PDX SFO
CLEAR (SCALE 0-3) 0 10
PTCLDY (SCALE 4-7) 9 15
CLOUDY (SCALE 8-10) 21 5
Still better than Troy or Rensselaer, NY without a car!
In the same vein as "open/shut" signs, food service personal sometimes ask if you are "Staying or Going?" , I am used to the question being asked about my order, "For here or To Go?". The Portland way seems more personal. Though I admit that if it's a woman doing the asking I feel like I'm at the start of country music duet and want to croon a reply, "I'ma stayin' darlin. I'll always be by your side. 'least till this buttermilk scone is nothin' but crumbs and good memories"
First hail today.
Sunday was the first time I "came home" to Portland after being away overnight.
Update: ok, now it's hailed two days in a row. WTF did I sign up for here??
Update: 3rd hail on Dec 17
Made cookies
Gone on a group hike
After 3.5 months of static, changed the presets on my car radio.
Got a library card.
What else do people do when they're home? (Besides work, date, and have more than 26 days till the next change of address. Am already pushing those stones uphill)
Have till Oct 16 to change voter registration.
Maybe I should buy some props and juggle behind a hat somewhere.
Last seven are water photos from Mt. Hood and the columbia gorge from hikes I did alone. When I add my photos for the hikes I did with Meetup, i'll post those links as well.
Moved into my one-month sublet around 3:15pm Saturday. After downing a couple slices of pizza on Alberta street 5pm I was walking towards dessert options when I saw a guy on the corner who resembled my friend Eric. Eric and I went to spring training in Arizona one year and also went barry bonds hr recording breaking game. He lives in San Francisco. No big deal though, half the guys in Portland look like Eric: shave head with stable, facial hair but not quite a bear, a t-shirt with some kind of ironic meaning, jeans, and a messenger bag. But this 'Eric' was standing next to Nicole! (Real Eric's longtime friend & roommate {also my friend}) Holy cow it was them
"Whassup Bitches!", I blared on approach. To which I got a slow, "oh my god" from Nicole. These are two of the hardest people I know to schedule and they just bumble across my path. They're up her for four days looking around and visiting some folks.
Not sure if I should take this as an omen and if so, what kind? 'You will find friends easily in Portland', 'return to the Bay', or since I slotted in a 2nd dinner of Thai food with and eventually still did add a chocolate dipped waffle for dessert, 'you gonna be fat'
--------
Jump to Monday. I'm walking on the eastern part of Hawthorne in prime uber-portland upscale-slum-we-kept-it-real land when I walk right past Fred Armiston heading onto location to shoot a scene for 'Portlandia'.
Weird days. It hasn't rained yet.
One can take the train to a shopping center within about 200 yards of IKEA. Wonder if hipsters can get their flatpacks home with a train and a skateboard
Have eaten at food pods, collections of food carts that are part of the culture, four times and have yet to wowed by taste, value, or speed.
Was going to post about the general standard of homeliness that prevails here but the librarian today was very cute. And not in the "girl with the glasses , hair pulled back, who never looks you in the eye" way. She was cute in the way that if you brought her to a party all your friends would say, "she's cute"
Portlanders do watch 'Portlandia' but hate to admit they have TVs
_____________________________
Anyway, I am going to stay for a month and see if employers here are just as dismissive of me as there capitalist brethren by the Bay. Am letting a room in a kind of boarding house (private bath, private room, shared kitchen ). Wish me luck on daily human interaction
Will likely buy a laptop to facilitate job search without having to queue up for computer time at the library.
Money saved switching to monthly and far less driving should pay for it.
In a Motel6 parking lot, a Volkswagen Jetta station wagon with "Just Married" soap written on all the windows. ... and the couple was in their 50s
Of course, they might have looked at me alone in my 40s with 6 layers of dirt on my 5-year-old car and thought along similar lines.
Joke's on them though... I got my Altima washed this morning
Check out those hiking hindquarters!
This was with a meetup group out of Portland at mt. Hood. You can browse the other photos from that link. I've not upload mine yet (no i-net last couple of days. No wi-fi right now)
Motel6 tonight. The McDonald's of lodging: you know it's not going to be great but it's going to be pretty clean and it's not going to kill you *today* though doing it consistently will wear you down.
