[00:00:00] Joe: Welcome everyone to the Live Ultralight podcast, powered by Outdoor Vitals. This podcast is about inspiring you to get Outdoors. Showing you how to lighten your pack and build your confidence so that you can start living your life full of Adventure. I'm Joe content creator at outdoor, vitals. And today on the program, I am interviewing Randy Johnson. Randy Johnson is a Colorado bass, Adventure photographer, and vlogger, who according to his Instagram, bio
[00:00:23] Joe: has been to 43 US National Parks. And 32 Major League Baseball ballparks. He's the IT director for the Colorado. Avalanche, hockey team, and the Denver Nuggets. And recently went on an epic trip to Alaska that we're going to have to dive into. But first, I want to let the audience get familiar with him. Randy, welcome to the program.
[00:00:23] Randy: Yo, how's it going?
[00:00:53] Joe: Great and I hope for that. It's going great for our audience at home as well. I know you're living in Colorado, did you grow up there?
[00:00:53] Randy: No, no. I actually
[00:01:05] Randy: originally from New England, but grew up in Cleveland. and then, I grew up skiing out there actually started that New England kind of brought that to Ohio and like, my first job was a ski instructor at like the local bump in the terrain in Ohio. It's not a whole lot of skiing out there, but then, yeah, my asked for a ski trip to Colorado from my 18th birthday and my dad brought
[00:01:34] Randy: me out here and Since then I had to get out here at some point. So yeah.
[00:01:34] Joe: And where did you go skiing in Colorado?
[00:01:41] Randy: In Colorado, I go all over is like two main ski passes but like my favorites are, are wait, are you asking where I went?
[00:01:41] Joe: Yeah, where are you?
[00:01:51] Randy: Sorry, we took me to Vail so fail.
[00:01:51] Joe: Okay, yeah, I worked in
[00:01:57] Joe: Vail.
[00:01:57] Randy: That's that's okay.
[00:01:59] Joe: So I was curious like, oh, nice last one. Last winter, though. Apparently not a very good year for skiing, if you
[00:02:08] Randy: seasonal job up there?
[00:02:10] Joe: Yeah, I just got a seasonal gig. All right, I work like the parking lot there. And was like, riding in the middle of the night. That's what I went there for. Yeah. Yeah,
[00:02:20] Joe: it was, it was a lot of fun. So I never went skiing, though. I was really there
[00:02:27] Joe: and I never went skiing. It's super expensive to go there.
[00:02:33] Randy: Yeah. That's kind of gotten out of hand.
[00:02:34] Joe: Yeah, it's it's crazy. It's also crazy that like The town of Vail. It has five less than 5,000 people live there but it gets an influx of like bazillions of dollars every year. So they have things like Like really economical and free transport system for the entire town and
[00:02:55] Joe: all these and like free internet for the entire town. All these like crazy amenities. That's part of it being up there.
[00:03:04] Randy: We were just talking about this because veils one of those weird places
[00:03:08] Randy: where it's not like a Breckenridge where there was a town like already in place, you know, with like a population and they, you know, build a resort nearby like Vail is there because it's just the resort and their Village is not even a village. That's like all part of the resort. So it's just one of those weird, weird things,
[00:03:31] Joe: collection of shops, to grocery stores and then millionaire houses designer first
[00:03:37] Joe: Two apartment complex. One for city employees. Yeah. but, so you, when did you when did you actually make it out to Colorado
[00:03:48] Randy: ten years ago I've been here 10 years now so it was After right after. Well, I guess for my senior internship, I got an internship at a sports agency out here and then never left, never planned to
[00:04:05] Joe: nice still don't. What? So, Colorado is a great place for backpacking. Beautiful state like,
[00:04:05] Randy: I agree.
[00:04:05] Joe: Absolutely amazing State. What? What got you into, backpacking? Were you into backpacking on the East Coast? Are you this is a newer thing,
[00:04:24] Randy: you know, I would say that all of my outdoor recreation has been a new thing, pretty much since moving to Colorado, even like national parks like you could have Said the word, you 70 to me? When I first moved out here, 10 years ago. And I'm not sure I would have even really known what that was to be on with you. so, I got into hike in You know, one of my
[00:04:52] Randy: old roommates asked me to go on a hike and I was like, sure, you know, I've always been somewhat outdoorsy but we never really went hiking growing up or camping. I never stopped in a tent growing up, my parents had an RV and every once in a while we go to a campground but yeah, never never owned a tent and we mostly hanging out in the RV where my Sega Genesis was,
[00:05:13] Randy: you know, so Got into hiking out here, the camping kind of just followed because that's kind of what everyone does. At least at least dabbles in camping. You know, everyone's got like a cheap camping setup just in case they get invited on some trip, you know. Yeah.
[00:05:33] Randy: So it kind of started with that with just cheap heavy camping gear. and then, What happened? Oh, I blew my knee out skiing coincidentally. And I had to so like all of a sudden, no hiking all summer. Because it happened in February, and then surgery and March. So there goes my entire summer of physical activity, pretty much what
[00:05:59] Joe: That what was the timeline on this? This
[00:06:03] Randy: was like five or six years ago.
