AVOID THE BUMMER LIFE

Author: woifjmao

  • Salmon Run 2024

    Salmon Run 2024

    This upcoming weekend is the Washington State QSO party fondly known as the Salmon Run. For the uninitiated, a state QSO party is a friendly radio contest where operators try to make contacts with all or as many of the counties in the state as they can. Some counties would naturally be more difficult to…

  • Teanaway: July 4th Backpacking

    Teanaway: July 4th Backpacking

    This summer I really wanted to get out and do some multi-day backpacking and bag a few peaks. I have a few rough periods at work throughout the year, thankfully they only last a couple of weeks, but when they’re over I like to escape into the wilds for a day or three and try…

  • CdA Bikepack Fandangle

    CdA Bikepack Fandangle

    The area that Keith and I were setting out to ride was completely unfamiliar to us. I had mapped out a route that looked good on “paper” but with no real knowledge of what were getting into. The satellite imagery suggest there was a good parking area to leave the car, water along the way,…

  • GC training (sorta)

    GC training (sorta)

    A friend group is doing a R2R (Rim-to-Rim Grand Canyon) hike in a couple of weeks and invited us out on one of their training hill climbs today. We punched out about 15 miles and 3000 ft elevation loss/gain. Beautiful day for it and a much needed break from the busy couple of weeks I’m…

  • A quick trip AZ (trying out SOTA)

    A quick trip AZ (trying out SOTA)

    While visiting family in Arizona, I couldn’t help but to have a go at my first SOTA activation. My old stomping grounds of South Mountain Park, where I grew up hiking, mountain biking, and later trail running, seemed like an appropriate range. I found a peak on SOTLAS that wasn’t familiar to me but had…

  • Dicks-A-Thon

    Dicks-A-Thon

    Nearly every year, I meet up with my college buddies somewhere and we go to an Arizona State football game. This year we met up in Seattle and, true to my nature, I found a running event to do. The Dicks-a-Thon is a 26 or 14 mile run around hilly Seattle where you go navigate…

  • Web Overhaul

    Web Overhaul

    Blogging is dead. Long live the blog. I’m no longer taking freelance work* so there was no real need to keep a professional site going for design stuff. If you arrived here via https://mackey.design you’ve got the correct online presence. This is the new manifest—an untidy home to anything I deem worthy of the time…

  • Haystack Rock & Terrible Tilly

    Haystack Rock & Terrible Tilly

    Drove out to the Oregon Coast for ‘spring break’. The weather was shit and it was too early for puffins, but we ate some great fish-n-chips and went for a couple of nice hikes. Plus, setting up the camera + tripod on the rainy beach with 30mph winds was entertaining for everyone inside the restaurant…

  • Rebecca’s Private Idaho

    Rebecca’s Private Idaho

    Corrie and I (and a few hundred others) dodged the smoke from wildfires raging in Idaho and Washington to ride our bikes in beautiful Ketchum, ID. The gravel was supreme, the climbs were long, and the headwind was bastardly. Pedals turned and beers earned, as they say. I should be better and snapping pics whilst…

  • RAMROD, RAGNAR, BAINBRIDGE

    RAMROD, RAGNAR, BAINBRIDGE

    Prepped for a busy couple of weeks in July. Starting out with joining a team to run a few 8 mile legs of a RAGNAR up in Bellingham, then down to Seattle for a solo bike trip out to Bainbridge Island (itinerary below) and finally the RAMROD. Friday 7/22 3:00pm – ride to Mill Creek…