It’s a good thing we love to travel, because travel we do. The fact that we get to do it together is a huge bonus. Aside from personal paddling, we do a lot of travel related to our classes and commercial trips. Phil gets pretty excited when it comes time to pull out the “road trip” gear; tent, dry bags, stove, cooler, sleeping bags, kayaks, and the bike. All the toys that mark the beginning of the road season.
This year marked an attempt to go leaner. The first move was to sell the Ford truck and down size to a more fuel efficient Toyota Corolla. Packing was a challenge while finding things in the car during the trip was even more so, “I know my booties are in there somewhere”.
Mary figures out how to make it all fit.
Packing tip for small cars: Slide the car seats all the way back before packing the car full, they won’t budge once the car is loaded. Not good if you have long legs.
Our first trip is usually out to Idaho in preparation for our Middle Fork of the Salmon trips we run in late June and early July each year. We always try to schedule in some extra time while there, whether paddling, hiking around the Sawtooths, or visiting friends. Idaho is a beautiful state where it is often times still possible to find some pretty cool, out of the way spots to call home for the night. Many even include a nice view of a river.
Camp for the night somewhere along the Payette.
This year we got in some paddling on the Payettes and visited with good friends in Boise and Ketchum. Phil biked in preparation for a big ride he was doing back in California at the end of our trip, and Mary hiked to her heart’s content. Read about the Middle Fork trips in our next update.
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