[00:06:03] Joe: Oh, okay. Yeah,
[00:06:06] Randy: yeah. So with that no physical activity, then I really started getting into camping. And so all my friends were out playing volleyball and softball and stuff in the park. I couldn't really participate. So I just started camping and that summer, I had, I think, like, a 14 weeks, stretch of camping, at least, one night, and, and most of those were were solo camping trips. I was just by myself. And and then
[00:06:36] Randy: one thing I started to learn was like, trying to find a car camping site on the weekend in Colorado, is can be pretty stressful and not a whole lot of fun. And then I started thinking like, oh what if I just like hiked in a half mile then I could get any number of campsites, right? I wouldn't be fighting with all these people and so that kind of is what got me
[00:06:57] Randy: into backpacking or at least planted that seed that idea in my head, So, yeah, that's kind of how it started. And that's, that's how it started and then it went from there.
[00:07:06] Joe: Yep. I know, you've been to a lot of places. I've been looking at all the social media. You also have a YouTube channel where you've you've posted some trips on there. You do a lot of Photography while you're out there. What got you into photography,
[00:07:22] Randy: I just got sick of taking shity pictures. I'm sorry. Can we swear on here?
[00:07:26] Joe: I'll have to ask if I have to believe it but you can swear
[00:07:31] Joe: you can play me.
[00:07:31] Randy: So yeah I got sick of taking bad photos so like any problem he just throw money out of it and it goes away, you know? So That's, that's honestly, I bought my first camera. Maybe like, 15 years ago, maybe back when I was still living in Ohio. And I just bought. I think I spent like $250 on some Canon SLR camera, off eBay. And it's just like, I've
[00:07:59] Randy: just kind of kept upgrading cameras ever since so
[00:08:02] Joe: nice. I still have the T3i. That's do you.
[00:08:02] Randy: Yeah,
[00:08:05] Randy: yeah. I feel like I can't go back. Every every new camera is just another upgrade and I'm just throwing more money into this. I, I would say still hobby. Yeah. Oh man.
[00:08:17] Joe: No, that's an expensive hobby.
[00:08:17] Randy: It is.
[00:08:17] Joe: Yeah. It was skiing.
[00:08:23] Joe: You know, that's true.
[00:08:24] Randy: That's true. Or at least it can be,
[00:08:27] Joe: I think. Yeah. For for really good. Backpacking gear, I think. Yeah, maybe but I mean for the basic stuff,
[00:08:34] Randy: all right. Most Hobbies, you know, they can be expensive. Yeah, that's
[00:08:38] Joe: true. You can always make it expensive. Yeah, I do have a selfish question. I am more of a video guy and I do usually use other people's equipment. I don't usually buy equipment, but what do you have in your kind of go-to Photography kit when you're going
[00:08:56] Joe: on a backpacking trip.
[00:08:57] Randy: So, I have one camera body. And that's the one that is shooting this video. It's my Canon R6, so, that's the mirrorless. when the new mirrorless bodies, as far as the lens, it's pretty much going to be the lens that's on here which is a 15 to 35 F 2.8. And and I I have that because, you know, landscape photography, you want to go wide, it's great for on the trail and
[00:09:29] Randy: then it doubles as an astrophotography lens as well, because it can take in so much light, so that that's stays on the camera quite a bit along with that. I might take a 24 to 105, F4 lens, or if I'm definitely planning on seeing Wildlife then one of hearing, zoom out one of these giant lenses up on the shelf. Right there will come. That one's a 300 F4 and that's my newest
[00:10:00] Randy: one and 800 FL 11. So yeah, those are the wildlife fungus, those don't come back packing a whole lot. I can I can tell you that.
[00:10:00] Joe: Well, it's the weight of those.
[00:10:00] Randy: Yeah. Big long blend. Yeah.
[00:10:14] Joe: And then just say you say with the with the wildlife or the landscape photography, you like to keep it wider. Yeah, I've definitely seen both ends of that Spectrum where they have, like really amazing like Landscapes that are wide shots. And then like, I've also seen it where they use the long lens to compress all the space. Right? Right. And it kind of, like, for Mountain shots or something against something like
[00:10:38] Joe: that, it always makes the mountain. Looks like gigantic. Yeah. And there's, I would
[00:10:44] Randy: say usually that 16 to 35, or I'm sorry, 15 to 35 and the 24 to 105, typically will both come with me, backpacking because I cover such a wide runs or wide, right? Excuse me, a wide range of focal lengths with just those two lenses. They're very heavy but like You know, this. You just gotta suck it up and carry the weight when you're into a hobby like photography and
[00:11:11] Joe: backpacking. You know, do you mostly have light like, ultra light backpacking equipment. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:17] Randy: At this point. Yeah like that makes up for some of it. Yes. So I did my first through, I guess we'll call it a mini through hike of the John Maher. Trail. The JMT Yeah. All right. It's it it's hard to call it that when you see the mileage of the PCT those are like there has to be a different like word for that.
