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Decided to go out and get some time out of the city one last time before it got too cold. We packed up and left late on Thursday night just in time to set up camp and get to bed around midnight, after a terrible night of sleep for the 3 of us we were eager to get up early. Emmy had a blast setting up tents in the Uinta Canyon dispersed camping, despite being up late and face-planting out of her backpack seat. She had her little ewok suit that kept her warm all weekend and she had a blast enjoying the fresh air and sitting around the fire. The fishing this time around was different and really good for me, the water was low so it was a little more difficult to find good holes and flow but once you did it paid off. The fish here are usually quite small and I tend to catch a lot of small Brook Trout and a couple Browns. This time around I caught about 10 fish, all Rainbow Trout except 2 smaller Brown Trout. The Rainbows were pretty nice size for the size of the river and they were a lot of fun to pull in. I got a few of the catches on my DJI Action II as well and that was cool. It did rain a lot and was a little cold lots of the trip so I didnt get as much time in the water as I would have liked but it was a good little trip with some nice fish. Even cooked a couple up to eat. It is always a great time getting out into the mountains and especially when you can get your line wet. Caught some beautiful fish, had some good food and had some good time with family around the fire.

This has been a wild year and it is crazy that it is already August. Because of the new baby, the new job, taking care of the house and the car accident back in the beginning of the year totaling my Explorer, I have had a very hard time getting out into nature like I usually do and I miss it. We finally just went out and had a fantastic little weekend out in the mountains. We tried a new spot up by Roosevelt called Whiterocks Canyon. There is a river that comes out of the high Uintas and a great little campsite. It was a designated campground called Whiterocks Campground. It was our first campout with little Emelia and she loved it, she got dirty, loved the fresh air and had a lot of fun with the fire and all the hands to hold her. I will say her favorite and a highlight of my trip was when I took her out fishing for an hour. The rushing water made for a natural sound machine and she loved the fresh air and I got a new fishing buddy. Of course when I get out to a relaxing campsite I can only relax so much so I hit the river a couple times for a few hours each time. Spent probably 5 hours fishing the Whiterocks river. It was for sure smaller than the Uinta River a canyon or 2 down but still had fun getting a line wet. I was able to catch my first Cutthroat and then I caught a nice bigger one later on a dry fly which was the first fish of that nature too so it was a good trip. Found some beautiful holes and caught about 10 in total. I didnt take any pictures of the campsite or anything else but we had some good food and a lot of hanging out by the fire with the Jensen side of the family. Always great to get out of the city and office and get outside, Emmy loved her first campout. Allie and I enjoyed the break and we caught some fish, did the river bath and then headed back home. Lets hope there isn't as much of a break between this posy and my next!

This was genuinely one of the coolest things I have done. Sure it wasn't easy and it didn't help that I was vastly underprepared and my first solo backpack trip in a long while but this was just not an easy trip. I will say it was absolutely worth it because once you get to the falls and the creek it is gorgeous. Getting to the trailhead took a while too, it was a good 8 hour drive from home, through southern Utah, Vegas and then into no where land in Arizona. I stayed in a small hotel about an hour from the trailhead the night before. One of the many things that I did to make this hike as hard as possible on myself was getting a late start. I had some work to do before I left so I didnt get on the trail until almost noon, most people start at 6 in the morning to avoid the heat but I couldn't. The trail down is about 11 Miles in Depending where you camp once in the campground, I flew down the trail, I was making really great time except for at about mile 3 I started getting blisters and by mile 6 I was very very sore. By the time I got down to the campground my feet were a disaster and I could barely walk, but overall wasn't bad at all getting down to the campground. The good part about this all was that this canyon, the hundreds of feet high sheer walls, the green trees and the absolutely stunning clear blue water of Havasu Creek was worth way more than the wait, cost and effort to get it. I have seen some amazing places but this is easily on the short list of things people need to see if they get the chance. I wish I was down there for longer but I only spent 2 nights and was there for only 1 full day, the hike in and out and that was it. During my day down past the village I hiked another 10 ish miles to walk around to a few other waterfalls that werent along the trail to hike in. Had to hike down Mooney Falls, the decent down into there was pretty crazy, one of the sketchier things I have done but it went well. I plan to make a video of that part of the trip so look in the action camera section of my portfolio for it. The mist from the falls made it slippery and it was a straight up and down hike with worn ladders and rock climbing. I was worried about the hike out, my legs had recovered fine and I wasn't worried about that but my feet were so bad that it was hard enough hiking the 2 miles back into the village on my day out. It ended up taking weeks for my feet to heal through the layered blisters in 15+ different places, needless to say I need some new boots. I decided to pay the fee and take the helicopter out, I had never ridden in one before and it was really cool.

