by Harley McAllister

As we write this, we have recently completed a couple of major changes in our lives.  We moved back to the US about a month ago, and our family has grown by one with the completion of our adoption of Isaac - a 2 year old Dominican boy who will need heart surgery soon.

As we think about this transition, together with this adoption, we see things with some new perspective.  Not only have we given this little boy a name and family, but as Americans we have also given him a rich heritage of all the rights and privileges that come with being a citizen of this country.  In particular we are thinking of the privilege we enjoy of our public lands.  The US was the first country to come up with the concept of National Parks, National Forests, National Monuments, and the like.  And as citizens, we are all owners of these lands - we all have an equal right to access and enjoy these lands.

We have a new appreciation for this heritage, this birthright, this inheritance.  And we owe a great deal to the leaders and conservationists who pioneered these ideas and got the laws passed to make this happen.  Men like Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Thoreau, and countless others.  It is now in our hands to ensure that these public lands continue to be protected and maintained so that they can continue to delight our children and future generations.

Accordingly, we are now embarking on a journey with the start of this website.  It begins with sharing this rich heritage with our children, and continues with our efforts to encourage and enable other families to share this great gift, this great treasure, this great heritage with their children.  In a couple of days we plan to put up some photos of our first trip upon return to the U.S. - Yellowstone National Park. So come along with us and enjoy!

by Harley McAllister

At 3,098m (10,164 ft.), Pico Duarte is the tallest mountain in all the Caribbean.  And let's face it, it would also be the tallest mountain in all of the Eastern U.S.  We had our eyes on tackling this challenge for several years, and had even had some plans fall through, before we finally got our chance in April of 2013. 

Pico Duarte is located in a national park, and you are required to hire guides.  The guides come along and bring mules which are used to carry most of your food and equipment.  As a result, all you really need to carry is your food and water for the day, which is nice in some ways, particularly with kids.

Before this starts to sound to cushy, consider that the trailhead in La Cienega is about 3,600 ft., but your first day will find you 12 miles in and about 6,000 feet higher!  On the next day you summit an additional 3 miles and 1,500ft in both directions, and then come all the way out 12 miles again the final day.

For more details and photos of this challenging trip, visit our Pico Duarte page.

As we became more comfortable and more familiar in our new surroundings, we found that we were able to utilize many of the same skills and passions for the outdoors in our new home, the Dominican Republic.

If you are like me, when you envision a Caribbean island, you think warm, blue water and white sand beaches lined with palm trees.  Well, we do have that Playa Grande, and we have enjoyed it!  But actually, we are more mountain folk, and surprisingly they have that here as well.  The island the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti is about the size of NH and VT combined.  And it is crossed by several mountain ranges.  Some are coastal and relatively small, but the central range, the Cordillera Central, is quite large and has several peaks over 10,000ft in elevation!  I mean, there are pine trees up there!  And with abundant rainfall there are numerous streams, a number of waterfalls, and a thick forest canopy with true jungle ecosystems in places, albeit without any large mammals.

With this natural wealth in place, but with a lack of public access, it just took a little extra digging to find places to go.  Some of our favorite finds included local mountain hikes and river canyons to explore that were posted on the site previously.  Since then we have added trip reports of remote beaches where we have camped and explored, as well as a reasonably priced eco-tourism coffee farm and nature preserve  that became our go-to camping spot. And finally, what would a Caribbean adventure list be without some quality snorkeling at a place called "Paradise Island ".

More adventures to come in the next installment.