In evaluating Portland as a potential new home I feel very immature. I've this image of a mature person objectively studying comparative tax tables, rent/home price ratio charts, and maps of flood plains, fault lines, and SuperFund sites.
Me, captain objective, i'm walking around tasting pizza, ice cream, bagels, and falafel. Yeah, I eat 3 times a day so it's something I want to do well wherever I am but I spend much more time sleeping. Shouldn't I figure out what's important for sleep?? (Like security and quiet {where are those crime stat websites}) shouldn't I find out in what neighborhoods the city council members live? (I *have* learned that this city loves beer so much they elected a guy named "Sam Adams" as Mayor)
Heaven forfend I live somewhere I can't stuff myself with 3000 good tasting calories for under $15.
Still, I'm doing better than 1994 when I asked the long term parking cashier at Lambert airport in St.Louis to call a coin flip to decide if I should drive to Austin or to stay in town.
Doors on stores on Alberta street have signs that say on one side "Open" and on the other side "Shut"
There is a suicide counseling hotline sign at the entrance onto the Hawthorne street bridge. The walkway is not even 50 feet above a fairly calm river.( it's 49 feet, I checked). One would have to be drunk, jump head first, and not know how to swim to kill oneself off this bridge. There aren't even any pilings to hit on the way down. Maybe the distraught of the northwest wait for a ship with spikey bits to pass underneath before hurling?
If a place serves breakfast they serve biscuits and gravy. Perhaps a hold over from the timber centric days
Not a lot of tall men. I feel tall here.
I've yet to encounter a rude service person. Weed be good I guess.
I'd like to congratulate Destinee Hooker of the U.S. national womens volleyball team for overcoming growing up in a house where bad decisions are made to become an Olympian.
I want to marry her and take her name as my own. Then we can add "juggling instruction" to the sign
Went to the minor league baseball game here in Missoula. The thunderstorm started in the 7th inning, suspended play, and I walked back to the motel.
Now, if night means headlights and street lamps then, yes. If night is looking to the west and seeing only darkness then, no.
The home town Osprey were up 10-0 over the visiting Voyagers of Great Falls when the ump signaled stoppage. I got a free team hat as part of the evening's promotion.
The weather, more lightning than rain, calls into question tomorrow's plans to hike up to Lolo peak once I leave Missoula.
Beginning to think about what happens when the trip ends.
I went to little calf creek in escalate (posted pictures) and then had a drink at Kiva koffehaus (wrote an r-rated review on Yelp.
New photos of Waterton and glacier NP posted here.
#1 Bozeman - too homogeneous but not a lot of weirdos
#2 Missoula - a fair number of semi-homeless white guys with unintentional dred locks
#2.5 Whitefish - not really a city but it has a good pizza place with slices
#3 Helena - can u think of a state capital to which you'd really want to move? Too many of the kind of guy who wears gay looking Affliction or Tap-Out clothes but would beat up gays as a hobby if he could get away with it.
When I moved to the Bay Area I noticed that if I scanned around the FM dial I had about a 10% chance of finding Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" playing.
*Today* doing the same scan in Alberta yields about a 15% chance of finding VanHagar's "Right Now" (aka "The theme to Crystal Pepsi")
I'm going to stay in Missoula for a week, rest up, sample the local pizza, plan the next phase of the trip (west though Hells Canyon and the Columbia river gorge on to Portland), and take in a minor league baseball game.
Also , how awesome would it be to go to high school here (see picture)?
Overheard at the self-serve soft ice cream machine in the back of the Swiftcurrent campstore -
Mother: ok honey, they have vanilla, huckleberry, and swirl.
Daughter: squirrel?
===
Heard on the radio while trying to find something to listen to in the northern Montana, "...that's got to be a record, getting a muddy hog off the ground and putting its rear into the barrel in just 4 seconds "
It was some kind of rodeo commentary and not Dan Savage
Saturday the 14th at around noon I finished with the highlight scenery section of the Cory Pass loop in Banff and was plunging back into the humid, bug infested, 3 mile return through moderate scenery within earshot of the highway sometimes.