[00:11:42] Joe: I know there might be actually like a way to differentiate the ones that are like over a thousand miles. Yeah. So
[00:11:47] Randy: anything that I could upgrade and shave, some ounces for that trip, I pretty much did just in it, you know, mostly smaller. So I did buy a new tent for that trip. But there's still plenty of gear that is just heavy because I can count on it. It's reliable and I like it. So
[00:12:06] Randy: yeah, no matter even though I do have a lot of ultralight gear, all the camera stuff and all the batteries and everything that I have to carry it offsets so I only spent to get ultralight stuff to help offset the, the really heavy stuff. So that's like that's a good tip out there
[00:12:25] Joe: for people who love photography like, maybe you don't want to just shoot on your iPhone, maybe you want to get some actual like images that you can have some leeway and post and all the reasons to bring like a real camera. But, you know, I just, I
[00:12:41] Randy: just know if I went out with my good camera, I would hate myself for it when I got out there or, you know, I hate myself for the entire hike. I'm sure. And so it's just not. I don't think I've ever backpacked without my heavy, SLR camera. Honestly, I don't, I can't think of a single time. Done that. So, In this way, it is, you get used to it, makes your legs stronger. Um, no.
[00:13:07] Joe: So I think we can get into your Alaska trip because I know when I was emailing, you earlier like two weeks ago, it's like that was something that you wanted to talk. You got to talk about your Alaska trip and what, when what's burned the this a lot like what caused you to do this?
[00:13:24] Randy: Alaska trip. So I've been wanting to go there forever. I've and I've probably talked about it openly. for at least the past like eight years and it just never just never lined up. I just couldn't make it work for one way, one reason or another and then With covid and everything that just happened. Well, I should say that it's still happening but like our wedding got pushed back so it was supposed
[00:13:56] Randy: to be in 2021. And then like late in the year, we ended up pushing it to 2022 and that kind of freed up the entire year. And then flights were cheap, you know, because things were starting to kind of ease up a little bit. You know. It was back when flights were cheap and gas was cheap so remember the days. Yeah yeah
[00:14:21] Randy: so I I ended up You know, I have to ask the ask the fiance if she wanted to come first of all because that would change the trip significantly. She's not really in the grizzly bears. So Yeah, yeah. So I looked at flights picked a date range, she wasn't coming. And then I knew that I had to kind of just do everything that she wouldn't want to do. I had to do
[00:14:53] Randy: it. I had to splurge and do it all in this one trip because I don't know when I'm gonna go back there again. I will I just don't know how long it's gonna take for me to get back there. So, so, yeah, I I treated it like most of my trips to a new area where I'm just trying to do and see as much as humanly possible with the time that I
[00:15:17] Randy: have there. So I don't care if that means driving all over the place or you know lack of you know not getting a whole lot of sleep because I'm constantly on the Move. That's what I had to do. So ended up doing Five of the eight national parks up there. And just eight days. Was about 35 total hours of driving. And also two round-trip float plane, flights to two of the national
[00:15:48] Randy: parks. So, Is that the only way you can get into some of them? To the two that I went to. Yes. Wow. Yeah. And there's Two more parts that you pretty much have to fly into as well. A way up North
[00:16:02] Joe: Wow. Okay, so where did you how did you come up with an itinerary for such a massive? Trip.
[00:16:11] Randy: I just free search really, you know? It's kind of like, you know, wasn't a whole lot different than playing any other trip. Which for me is kind of trying to figure out where I want to be for each like some sunrise and sunset and then just kind of filling everything in between. You know, a lot of times, I might have certain areas that I definitely want to go take pictures, so I'll
[00:16:38] Randy: try and plan. When I'm going to be there, some trips like this one. I needed permits for certain things. So, a lot of times you take care of that first and then you plan the trip around that for this trip that was that was the case with cat my National Park which is where, you know, all the grizzly bears are you from familiar with with these
[00:17:01] Joe: national parks at all?
[00:17:01] Randy: No, not really.
[00:17:03] Randy: Okay, so Katmai National Park is basically like on an island and that's where if you've ever seen the the bear cam, it's this webcam that they have running 24 hours a day of these Bears over at its Brooks Falls and they'll stand at the top and wait for the salmon to jump up when they're going when they're, you know, going back to their breathing original breeding ground. So yeah, that's where that
[00:17:33] Randy: webcam is. It's right there, and there's like a viewing platform for tourists. so, that was Getting a camping permit for theirs. Like was one of the hardest things to do. So once I had that locked up, I could kind of plan the rest of my trip around that. And get all the necessary flights other than that, it was just driving all over the place. So it's a lot of trying to calculate
[00:17:59] Randy: your hike times and your drive times to the best of your ability. So you can really squeeze it and everything that you want to do. So yeah, it wasn't a lot different than any of my other. Crazy road trips. So so you've been to a ridiculous, you've been
[00:18:16] Joe: to four times as many national parks as I have That means you've been to some, that's good. Yeah I've been I've been a 10 11.
[00:18:25] Randy: I was gonna say, what's your your background backpacking?
[00:18:29] Joe: My background, backpacking. A lot of stuff with Scouts occasional weekends here. And there, I have a fail through hike, which I've talked about a little bit on this on this show but mostly I'm a video guy. So I was hired here. To do that. And then now I'm kind of I'm hosted a podcast and it's really wanting me to get out there more than I have. But no, I've never done. I've
[00:18:52] Joe: never done anything like insane. Like oh well five national parks.
[00:18:58] Randy: I think succession working for Jason. That's probably gonna change pretty soon. I bet.
