Ten years ago, if someone had told me that I would backpack through Europe, study twice in China, and romp through the mountains of Chilean Patagonia before graduating from college, I would have thought them crazy. I had no desire to travel. But halfway through my senior year of high school, something made me decide to backpack Europe after graduation. That started it....life hasn't been the same since. Traveling changed my outlook on a lot of things...including what I want to do with my life. I enjoy interacting with people and taking part in other cultures. More and more, I am finding ways to combine travel with my love of the outdoors. So here I am, a 24 year old college graduate with three big trips behind me and plans in the works for many, many more....as grand as time and money will allow.
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The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico
April 2007
We had the opportunity to take a quick jaunt to Mexico. A late honeymoon, a birthday trip for Apryle, and a six-month anniversary all rolled into six days of beaches, ruinas, and fishes. Overall we had a really good time, though not without a few trials and tribulations.
` Pictures
` Phil's Travel Tale
` Apryle's Story
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Southern South America and Climbing in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru
April - August 2004
Purchasing a ticket to South America, itching to climb in big mountains, seeking the freedom of those hills, graduating from college, free from responsibility....when faced with this predicament what self-respecting world traveler would do anything but extend the expedition by a few months?!?
This "round two" expedition was comprised of my travels northward after my NOLS course in Patagonia. I left NOLS with a wealth of knowledge and the ability to live comfortably under the most miserable wind and weather Earth has to offer, a bunch of refugee food, and a case of giardiasis. I took those skills, along with 90lbs of more tangible equipment, and headed north through Argentina, stopping in the chocolate and ice-cream paradise of Bariloche, and onwards to the stark Bolivian Highlands.
After exploring more than my fill of touristy stopovers, I continued through La Paz and into the Cordillera Real for a 11 day trek with some fellow travellers. My road continued on to Cuzco, Peru, and the surrounding Sacred Valley. After visiting the ancient Incan capital and surrounding ruins, including the majestic Macchu Picchu, I continued on to Huaraz, at the foot of the Cordillera Blanca. With Sean Yaw, friend and climbing partner, as well as a variety of new friends met along the way, we took on a few challenging ascents, dealt with rare rainy weather, learned a lot and had a blast. At the very end of my trip, I spent a few days on the coast then headed to Lima, and finally....home.
For more on this adventure, visit Adventures in South America.
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NOLS Semester in Chilean Patagonia
January - April 2004
If you have never seen a picture of Patagonia, indulge yourself below. It is perhaps the most beautiful place in the world. Aspiring alpinists (much like myself) get sweaty palms at the mere mention of the place. Yet it is home to some of the worst weather in the world.
When I look back at the trips I've taken, it seems to me that each time I try to one-up myself. Go alone, go a little bit father, into a little bit more foreign a culture, for a little bit longer. Well, with this one I certainly pulled it off again. I went to Chile with a group of like-minded English speakers to travel in the mountains, climb, and kayak with one of the premier experiential education organizations in the world. I was on a continuous expedition for 72 days, dealing with stolen food rations, the vagaries of Patagonian weather, illnesses in the group, and the ins and outs of living outside in a wild place for such a long time.
As a part of a larger journey across South America, this trip gave me a base of experience unparalleled by anything I have ever done. Afterwards, I felt ready to take on nearly anything...
For more on this adventure, visit Adventures in South America.
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Beijing, China
September - December 2002
Shortly after returning to the States from my first Asian adventure, I promised myself that I would return to the Far East. True to my word, I battled administrative red tape here and abroad, and before I knew it I was sitting in Chinese class at Beijing Language and Culture University, listening to Tian Laoshi correct my tones.
I lived in China for nearly four months and barely scratched the surface. I made some of the best friends I've ever had, I climbed in places that few people had ever climbed before. I ate things I never thought I would touch, and I learned to interact and be at home in a culture totally foreign to me. It was perhaps the most amazing experience of my life and nearly six months later, I still had dreams in Chinese and try to this day to conjure up ways to go back.
No website could do a justice to the experiences I had in the Middle Kingdom, but I will include a few links here that may give you just a taste of how I spent my days...
` Pictures - Mostly climbing related
` Kuai yi dianr- Our class website by Mark
` Thanksgiving in Beijing - My father's photos
` Trip Report - Climbing at Feng Huang Ling
` My letters home
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China
Summer 2001
This trip happened almost entirely by chance. After taking a class in Chinese politics taught by Professor Wenfang Tang, I applied for the Pitt in China - Beijing program. During one of the orientation meetings, Prof. Tang brought up the option of staying after the three week program and traveling on our own. I knew very little about China, but decided to stay for two weeks nonetheless...which turned out to a good decision. My experience in China was different than anything I could have imagined and has left me a bit obsessed with the Middle Kingdom. I hope to return next year to teach English and study Chinese, perhaps arriving via the Trans-Mongolian Railway.
` Pictures
` The infamous email log
` Paper 1: Food Culture
` Paper 2: Human Rights
` Paper 3: Environment
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Europe
Summer 2000
On June 2nd, 2000 I graduated from Wyomissing Area High School. On June 4th I flew to London, beginning a month long journey through 7 countries and 13 cities. As I wrote in my journal after the trip, " I honestly don't know if I will ever top this trip...never again will I be presented with the same circumstances or emotions...what with graduation and college approaching and all. . . . I feel ready to take on just about anything."
`Pictures
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The Next Adventure
200?
I have been accused and readily accept that I am a planner . . . an urge that I have tried to kill with much seat-of-my-pants travel. I can't help myself though. So the journeys line up in my mind...eventually becoming serious enough to deserve mention here. The dreams turn to thoughts, the thoughts to talk, talk to plans, and before I know it I am on an airplane again...
I am inexorably drawn to China, drawn like I am to no other place in the world. In this page I will not even begin to describe my enchantment with the Middle Kingdom, but suffice it to say that my two trips there have been but a taste of what is to come. Perhaps my next adventure will take me again to the Orient.
Or, shall I opt for something a bit closer to home? Driving across the USA and then north into Canada could make for an interesting expedition. Sure, I won't earn a new passport stamp, but the allure of Whitehorse, the Cirque of the Unclimbables and the Nahanni River is difficult to ignore. After spending a semester afield in Patagonia....the idea of another long continuous expedition honestly truly appeals to me.
My last though, my favorite dream, is the grandest scheme I have yet hatched. No passing fancy, this idea has captivated me since the final months of my high school career all those years ago. It pops into mind every time I sit on a beach, feeling the wind on my face, maybe watching faraway sails bend and glide. I will buy a boat, no monster but something comfortable. Thirty feet, forty feet....and spend some time preparing it for a journey. Then, with an able crew of adventurous friends, set sail for ports unknown. Go where the winds take us, sailing as far as our dreams will take us. Of all my ideas, this is the one that I am most willing to work for.
It will be a year or two before I will realize any of these dreams....but I know deep inside that they will come to pass. It is just a matter of money and time...
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You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.
Oh, the places you'll go!
-Dr. Seuss
return to our world
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