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// roads
ROADS

Dispatches from the road. Where I am. What it is like.

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Today's entry is on Substack now: A Reunion
35 years gone by and back in it easily. Drone 12 feet down the main street of Durango. Silverton calling. Then the Million Dollar Highway.
Roads dispatches go to Substack two weeks before they appear here.
chasingthebutter.substack.com →
// dispatches
Jun 1
A Reunion
Durango, Colorado
35 years gone by and back in it easily. Drone 12 feet down the main street of Durango. Silverton calling. Then the Million Dollar Highway.
May 31
The Cost of Doing Business
Durango, Colorado
Cooking ground beef on top of the DJ gear. E-bike in the aisle. Firewood on the floor. The Strater Hotel is haunted. Telluride on the horizon.
May 30
The Cold Plunge
Durango, Colorado
Five months of keto changed how my body handles the cold. Hot springs near Durango, a new song taking shape, and a Friday night in a town I love.
May 29
Cliff Palace
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Four Corners underwhelmed. Cliff Palace did not. 65 degrees in Colorado, right in the middle of the butter zone.
May 28
The Stack
Page, Arizona
Habit stacking. The 30 second video. Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. Rolling toward Durango.
May 27
The Container
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Move day from the North Rim. And something shifting about how expression and output fit together.
May 26
The Ancient Television
Grand Canyon, Arizona
4% battery after an overcast day. A campfire overlooking the canyon. 26 nights since resupply, and a realization about creative infrastructure.
May 25
Base Camp
North Rim, Arizona
Solo on the North Rim. Peaceful day, got in bed early. The van is full, no room for company. Deep ketosis back. A ledge above the Grand Canyon.
May 24
The Trail of Torture
North Rim, Arizona
Shannon departs on the canyon's hardest backpacking route. Trail of Torture leaves new holes in the sweatpants. New Instagram for Chasing the Butter. The sense that this is my time.
May 23
The Haydukers
North Rim, Arizona
Memorial Day brings the neighbors. Clay pigeons loaded with a man's father's ashes. Hayduke Trail hikers 600 miles in say we have the best view on the North Rim. Shannon leaves tomorrow. Five pounds of ground beef left.
May 22
The Burn Zone
North Rim, Arizona
Buffalo on the way in. Then the burn zone. The Grand Lodge is gone, both sides of the road scorched. Our campsite was spared. 10 nights, full setup. Last night: e-bike into the trails.
May 21
The Volume
North Rim, Arizona
Nobody around means music at real volume. The DJ gear question. Biked the rim trail to a spectacular viewpoint. 12% battery. Plotting a system for the drone footage.
May 20
It's Just a Feature
North Rim, Arizona
North Rim. Awake at 5am, two hours of thinking. Twenty days out from the last supply run. Thinking about the people I love.
May 19
Taxiing
North Rim, Arizona
New campsite, better view. Roasted garlic in the coals. The diesel heater is acting up. And the runway is longer than expected.
May 18
The Foreign Visitor
North Rim, Arizona
Arrived at the North Rim. The canyon is vast. Something ate the potatoes. And last night a feeling showed up that took until morning to name.
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May 17
Into the North Rim
Jacob Lake, Arizona
Packing up and heading into the backcountry of the North Rim. The music is flowing. The battery is at 7%. Adventure time.
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May 16
G
Jacob Lake, Arizona
North Rim pushed to tomorrow. Game camera: moths and joggers. Pack day. Creatine joins the electrolyte potion. The walkie talkie mystery solved. A 78-year-old nomad named G, three marriages, five years of freedom, no regrets.
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May 15
The Walkie Talkie
Jacob Lake, Arizona
Woke to my name on the walkie talkie. It was a dream. Slept through Route 67 opening. On waking into a life you love instead of one you're dreading. Crystal Light solves the electrolyte problem. North Rim tomorrow. Getting more careful about sharing location in real time.
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May 14
Butter Weather
Jacob Lake, Arizona
Electrolyte loading phase. Solved a months-long Starlink drop issue. $2 washer, $1.50 dryer. Moths explained: mating season, one week to live. Shannon cooks in the coals overnight. Battery at 20% and counting on the sun. Route 67 opens tomorrow at 6am.
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May 13
The Moths
Jacob Lake, Arizona
Three-hour Kanab run, burn area both ways, no zero-carb tortillas. Electrolyte potion: salty stagnant pond water. Bug-a-salt gunfight vs. four moths; Shannon's tupperware strategy is probably better. Game camera test: Shannon, campfire, moths. Three more nights, then the North Rim.
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May 12
Practicing My Love
Jacob Lake, Arizona
5:15am, Kanab-bound. Built a music visualizer system, then Signal bugs burned through two days of Claude compute. Three van modes: stealth, monk, full glory. Things work better with a lighter touch. I call it practicing my love.
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May 11
Monk Mode
Jacob Lake, Arizona
Fuzzy onesie, coffee at 7, didn't open the van door until 3. New song out. The wheel with spokes: each stop, pour work in, turn again. Route 67 and the North Rim open Friday. We'll probably go in Saturday.