[00:19:03] Joe: Yeah, yeah I'll probably double the amount of times I've gotten backpacking in about a year. So it'll be, it'll be pretty awesome. It's always been like just a small hobby for me. I've definitely had when I was a teenager. I was really obsessed with the idea of going on the Appalachian Trail, but I never did it. And right now, I'm obsessed with the Camino de Santiago.
[00:19:03] Randy: What's that one?
[00:19:03] Joe: That's the, it's
[00:19:26] Joe: it's, you know, the Urban slash World backpacking from France into Spain. Oh, okay. It's a really long. It's really long Trek. It's very, it's very famous said. It's very and I've been studying Spanish and all this and I'm like, that would be the ultimate culmination is to. Yeah,
[00:19:46] Joe: you know, they Santiago I'll see if I'll see you at my boss. Will let me borrow the coda UL backpack and call. It worked really shouldn't be a problem. So, yeah, well, take us through the take us through this Alaska trip for anybody who wants to like recreate it. Where did you start?
[00:19:46] Randy: Oh, boy.
[00:20:07] Randy: Okay. So, flew into Anchorage. Got a rental pickup truck. This is back when you can still find affordable rental cars. So, got to pick up truck because I knew that there was gonna be one part of the trip or maybe two parts of the trip that we're going to be on, like long, long dirt roads. So I at least wanted to hike clearance for by four was not necessity, but I needed
[00:20:38] Randy: to hike clearance at least just cuz I wasn't sure what the roads were gonna be like. So sorry to Anchorage. Got a rental car drove straight up to Denali National Park. I stopped at Talkeetna on the way I got a friend from college, who lives there works for an airline a tough team in the air. They do flights. In the Denali that will land you on a glacier. So shout out to
[00:21:06] Randy: them if you're wanting to do a sightseeing flight or even land on a glacier, you can do it in Talkeetna. so I drove up to Denali got a campsite at teklanika Campground, there's a lot of Denali's a tricky one because there's one main road through the park. It goes 80 miles out, but things happen like landslides along that road that close that road and typically that road is only open to their
[00:21:39] Randy: Like internal buses and you have to, you can't just drive that road. It's closed only to their buses. So you have to buy like bus tickets in there. If you want to actually like get in the park and see it. So, a landslide happened to happen like two weeks before my trip. So I had to like switch campgrounds and all this. So, I ended up at Tech Campground, which is around the
[00:22:05] Randy: mile 30 Mark, and the road was closed at the mile 42 marks. So, it was like, I was gonna see as much as I could see, like, being at that Campground. So, that was a bummer, but yeah, that's as soon as I got into the park that evening which I got there maybe a half hour after Sunset, I saw two of the biggest bull moose I've ever seen and they were standing
[00:22:33] Randy: in this shallow River and just going at it. So that was like, Welcome to Alaska. The coolest thing ever. That's the real wild right there and I've seen hundreds of bull. Moose, you know in Colorado, Wyoming Montana. All over the place. Utah. But yeah, it was like every Bull Moose I saw up there, they just everything grows bigger up. There was
[00:22:57] Randy: the last game. Moose or or insane? What is
[00:23:02] Joe: Denali?
[00:23:02] Randy: So the Denali National Park is
[00:23:05] Joe: there anything to see, like, I realized his natural Preserve. She's gonna be a lot of like beautiful, like, spaces and stuff like that. What is kind of the focal point of that part, besides Denali, is there anything else? Like the mouth. Wildlife, I was curious.
[00:23:22] Randy: Yeah, one thing you'll also learn about Alaskan. National parks is very few of them. Have any actual hiking trails like Like constructed and maintained hiking trails, they like to keep everything. As wild as possible, your free to just get out there and Hike wherever you want. But yeah, they're not gonna they're not gonna advertise and they're not going to create hiking trails and advertise them and maintain them or anything like that.
[00:23:51] Randy: So it really It really is wild up there. Wow,
[00:23:56] Randy: I I made time for one hike just to get kind of to one false Summit and that was it that was the that's kind of the the one thing that was a bummer about doing a trip, like this the way I did, it was there wasn't a ton of time for hiking which is normally what I would love to do, but You know, my first trip to any new area. I just
[00:24:19] Randy: like to see as much as possible and then I know where I want to spend more time On the following trips, you know? Yeah.
[00:24:25] Joe: That makes sense to me. It's interesting. I gotta, I gotta pick your brain about National Parks after after your last good trip. Sorry, go ahead.
[00:24:34] Randy: Yeah. So anyway was in Denali saw Caribou, so Six big biggest bull moose I've ever seen in my life. Didn't see any bears. I believe I would have if the rest of the road was open, but I feel like most people do so after Denali, then I had a long I think like 13 hour drive, I think from there all the way down to Wrangle. Saint Elias National Park. so, I drove
[00:25:06] Randy: all the way down McCartney McCarthy, or McCarty Road, which is like a 60 mile Dirt road. It's like, you know any national forest service road out here.
[00:25:17] Joe: Yeah, plan your services, don't you?
