3 Horse Ranch

Smoked trout made this a great experience!

With a tasting room that is open and friendly- you feel right at home to ask questions about the great wines they offer

Continuing our dirt road love fest

So let me start of by saying I am not a wine expert. Except for very special occasions I really don’t drink alcohol. I enjoy brewing beer- but about 99% of that goes to friends who say I do a pretty good job at it. So to understand the world of wine is a stretch.
Combining our quest of finding dirt road destinations and my desire to do something “fancy” for my bride, the 3 Horse Ranch Vineyards was an automatic choice. I wanted to let Melissa feel like a princess for the day. I wanted her to have the option of coming out of hiking boots and shorts, put on same make-up, discard her baseball hat, and feel pretty. With me in my Mountain Khakis and a t-shirt, we decided on a tour of the west valley wineries. 3 Horse was selected for three reasons…open on Sunday, had a food menu, and of course it was on a dirt road.
I had never been to a tasting room, and upon learning this, we were given a great education on how tastings work and what to expect. I immediately liked the fact that we were not belittled since we both were new to this experience. The tasting room isn’t stuffy either, it’s like hanging out in a friends well done kitchen while they prepare a meal and entertain.
The tasting included a small snack of smoked trout and cheese with a baguette. We sampled several wines and were encouraged if there was not something we like, to pour it out. Each wine was explained in very non-technical terms. For fun, we were taught the how and why to swirl the wine in our glass.
The winery is located just outside of Eagle, Idaho where they take full advantage of the growing conditions and incredible soil content. They are even certified as organic. Very friendly and proud of their product- you can quickly learn about how it is made and the best ways to serve. This is a must-do for you and a date.
For more information checkout the website at http://www2.3horseranchvineyards.com/press/ and of course we will do a podcast- and perhaps we can get them for an interview.

Organic vineyards cover the dusty landscape on the way to the tasting room

Big Bend Biking

I still believe that when I die, I want my ashes spread over the various trails in Big Bend National Park. I owe my life to this place. This is where I have so often gone to seek solice. It is where I nearly died, where I learned to live, and it had incredible memories for not only me alone, but also with my wife.

While living in Texas we had made several trips to both the National Park, as well as Big Bend State Park. Don’t let the word “park” disuade you. This is a fierce place where you can quickly find yourself at the mercy of the elements.

Because we have spent so much of our adult lives away from family, Melissa and I have made it part of our tradition to travel on either Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. This is out of the norm for both of our families that draw closer to home during these dates. Because of the geographical distance, it just isn’t possible to get all of us to all of them in the brief period we have for time off. In addition, because of my time in the service, I was often away during the holidays and either drew close to my own family or my military family as we all did with my others being so far away. Melissa and I have had some incredible places all to ourselves including a beach at Thanksgiving, diving in Balmorea on New Years, Mountain Biking Fossil Rim Wildlife Refuge on Our anniversary, and of course, Big Bend at Christmas.

A year before my near death trip to Big Bend, I took Melissa there for Christmas. We left on the day after Christmas from my folks house in Austin. Abby was developing a bit of a cough so my folks asked that she stay with them while Melissa and I traveled the 10 hours west to the Chiuauan Desert.

Winter in the desert can be more than chilli. When you take off without your jackets, it can be downright miserable. Somewhere in the re-packing, the bags containing our jackets were left in Austin. After getting to Big Bend, we opted to drive the 200 mile round trip to buy jackets at the nearest Walmart. Instead we moved our campsite from the shadded Rio Grande Villiage to a sunny site 50 miles west in Terlingua.

Over the next few weeks, me armed with my new Raliegh M-60 and her with a modified Raliegh commuter bike (I beefed up with new shocks and mountain biking tires), we assaulted several trails, traversed into Mexico, and explored several out of the way places. Together we worked our way around the Big Bend area map on our mountain bikes, including a few 30+ mile trips down trails filled with miles of washboard roads, hours of baby head rocks, and endless washouts that would consume our tires. We had much of our belongings packed into a couple of trailers for some of the trips. Together we explored old ranches, rode to abandoned homesteads on the banks of the Rio Grand, and spent hours just riding in silence.

One of the disturbing aspects and one of the moronic decisions made by park authorities in the 1960-1970’s was the tearing down of buildings that had been errected prior to the park’s inception. The idea was to let the park return to its “natural” life, forgetting that there is a historical and archeological aspect to its life as well. Still, there are a few old outpost that still survive.

