If You Want to Escape Crowds You Have to Be Prepared to Go a Little Bit Further Than Everyone Else
All photos by Rick Baker

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If You Want to Escape Crowds You Have to Be Prepared to Go a Little Bit Further Than Everyone Else

"Sometimes you just have to say yes and everything falls into place."

This article is part of our VICE Weekends summer series, presented by Weis

Rick Baker is always taking photos of other people. For the past five years he's lived an endless summer, escaping the crowds with a few friends whenever possible to chase waves up and down deserted coasts, kayak through caves, or hike remote trails. He's been documenting his adventures on film, then developing them months later when he's back home in either Los Angeles or Melbourne. Getting the photos back only makes him feel like it's time for another trip, so he packs his bags and heads off on the road again.

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We asked him to cull through his archive and pick out his favourite travel moments between 2010 and now.

You can follow Rick Baker on Instagram

This article is presented by Weis

Tillie and I hiked up the Kearsarge Pass in the Eastern Sierra John Muir Wilderness under a full moon and woke up to this. Tillie is from Idaho where it's all thermal hot springs. This is not that. This is sub-alpine snow-melt that gives you an instant headache, but it's a great way to rinse off five miles of climbing

Quintin and his wife Macy are sailing a 30ft boat around the world. I caught up with them in Hawaii to find a valley his father had happened-upon in the '70s with an even smaller boat. It takes a team to get you to Pāpalaua Falls

Walking from one side of the Sierra Nevada to the other is possible via the High Sierra Trail. If the views don't take your breath away the numerous 10,000ft passes will. Unless you're my friend Jesse, he goes faster up hills

The world's longest dual-sport desert ride starts on the edge of the Mojave Desert in a town called Barstow. It goes 500 miles across the Nevada border and ends in the parking lot of a casino in Las Vegas. From super fine silt to dried out river beds and snow covered mountains, I've sworn to never do it again. Twice

Hollie flew to Hawaii from Australia, got on a boat, sailed through the night from Oahu to Kauai and woke up in Hanalei Bay to this rare sight of clear skies and mountain tops above Hawaii's wettest island. Sometimes you just have to say yes and everything falls into place

If you want to escape crowds in Southern California, you have to be prepared to go a little bit further than everyone else. Here's Chris after a two day motorcycle ride, on his way down the valley to where the rivers Little Kern and Big Kern meet

In 2013 my brother, two friends, and myself rode '80s dirt bikes from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles, California. Here's Drew at the base of Big Sur on the final day of 1200 miles and weeks on the trail

18 hours drive across the southern US border is a small fishing village called San Juanico. If you're a surfer, it's also known as Scorpion Bay and home to a very long right-hand point break. Here's my twin brother Drew and friend Rhys walking back up to our Palapa overlooking the point at Scorpion Bay, Baja Mexico

What do you do if you forgot to get permits to hike Kaua'i Nā Pali coast? Convince a local outfitter to rent you kayaks and spend two days paddling through caves and under waterfalls. And caves with waterfalls in them. Hawaii is cool like that