[00:25:19] Randy: Yeah. Yeah. So gas was a big concern. But from in that area, there is like one last town, where you can fill up on gas and you should be fine to get all the way out there. And back,
[00:25:33] Joe: I've had I've had a little like mini heart attack going through Death Valley before. Oh yeah,
[00:25:38] Joe: I didn't realize there wasn't gonna be services for like 50 miles or something like that. This road where no one's there. Like, yeah, that's what I got to iron. Iron town, is that the name of the town Ironside? It's on the California side. It was like, it's like the very first town. I was almost on a like, I was getting and I had seen other people like, pull over to the side
[00:26:06] Joe: of the road, have no idea if their cars were overheating, or what? Yeah.
[00:26:09] Joe: But now, I think about gasoline all the time. What I take a trip anywhere. Yeah. And
[00:26:15] Randy: I almost brought an empty gas tank with me. Just for this trip.
[00:26:19] Joe: Yeah, just because I knew
[00:26:22] Randy: one of the things that happened was I I did talk to one gas station, attendant about gas and they were like, oh, there are gas stations along this one road, but I don't know if they'll have gas left this late in the season, which is just not something you think about, you know, but up there, that's a very real thing. It's like, they'll they'll have like a certain amount of gas and
[00:26:43] Randy: they'll be like, all right, we're not gonna put any more in this late, in the season. Wow. So yeah, that was an interesting thing that that I just didn't even dawn on me. What a never thought about that. So yeah, went to McCartney, the town of McCarthy and Kennicott. And there's a great. It's it's basically the one most single most popular hike in that Park out onto the glacier. And I, I
[00:27:14] Randy: want to save the glacier name, but I, I think I've mixed up every single Glacier that I went to, let's just say it was either root Glacier or exit. Actually. No, it was root Glacier. Yeah, so that's like the one main trail in that entire park and it's a massive Park and that's just like, I think the easiest More most accessible part of the park. Is that McCarthy Road on the southern
[00:27:42] Randy: side, So, I went there. On a glacier, that was great. and
[00:27:49] Randy: then, Yeah, so I can't one night there. Hiked in the morning, got in the car. drove straight out of there like 8 or 9 hours to sometime where my flight was leaving the next morning. I like it is like oh you're just in Alaska
[00:28:12] Joe: driving around Alaska. Is a gigantic State. Yeah, it's massive. I mean,
[00:28:17] Randy: Look at it on a map. like, Google image search Alaska compared to USA and it's literally like half the size of the entire like, lower 48. It's crazy.
[00:28:30] Randy: Yeah. So yeah, I went from there. To some other town down on like the Kenai Peninsula. I only made it like halfway that night and then finish the rest of the drive at like 3 in the morning. Had an early flight to Lake Clark. National Park, where I did a guided fishing and photography day trip. so yeah, I was by myself for that but with a group of of six other guys
[00:29:02] Randy: who happened to be from Colorado and all seven of us caught our limit of three fish, and, Yeah. So after that I was just I was like here's my rod, don't need it. I'm taking pictures the rest of the time and that was just like the most Wild part of and definitely the most memorable part of the entire trip. For sure was Lake Clark National Park. just,
[00:29:28] Randy: Never. Did I ever have I ever felt like I was Intruded. Like this was the Bears land and we were just intruding like wow, we land the plane on the lake. And then your guide is there in a boat already and you hop in the boat with him and he takes you down the river.
[00:29:28] Joe: Was this one of the ones
[00:29:45] Joe: that was specifically you had to go in by plane?
[00:29:45] Randy: Yeah, we're talking about. Yeah, yeah.
[00:29:52] Randy: So yeah, I just did a day trip out there. So you happen the boat with the guy who takes you down the river and then he'll pull it up on shore. And then you we basically all just pick a different place on the shore and you're walking right along the shoreline. And it's just Fish skeletons everywhere. It's like it's a massacre of just it's just fish skeletons everywhere you look and you're
[00:30:18] Randy: like oh okay, there's gotta be here for ya.
[00:30:22] Randy: And then as Like we didn't see any bears immediately when we landed but he was like it's cold. They're bunkered down still and give it like an hour as soon as it starts heating up, they'll be popping out everywhere and like, within 15 minutes Oh, there's bears. Bears, bears and then they're popping out from behind you and the brush and they're just everywhere. You look, they are bears everywhere and it's wild,
[00:30:50] Joe: that's crazy. I've seen one bear in my life ever
[00:30:54] Randy: the black or Grizzly?
[00:30:57] Joe: It was a black bear. So it
[00:30:59] Joe: wasn't like that threatening and it was way less way less. So, like when we were just in the middle, we were in Sequoia. Yeah, the bear. And it was less scary in real life and I thought it would be. That was something I noted. But I have seen the movie Grizzly Man, and that makes me like terrified of the Grizzlies.
[00:31:22] Randy: Yeah. They're massive, massive, massive creatures, and where Grizzly, Man was and that's that's where I went. The following day was to that place. Was that he was on like right around cat my national park. I think he was actually on cat my National Park property or land rather. So yeah, we did fishing. All right. So yeah, let me back up real quick. So did the day trip? A flew back to land
[00:31:55] Randy: and then I drove from there all the way back up and around, back to Anchorage. Got a campground that night that I had booked in advance. I brought a my camping pan specifically for Eating fish for cooking, the fish that I caught. So I brought I had them. Cut me off, like half of one, salmon fillet. And I took that to my campsite to make that night, which was like, I don't,
[00:32:23] Randy: I'm not a fisherman, I'm not an angler sorry, or whatever they prefer to be called but yeah, I had he cleaned the fish and everything for me. So yeah, I just I had a cooler through in the cooler. Brought the campsite cooked it up for dinner and that was like, Full Alaskan experience to me was that's cool being in this insanely wild place around by bears coming out everywhere. So that was interesting.
