Resurrection!

Hey everyone, Chris here again. It's been a short, but busy couple of years in Philly. Just wanted to update on what's been happening before Sarah and I start our summer travels.

During my time in Philly while working on my MBA, I was lucky enough to go on a couple Wharton Leadership Ventures. First, I went to Ecuador to attempt to summit Cotopaxi (failed due to weather). Pictures can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/chris.prochak/2010Cotapaxi#

After that, Sarah and I had a nice weekend backpacking in Shenandoah where we had our first bear encounter. It figures; we've been to something like 15 national parks and Shenandoah was the first time we saw a bear. What they say is true: the bear was more scared of us than we were of it.

During the 2010-2011 school year, I was a Venture Fellow for the Leadership Venture Program and was lucky enough to co-lead a group of MBAs to Antarctica. This was an incredible trip and you can read about the venture here: http://wharton.expenews.com/en/expeditions/144/dispatches?id=2060. We had a little difficulty getting to King George Island, but once there, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can find my pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/chris.prochak/20102011WhartonAntarcticaVenture#

Unfortunately, that's the extent of our backpacking/trekking in Philly. The Poconos just don't quite offer what the west coast has.

Since this blog is about beers and backpacking, I thought I'd mention something beer related. We've been homebrewing for about 18 months now and can't wait to get a bigger place in Chicago to do more. In addition, I've been able to geek out on a lot of beer over the last couple years living in Philly. Philly beer Week 2010 was a highlight for me for sure, but I also went to a couple Captain Lawrence Releases, including an epic tasting of seven different FiftyFifty Eclipse versions (see this: https://picasaweb.google.com/chris.prochak/BeerReleasesAndTastings#5596641054419326514). Also, while figuring out what I wanted to do with my career, I did some strategy work for a large regional east coast brewery as well as shadowed the founders of a west coast regional craft brewer and a northwest microbrewery. Great experiences, but the beer industry is not for me (at least not yet...).

That pretty much brings us to today. Starting in August, Sarah will be taking her turn earning her master's degree and I'll be starting work in Chicago in September. But until then, we've decided to have a little fun, which is why we're resurrecting this blog. From June 3 to June 24, we'll be backpacking through Finland, Sweden and Norway (including the Arctic Circle). If time allows, we plan on making a couple stops at special beer bars in Helsinki and Stockholm to get our beer fix. The rest of the trip will be pure backpacking! I can't promise how often we'll be able to update, but look for a few posts over the next few weeks.

Beyond that, we plan on continuing our road trip tradition of beers and backpacking, this time hitting up the northeastern U.S. (and maybe Canada). I don't know how many parks or breweries we'll hit this time, but it'll be another great adventure.

Until next time,

Chris