Mark Davidson and I hiked up to the entrance of the Ontario Silver Mine here in Park City found a couple old buildings filled with core samples from the mine. I even found one that looks like it has silver in it. We also found piles and piles of rat shit.

????? 2011 – timelapse from VIDIMA MAX on Vimeo.

I shot some random footage while skiing at Deer Valley Resort yesterday, so I decided to make a video.

Last year I was in Nazca, Peru for Christmas and Arequipa, Peru for New Years. This year, I was back at home with my parents, sister, friends and family in Camarillo, California for the holidays. Despite owning my own condo in Park City, Utah for more than six years now, I have yet to spend even a single year in the snow during the winter holidays. It is always so strange to be celebrating Christmas in 80 degree weather.

I flew back to Camarillo on the 22nd of December (after sleeping through 3 alarm clocks and nearly missing my shuttle to the airport).

The day after arriving there, I attended Travis and Kelli Miller’s Christmas party. I didn’t know many people at the party, but I did have fun talking to Travis, Kelli, Travis’ little sister (Katelyn), Josh and Kristen Miller, and the Miller’s cousins (Shane and Luke).

On Christmas Eve we had the entire family over at my parents’ house. My cousin, Casey, came in his traditional Santa Clause costume and my 95-year-old grandmother, Helen, was as spunky as ever (despite me beating her and my mom at a game of Boggle).

On Christmas morning it was just me, my sister, my parents, my grandma and my aunt and uncle (Tom and Christi) who celebrated in the living room of my parents’ house. My parents got me an LCD screen for my GoPro video camera (along with a bunch of other cool things) and Tom and Christ got me a new 1-man tent for my upcoming trip around the world.

One day after Christmas my dad and I went hiking out at the “Scary Dairy” near the old Camarillo State Hospital and took some pictures with my two cameras.

While we were out hiking we stumbled across this old rusty play-set that had been dragged way out into the middle of nowhere. Upon seeing the play-set, I knew in about half a second that it was the same play-set (not the exact same one, but the same model anyway) that I had had in my backyard as a child. Seeing it certainly brought back some memories.

Another day my dad and I went to see Daniel Schoenewald’s private motorcycle collection. Daniel is a friend of the family and he has more than 100 highly-collectible motorcycles in his possession. He spent nearly 4 hours telling us the story of his bikes. Each one had a story! He even let me sit and scoot around on a motorcycle that was made back in  1930 and is worth close to $500,000 USD. I was so afraid I was going to knock it over.

Then, on my last day in town, I went on a hike in Simi Valley with Ryan Nakashima. In fact, I met up with quite a few of my friends (Leslie Parr, Jason and Danielle June, Aaron June) while I was in town and it was good to reconnect with old friends and hear about their lives.

I had a good time in California. But my time there also made me realize that my ties to the place are slowly unraveling and that I now have a new home and a new life in Park City. It may have taken me six years to finally figure that out, but it is something I have only now come to terms with. Being in Camarillo also made me realize that when I leave to travel around the world later this year, my home will no longer be this place I have built for myself in Park City, but will be the tent that I carry with me on my back and the attitude I create inside my own head.

Overall, I had a great little stay in Camarillo.

More than anything, I had a great year in 2011 and I am looking forward to 2012 more than any other year in my life!

When I was in Cuzco, Peru earlier this year, my dad came out to visit me and we traveled around the Sacred Valley together – including a trip to Machu Picchu. A couple weeks later, the hard drive on which I was storing all my Peru photos, failed. My photos and videos from Peru were gone! Luckily, I had most of these photos backed up on my laptop computer, but my photos from Puerto Maldonado, Cuzco, Machu Picchu and my tricycle touring adventure in Southern Peru were gone forever!

But then I remembered that when my dad was in Peru with me I had copied all of the photos from my dad’s time in Cuzco and Machu Picchu onto his camera’s SD card. I had done this so he could show my mom all the photos from his time in Peru once he returned home. I was devistated about losing so many of my photos from Peru, but knowing that I at least had a backup copy of my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos on my dad’s SD card made me feel a whole lot better.

When I was in Peru I handed my dad the SD card containing these backed up photos and told him, “Whatever you do, do not lose this SD card. It is very important.” And he said that he wouldn’t.

But when I got home from Peru a few months later and asked my dad for the SD card on which my Machu Picchu pictures had been stored, he claimed to be unable to find the card. My dad even denied me ever giving it to him. But I knew that I had backed up the photos and I specifically remember handing the card to him and telling him how important it was that he not lose it.

So, after having my hard drive fail and losing a massive chunck of the photos from my trip through Peru and then believing that I had at least backed up my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos, I now had to come to the realization that my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos were once again lost forever. They weren’t lost due to hardware failure this time, however. They were lost because my dad had misplaced the SD card that I had told him to protect.