[00:32:23] Joe: What was that?
[00:32:23] Randy: No
[00:32:55] Randy: it was. Um so the group of guys I was with A bit older than me. And one of them had his dad on the trip and it was like, He couldn't really stand for a long periods of time. So he was fishing out of the boat. And so, like, all of a sudden we hear him holler, he was like help and we turned and there's there's a cub and my mom were
[00:33:19] Randy: trying to get into the fish that we had already caught in the boat and he was in the boat, you know, fishing. The guide. So I'm with the guy and the guy starts sprinting back to the boat and then I spent behind him. I see him pick her up and so I picked up And then get this. So the bears run back into the Tall Grass. The guy runs straight into the
[00:33:44] Randy: tall grass like after them. It's just like blown away. He's not carrying, yeah. Trying to make his point trying to get the point across. So, So yeah. Anyway, so cook my fish that night at the campsite and then in the morning took another flight from Anchorage. To King Salman. And then from King Salman to katmai National Park, it's called Brooks camp at my national park. That's where the famous water waterfall is
[00:34:18] Randy: for the catch, catch fish and That's where you get the really fat bears, they really good and they're just absolutely massive. They're the biggest things you've ever seen and they'll just sometimes they'll walk right past you on the trail and it's super nerve-wracking. It's just hope they're well fed enough. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[00:34:39] Randy: They're not, they're not starving, not even close. So yeah, it almost gives you. A false. Sense of safety, when it's almost like they're, they're, you know, obviously not like domesticated, but they're like numb to, you know, humans walking around. And it's, it's interesting. It's it definitely didn't feel as wild as fishing at Lake Clark where there's no catwalks. There's no protection. So yeah, it was, it was cool. But I camped at
[00:35:18] Randy: night there they've got a campground with a like an electric fence around it. Definitely didn't feel at risk at all being there. They very strict rules about not even walking the catwalks with any food in your backpack and stuff like that. You know, I think there is safe as they they can be As far as educating tourists, a lot of people, most people just take a plain out there for a day
[00:35:44] Randy: trip so they'll land at like 10 or 11 a.m. and then they'll be there for like four hours and then fly back. That's how most people seek at my, but the campground, if you can get a campsite a permit to Camp there, it's only like 16 bucks a night. So that helps when you know, camping is the ultimate budget, lodging option. So I do that Everywhere I Go Everything else is expensive
[00:36:12] Randy: enough?
[00:36:12] Joe: So usually national parks
[00:36:15] Joe: are pretty like usually pretty reasonable in fact, now more more than reasonable. Yeah,
[00:36:22] Joe: with their camping prices.
[00:36:24] Randy: Yeah, so so I'll probably between like 40 and 80 different Grizzlies between just those two days or I'm sorry, three days. Late Clark and Cat Mine national parks. So yeah, it was just it was completely wild. I've never Never seen anything like that. You're not gonna get that kind of experience. Anywhere down in the lower 48,
[00:36:48] Joe: on your Instagram page. Just not quite a few bear pictures. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:36:53] Randy: Just it was overwhelmed by the volume of photos. I came back with
[00:36:59] Joe: I did have a moment going like he seems really close to that bear.
[00:37:03] Randy: Yeah. well, that goes back to So that giant these two giant lenses behind me. Alright,
[00:37:10] Joe: let's help a lot that's a closed. Yeah,
[00:37:12] Randy: exactly. Like some of the ones looking down at their, at their claws. And you're like, what is he is he on the Bear's back? Like, how did he Yeah. Wow, so I flew back to Anchorage after one night there. So I was there for just over 24 hours, flew back to Anchorage. immediately got in the car and drove down to Valdez. No, not Valdez. See, I don't even know where I went.
[00:37:43] Randy: Um, Whatever the town is, right outside of. Can I fjords National Park, whatever that town is? Why can't I think of it?
[00:37:53] Joe: Felt that sounds very Spanish for an Alaska Town Valdez is. I mean that town doesn't
[00:37:58] Randy: exist. That's not amazing. Was it Seward? Maybe it's Seward. That's So yeah, if you look it up you'll see it, whatever it is called. I'm trying to look right now. Just so So yeah, I camped somewhere right outside of. Can I fjords National Park? And then in the morning, I did the one most popular hike. To the other Glacier exit. Glacier, exit. Glacier and Harding ice field. If you're looking on all
[00:38:37] Randy: Trails for Heights, Both of the hikes that I've mentioned, are like the one and only hiked that. You should do in both of those parts. Yeah,
[00:38:47] Randy: I shouldn't say that it's just the most popular and one of the few mate like constructed and maintained Trails. That's That's all I'm trying to say. So yeah, that was National Park, number five. And then drove back up tank Ridge. I did stop in Whittier. Which is a pretty cool little coastal town that to get there. You have to drive this super narrow train tunnel. You literally like the train like the
[00:39:19] Randy: track still operate and they still run the train through there, but you can drive it too and it's, it's one way. So
[00:39:26] Randy: they literally have to wait like every half hour. They send traffic, the One Direction, and then the other half hour, they send traffic the other direction. So yeah, it's it was it's pretty interesting. So yeah, I stopped there. Made a little outdoor detour to Whittier on my way back up to Anchorage. And that was it man I got to Anchorage and then I just stayed along the coast and tried to spot
[00:39:54] Randy: a whale or something anything. Just bought anything. Yeah that was
[00:39:59] Randy: that was the trip
[00:40:00] Joe: with that. You spot. Anything cool. On the coast. No, no,
[00:40:04] Randy: no. I should have gotten sat down and had like some king crab or something like that because I didn't see anything.