Then I stopped in Banff, the town, to replace some worn hiking socks (if you had "socks" or "his will" in the what-vital-trip-component-will-fail-next pool, you win. Read on)
There was traffic and parking difficulties. I know that there will be no $9 hiking socks. This is a resort town so I'm resigned to paying 13 or 14. When I find them they are 2 pair for 40. NO. I find a slightly lesser make for 2 for 36. One of the store guys asks me if I need anything. I reply, "I need hiking socks for less than 15 a pair". He looks around then sells me the lesser ones for 14 a pair.
I go back to the hostel canmore. No one seems terribly happy there except the two guys playing bollards outside my room past my personal bedtime
The Canadian Pacific railroad comes through town at 2am and then 4am.
Sunday morning I leave the hostel in intermittent rain. The plan is to hike to rockbound lake and then kill time inside somewhere in Lake Louise before camping Sunday night (and Monday as well).
At the trailhead I am a little better prepped and have everything I need except poles in the cabin with me so that I don't have to deal with bugs while 'booting up'
Sure enough, when I open the door, the rain has stopped bug the skeeter are out in force. I start up the trail doing an odd gait that sequences: left pole into ground, stride, check back of left arm and left flank for mosquitoes, repeat with right side of body, look down at chest and belly for bugs, repeat.
I do this for 45 minutes walking uphill on a damp old wagon road with nothing to see but small pine.
Than I snap. I am NOT happy. Am getting eaten in a boring forest while wearing clothes soaked with sweat, drizzle, insect repellent, and dead bug bits. What I have to look forward to is two days in a campsite in the rain with a plague's worth of bloodsuckers filling in the gaps between the droplets. The ranger told hike I want to do the next day is all covered in snow and is impassable.
I turn around and start back to the car. My periodic anti-bear whoops become slightly hysterical. I shout, "I WILL KILL EVERY F*(!ing mosquito in this forest! " , "if you come near me your life is forfeit ", "I want his brother dead, his family dead, if his has a teenier mosquito as a pet I want that dead too!"
Did I mention that no one else is on this trail?
I decide to cancel the camping and cancel the two nights after that near Jasper. I do not want to drive further north. That way will definitely not be home and weather forecasters say it is not going to be fun either.
Somewhere on the way back to the car I get a little more composed and I think, "yes, I definitely cancel camping in the rain, but maybe i'll finder cheaper acccomdations back in Canmore and continue on to Jasper in a couple of days"
Then a mosquito landed on the *inside* of my glasses. It took up an entire quadrant of the lens. Nope. Not staying. Getting the hell out of dodge and driving south.
Drive south I did... for 3.5 hours in mostly rain to Pincher Creek, Alberta 30 miles north of Waterton national park. Waterton is adjacent to Glacier nation park in Montana across the border.
Next post: it all turns around,
Original post title: was DDT really so bad?
This is the 3rd hostel/hostel-ish place at which I've stayed though I've let a private room at each. When I did roadtrips in my 20s I basically planned them as hops from hostel to hostel. At one in St. Louis I went to a blues bar with people. In Niagara falls there was an organized van trip to watch the sunset on the banks of lake Ontario.
Now people don't kibitz as much. I wonder why? (Finishes blog post on phone in common room full of wi-fi zombies on phones/laptops/ and tablets)
A) magnificent highland scenery
B) abundant humongous mosquitoes
C) awful Disney-esque mountain town
D) all of thee above
The pictures in the Photobucket link above are from the hike I did through Cory pass on July 14. Though only 8+ miles it took me 4h20m. It was strait up through an armada of mosquitoes (not my phrase, another hiker described them that way). It was one of those hikes were you don't want to stop moving no matter how tired you are because that's when they'll get you. At one point I almost welcomed a bear visit. I thought, "a nice 800 pound grizzly wound make a much better target than me. Yeah, skeeter would love bear meat. How can I get one to come round?"
The saving grace is that the 40 minutes of the hike with all the postcard views were also the most bug-free.
After the hike I stopped in the town of Banff on the way back to my room in the farther, cheaper Canmore. Holy crap on a stick. What an awful place. Banff the town is a simulacrum of people trying to effect a lifestyle. Whereas Canmore just feels like a town of people who like to ski,hike,and bike in mountains. Basically, any smallishtown that has a Tony Roma's, a lululemon, a bodyshop, and a Lush is awful until proven otherwise.
.... you will be offered or given butter.
