Halfway: Six Months of the YOFO Life

YOFOAdventures start point.

6 months ago we set out on a great adventure.  For us, it amounted to something of a leap into the unknown.  We bought a truck and trailer, sold our home, and took leave from our jobs for a year.  We started with a very general plan: travel west in the northern states and Canada for the summer, and head south for warmer states in the winter (not much strategic genius here!).  But we remain very flexible; we generally do not know from week to week (and sometimes day to day) where we will go next. So, how’s it going so far?  At the halfway point we can safely declare that YOFOAdventures has been an overwhelming success!  We’re having a blast.  We continue to be awed by the amazing country we live in.   We highly recommend getting out to see it.  You don’t have to do a YOFO – but it sure is worth doing something. You know, like a DOFO (day of...), WOFO (weekend or week of...), MOFO (month of...)!     

Seems like a good time to rattle off some stats.  We’ve put a total of 23,315 miles on our truck since June 8th when we pulled away from Silver Lake Farm in Lewisberry, PA.  15,291 of those miles were towing our YOFOHome, and 8,024 were “in and around” miles.   As you may surmise, our biggest expense by far is diesel.  We average about 10 miles per gallon when towing, and about 18 when we’re unhitched. 

Though Crater Lake NP was "only" in the bottom half of our top 10 below, words and photos cannot capture the beauty of this place.  Go experience it. 

We’ve been busy! We have visited 21 states, and 4 Canadian Provinces.  As we sat down and took a look at the parks we’ve visited, we surprised ourselves to find out that we’ve visited 28 US National Parks thus far, 3 Canadian National Parks and 17 National Monuments/Seashores/Lakeshores/Historic sites etc.  We’ve pondered putting together a “top 10” list, but have trouble rank ordering them; the parks and places are all so different, and each one has something unique or beautiful about it that is different from the rest. Still – we’ll give it a go for you. 

Our favorite parks so far?  The entire state of Utah.  Kidding – but only a little.  The “Life Elevated” state has 4 amazing National Parks and one “meh” (only when compared to the others) with a bunch of other epic National Monuments, State Parks etc.  We’ll offer you a fuzzy top 10 parks list with a tie for first. Depending on our mood and the weather, any of the top 5 could be number 1. 

• 1. - 2. Zion or Bryce Canyon (pick one…or both…they’re equally epic)
• 3. Grand Tetons
• 4. North Cascades
• 5. Yosemite
• 6.    Teddy Roosevelt
• 7. - 10.  All “Honorable Mentions” (in other words, we can’t decide): Grand Canyon, Redwood, Canyonlands, Crater Lake

When this park doesn’t make the list...you know the world is absurdly beautiful  

We’ve committed ourselves to keep our blog apolitical (well, as much as humanly possible), but we’re both convinced beyond any doubts that our National Parks and Monuments etc. are national treasures.  These lands are owned by all Americans, and we sincerely hope that they will remain protected, funded, and affordable for all.  We recently camped, hiked and mountain biked in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  The day we departed, the part of the monument we had just enjoyed was declared to be no longer protected and preserved as a monument. It feels like a win for big energy, under the guise of letting the “locals” decide what to do with the land, but locals we talked to shared our sense of loss to America.  More time must pass to tell whether this was a good decision or not, but it left us sad to think more of this beautiful land could be lost forever to resource extraction (coal or uranium) and the ensuing environmental consequences.  Our country needs energy, but we also need to keep some places wild and available to all Americans. And coal is the future?  Really?  

This is one of the epic views that was in Escalante Staircase National Monument.  Was...because the President has removed it from the protection of Monument status.

Hiking the Iceline Trail in Yoho National Park, Canada.  

Hiking has been our predominant activity, racking up over 550 miles, with a fair dose of trail running (145 miles), mountain biking (140 miles), road biking (220 miles) and kayaking (78 miles).  We’ve hiked and biked below sea level, and have hiked as high as 13,065 feet (Wheeler Peak in Nevada).  Since we’ve taken a stab at ranking the parks, we’ll offer you a glimpse into our favorite adventures (hikes, bikes, kayaks) so far:

1. Iceline Trail (17 miles; Yoho National Park, Canada)
2. Cascade Canyon Trail to Lake Solitude (18 miles; Grand Tetons, WY)
3. Angels Landing Trail (5 miles; Zion, UT)
4. The Wave Trail (permit only, 5 miles; Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, UT/AZ)
5. Road Bike on Scenic Loop Road (32 miles; Teddy Roosevelt [South Unit], ND)
6. Kayaking Moraine Lake (Jasper National Park, Canada)
7. Fiery Furnace “Trail” (need Wilderness permit or ranger guide, 4-6 miles, Arches, UT)
8. Avalanche Peak Trail (4.5 miles; Yellowstone, WY)
9. Gunnison Route (2.5 miles; attend briefing to get permit, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, UT)
10. Mountain Biking near Moab, UT (10 miles-ish...up until the moment Dawn crashed and busted her lip open.  After that it wasn’t so epic.  Unless you consider lots of blood loss and walking bikes for miles to be epic. Oh, and only eating soup for several days in 90 degree weather…)

#5 above. We knew when we rode this that it would be one of the great ones!  

This fella snorted to let us know we were hiking in his backyard. (Utah) 

Our list of new critter sightings has grown long, to the point that we’re no longer doing a good job of keeping track!  We’ve seen bald and golden eagles, California condors, hawks, osprey, falcons, owls, woodpeckers, road runners(!), loons, cormorants, jays, pheasants, turkeys. We’ve seen white tailed, black tailed, and mule deer, plus their relatives: moose, elk, caribou. We’ve seen bears, coyotes, foxes. Aquatically, we’ve seen dolphins, river otters, sea otters, sea lions, jellyfish. Snakes, lizards, salamanders, slugs, terrifying wasp-looking things, cicadas, and all sorts of four, six, and eight legged critters.

Perhaps the most important stat, we’re up to 48 PBnJ’s.  This all-American sammich continues to be a staple for our adventures to scenic places. 

As the weather has become a bit colder, we’ve moved our adventures south and are currently exploring New Mexico – and will soon cross back into Arizona.  We’ve encountered temps in the single digits.  The YOFOHome is an all-season trailer, but it can still get a tad nippy inside, especially overnight. 

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Best acquisitions?  Solar panels, trekking poles (think ski poles but for hiking), and superb hiking boots.  Our solar panels have enabled us to “boondock” off grid (in Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service areas), and in more remote campgrounds with no services.  Although the panels weren’t cheap, they’re paying for themselves in significant camping savings (sometimes free) and giving us much greater flexibility on where we camp which is important when you don’t have a plan and places reserved in advance.  And we’re convinced our trekking poles have superpowers.  They have saved our arses in more than a few instances, and enabled us to hike farther and climb higher, while avoiding knee pain and injuries (knock on wood).  We highly recommend them for hikers of all abilities, youthful and seasoned hikers alike.  Finally, we don’t own stock in Keen, so we can unabashedly endorse their boots (and their customer service). We both love our Keen Targhee II’s. 

Our Keens are fabulous, but this bear’s claws had traction to spare.  

The sad news?  We’ve got less than 6 months to go.  Neither of us are ready for this adventure to end.  Hence, we’re cooking up potential plans for a YOFO2.  Maybe a drive to Alaska this summer...yep…could happen! We’ve enjoyed stopping by and visiting with friends and family. Wish we could see more of you, and if we missed you on this go-around, maybe we can catch you on your adventures.