2024 in review

2024 continues in a steady state from 2023.

This means we work our jobs, see our friends, have friends visit us, and continue to love the area we call home.

Our good friends Holly and Dan at the Bears Ears Marathon. They moved to New Mexico, and I hope we continue to see them in the land of enchantment.

We met friends from our past who stayed with us or met up with them a little further afield and we enjoyed showing them the places we love.

Joan with her good friend Kelly from when she lived in Georgia.

We also traveled to see family and enjoyed seeing the ocean along the Oregon Coast.

Biking continues to be part of our Moab lives. Joan often commutes by bike and enjoys the views from our home to her job.

Our volunteer role continues its importance in our lives with Joan’s role, in particular, expanding more –

My job continues to respect my free time firewall, which allows Joan and me to enjoy what we call home.

As such, I could get in 93 bag nights this year. That’s not bad, considering we have a mortgage and a full-time job.

Broken down –

• Thirty-eights nights backpacking
• Seven nights of packrafting or river camps
• Forty-five nights camping
• Three nights in the back of the truck

Many camping nights are quick camps after work before we go backpacking.

The camping/backpacking combo is a great way to extend the time off.

Trip highlights include –

• Joan spent a month in the Canadian Rockies with her friend Jan at a mutual friend’s house.

• We spent many nights in the nooks and crannies of the Colorado Plateau, enjoying both the scenic wonders and the archeological importance of this area –

• The La Sal Mountains continue our local place for a mountain fix in the early summer and fall.

• The nearby San Juans also called to us for many backpacking trips.

• I had the opportunity to go on a river trip through the famous Cataract Canyon and on to Bullfrog Marina.

• And continuing to enjoy packrafting.

• We started the year further afield in Arizona at the Petrified Forest National Park

• And ended the year with 13 nights in a tent on a trip to Heuco Tanks, Big Bend National Park, and Davis Mountain.

Looking ahead? We bought bikepacking gear, but the weather, specifically the roads to access the areas, did not seem conducive to trying out the gear. We hope to get some bikepacking trips that are not fun to walk and not overly fun to drive. Perfect for a mountain bike!

The Online World

The website traffic stays consistent, and the social media profiles, particularly Instagram, have modest growth.

Unsurprisingly, my gear-focused articles, including my budget gear lists and, somewhat oddly, my shoe reviews, were the most popular articles this year. The reviews for the Montbell Superior Down proved the fourth most popular article, with the fleece comparison close behind. Other articles, such as the pulk instructions, seem consistent from year to year.

The most popular article this year, however? Talus vs. Scree and the difference!

However, my favorite article? “On Structured Rambling“ encapsulates how Joan and I approach the outdoors at this point in our lives. It did not get the readership of a Topo shoe review, but I think it also means more to me than the gear review articles.

On to 2025!