I ordered a bran-blueberry-daye muffin in Cranbrook and was offered butter. Then heard the offer take place at a Tim Horton's when someone ordered a danish. Today in Banff I got a bowl of veggie chili with a slice of bread. The sourdough arrived with two little butter-balls atop.
There are no body image problems here though. The standard icon on Ladies Room doors has quite the badonka-donk.
Oh great, I talked to my friend Doris and she said, "why don't you drive to Alaska?"
I never thought of that. I'd like to go there but never thought of driving. Add one more option
Forgot to mention that before hiking Huckleberry on Tuesday that I strained a muscle in my upper back performing the exciting adventurous activity of putting a bag in the trunk of my car. It hurts to twist around and look behind me while backing up the car. It also hurts to extend my left hand all the way or to roll over in bed.
So at the end of the Huckleberry mountain hike I was glad to have had no bear encounters and that the new boots work. When I got in my car I noticed that one of my trekking poles had lost a piece. Arghhhh. This one had been wonky since getting sand stuck in the mechanism back in Utah. Now the lock is gone and it slides roughly between 111cm and 117cm. On a working locking pole I usually set the length to 114 to 116cm. It does sound like a huge problem but it's a pain. Am waiting for a sporting goods store to open to see if there any chance they have a replacement part (.05%), replacement pole to match my good one (.1%), a fantastic set of poles for $75 or less (%1). Anyway, I can hike without them though it decreases my misplaced confidence in fending off wildlife
The wi-fi password at this coffeehouse next to the sporting goods store is "cappuccino" which thankfully spelled out on the menu board
INSTANT UPDATE:
The good people at Gerick Sports managed to affix a Black Diamond locking mechanism to my Komperdell pole for 5CAD!
Am now enjoying donut like food and free wi-fi at that Canadian beacon of culture Tim Horton's
Both the guide book and the ranger said it's 6 miles from the trailhead to the Huckleberry Mountain lookout tower. I made it up in 1h54m. Of course, both ranger and book described the area as "densely populated with grizzly bears". So it may have been a matter of motivation that sped my pace.
Also, having real hiking boots helped. At first the left seemed tight but then it settled in and it was like walking on old friends.
To ward off wildlife encounters I set my watch countdown timer to 1 minute repeat to remind me to make noise. Sometimes I let loose my much improved bear whoop, sometimes a movie line ("gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!"), sometimes a piece of stand-up ("slam it,jam it, ram it, cram it, Willie the one-eyed wonder worm!" - Carlin), sometimes I threaten the bears. Anyway, they stayed out of sight.
End of glacier national park... for now. There's a chance i'll return in 10 days if the Highline trail opens in lieu of heading west towards the pacific coast of B.C.
I'm in Canada. I told this to Verizon nearly a month ago and they told me they could switch me to the Nationwide + Canada plan for any period of time I wish, same price.
Buuuut... that wasn't true. It's $20 more. Fine $20. I can pay $20. It is another country after all. But as soon as I crossed the border I get a text telling me that i'm data roaming and it'll cost $2.05/MB. So I stop driving and call the 900 number in the text to confirm that this message only applies to non-forward thinking people who didn't switch plans. Of course, NO. My switch only affects voice and text. The outrageous data charge applies, I'd been using Google Navigation for 10 minutes when I got the text, but I can purchase a plan of 100MB for $25. Bastards. That would be on top of my normal data charge. So I'm going to go without data on my phone. Therefore texting will work better than emailing for a while. Or just call
Also, gas costs 1.29CAD per liter and I accidentally booked myself into a place next week just south of jasper that I thought was a bargain only to discover it is a primitive hostel and has no showers or flush toilets (just drinking water and water for cooking)
This may be just one week and then back to the USA.
It's true. The days got longer and longer ... I keep driving further north. Right now, in northern Montana, the sun still sets after 9 and comes up after 5. It's light for almost and hour on either side of the terminator.
Most nights I sleep from 930 to around 6, so it's light at both of my consciousness transitions.
The closest I've come to the night is stepping out for a mid-sleep pee while camping/ staying in bathroom-less yurts & cabins.
I can't remember the last time I drove in the dark. Maybe two days before I left when I dropped off a loaned hand-truck.
What's the opposite of a vampire? A day-dwelling finite-lived charmless vegetarian? Maybe I *am* finding the real Scott out here.