But then, this week, after coming back to California for the Christmas and New Year holidays, I did a quick search of my parents’ house and FOUND THE SD CARD ON WHICH ALL OF MY PHOTOS FROM CUZCO AND MACHU PICCHU HAD BEEN STORED!!!

Believe it or not, the missing SD card that contained all my Cuzco and Machu Picchu photos from Peru was actually in my parents’ camera the entire time. All they had to do was look on the camera and they would have seen the photos, but instead, they insisted that I had never given them the card containing the photos and that they could not be held responsible for my lost memories.

As you can imagine, once I found the lost images I immediately jumped and screamed and ran about. I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy… and relieved… and thankful… and upset.

That said, I still don’t have the lost photos from my tricycle touring adventures near Puno or my trip to the jungles of Puerto Maldonado, but now I have close to 400 additional photos from Peru in my possession – photos that will forever remind me of my father’s trip to Machu Picchu and images of Cuzco and the Sacred Valley that I nearly lost forever.

You can view all of my (recovered) photos from Peru by visiting my Flickr account.

PS – I knew the photos were on my parents’ SD card the entire time. Urrrrrrrr!

Today I released a free photo eBook titled “Mystical Peru”. The book is basically a compilation of my best/favorite photos from my travels in Peru earlier this year – with the photos organized by city/region. I took every single one of the photos in the book and am giving the book away for free. You can download “Mystical Peru” on this page.

Video from my travels in Puno, Peru. The Fiesta de la Virgen de la Candelaria is one of the largest street festivals of its type in the world.

I shot a bunch of video while traveling through Peru earlier this year, but I wasn’t able to edit or upload any of that video while I was in the country. Now that I’m home, however, I’ve had a chance to go back and look at all of the video that I shot while I was in South America. This video is the first of what I believe will be three videos from my time in Peru. What you see here is a short video diary of my time in Lima, Peru. I tried to capture both the noise and traffic of the city, while at the same time showing off some of the more beautiful aspects of Peru’s capital city.

One of the things I’m really good at is dreaming up some wild scheme and then working away at it until it becomes a reality (even if it takes several years in order to make the initial idea come to fruition).

This was certainly the case when, two years ago, I got the idea for a motorcycle tour of my own while traveling through the mountains of Albania on my bicycle. It was there that I met a small group of Russian men riding across Europe on their motorcycles. It was my conversation with these men, and the other several motorcycle travelers I met in Europe, that prompted me to get my own motorcycle and delve into the world of motorcycle touring.

Now, it may have taken me two years to buy a motorcycle, purchase the right gear, learn how to ride, get my motorcycle license, buy the proper insurance, and build up the confidence to actually ride my motorized vehicle at high speeds and in all sorts of road/weather conditions… but I’m pretty proud of myself now that I have done it! I’ve just completed my first long-distance motorcycle tour: a three-and-a-half week trip that took me through six different U.S. states, two countries, and across more than 3,300 miles.

The photo above was taken while driving through the Curlew National Grasslands in Idaho. Below is a sign telling off-road vehicles to stay on the roads in this part of northern Utah.

I started my tour of the Pacific Northwest in my current home of Park City, Utah. From there, I rode for four days to the city of Vancouver, Canada. Along the way, I camped at Massacre Rocks State Park (Idaho), Lake Cascade (Idaho), and Pearrygin Lake State Park (Washington). While on the bike, I traveled through several state and national parks. The most memorable of which were: Curlew National Grassland (Idaho), Sawtooth National Forest (Idaho), and Cascades National Park (Washington).

This is a 15-mile stretch of road in northern Utah that was unpaved.

The entire motorcycle tour was on side-roads and small highways, which made the scenery much more interesting than it would have been had I stuck to the Interstates.

Below is the view from my campsite at Massacre Rocks State Park on night one of the tour.

In Western Idaho I passed a group of women on a bicycle touring adventure on their own.

Most of Western Washington looked like this – wheat fields and more wheat fields.

On night three I stayed at this campground in central Washington.

This is the view from the top of a large mountain pass in the Cascades (Washington).

Ted took this photo of me as I rolled into his driveway in West Vancouver on day four of my tour.

There were three major goals for this motorcycle adventure I was on.

1. Visit with my friend, Ted Schredd, in Vancouver (and explore as much of the Vancouver area as possible).

2. Visit with my parents and sister for a week in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

3. Return home from my trip without dying.

Well, now that it’s all over, I’m glad to say that I was successful on all three counts.

The first major chunk of my tour, however, was spent in and around the Vancouver area, where Ted introduced me to his friends, gave me a number of short tours of the city, took me on a few different hikes and bike rides, cooked up some awesome meals for me (including a tasty black-bean veggie burger and a fresh berry pie), and spoke with me about the new book he is writing and a number of other projects we each have going on.