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May 10
Jacob Lake
Jacob Lake, Arizona
Shannon's 4x4 exit: drone, GoPro, walkie talkies, the works. Drove 4,000 feet up to Jacob Lake. Climbed the lookout tower. Ordered a game camera. The mysterious 2:55am footsteps finally made the case.
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May 9
The Heat
Arizona Strip
Last morning at the canyon. 100 degrees in the van, UV 9, nowhere to hide. Found the adapter under the mattress after a week of searching. At some point I rode five miles around the canyon rim completely naked on the OneWheel and got drone footage of it. That felt like an awful lot of freedom in one act.
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May 8
The Shower
Arizona Strip
Greg's last night. Shannon walked back to his site in the dark with a headlamp and rode the bike home. A teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt in each liter and the leg cramps cleared up. Four months in and still learning. The drone footage here is some of the best I've ever gotten.
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May 7
The Rope
Arizona Strip
950 feet down to the water. A blue rope anchored by a stranger, a two-foot ledge, a boulder that bowed out from the wall. The moment I realized there was only one way out. Two reckonings with mortality in 24 hours.
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May 6
The Wind
Arizona Strip
Wind howling, van shaking, eight feet from the edge of a 950-foot cliff. Making peace with it. The energy cost of moving camp. The view you never get used to. Walkie talkies.
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May 5
The Spot
Arizona Strip
Days of coveting the truck camper's spot. Hard drive saga finally done, DJ gear running. Then the guy moved. Ninety minutes later, the most memorable campsite I've been in.
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May 4
The Condors
Arizona Strip
Three California Condors circled for five minutes, close enough to hear the air. Wind packs up camp. The talking head video you haven't made yet and the vulnerability hangover that comes after. 54 cents a gallon.
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May 3
The Footsteps
Arizona Strip
950 feet down to the Colorado. Watching a truck camper for the chance to steal the ultimate spot. 40mph winds incoming. And those 2:55am footsteps definitely weren't Greg.
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May 2
The Podcast
Arizona Strip
$803 and worth it. New canyon that looks like the Grand Canyon's lesser-known cousin. Greg, who has cracked the North Rim. Full moon rising perfectly across the canyon. Spent an hour listening to what I thought was Shannon's podcast. It was my own phone.
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May 1
The Gum
Southern Utah
Last morning at the epic campsite. Shannon gave me a pack of gum, which felt like the greatest luxury. Then: seven miles of rough dirt, Costco, forty gallons of diesel, and a 50-point turn on the edge of a cliff.
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Apr 30
The Eagle
Southern Utah
Last night at the most epic campsite. Bald eagle maybe overhead. Jackrabbits, rattlesnakes, elk prints down the trail. The prickly pear smells like perfumey cucumber.
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Apr 29
The Butter
Southern Utah
23 days out, 9 past plan. Moved 75 yards to the most epic campsite of the trip. Found hidden Bubbly Waters. Solved the van-parking Rubik's cube.
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Apr 28
The Vista
Southern Utah
Panoramic new camp above Zion. Bittersweet goodbye to 22 days. The vape goes the way of Instagram. Colorado plan locked.
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Apr 27
Move Day
Southern Utah
Move day. Shannon and the ledge. Dance mix landed at the fire. North Rim didn't happen again. Bugsy in the field. Colorado on the horizon.
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Apr 26
The Rain Day
Southern Utah
Rain day in the van. Bike scouting with Jed and Shannon. Drone tracks like a dog. 86 views and the long game.
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Apr 25
Solar Rich
Southern Utah
Package lost to General Delivery. Day 20, personal record, 17 days without the ignition. Solar rich. I fucking love my life.
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Apr 24
Seven Shots
Southern Utah
Video breakthrough: vignettes are everywhere, just turn on the camera. Hard drives full, 5TB incoming. Melanie and her 7-shot Starbucks order.
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Apr 23
The Splinter
Southern Utah
Shakespeare's birthday, Ladybug's sendoff. North Rim hesitations. A splinter video that communicates more than a splinter.
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Apr 22
The Inventory
Southern Utah
Nine shooting stars at 2am. Last fires, camp winding down. End-of-stay inventory. The road opens up again.
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Apr 21
The Bramble
Southern Utah
Czech disco ends in Rammstein. Lost in desert scrub at sunset, compass rescue. Drone in a fanny pack.
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Apr 20
The Practice
Southern Utah
Drum circle on a 5-gallon jug. Bike scouting, drone footage, General Delivery. On practice versus living.
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Apr 19
The Embers
Southern Utah
Twelve at the campfire, six for Codenames. Three new burn holes, one ignited crotch. Nicotine history. High of 78.
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Apr 18
The Kite
Southern Utah
Wind day. Kite trouble. Managing the balance. OneWheel after dark.
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Apr 17
The Loop
Southern Utah
Bad dreams, ghost town, rig tour, OneWheel hooks. High of 56.
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Apr 16
The OneWheel
Southern Utah
Rig tour day. Mesa bike ride. The freezer revelation. Eating like a king.
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Apr 15
Outside Zion
Southern Utah
Day 10 of 19. The campfire is going across the way. The canyon is doing what it does.
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