Adventure Adjacent

Adventure Adjacent Back roads, driveway tinkering, calm game streams, and travel-at-your-own-pace energy from a guy with a well-loved FJ Cruiser.

Big news from the “I swear I tightened that” department: I got accepted as an onX Offroad Trail Guide.I’ve got 30 days t...
02/22/2026

Big news from the “I swear I tightened that” department: I got accepted as an onX Offroad Trail Guide.

I’ve got 30 days to map and submit my first trail to stay in the program, so I wrote a Behind the Scenes Field Note about what mapping apps get right, what’s tricky, and how I’m trying to do this with stewardship first.

https://adventureadjacent.com/2026/02/21/i-got-accepted-as-an-onx-offroad-trail-guide/

New Field Note: “Battery Hold Downs: Should they Look Like That?”A few days after a power steering flush (Jan 11), I sto...
02/06/2026

New Field Note: “Battery Hold Downs: Should they Look Like That?”

A few days after a power steering flush (Jan 11), I stopped for gas (Jan 20) and did my usual ritual: pop the hood, quick scan, move on.

Except this time my battery was tipped off its tray and leaning into the radiator. No warning lights. No drama. Just a very quiet reminder that “I do maintenance” and “I checked the basics” are not the same sentence.

The only obvious damage was a thick ground wire snapped right at the lug.

My takeaway is simple: the boring checks are the ones that buy you the interesting miles. Next time you’re pumping DinoJuice, give your battery a quick wiggle. If it moves, your hold-downs are not doing their job.

Full story here: https://adventureadjacent.com/2026/02/06/battery-hold-downs-should-they-look-like-that/

Question for you: what’s your “gas station hood pop” checklist?

I finally did a power steering fluid flush on the FJ. It’s one of those “small maintenance now, fewer expensive surprise...
01/31/2026

I finally did a power steering fluid flush on the FJ. It’s one of those “small maintenance now, fewer expensive surprises later” jobs.

It was going great until I realized I had nothing to cap the return port. Cue the spill. Cue the improvisation. Two quarts later, the old fluid is out and the pump is quiet again.

Full write-up with steps and a cavitation save plan: https://adventureadjacent.com/2026/01/30/toyota-fj-cruiser-power-steering-fluid-flush-how-to/

01/21/2026

Rain on the grille. Fog in the air. Headlights turning mist into a mood.
Tiny Cruiser stinger for anyone who likes their reels a little cinematic.

I’m back on track. I’ve been heads down rebuilding the pipeline, which made it look like I fell off the planet. Then Sat...
01/20/2026

I’m back on track. I’ve been heads down rebuilding the pipeline, which made it look like I fell off the planet. Then Saturday night the Cruiser and I got an unplanned reminder that paperwork counts as maintenance, because my registration was expired.

Weekly blog posts are back. Streams return Jan 26. Next up: Fishing Creek Revisited, the alternator swap video, and a power steering fluid flush write-up.

Read the full Field Note here:
https://adventureadjacent.com/2026/01/20/back-on-track-and-briefly-on-the-side-of-the-road/

Clipchamp kept “forgetting” where my footage lived, so every edit session started with me proving my innocence to softwa...
12/23/2025

Clipchamp kept “forgetting” where my footage lived, so every edit session started with me proving my innocence to software. Same files. Same folders. Same machine. Different flavor of frustration.

I finally tapped out and moved to DaVinci Resolve which is less “toy editor” and more “here are 900 switches, good luck.” The learning curve is real. Once nodes, Groups, and Fairlight started to click in my head, it stopped feeling like punishment and started feeling like learning.

I wrote up the whole switch (including the dreaded “Ready in a moment” screen) and what finally made Resolve feel usable.

Also: I’m cutting my first multi-angle trail video right now: Fishing Creek Revisited (working title), from an early August run at Fishing Creek Nature Preserve. Multi-cam for the first time, and… I think I actually used it well.

Read: https://adventureadjacent.com/2025/12/23/switching-to-davinci-resolve-clipchamp-made-me-do-it/

New software, who dis?I had to switch video editors mid-project and ended up in DaVinci Resolve, staring at nodes like t...
12/22/2025

New software, who dis?

I had to switch video editors mid-project and ended up in DaVinci Resolve, staring at nodes like they’re going to start paying rent.

The learning curve is steep, but we’ve done steeper climbs with worse visibility. If you want the behind-the-scenes play-by-play (and probably a few humble lessons), it’s all going into the Field Notes:
https://adventureadjacent.com/field-notes/

My latest long-form piece: “Aggressive Kindness.” It’s a piece about the bands that raised me, the tiny clubs they playe...
12/09/2025

My latest long-form piece: “Aggressive Kindness.” It’s a piece about the bands that raised me, the tiny clubs they played, and how those songs quietly pushed me toward showing up for people with my hands, not just my opinions.

If you spent your teens staring at album art and standing in church basements, this one might bring a few memories back.

Read it here: https://adventureadjacent.com/2025/12/09/aggressive-kindness-from-mosh-pits-to-forest-roads/

Southbound, southeast PA, chasing the last light of the day.This is one of those stretches of highway I could probably d...
12/06/2025

Southbound, southeast PA, chasing the last light of the day.

This is one of those stretches of highway I could probably drive on autopilot at this point… which is exactly why I have to remind myself to pay attention. Every once in a while it pulls a sunset like this and turns the “same old commute” into a little reset button.

No epic trail, no big story. Just a quiet reminder that the in-between miles count too. The drive home is still part of the adventure, even when it’s three lanes and concrete instead of gravel and creek crossings.

Where’s your “nothing special” road that somehow never gets old at sunset?

12/06/2025

I got absolutely AMBUSHED by a turkey.

Hiking through Layton Lakes in theHunter: Call of the Wild, I suddenly blurt “what the f**k is that?!” as the camera pans over… straight onto a hen standing way closer than she has any right to be.

Quick range, quick swap to the 10 gauge, one shot, clean drop. On the walk-up she looks almost albino/piebald, but the trophy screen reveals she’s a light brown female. Final frame is the shot-cam showing just how thoroughly the birdshot did its job.

Good lord. 🦃

New Field Note: Why my Live Streams are part of Adventure Adjacent, not a detour.When it’s too cold to wrench or too bus...
12/05/2025

New Field Note: Why my Live Streams are part of Adventure Adjacent, not a detour.

When it’s too cold to wrench or too busy to schedule real trail days, I roll a digital truck out of the yard instead. Those virtual miles keep my head on the road, my driving muscles warm, and the community talking about real highways, real forests, and real care.

If you’ve ever felt guilty that life got in the way of “proper” adventure, this one’s for you.

Read it here: https://adventureadjacent.com/2025/12/04/why-my-live-streams-are-part-of-adventure-adjacent-not-a-detour/

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