[00:40:12] Joe: So now that you've gone to I how many national parks are? There is your goal of see every single one?
[00:40:19] Randy: Oh yeah. Okay. Unless they added more, I think we're at 602.
[00:40:24] Joe: Oh wow. So you're getting Really close. Yeah. Yeah, and
[00:40:31] Randy: that's if you include the Saint Louis Arch, which is I'll just come out and say, it's a dumbest National Park.
[00:40:37] Joe: Seems like it would be more of a National Monument. Some of
[00:40:41] Randy: the only one in a metro area. It doesn't make sense
[00:40:43] Joe: that anyway. Okay, what? Give me or you gotta like your top three or top five. They've been to so far.
[00:40:56] Randy: Yosemite. Grand Tetons. I just love so much beautiful. So that's that's just gotta crack my top three. The Yosemite I've been to probably like 15 times at this point and I just can't get enough. Wow. Like I want to go back there tomorrow.
[00:41:17] Joe: Somebody trip was, you know, driving and seeing the lookout and going. Wow, that's beautiful mountain. And then keep driving. Yeah. And actually went to the other side of it too where the town is at over in Idaho. That's awesome. Like it's not quite the same view but it's still like gorgeous area, just that hey Drive.
[00:41:42] Randy: I feel like Glacier would be would probably make that list. It's just hard because when we went a wildfire started in the park, two days before we left, so, we got smoked out of Pretty much all. Significant views, which was a total bummer. But we had a great time. And like, we hiked, 77 miles and seven days up there. And we backpacked Still saw a ton of Wildlife. But yeah, I was
[00:42:12] Randy: a huge bummer and we've been trying to go back there. I I just feel like that would probably crack my top whatever. I don't know there's so many good Parks especially in the west. What's your favorite on the east on the
[00:42:26] Joe: Eastern side of the United States?
[00:42:32] Randy: I guess Acadia. Probably okay.
[00:42:35] Randy: I I'm definitely missing quite a few of the ones out east. We had a good time and Great Smokies. But yeah, I would say Katya. and even that we got fogged out of most views there but like Actually does does, does, does like the Midwest count for Eastern?
[00:42:58] Joe: Yeah, you know, east of the Rocky Mountains.
[00:43:01] Randy: Okay, voyagers, I had a great time in voyageurs. They've got like 200 some odd campsites. That are only accessible by by boat. And that was just like a completely different experience and it was great to be back on the water. And so we've loaded up a kayak Uh, and kayaks out to an island and Camp there for the night. All the eagles.
[00:43:26] Joe: Did, you did you make a video on that one?
[00:43:26] Randy: Yeah.
[00:43:28] Joe: Okay. I think I saw that video.
[00:43:31] Randy: As my very first video. Nice.
[00:43:33] Randy: Yeah. So yeah, just being back on the water. I grew up in Cleveland right on Lake Erie. and there's not, it's like it's kind of not a lot of water out in Colorado, not like, Big lakes that you can swim in and boat in now, this is reservoirs. But yeah, so it's, it's not, it's not the same and so that was it was actually really great to be out on the water
[00:43:59] Randy: and just a completely new National Park experience, kayaking to an island and camping there. Yeah, bald eagles everywhere. You could hear wolves howling? Yeah. That was awesome. So I will say Katie and voyagers. Yeah,
[00:44:15] Joe: that's cool. Hey do you ever feel like a little bit? I don't know. I've I had this opinion when I went to two places Kings Canyon and green tea pots or I'm like, why are these just not one Park? It's like to get into King's candy to go through Sequoia and they're like oh yeah
[00:44:35] Joe: they are one Park basically. Yeah, really
[00:44:38] Joe: tons really just runs into Yellowstone.
[00:44:42] Randy: But they're so different. I'm totally with you on Sequoia and Kings. Canyon, those
[00:44:48] Randy: just feel like it's the same park. Like, yeah, you make a wrong turn and you're in the other part, like, literally. That's how it is.
[00:44:55] Joe: And there's like a state park in between of like, what is this? What is the?
