Josh Nicks

This is my faithful companion, Ember — a ten-year-old German Shepherd and very much an old girl these days. She came into my life in 2016 and has been a real blessing, moving with me to Bremerton and settling into a quieter rhythm on Kitsap trails and along the Puget Sound.

The zoomies are mostly behind her now. She prefers a slow sniff through the woods, a shady spot to lie down, and a good nap in the sun — though she'll still drop a tug at your feet when the spirit moves her. She's earned every one of her gray hairs.

Sometimes I just want to go for a drive. Sometimes I want that drive to be on a rough road that pushes the rig to the edge — forest service routes, mountain passes, and backcountry two-tracks through the Cascades. I can't explain why, but there is just something about it.

These days I'm behind the wheel of a Toyota Land Cruiser. It's the perfect partner for PNW backroads — capable, comfortable, and ready for whatever the Cascades throw at it.

Whether you love backpacking, glamping, alpine lakes, old-growth rainforest, or volcanic moonscapes, the PNW has it all. One month might mean the Hoh Rainforest, the next a high-country camp beneath a Cascade volcano — or a ridge hike where the forest drops away to the Pacific. Shhh about the good spots.

The coast here is its own kind of wild — driftwood-strewn beaches, sea stacks, and trails that smell like salt and cedar. And when the weather turns, there is nothing like a soak in a hot spring the tourists don't know about. Some things you earn with a hike in the rain.

Hopped, not sweet. My go-to is a dry-hopped hard cider on tap. When I'm not keeping the neighborhood in cider, I'm trying new mead recipes — the best part is pouring a glass and enjoying the result.

A Traeger grill changed my life. Brisket, tri-tip, 3-2-1 baby backs braised in homemade hard cider with a skiff of homemade sauce — that's the good stuff.

Learned pecan and pumpkin pie in five weeks when Thanksgiving needed a baker. Still making pies, plus breads, cookies, and whatever else sounds fun from scratch.

Chose software over culinary school, but never stopped cooking. Japanese Yakisoba one day, French Onion Soup the next — nothing beats sitting down to a meal made from scratch.