At the time, l was in great biking shape. I had been racing on the weekends, riding with my buddies all the time, and occassionaly commuting about 100 miles per week. Melissa was in decent shape at thetime, but needed breaks every few days. As a compromise, she would drop me off on a dirt road like Dagger Flat Road in the morning and meet me in the afternoon. This allowed her to pursue her love of history, wild life observation, reading, and just napping. In the evening, we would meet back at our camp and share the experiences of our day. In addition, camping close to Terlingua, we had access to real showers.

We also made sure to reward ourselves for tough days we rode together. I remeber after an incrdibly tough day of biking from Castolon to Buenos Ares and back, we rewarded ourselves with a huge dinner at Tivos. In fact, one evening after a few days of hard core biking we rewarded ourselves with both Tivos and the (can’t remember the name) local Itallian Resteraunt.

Melissa grew up around horses, and since she had been so good about climbing back on a mountain bike after breaking a collar bone, I could mount a horse. While there, we also took a horse packing trip. We signed up for a group horse packing tour. Melissa and I were the entire group. The guide was in a great mood, had no other plans for the day, so he took us to several of his secret spots. I also think that since Melissa is great with horses and I easily adapt to any adventure, he was enjoying our company. I was pretty worried about saddle sore, so I packed a pair of road bike shorts ( the tight spandex) that I covertly wore under my military cargo pants. The horse trip was really cool, and our guide and I would converse on history, philosophy, and politics of the Big Bend region. We capped of the day (late afternoon) with a hot meal at one of local hook-ups. Highly recommend….especially if your wife is really into horses.

We did venture into Mexico, and I will cover that in another post at some point.

New Years marked our last night in the desert. We hung out at the recreation center in the RV park and met up with a couple and their teenage son who had been traveling the US from Germany. I enjoyed the dialog since living in Germany was and still is one of the most influential periods of my life.

The following morning we packed our camp, loaded the car, took one last tour through the park and began the journey home. We stayed the night in a VERY nice hotel to recover. That evening we soaked in a hot tub, ate a real meal, and while she romantasized the trip, I planned the next.

Big Bend is an incredible place, and spending the holidays touring it with my bride only magnified its wonder. We would make several trips to the area for various holidays, and each one special.

RC Adventure

I haven’t talked about this area of our adventure life much. It is a seasonal thing for us, but it is something that at times has drawn us together as a family. That is probably true for so many of our adventure activities, that desire to draw us all together. This can be a challenge since my bride shows up as a 1-1-1 on the behavioral scale of her Emergenetics diagnostic. This means that when presented with a new idea, she can have Spock like reactions and I really don’t know if she is disinterested or her heart has truly stopped. I also have to wonder about her acceptance of the idea of if she is just pondering.

A few years ago when I got super excited about rc cars not only did I feel compelled to allow my life to revolve around the new interest, I built an rc track in our back yard. Not just a section, but the entire yard. I then went about placing plants and flowers to offset the curves and jumps. Then I built a tabletop track in our garage….just because that’s how I roll….

The indoor teack has since been dismantled and the wood has been transformed into a workbench, tre outdoor track is seldom used and is quickly becoming a prayer path or something, and most of the cars we built to entertain guest sit idle.

Still, I love taking cars out with me when traveling or when out for a day/weekend trip in the Jeep. This is why I am in love with 1/16 scale off road rigs. I can place a car, assorted batteries, charger, and small tool kit and parts in a backpack. I have taken my 1/16 scale companion on commercial aircraft, in the back of the little Cessna, and on road trips to the coast for a weekend honeymoon. Whether alone, with the wife, with the kiddo, or all three, we can take a few rigs on a trip with minimal room.

I have had several Revos, Slashes, Rallys, and combinations, conversions, and off-shoots of these three. But by far the most fun I have had was building these two rigs with my wife. A few weeks ago she showed an interest in an old buggy.

Now she has always loved building and painting but driving was not so fun for her. Our building and painting together was great couple time and since she has a preference for structure, she was able to quickly learn thenins andnouts of rc repair.

I desperatly wanted her to learn how to drive and overcome her fear of crashing a car. I took an old slash and put a 23 turn motor in it and placed in training mode. In the privacy of our backyard track she learned to like it.

