We all have those days when the alarm goes off at 5AM and you hit snooze. The alarm goes off a second time and you hit snooze, again. Well, 5AM came and went for us this morning, finally crawling out from under the covers around 6:50-something. I missed sunrise. A trade-off I assumed was going to happen when going to bed at 11:30PM the night before. Why? Getting distracted hanging in the hot spring, editing images, stretching since we have a campsite with an area perfect to put the yoga mat, and tapping away on the keyboard. Those are my excuses, the real reason, though, are the endless daylight hours of summer that are making so much room for activity, I just can’t bring myself to embrace the FOMO on daytime activities. So, I wait for the sun to set, roughly 9:30PM, right now, to start the editing and writing process. But, today is a little different.

With the area explored the day before and a plan to stick around all day, there was no need to pack the van, drive for hours, blah, blah, blah. Nope, none of that travel-related stuff today, we are staying at the Pine Flats Campground and soaking up every minute to get caught up on work, mental health, trip planning, and some cleaning. So, we unfolded the Tuffstuff Overlanding 180 awning and got to work.

The Darkside of Vanlife… Work Days

Kristin took the front seat, our makeshift couch in the van (this could use a serious upgrade) and I took the yoga mat outside. As the workday passed by, like two boring adults, we changed positions a few times to avoid the glare on our screens as the sun moved higher in the sky. While boring, working on a road trip is a requirement for us to maintain our lifestyle. I mean, heck, I would love to hit the lottery and never have to send another email, but that would require me to play the lottery.

Gear I Need To Work Remotely On A Road Trip:

Staying Fit On The Road Is More For The Mental Side Of Life

With the boring, yet, mandatory work day out of the way, it was time to start taking care of our bodies and mind. Lacing up our Hoka running shoes, me with the Skyflow and Kristin with the Speedgoats, we set off on a family run with Chestnut. A mixed run, trail and road, for a couple of miles.

Because I like to torture myself, I slung my camera over my shoulder for this run. There were a few photo ideas brewing that I wanted to capture and Kristin didn’t roll her eyes when I asked, so that was a good sign. As we ran, I tailed Kristin and Chestnut with a slow shutter speed, between 1/4 and 1/20th of a second, to capture a motion blur image. Who would have thought, but, trail running and looking at a camera is harder than it looks! However, one image turned out well.

On our way out of the canyon and back to the van, I looked over my shoulder, only to see the best leading line of the day. Crawling up the hill and rapidly increasing the shutter speed, I was able to capture a running image of Kristin and Chestnut in the crazy landscape we had just jogged through. Stunning!

This Might Be The Most Epic Hot Spring In Idaho

During the middle of the day, Kristin went on a solo journey to find a “hidden” hot spring around the corner and a short scramble down a 3rd class cliff from where we were hot springing yesterday. Coming back with a massive smile, I knew she had found what she was looking for, so we packed our bags and headed for sunset.

When I say “hidden” what I really mean is this hot spring isn’t super popular because it is hard to access and there are about 6 other hot springs you’ll pass along the way that are warmer, but they all lack the grandness that this hot spring provides, like an epic waterfall shower. No joke, shower warm water falling roughly 20 feet and covering you like the ideal rain showerhead of luxury hotels. To top it off, there is river access so you can transition from hot to cold.

Sitting and chatting, Kristin and I go back and forth about moving back onto the road full time. We did it for three years together and it worked, but it was tough. Also, my creative process changed for me during that time, requiring more travel via plane, so moving into a house was the only thing that made sense. However, now, the creative industry is under a lot of pressure and seems quite uncertain. For myself, I feel lucky to have a strong rehire rate, roughly 92% in a five year cycle, but there is a strong desire to see where I could take a photo and writing format, like this one, in terms of business models. For now, we don’t plan to uproot our lives in Lake Tahoe, but love for the open road will always remain in our hearts as the endless possibilities often lead to the best adventures in life.

Wait, Is That The Aurora in Idaho?

After our heart-to-heart, we dried off and navigated back to the van via headlamp. Admiring the stars and dark sky, to the north there was a hint of pink visible to the naked eye. After seeing the northern lights several times last year, I had a hunch this could be a very faint coloring of the aurora here in Idaho. So, I grabbed my tripod and camera to see what a long exposure image could capture.

Setting up the frame, increasing the shutter-speed to 25 seconds, opening the aperture to f/2.8, a few more minor tweaks of the framing to capture more of the trees, now pulling the focus on the stars, I pressed the shutter and waited.

25 seconds of light captured. 25 seconds for the camera to process the light captured.

There they were, the northern lights, right here in Idaho on a random Thursday night.