During the time I was in Vancouver, I was lucky enough to stay at this incredible house in the upscale neighborhood of West Vancouver.

Below is Ted Schredd (in the blue) and his friend, “Bender”.

This is the view from Whytecliff Park, which was just a short distance from Ted’s house in West Van.

Sunlit sea rocks in West Vancouver.

I took this shot of downtown Vancouver while on a bike ride with Ted.

Here I am positioning my video camera while on a bicycle ride through Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

Ted took this picture of me at the end of our Vancouver bike ride.

The West Vancouver photography club (Ted and I) messing around with our cameras.

Sunset boat and bridge – while on a driving tour of the city with Ted and his friend, Steve.

After a few days in Vancouver with Ted, I drove my motorcycle north to the resort town of Whistler, where I spent a half-day or so walking around the area and exploring.

I even did a little mountain biking while I was there.

Then I drove even further north and spent the next 4 nights camped out high in the mountains at several awe-inspiring glacial lakes.

The first two nights I spent camped out at Wedgemount Lake, which was located at the bottom of this massive white glacier.

There was a small cave at the base of the glacier and, of course, I climbed inside of it.

After a few days in the wilderness by myself, I got a little bored/crazy, so I started experimenting with my camera – trying to float/run in the air.

On day three in the Whistler wilderness area, I came down out of the mountains, checked my email, filled up my motorcycle, got some food, and met these two young women who were on day four of their bicycle tour down the Pacific Coast.

Then I drove a short distance north of Pemberton, British Columbia and hiked up to the Joffre Lakes area, which is where I spent the following two nights.

I camped at Upper Joffre Lake, which had a small, but crowded little camping area for people like myself.

I spent most of my time at Upper Joffre Lake listening to music on my iPod and trying to get away from the mosquitoes.

After five days in the wilderness I returned to Ted’s place in West Vancouver, where I spent one more night before continuing on my way.I had hoped to spend another full day in the city so I could visit a few museums and explore more of the downtown area, but there simply wasn’t enough time.

The next part of my tour was a 4-day ride from Vancouver to the Incline Village area of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where I was to meet my parents and sister for a short week-long vacation and catchup.

On the first day after leaving Canada, I traveled to Oak Harbor, Washington (a place I’ve been to twice before) and camped in the backyard of Wes Cook’s parent’s house. Wes’s parents were on vacation at the time, but they said I could sleep in their yard for the night, so I did just that.

The next night I did a little stealth camping in a national forest somewhere to the east of Mount Hood. It had been a cold ride on the motorcycle that day, so I kept warm that night by making myself a small fire.

The following night I camped at Diamond Lake, which is a large lake just a few miles north of Crater Lake, Oregon.

The following day, I traveled to Crater Lake (for the first time in my life) and drove around the large blue lake on my motorbike.

Then I continued on down the road and intro California. Using only small back roads and highways, I made it to Lake Tahoe around 4 PM. My parents arrived just a few minutes later and together we made our way to the small resort community where we would be staying for the next week.

The first few days in Lake Tahoe were super crowded because it was the Labor Day weekend. There were people everywhere! Not my idea of fun.

But after the holiday weekend ended, the crowds disappeared and it became a whole lot more enjoyable.

My sister was in Tahoe for our short family holiday, but she was only able to get a few days off of work, so she was really only with us for the first two days. During that time, she went para-sailing (with my dad) and jet-skiing (with my mom).

We spent the later half of Labor day down on the beach, waiting for a distant firework show to start. I took this photograph of the sunset instead.

My sister drove to Lake Tahoe with my parents, but she took a flight back to California on her return trip home. In order to catch her flight, my parents and I drove her to Reno, where we did a little driving tour of the city and not a whole lot more.

That’s me, my sister, dad and mom… outside our little vacation home in Incline Village.

After my sister left, my dad and I went to play disc golf at two different courses. We also played pool, ping-pong and horse shoes.

At one point my mom and I went stand up paddling, which turned out to be a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

After our week in Lake Tahoe was over, my parents and I went our seperate ways. My parents drove back to their home in So Cal and I drove for two full days back to my home in Park City. But before I got there, I had to ride several hundred miles across Highway 50 – “The loneliest road in America”.

I had expected “The loneliest road in America” to be nothing but flat, boring dirt. But the views along the way were actually quite spectacular and I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I spent one night camped out (for free) in a national park south of Ely, Nevada and woke the next morning for the long, non-stop drive back to Park City.

So, now I’m home.

While I’m proud of having accomplished this motorcycle tour and having survived to tell you about it, I spent a lot of the time on this trip trying to figure out what I am going to do next, where I go from here, and what I am truly “inspired” to do with my life in the future. I’m not 100% sure I figured out the answer, but I think the time that this trip allowed me certainly got me that much closer to the answer.