Remember the 3 points of possible failure for the trip:
* my body
* my car
* my boots
Well, my right boot is broken, it's cracked right through. In most circumstances this would be the easiest and cheapest of the 3 to fix or replace. But I'm in nowhere-ville. The ranger said the only place to be sure of finding a store with something more than cowboy boots is Kalispell. I'm in East Glacier. That's 87 miles and 1h45m driving according to google maps. Plus, I'd found a hostel here with private rooms for only $30 and there's a communal kitchen. The Motel6 in Kalispell lists at $79. I could try to come back to the east side of the park , after buying boots southwest of it in Kalispell tomorrow, near where I need to be Saturday morning but that would depend on finding a room or campsite on a Friday in the summer. Bah. Saturday is immovable because I got to a reservation at the Granite Chalet, a hikers refuge in the middle of the park.
There's also my $25 used 'wet' boots to consider. would they wreck my feet if i syarted using them for daily hikes until i pass through a decent size town on tuesday?
Wonderful wretched universe. As they say in the Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy, "I wouldn't live anywhere else"
While hiking through bear country this morning, Glacier NP, I tried again to sing and make noise since I am by myself. And it's time to admit that in additional to having a terrible singing voice that I can't sing a single song all the way through. None of the Billy Joel from my angsty high school phase, none of the Peter Gabriel from my ongoing angry college phase, not even School House Rocks (I can sing all the Preamble but not the bits that frame it). Tried Adon Olam, the song that ends most Jewish services, but only got to the 2nd stanza. The best I can do is chortle the opening and closing themes to "Land of the Lost" (which are each 2 sentences)
Weird. Though my imprinting is failing, my recall of minutia from long ago is still usually pretty good.
Also, 2 months!
I guess this is the new personal philosophy. Still need to incorporate "exchange services for goods/money"
In a small dot of a town on the way to the eastern side of Glacier National Park.
Went on a touristy boat trip through the "Gate of the Rocky Mountains" this morning. Not bad for families, seniors, and bacon-wrapped Americans, but I'd have rather paddled.
Not like Mississippi or Louisiana were in the where-Scott-lands sweepstakes but now they're totally out
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/30/us/mississippi-abortion-clinic/index.html?hpt=hp_t2">MS</a><br>
There are several intersections here in Helena that have neither stop signs nor traffic lights. They're not T-junctions or round-abouts or single-lane one-ways either. They're like nordstroms (or is it Neiman Marcus) with the employee hand book, "We trust you to act with your best judgement at all times". Or maybe D.O.T. ran out of money
Saw a sign in front of an sportsman shop, "SALE: bug spray $5, bear spray $29" and I thought, "that's a really good price for bear spray". It's high 40s to low 50s most places I've seen. Was just kind of surprised that I'd developed an opinion. Not sure I'd actually buy cheap stuff though. It's the one way bear spray is like condoms
There are two kinds of hotels out here: those with lids on the toilets and those with the 'U' seats.
Yet another person upon hearing about my trip referred to it as an "adventure".
Am thinking about writing a book called "the no kitchen diet"
I've only used the camp stove the first two nights in Death valley. Had kitchen access for a total of 7 other nights ,in ski condos & yurts,and coffee maker / hot water access for a couple more.
Am down about 7 or 8 pounds. Of course, that could be the 1000 to 2500 calorie burn I do 5 days a week.
Still, it's a possible monetization.
Bozeman felt different from places in Colorado like Steamboat Springs and Durango because a good chunk of the population in those semi-resorts seemed like lawyers who read Sunset Magazine.
... and I ate a microwave Amy's burrito and strawberries from the safeway while watching 'Chopped' on the food network in my room at the Motel6. Exciting!
Helena is ok.
Bozeman was pretty damn cool. If it weren't for the many feet of snow in the winter and the overwhelming whiteness year-round I'd consider locating there.
The place is beautiful. The rivers, cascades, rapids, lakes, bison, elk, thermal features are all amazing. But the front country hiking sucks, it does. It's all small boring trees , with lots of dead ones lining the forest floor, and then it concludes at a lake or a river that can be just as well seen from the road.
