesota, I spent a lot of time playing frisbee golf. They really have some phenomenal courses.

With a backdrop like this, it's pretty hard to beat throwing discs around in the woods. You just have to be really careful to bring bright discs that stand out, and really make sure you watch where you throw them. They seem to have a tendency to disappear into these magical woods.