Took a business trip over to Texas. Most of my time was spend working but I had some time to poke around a bit, check out the Alamo and Riverwalk and got to eat at a few cool places for dinners. The City itself is not going to make my top 10 Cities in the US list, in fact it'll be quite a ways down on the all time list, so much so that I don't think I'll ever be visiting again. There were some cool parts like the Riverwalk itself and the Alamo but overall was kindof a mess. It was cool to walk around the Alamo and learn a little bit more of the history there. The highlight of the city was for sure the food I experienced. The Texas BBQ style of dry rubs and smoke flavor was evident. I tried a place called Pinkertons BBQ, it was a great great place. The vibes were awesome, it was clean, the building was cool and the meat was perfection. Really great stop and I would recommend to anyone who is in downtown San Antonio area. Another really good place I went to was a place called Dough Pizzeria Napoletana. This is on my food review page as well. Really really good food, the best part was by far the home made burrata. I would recommend this to anyone i the area too, its actually a DDD joint too which I always think is cool.

For the 3rd year in a row we went out to Uinta Canyon for a campout on the Jensen side. It was a bit shorter this year and we only stayed for 2 nights over the weekend. Had some great time just hanging around the fire and chilling like usual. We spent far more time out fishing this time around. I went out 3 different times for a few hours each and caught quite a bit of trout and a couple pretty nice ones. I caught around 10 fish, a pile of smaller and beautiful brook trout, a couple rainbows and a pretty nice looking brown trout too. A few of them were pretty good fish and I even kept a rainbow and cooked him up. Its a really pretty river and it was a lot of fun to throw some line in the water. We also had the chance to drive up to the Pole Creek Cave and do some caving through there. I could have spent a long time going through all the small crevices and exploring further but it was fun nonetheless to look at the cave and do some exploring.

One of the highlights of the trip was our time in Ungatni. First off it was crazy how different Kenya can be, from the amazing beaches to the African savannah Kenya is quite diverse. The lodge itself is located right off the Tsavo East National Park and is situated right by a watering hole that constantly draws in wildlife. It was really cool to see all the classic Africa animals you see while listening to David Attenborough. Elephants, Zebras, Giraffes and everything in between. Our room had a balcony overlooking the whole thing too and it made for a wild experience. We did a couple game drives everyday as well and had the chance to drive around in a safari jeep and see even more animals and get really close to a bunch of them. Such an unforgettable experience that I would hope everyone gets a change to do once in their life. I got a tonne of great pictures as well and I'll have those on my portfolio page right away. Even got to see a bunch of baby animals and see some really cool things.

Once we made our way through the cities and villages we finally made it to our place of refuge, The Monkey Beach House on Diani Beach. I can honestly say, this was one of the coolest and nicest places I have ever stayed and one of the coolest vacation villas anyone could ask for. Huge beach house, our own pool and all on a beach that might be one of the nicest beaches in the world (and I have seen some sweet beaches). The Indian Ocean was really warm and the tide changes were cool too. The water was shallow and made for a great place to swim and play in the waves that got pretty big. There were palm trees, camels on the beach and lots of monkeys at our building which was pretty fun when they weren't stealing our food. We tried a pile of restaurants along the beach, all of which were good. My favorites being Ali Barbours Cave Restaurant and the classic Sundowner that was off the beach. My favorite as I mentioned before however was absolutely all the fresh fruit we got every morning.