Part of the problem is that although it's high elevation, the mountains aren't all that much higher so there are no good climbs. Today I hiked 4 miles through mind-numbing tiny pine/ bear cover and then decended through some interesting thermal stuff for 1.5 miles to get to a raging river. Then turned around and did the hard climb to return to a trailhead that is only 1/4 down the road from a spectacular lookout onto the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
It's a great touring park but my central activity is not supported. Maybe the backcountry is better.
Anyway, I cancelled the Monday night cabin I was happy to score and will exit the park .. probably to the north and head towards bozeman. Am about a week early on the semi-plan to spend July 4th week in Missoula.
Also, I hate people.
Double also, I ordered 'golden waffles' at a "diner" in one of the general stores here and they served me 3 frozen waffles they had nuked then put in a toaster. All for only 5.95 + tax and tip. I hope Montana I cheap. It has to be, right?
Is peanut butter and hot chocolate mix on whole wheat a crazy delicious sandwich or just crazy? (And dry)
I'll find out on Sunday somewhere around Mt. Washburn in the Canyon section of Yellowstone.
Yes, there's a general store at the campground about a mile down the road but I forgot to buy jam. Besides, these are the last slices of bread in the loaf and if I bought jam I'd have to buy more bread to use the rest of the jam and I'd just restart the cycle of consumptive co-depenency that got me here in the first place.
The ranger at the backcountry desk who lives on site says there is a den of coyotes nearby and they have pups.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to me since the coyotes I've seen in Yosemite are robust shiny coated creatures that do not resemble their scraggly skinny Bay Area cousins.
Also, not a surprise I was mistaken since I'm from Philadelphia and probably better at distinguishing a .22 report from a .38 at 5 blocks range than classifying cries of wild dog species.
(Though I would have pee'd had I known it was just coyotes)
I drove 22 miles to a trail this morning and didn't do the hike because the sign said it was a "Bear frequented" area. There was also a handwritten annotation, "Almost Daily - NPS"
One person walked past me and started up. Another pair came down finishing their early hike and reported no bears. I walked back to my car.
Am deep inside my own head again.
Wish the scare tactic signs would distinguish between black bear and grizzly.
Saw a huge bison eating grass by the side of the road. Same area of the park where I almost collided with a bison *in* the road 20 years ago.
I admit I was already mostly awake at 4:50 when the noise came. I was struggling with the leave the tent to pee / ignore and hope I go back to sleep decision.
Then I heard something through my earplugs. Had those damn kids at the nearby campsite woken up early and resumed their "screaming game" from 10:30 the previous night?
I pulled out one plug. This was not a human noise. It was a chorus of animals. Bass, baritone, and tenor. One note steady, another rising and fading, one voice warbled with vibretto. It was loud; it was close but not in a specific direction. Though I've never heard them before I'm pretty certain this was wolves claiming dominion. I cede it to them. Though sunrise is around 5:05, I don't exit the tent to pee till after 6am.
Maybe it's time to get a dedicated bottle to bring in the tent. .... or make a bunch more money and stay inside all the time.
My brother-in-law's dad died this morning. Arthur was the only cigar smoker I've ever known who wasn't an asshole. I envied his decisiveness. He loved what he loved, no dithering, and had no problem or embarrassment about doing whatever need be done to have it be part of his life.
Though he enjoyed the "finer" things, you always got the sense that he never lost his appreciation for the baser pleasures: a bloody steak, a strong drink, winning, profit, people in his tribe.
You were in pain and I'm glad your suffering is over though I wish you could have been in my niece & nephew's lives through to adulthood.
So today I transitioned from Grand Teton to Yellowstone. I actually did some research on this and have a list of hikes planned. This morning was supposed to be Union falls but the dirt road that was only supposed to get impassable at the trailhead got impassable to 2wd vehicles about 5 miles from the trailhead.
Plan B : the hike to Heart Lake was right on the way to my campground. So organized was I that I even had a note on the photocopy admonishing myself to not take the spur to go up the peak because that would turn back a flat 16 miles into a grueling 20.
There were no cars at the heart lake trailhead. A small sign proclaimed the area closed to hiking because of high bear activity. The sign also warned of severe penalties for removing it (I guess some people have really awful and dangerous sense of humor). As I sat in the car, door open, flipping through pages in a manilla folder, a half-dozen mosquitoes swarmed me. Bugs. I hate bugs. Heat's bad. Cold's bad. Rain is depressing. Wind is annoying. Those are all outdoor adverse conditions that I dislike. I HATE bugs.
