On the road in the American West.
Writing, making videos and music, and having the adventure of a lifetime.

DRIFT

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// on the road
Night-vision game camera footage of a fox standing near the van's outdoor kitchen setup in the woods at night.
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June 7, 2026
The Fox
On Substack now. Roads dispatches go two weeks before this site.
→ chasingthebutter.substack.com
 Layng kneeling at the edge of a half-frozen alpine lake at 12,000 feet, drone controller on the ground beside him, San Juan Mountains rising on all sides, Colorado.
June 5, 2026  ·  San Juan Mountains, Colorado
The Lake
Flat tire at 1.6 miles. Walked to 12,000 feet anyway. Cody and Jen and their border collie drove me back.
→ read on Substack
 Aerial drone shot looking straight down at a campsite on a gravel bar beside a creek, two people by a fire, solar panels deployed, Sprinter van at right, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
June 4, 2026  ·  San Juan Mountains, Colorado
The Aircraft Carrier
Gibran on work as love. The aircraft carrier that took years to turn around is sailing. Tomorrow: Million Dollar Highway.
→ read
 Sunset over the Grand Canyon from the North Rim, sun breaking through clouds above the vast canyon, green trees in the foreground.
May 18, 2026  ·  North Rim, Arizona
The Foreign Visitor
Arrived at the North Rim. The canyon is vast. Something ate the potatoes. And last night a feeling showed up that took until morning to name.
→ read
// interviews
Aerial drone shot looking down at Layng standing between solar panels beside his Sprinter van, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
LAYNG: On Nomadic Life
Nine questions on life as a nomad in the American West. June 4, 2026 · Silverton, Colorado.
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// music
// hi-fi lonesome sound system
Hi-Fi Lonesome, Season Two
New music created in the spirit of 1960s country LPs.
→ all songs
A Quiet Fortune
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
Let's Roll
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
What a Time
Chasing the Butter · 2026
▶ open the player
// field guides
FIELD GUIDES
Interactive guides to the places and topics on the road. San Juan Mountains. Bonita Peak. Marmots. More on the way.
→ all guides
SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS
You're standing on the remains of the largest volcanic eruption Earth has seen in 440 million years. The geology, the rivers, the wildlife, the history of who named what and why.
→ explore
BONITA PEAK
In August 2015, the Animas River turned orange. What happened, what was already happening long before anyone noticed, and what it means if you're here today.
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MARMOTS
You saw one on the trail. It whistled and disappeared. Here's what it actually is, how it hibernates for 8 months, and why it may age only half as fast as the calendar suggests.
→ explore
// rabbit holes
RABBIT HOLES
Essays on intelligence, effort, creativity, and the practice of making things.
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 A glowing tablet displaying analytics data lies abandoned on a desert roadside at sunset, Monument Valley mesas silhouetted against an orange sky.
THE SAME PRESSURE
The algorithm is just the latest costume. On the pressure that never gives a command, the correction that always finds its way home, and what continuity actually means.
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 A man chopping wood outside a farmhouse, a steaming pot beside him
CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER
On the two kinds of people you already know, and the singular pattern that explains the gap between them. It's not discipline. It's something simpler and harder to name.
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 Grocery store shelf
OPTIMIZED AGAINST YOU
Three essays on the gap between what the label implies and what's actually happening inside your body. Gum. Seed oils. Private equity. Systems that were never designed with you in mind.
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// games
GAMES
Word games, strategy games, party games. SIGNAL, REVERSI, PARKS, PEEING OR NOT PEEING, and more.
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