Each year we hold an event in the fall called Sweet 16. this is held when night approaches earlie in the evening and we can light up our backyard for an rc rally featuring 16 scale vehicles. Last year, for the Sweet 16 Rally, we picked up a mini slash for non rc visitors to bash. She fell in love with the car when placed in training mode.

Her rig came stock with the 12 turn Titan but soon replaced it with the slower 23 turn HPI. That gave her longer run time and slower speeds. this has proven to be effective in the Mini-Summit as well that goes camping with us.

I still like my speed and when speed is the game in a camp site or an empty hotel parking lot, I still pack my MERV. Mini Electtric ReVo is not at all stock. My rig has the Velenion brushless with Traxxas ESC, Traxxas and RPM parts where available, and run it on a Spektrum controller.

I have several Summits, Rallys, Revos, and Slashes, the last takes allot of lip due to stability. My argument is that if you drive a car within its limits you don’t flip as much. We can go through several bettery packs in an evening without ever being on our lids.

The rc cars are just another avenue for us to play. whether on our track, hiking behind the car on a trail, or playing in an empty parking lot of (with permission) an empty hotel meeting room, the cars have kept me out of mischief on the road.

This next year I hope we get into building scale rigs like the Axial SC series. Think scale models, complete with working winches, shovels, loadable gear, etc. these would be fun to build and drive….at scale speeds. I could build one to look just like my Jeep….or what I want my Jeep to be one day.

Firepuck Demo and Review

As many of you know—I have been burned (no pun intended) by survival products I have purchased in the past. Sometimes the concept is great, works well in the lab, works well in limited field testing, fails when you really need it.

I am also conscious of where I spend my hard-earned dollars. Sometimes though I have to be aware that there are guys out there that may not have the same experience as me, so I have to think about the guy or gal who is new to the woods, is cold in the woods, or the person who pulls up to a camp site and has to get it quickly situated.

Okay, enough of the prelude, let me tell you about a product we strongly endorse… Firepuck.

This is by far one of the coolest things (there is that pun thing again) we have tested in a long time. I can start fires with everything from shotgun shells to belly button lint. If you have been to one of my seminars we do just that. I will still carry a couple of these. This is a great way to get a fire started whether you are a survival expert or the guy who has to start the fire pit in the backyard.

Starting with the stats, this thing burns at 1400 degrees.  To get a fire going you need oxygen, fuel, and heat. If your fuel source is wet it is going to be difficult to light. Put yourself in a situation where you are hypothermic and all sources are wet, you are in deep trouble if you can’t get a fire going. I won’t matter how many cotton balls you can light with flint and steel, wet fuel source means trouble. The advantage of the hot temps produced by the Firepuck is that not only does it provide quick ignition of your fuel source, it actually dries your source.

For our test I soaked seasoned pine in a 5 gallon bucket for approximately 60 hours. (I had intended to do it for only 48 hours, but got side- tracked so the wood stayed submerged and extra day.) I then used a modified Tee-Pee build for the fire with no other kindling. Please check out the video for more perspective.

The Firepuck is easy to use. It has a friction based ignition system integrated into the cap. It took me three attempts in the video to light it…this is because I was a pansy and was over-cautious. In reality, like all of you laughing at my failure in the video.  I was impressed with how concentrated the flame source was, a feature you want in high wind conditions. Unlike all those cotton balls I fill with petroleum jelly, this product is petroleum free.

One of the points made about the product is that it is not water proof. Honestly, there are not a lot of products that are truly waterproof that are this easy to use when it comes to fire starting. This can be made water proof though by using either a Mylar bag also sold by Firepuck or a Zipper style baggie. I am currently testing one in a zipper baggie with two small moisture tabs (designed to pull moisture out) and will test that next week. They are sitting in a backpack in the downpour we have been receiving off-and-on the past few days. They show no signs of taking on moisture at all.

What I like about this product is that you don’t have to be an expert to use it. It takes the guess-work out of staying alive. I would ensure that I don’t use it at the back end of my jeep, in doors as a gag, or substitute it for birthday candles. I also like that it does not leave residue like a road flare would, and for the same size of a flare, I can carry six of these.

I will be carrying these in my EMT/ Wilderness Rescue bag, survival bag, and in my vehicles. If you buy anything new to go into your survival or camping kit, this should be first on the list. I would also include this on a list of something to keep on hand for those back yard parties where you have a firepit. This is a no hassle way to get a fire going for your guest.