[00:44:58] Randy: Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah,
[00:45:00] Randy: and there's I think there's like multiple national forests right there too. Like yeah,
[00:45:05] Joe: yeah. And and you know what, and they don't even care. Like, when you're at the gift shop, it's like, it'll say Sequoia, and Kings candy on all the merchandise, like, yeah, I get those like pins now. Yeah. Collected, a couple of those. And I want to collect them all basically. And there were separate pins for those that was nice. I could not find a good. I wanted a shirt for both parks
[00:45:26] Joe: and find a good, King's Canyon shirt. And that really bugged me. It's like where these like multiple anyway. Yeah I don't know how many other parks are like that where they're like right next to each other quite like those two are. But
[00:45:39] Randy: those two yeah. Arches and Canyonlands. are pretty much next to each other, but again, those are quite even though they're both like, Desert landscape. Those are both pretty pretty different. Far as desert desert stuff. All right. So as a Utah native, I gotta ask what? Your
[00:46:01] Joe: favorite Utah. National Park is
[00:46:03] Randy: oh, I mean, Zion is like a red Yosemite in a way. Just with these giant. cliff wall, like rock faces, and yeah. And there's so much different like Terrain in that part too. So I while I do love Zion. I think Capitol Reef might be my favorite. So underrated
[00:46:31] Joe: no one goes to Capitol Reef cuz it's in the middle of nowhere, right? Beautiful, and it's free. You different
[00:46:37] Randy: areas in that arches Canyonlands up here and people do Bryce Zion down here and no one does right in the middle there
[00:46:45] Randy: in the middle Capitol Reef?
[00:46:45] Joe: I like Capitol Reef was the last one I went to grown up here, basically, right? And
[00:46:51] Joe: and I went to it like three years ago for the first time, all right? And like I was just like this is amazing and no one talks about it. Yeah, it's great. Um,
[00:47:04] Joe: So what, what's your next? Big? What's your next big crazy trip.
[00:47:09] Randy: um, you know, I don't think I have anything like crazy planned. Currently honestly I I told myself I was gonna take kind of the year off of Traveling every freakin weekend, okay? And just focus on processing. The, the footage of the trips that I've taken because I'm, if I haven't posted anything in a while, and I have over two years of trip footage, That if I if I had someone else to
[00:47:45] Randy: do it for me, that'd be great. I'd have all kinds of content. So I'm kind of trying to to take the year off with we're getting married in a few months. And yeah I think I'm gonna focus on maybe just do trying to do more. Colorado. Day hikes and things that are on my to do list out here. Right after the wedding, we are going to Florida and I'm doing some national
[00:48:11] Randy: parks down there. It's not gonna be one of my crazy trips because apparently it's not allowed on the on the honeymoon. But we are going to do all three national parks down. There we are. Camping on Dry Tortugas National Park for two nights. and then, we are going to go do An Airboat Tours in Everglades and then was, it Biz came National Park, is the other one kind of by the keys
[00:48:43] Randy: and I don't know what you're supposed to do out there but we'll see, alligators. I don't know.
[00:48:43] Joe: Yeah, I don't know, from what I think. I heard like 90% of the park is water and 5% of land. So I assume Will spend a Time on the water? I don't know. I was a research that went a whole lot yet when I was a kid. You
[00:49:05] Joe: used to go to Florida. Like I have family in Florida. He also go down there and haven't been to any of the national parks. Definitely have always wanted to go to the Everglades but when to like Okefenokee Swamp and a few other areas and the wildlife is pretty crazy down there. It's alligators that I was absolutely obsessed with and still kind of him. So I'm terrified.
[00:49:05] Randy: You'll take a Grizzly but not an alligator. Huh?
[00:49:05] Joe: Yeah. Yeah
[00:49:33] Randy: I don't mess with Dinosaurs. That's fair.
[00:49:39] Randy: I won't even get in a kayak down there. Not a chance.
[00:49:42] Joe: Oh no, I wouldn't either actually, maybe a motorboat sure, some like distance. You know that alligators are gonna jump out like a great white. So as far as I guess, I don't know God. Oh,
[00:49:53] Joe: what, where can people find you? Then where can people find your your photos and your videos?
[00:49:53] Randy: Outdoor detour everywhere. Actually,
[00:50:06] Randy: this is probably a good place to say, go to outdoor detour.com. You'll see a link there for permit calendar. I got frustrated with trying to keep track of You know, important dates for all these different permits because I know a lot of things have moved to recreation.gov for their permitting but there's still so many other permits that have their own website and it's just all over the map. So what I've done
[00:50:36] Randy: is tried to create one. A One-Stop shop for keeping track of all important, like permit dates for some of them, the more popular hiking and camping in the United States at least so go check that outdoor detour.com. You'll see the link permit calendar. But yeah, as far as social media outdoor detour everywhere, Instagram mostly just Instagram and YouTube. I'm not not on tiktok and not.
[00:51:07] Joe: A friend to be, I can't imagine what backpacking content looks like on tiktok. I should probably know that's like part of my job. All right. Well, thank you everybody. Who's listening. Please feel free to send us your comments, questions about backpack and cool outdoor stories or ideas for future episode topics. If we think it'll bring value to our audience, we will probably read it on the show. You can send them by
[00:51:31] Joe: commenting on our Live Ultralight podcast YouTube channel, which you guys should subscribe to. It's a small budding channel. So we need your, you need your guys's help to help it grow. Or you can send us an email by by sending that to Live Ultralight podcast at gmail.com. You can also send positive iTunes reviews that will be read on the show. And guys, once again, you can subscribe on YouTube or iTunes Spotify
[00:51:58] Joe: or wherever you get your podcast. Randy, thank you so much for coming on here and telling us about your adventures. It's definitely very inspiring.
[00:52:06] Randy: Thanks for having me Joe. It's fun.
