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Scotchman Peak: An Ungulate Activation
Some friends invited us along for a Northern Idaho weekend to hike the famed Scotchman Peak, just outside of Sandpoint. It didn’t take much convincing, that with the challenge of the hike, mountain goats at the top, the promise of beers with friends afterwards… oh and it’s SOTA summit. Go figure. The trek to the…
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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…
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My First Successful SOTA
Experience can be a harsh teacher and through my first couple of failed SOTA attempts, I learned a lot. Or at least, enough to find a little success. Attempt One was a part of a 12 mile hike in Arizona; I had my Tech license, a XIEGU X5105 and a 20/10 EFHW but no mast.…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Medical Lake Loop
Out for an early-season training ride. I’ve been cooped up for a long winter/spring and needed to get out and feel some pain and cool wind. A 60-miler should do it.
Outliving the bastards one hard-earned beer at a time.