MK Livin' – The Mountain Khakis Blog 
I recently wore my Alpine Utility Pants on a grueling hunt in Eastern Oregon. The pants held up great through the thickest sage, scrub brush and thorny bushes. Navigating over barbed wire cow fences near “critical areas” was a breeze. I think you could rename these the Mountain Khaki Upland [...]
I needed to do something epic. Something my friends at Mountain Khakis would call “bad ass.” Something outdoors with adventure, challenge, and thrill. Something I wasn’t sure I could do. All to mark my personal milestone of turning 40. I called it “Middle Finger to 40″ as I wanted to stick it to the traditional notions that 40 means it’s all downhill. My task: 365 consecutive days of exercising at least 1 hour.
Two years ago we were in college sitting around wondering if it was possible to bicycle across the country. Searching online, we found out about the TransAmerica Trail. It runs from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon, and was chosen in 1976 to take cyclists though small-town America. We started dreaming of the adventure to be had and never looked back. We planned a program to give to youth on knowing where their food comes from and we fundraised to pay for food and equipment.
Fast forward to this summer: we’re in Missouri at a YMCA camp. We have biked more than 1000 miles already and we have a hard time keeping the campers focused on food issues rather than on the fact that we shower maybe once a week on the trail. Eventually, though, we get down to some good conversation on their school lunch food and how they’d like to change it. So far so good, Localmotive Bike Tour.
I do a type of fish painting called Gyotaku, which translates to “fish rubbing”. In order to have something to paint, I have to go catch it (and I love that part). Last month, I set out on my friends boat to sine serious off-shore fishing grounds – George Banks in the North Atlantic. We set our way point 172 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, right along the Hague line between US and Canadian fishing water.
Everything is big out there – the birds, the cod, the skate, and most importantly (for us), the Blue Fin Tuna. We spent three days and two nights on our 36′ fishing vessel. The weather was wet, dark, and foggy, but relatively calm. After about 24 hours we hooked a Giant Blue Fin (measuring more than 73″)! It was hooked on a live cod fish as the bait. We fought the fish on rod and reel for about an hour and a half. At one point early on, I gained line with extreme effort for about twenty minutes – only to feel the fish run it back out in four seconds! The battle was on.
We are back from the big climb! Yes, I made it to the top and it was worth the view, let me tell you! Thanks to Mountain Khakis for the great donation…they were well liked and they were perfect for our time acclimatizing to higher levels. We visited a school [...]