The 3rd different country we visited was Turkey. I was a little skeptical coming into this port but it was a pleasant surprise. The weather here was great and the coast was beautiful. The water was just as or more clear and blue than it was on any island in Greece. It was really cool to see how many flags were around the cities. I went over to Ephesus by myself to see all the ruins and buildings of the ancient city there and that was really cool. One of my favorites sights from the whole trip was the library of Celsus.

Finally got the crew to Kenya. After hearing about Kenya for a few years now, I finally had the chance to go myself with the whole family. Getting there and back is an experience all to itself, and not in such a good way. It takes forever to get over there as it is almost exactly half way around the world. But there were a few small mentionable things in the travel itself: The Doha Qatar airport was awesome Got to see Mt Kilimanjaro from the window of our last flight to Mombasa Heard a prayer in Arabic while in Doha Barely made our last connection from Nairobi to Mombasa I will say though, once we got there, it was all worth it and I would 100% recommend anyone from any developed country in the world to visit a place like Kenya. When we finally landed in Mombasa we jumped in a pro box and headed to our resort, but there was so much to see on the drive there. Seeing the way some of these people lived was extremely eye opening and also a little entertaining in some ways. The painted took-tooks and matatus were hilarious, seeing how many people and bags of things people piled on motorbikes was also a spectacle. The city itself was crazy, the trash piles, crumbling buildings and general quality of life made it very easy for me to be grateful for what we have back here at home. The food was either one of two things, fresh fruit or toxic anything else. The fruit was incredible and there were for sure safe places to eat but you had to be careful and even so I got a pretty bad bout of food poisoning. I will say though that the fresh mangos, pineapple, Kenyan oranges, passionfruit etc were incredible. It was cool to learn and use a few words in Swahili while we were there. Jambo, Asante, Karibu, Mzungu. Always enjoy hearing a different language. Even their English over there sounds different and is fun to hear.

Now not only was I lucky enough to draw for the Subway but I got a permit for Angels Landing for the next day as well. Now the view on this hike was amazing but that is not why there are so many people who are trying to do it. Angels Landing gives truth to the saying "Life is about the journey and not the destination."Don't get me wrong, the landing and view of all of Zion Canyon was a great spot for a snack. The real beauty of this hike in my opinion was the trail, the life support of chain handrails down the skinny trails with thousand foot drops on either side made this trail exhilarating. It is not an east hike either as there are many switchbacks and a lot of elevation gain for a measly 5 miles in distance. Saw a couple condors flying around the area which is apparently rare, was cool to see them and see how huge they are. A bucket-list hike that did not disappoint. I wish maybe I could have taken more time up there as I was a bit rushed, I did the whole thing in under 2.5 hours though. I hope everyone who wants to can do this hike.

As most outdoor enthusiasts know, Zion National Park is home to some amazing sights and backcountry hikes. Unfortunately though they are very popular and permits are required for lots of the best ones. The Subway is one hike that requires a permit and after a few years of trying I finally got a permit through the lottery. The stars aligned just enough for me to be on a business trip in Vegas the same time so it was easy to get out to! Because I was working all day of the hike I got a very late start for this 10 mile hike up the canyon. I almost didnt do this one due to the time crunch I was in but I am so glad I did it. After getting the run-around at the visitor center I decided to start the hike without the printed paper at around 4:30. I am not exaggerating at all when I say I had the trail all to myself. Aside from a few people at the very start and a group of "swimmers" a few miles in, I saw no one. The trail itself was beautiful. The steep bright red cliffs on either side of the running creek mixed with the green trees was something else. The Subway itself was unlike anything I've seen before, just a truly unique landscape. The emerald pools on the red slick-rock was cool, it really did look like a subway tunnel.

A very delayed post but I thought I should put it on the site. Had a blast doing a little pheasant hunting up in Eagle Mountain area. It was super windy and even rained/snowed on us for a little while so it was a bit tricky. The group ended up with around 10 birds though (I got 4 or 5 of em). It was a lot of fun and good to do some shooting at moving targets. Even got a picture of me getting one live, of course the quality isn't good but you can see the pheasant in the air right before I drop my phone and shoulder the shotgun in the second, slowed down video.