Visiting the Pacific Northwest? // let me show you around

An Insider's Guide

For over a decade my wife and I have used our weekends to explore the beautiful Pacific Northwest.   We have floated, hiked, biked and backcountry skied hundreds of miles yet we feel we have only scratched the surface of what this region offers.  As you can see from our GPS tracks, we love to be outside.  Whether you are visiting the Northwest for business, an event such as a wedding, or simply for leisure please reach out to me so that I can help you plan an amazing trip.  Let me use my experience as a local to show you places that aren't in popular guide books.  For instance, I know the locations of several lava caves that aren't on any maps as well as the locations of some of the best camping spots in campgrounds and beaches along the Pacific Coast.  I can provide advice on what tourist traps to stay away from, locations where you are guaranteed to see local wildlife, and even where to eat where you won't have to wait in line for an hour for a table.  

Personalized Itinerary

The difference between my services and guidebooks or sites like TripAdvisor is that I tailor them specifically to you. If you have ever planned a detailed vacation you understand the time it takes to determine all the logistics of moving from one place to the next. Timing, transportation, realistic goals, and complete contact information are all key elements of a well-planned trip. Many of our trips have been copied by our close friends who have read our family blog and copied our travel plans themselves. All have had wonderful adventures themselves and I take their actions as a compliment to my thorough planning. If you are visiting the Pacific Northwest or even if you are planning a foreign vacation, let me help you do the research and planning. For Pacific Northwest itineraries or outdoor adventures I use my local knowledge but for foreign travel I have identified, through my own personal experiences, several key resources that have always proven to accurate and truthful. Let me do the planning legwork for you to ensure you have the trip or adventure of a lifetime.

  • Transportation and travel times
  • Entry fees or permits
  • Applicable rules and regulations
  • Best times to visit
  • Safety concerns
  • Food options
  • What to pack
  • Achievable goals
  • Complete contact information with web links
  • Wildlife tips
  • Local resources

Packing List

Being prepared for adventure is as important as a good itinerary. For our honeymoon my wife and I first trekked at the bottom of the world in the frigid and windy Patagonia region, then traveled to humid and hot Costa Rica for the wildlife. More recently, in 2016 we joined friends for a Trip to Tanzania to first climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and then safari, finishing our trip in 100+ degree Zanzibar. Both these vacations required packing for extremely different climates and activities. For both occasions we needed to pack for strenuous activity at altitude in cold temperatures as well as wildlife viewing in extreme heat. The logistics involved in packing correctly for these trips was nearly as complicated as creating the itineraries for them. Let me use my own personal travel experiences such as these to help you prepare for your next adventure!

  • Necessary documentation
  • Appropriate clothing for each activity
  • Adventure gear with rental opportunities
  • Toiletries and personal hygene
  • Suggested medications and first aid
  • Food
  • Essential safety gear
  • Suggested electronics
  • Complete contact information with web links
  • Wildlife tips
  • Local resources

In both my geospatial data processing career as well as my personal adventures in the outdoors I have come to realize a golden rule. Good decisions only can come from good data. I have been obsessive about documenting both my foreign vacations as well as local adventures as thoroughly as possible. Over time I have found the perfect combination of both GPS tracking apps as well as photography software that geotags imagery and sometimes even video. From this I have acquired a wealth of data for some of the most amazing trips in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. When you plan a trip with me I will make sure you are equipped with the most accurate gps data for you to follow as well as information about what sites you'll see along the way and statistics about how far, how high, and how fast you'll need to travel to accomplish your goals.

I provide
  • Personal first-hand account of the trip if possible
  • Trip statistics such as elevation gain, duration, pace, distance, etc
  • Actual GPS track in .GPX, .KML, or GeoJSON format
  • Geotagged imagery of things you'll encounter on your trip
  • Local advice and waypoints you won't get from a traditional guidebook
Contact Me