Braving the Red Devils of Panama from Stephen Jordan on Vimeo.

The Jordan Brothers have been all over Latin America, but Panama was one country whose stamp was missing from their well-worn passports.  A dream fishing trip to the Gulf of Chiriqui (to be featured in an upcoming episode of the Junkfish Journal) was the perfect excuse to head down to 7 degrees North, and the hosts managed to tack on a couple of extra nights to explore Panama City.

There’s plenty to see and do, but the hardest part is actually getting around town.  The Jordan Brothers found that out the hard way as they set out on a hike in Soberania National Park, without enough water and with no map to guide them.  But, their biggest adventure was the ride home on the infamous Red Devil bus, watch this websiode to experience it all for yourself!

Yes. Mormons on peyote. That’s the only possible explanation for how the “Joshua Tree”, the icon of Joshua Tree National Forest, could have gotten its name. Don’t get us wrong - these trees are unusual as all get out, but how the Mormon settlers could have seen a resemblance to the Bible’s Joshua with his arms outstretched to the heavens is beyond us. Only with the help of desert hallucinogens could this inane and unfit analogy be drawn. Dendrologists will tell you that the Joshua Tree is a Monocot, more closely related to palms and lilies than to ancient leaders from biblical times, but we digress….

Though Idyllwild was not in their “Plans”, the Jordan Brothers showed it’s always better to be flexible and go with the flow, and you can turn a busted weekend into a memorable one!

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When most people think of San Diego, they envision lots of sun and sand, mild temperatures, and a bustling downtown.  Just 50 miles east, however, lie the Cleveland National Forest and Rancho Cuyamaca State Park, offering 6,000+ foot peaks, highly variable weather, and even a change of seasons.  The region also boasts wild turkey, southern mule deer, mountain lion, and black bear.

The Jordan Brothers set out on a day hike to get out of the city and to try to catch some views of the desert and the ocean from the summit of Cuyamaca Peak, but the weather gods had something else in mind.  Though they ended up cold and waterlogged, the trip was well worth it to witness nature’s fury - complete with 50+ mile per hour winds, rain, sleet, snow, and hail - and enjoy a bit of New Englad-esque winter - in November - in Southern California.
 

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Some people say that you can’t really call yourself a hiker unless you’ve broken 10,000 feet. Whether you agree with this or not, if you are passionate about your time in the mountains it can’t help but gnaw at you. So it was with the Jordan Brothers, who decided to take the tough economy head on and find a way to experience some high-altitude camping and hiking with a goal of spending less than $100/person for the entire weekend. The result? See for yourself in this video, where the hosts show you that you can’t use money as an excuse for staying indoors or, even worse, below 10,000 feet!

While the trip ended up being painful, arduous, and a bit dangerous at times, it was worth it to see amazing, rugged scenery and lots of Western wildlife.  There were bighorn sheep in the distance (they were too far away to catch on camera), and make sure to look for the footage of a mule deer doe, a golden eagle in flight, and a gathering of American coots on Cottonwood Lake 4!

There are a lot of great mountains to hike in New England, but none has a trail as fabled as the legendary “Knife’s Edge” on Maine’s tallest mountain, Katahdin. When you consider the passion the Jordan Brothers have for hiking and adventure and the fact that they vacationed in Acadia National Park every Summer for 25 years, it’s almost inconceivable that they had never tackled Mount Katahdin. In an attempt to make up for lost time, the JBs left Boston in June for some camping and, of course, hiking on the toughest trail on this beast of a mountain.

After the descent, if you are starving, head over to the New England Outdoor Center headquarters and you can get a meal that is pretty close to gourmet and some ice cold local Maine beers. Be sure to come back here and comment so you can share your stories!!!

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It’s May in the Northeastern United States, which can mean only one thing to the Jordan Brothers: it’s wild turkey time. No, not the whiskey (we’ll take Maker’s Mark or Woodford Reserve, thank you), we’re talking about the elusive Meliagris gallopavo, that descendent of asian jungle fowl that still roams warily in the woods and fields of this great country.In this webisode, come with the Jordan Brothers as they don full camoflauge to chase this wily bird. As a backup, they’ve got a store-bought bird ready to deep fry redneck style, but Phil’s shotgun skills - and Steve’s video skills - will be put to the test to see if they can bag a wild variety along the way. Both feats are a lot harder than they look!

Some notes:

The Jordan Brothers first conquered the highest mountain in the Northeast - Mount Washington - on Labor Day, 2006, when they drove from Boston for a day hike for which they were woefully unprepared. On that day, the temperature at the trailhead was 70 degrees. When they reached the summit at 6,288 feet three hours later, it was 37 degrees without the windchill. Add a 47 mph wind and it was just above zero, and the summer clothing they had on made for an uncomfortable trip. As you can see in this picture, Phil was even wearing shorts!!!Steve summited Washington again in March of 2007, and decided that the winter hiking experience was something his brother had to experience. Flash forward to March, 2008, and come with the JBs as they take another shot at this fabled New Hampshire peak. Forgoing a summit trip, they and their friends Alec Cyr, Tom Nelson, and Kurt Anderson use crampons and ice axes to scale Tuckerman’s Ravine to watch Alec take on the slopes on his snowboard.

Check out the video and see if it’s something you’d like to try for yourself! And of course, let us know what you think.

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After his trip to Ushuaia, Steve traveled North to the Perrito Moreno Glacier, Lago Roca, and hiked up Cerro Cristal in the rain shadow of the Andes Mountains. From the top, hikers can get a clear view of Chile’s Torres Del Paine park. As always on a solo adventure, it’s easy to make good friends along the way.