My blogs have been kind of short lately. I’d like to tell you what is going on. Besides being busy with home and work, I’ve got two things that are fairly big on the horizon. I expect both to happen here in October. The first is that I have a multi-day bikepacking tour coming up on southern California. This is a full on vacation for me and not related to work. I haven’t done a trip like that in so long as my trips always revolve around work.  Not this time.  Four of my friends are coming with me and we are doing a 375 mile route with something like 30,000 feet of climbing called the Stagecoach 400. I’m pretty darned excited about it. A little scared too as this hasn’t been my best year for fitness. It’s given me a goal though and I am trying to ride every chance I get. I’ve been shooting quite a bit on those rides. In fact, I have come out of my creative slump and believe I have gotten some amazing stuff lately. Looking forward to sharing it possibly later this week or the next.

Not only am I prepping my body, I am prepping my gear. The above shot was from my last bikepacking tour in California. On that trip I carried a bit too much stuff. This time, in an effort to go further, I’m going to carry less….Except for camera gear. On my last California tour I carried a small point and shoot camera. I had considered shooting this trip on film, but I just can’t imagine carrying film and dealing with film when I am hot, sweaty and dusty.  I also don’t have a bit of extra space for the extra film. On this trip, I plan to carry my full size Nikon DSLR with 2 lenses stuffed in my trusty Osprey Talon 22 backpack. I’ve gotten my gear worked out now and I really hope to capture this trip in a way that is both honest, inspiring and breathtaking. Send me good thoughts that I can do all of that.

In addition, I will have a new website up later this month. It will be quite a change and I am looking forward to sharing it. My friend Erik Mathy is helping me build it….OK he is doing the entire build out, but what time I have right now is being used to think about that and create content for the new site. I’m excited as it marks a big step forward for me and my wife. So….If you are wondering why the short posts, that is what is going on in my world.

All that did, I managed to go back through my last California tour pics in search of inspiration. Here’s one last shot.  I can’t wait to see what I get on this upcoming trip.