It had been over a year since I’d last seen Luke, Lie + Loft’s founder. Maybe longer. For obvious reasons, the entirety of 2020 prevented any sort of meet ups from happening. With the two of us living on opposite coasts, a quick road trip wasn’t in the cards. “Can you believe we’ve yet to play a round of golf together?” I asked Luke during a phone call in early March of this year. “We need to change that.” Luke replied.

Luke and I are very like-minded. Our phone calls usually tend to drift and flow into thoughts and ideation about the future and what is possible. Grand ideas and manifestations. On that phone call, not only did we make plans to play golf together, we planned something grander. An exploration. An excursion into the high desert region of Oregon. A Road Trip. Camping. Painted Hills. Crater Lake. The Cascades. Golf. All in the space of 4 days. One that we would unashamedly dub “The Oregon Trail.”

In April 2021, Luke flew out to begin the trek. I picked him up at PDX in the late morning on a Wednesday, and we hit the ground running with cameras and clubs. This month we will share the story with you — an adventure that hopefully inspires and encourages one of your own. 

Our first stop: the ancient fossil beds of Painted Hills.