Checkout the video on YouTube

 Be sure to check out Firepuck at their website for more info.

Cutting Ties

Imagine going to Fiji. Great diving. Awesome food. Beautiful scenery. Your adventure partner complains, borrows you stuff, ask you to pay for dinner, wants to stay in the room and watch TV. They complain about crowds, weather, the locals. They borrow your sunscreen, embarrass you with personal habits, tell you every problem and ailment in their life.

Over the years we have had our fair share of people that we adventured with, were clients of our coaching and self-development initiatives, friends, and sad cases we took on to help-out or get them back on their feet. I’m a sucker to go in and fight the battle on someone’s behalf. Widows, children, cast-offs, down-and-outs, etc. all became my responsibility and I felt an obligation to rescue them.

Great adventure partners a hard to find. This was one of the greatest adventure teams I have ever been a part of. Each member brought a strength and a skill to the team. Here we are at Big Bend over Thanksgiving 2004.

When I look back at my dating life when I was younger there were certainly a few cases of being the knight in shining armor. I will be the first to say that you should never turn your back on someone in need. But we all have a limit. We have to be careful that these people are not a drain on our energy. I know I have friends that can be an Eore, but there are days I am the sad donkey, The difference is the guy who was draining me a week earlier is the one standing in my corner when I’m down. He is my Tigger (my ever happy pup-ready to cheer me up) when life absolutely sucks for me. Yin and Yang, peanut-butter and chocolate, milk and cookies. There has to be a give and take in a relationship and when one is down one has to be up.

What does this have to do with adventure intelligence? Everything. The things we love doing has way of recharging us. When we add a negative aspect to it, it all becomes too much like work. A hassle. The new negative adventure artner becomes bothersome and extracts our own energy. Soon there is not enough for us— or those we love and wish to inspire. For those we can truly fight for.

One example that comes to mind, a few years ago my AIQ/ TC team met weekly on Thursday nights for our weekly “squad” time. It was an estrogen free zone where guys could be guys. We watched movies, tinkered on adventure gear, planned road trips, ate good food, and built bon-fires in the backyard against all county ordinances. At some point we picked up a “sixth”. A guy whose job was washing car windows. He lived in a rented room on a pay-by- week basis. We would serve food for six and he would eat for five. He would hitch-hike to our meeting place and at 1030 or 11 pm as we were breaking up and he would expect a ride home—15 miles away. This is beyond being empathetic. This is not about “have” vs “have not”. This is not eliteism.

Before you think I’m a heartless hard @$$, keep in mind that our team did lots of outreach. We systematically looked for opportunities to get guys away from a solo life in front of a TV and into the outdoors. We took newbies camping, kayaking, off-roading, etc. In almost everyone of those cases, the guys we reached out to gave back, carried their load, or had something to offer in return. In this case we were being used. It was a hard decision. I think the nature of the culture we built was to nurture and help a guy “cowboy-up” and be part of something greater than himself. To see his potential. To take a trip through his own history and find healing and move on. We were constantly barraged with attempts at guilting or minimizing our own lives. Eventually he had to go.

Another case was another young kid who I would have loved to be a model for. Unfortunately his history with drugs and theft prevented me from even beginning to take on all his issues. I see where there would be great opportunities for me to be a leader for him. We share many of the same hobbies, but there is no way I would ever allow him to be around my family or my home. Each month I get updates on how he has turned a new leaf, only to find he was recently busted for drug possession or burglary. The last theft occurred when he stole from a local store who had been helping him out with a job.

Finally my wife was the victim of someone taking advantage of her kindness and was a drain to the point it was causing conflict between the two people who should be the most united, her as the wife and me as the husband. This person would find reasons to interfere in our marriage, have my wife work on projects on her behalf, show up late at night and stay at our house until it was “too late” to go home. I would love to help, get the heck out of my house.

Your adventure life should include reaching out to those who need help, but you can easily get sucked into those who just drain you. Too often I hear stories about people traveling to a fantastic location, to do amazing things and they are stuck with the worst adventure partner that not only saps their energy but ruins the entire trip. Don’t let this happen to you and of course- don’t be this person.

Good adventure partners are good to find. Invest in the relationship. Bad adventure partners are a dime a dozen. Cut the ties and move on. If someone you plan to adventure with was discharged from the Navy in 1973 and their mom still pays for their cell phone, you may need to re-evaluate the borders you place around your heart.