Yellowstone is not off to a great start. The two shorts hikes I did manage to do with the advice of the back country ranger at the Visitor center were just OK; not national park worthy.
I did manage to score a cabin with a bathroom for Monday for 98$ so I hope these 2 nights of camping don't put me off what's supposed to be a top 5 park
Also, I'm not upset about the bear closures. It's been a little stressful hiking in this part of the country. In the sierras I don't think about bears. Here, they are constantly on my mind and keep me from digging into a challenging hike, enjoying scenery, or just spacing out.
Wish they did mosquito closures.
Either they don't hear that frequency at all or don't give a fig about a us puny humans. On Thursday I almost ran into a pair of yearlings at the entrance to Death Canyon in the southern end of Grand Teton National Park. The male's butt was about 6 feet in front of me and 2 feet off trail to the left, in dense scrub, when it startled at my presence. After about .1 seconds when I realized it wasn't a grizzly about make me a Werner Herzog subject, I backed up, took some pictures, and tried to get them to clear the trail. No dice. I whooped and hollered and insinuated their ancestors messed around with pronghorns. They were determined to slowly chomp all the vegetation in that narrow section between the stream and the valley wall. There was no way past without coming within 10 feet of one of them. So much for hiking into death canyon.
This is a good place to point out that I: A - suck at whooping to scare animals and B - am not all that observant of my surroundings while on the trail.
Just before encountering the Moose I had loosed one of my meek anti-bear "whoops". One is supposed to periodically make a little holler to give the animals warning so as not to come right upon a bear. For some reason hollering calls domestic animals towards oneself (because they learn they are going to get fed {until that last holler call}, and sends wild animals away (no curiosity?)
My "whoop" is actually a "woooooo!!"
Actually it's Ric Flair's "wooooo!!" Nothing else I try comes out loud. It works but I have have to exert my willpower to keep from proceeding it with "To be the man, you have to beat the man!!!" And from following it with a little stulted turkey trot of pride. After all I'm not trying to provoke the local ursine into a ladder match; quite the opposite.
About 20 minutes later as I hiked back to the trailhead, I "wooooo!!"ed then came to the edge of Phelps lake. Then I turned to my right and saw 2 children about 20 feet away. I said "hello" and they said,"there's a deer right behind you". Which there was; a big ol' mule deer about 15 feet away. Conclusion: for me to notice if an actual bear was nearby it would have to be Balu from 'The Jungle Book' and he'd have to be in the middle of a musical number.
Smoking. At least here in Steamboat Springs that seems to be the case. Maybe there's a selection bias to the 7 different smokers I saw on my short walk through downtown. Maybe all the fit people are out in the countryside biking, boating, and not smoking.
The saddest state-of-America stat I've heard in a while is that the rate of adult obesity that makes Colorado the sveltest today would have made it the fattest in 1995
On the road a month today. Only 5 nights camping. It's just too high here. Every night is still cold and there are thunderclouds every afternoon.
Probably have lost weight but there are no scales at places like "H&H motor lodge"
What have I learned so far? They grow beans in southeast Utah; there is some kind of junk food tax in Colorado ; Colorado has its own style of pizza that involves honey; I can sleep well despite not knowing what im doing or where im sleeping the next day as long as I burn 2000 calories hiking; I still don't like bars or people who drive large trucks with tinted windows; a lot of people like to fish.
I've skipped a bit in the blog. Still have to go back and talk about yurts.
Today hiked 15.5 miles with 2500ft elevation change maxing at 10,800
Yesterday's hike of about 10 miles started at 10,600 feet and went up.
Am in Granby,CO staying at a ski condo place for a few days
Thinking of trying waterskiing next week at steamboat lake.
No place has felt like home yet. But I don't expect anyplace to make that impression. I don't believe in home-at-first-sight
Now join me in wishing special guest wanderer Charles W a speedy recovery.
Before starting out from Cali I'd arranged to meet Charles for 4 days at Rocky Mountain National park. He was going to be in the area visiting family and running a road race.
1st day we hiked from fern lake to bear lake. If we'd done it in the more conventional direction we'd have seen the signs at the bear lake shuttle stop that said winter mountaineering gear is highly reccomennded. No matter, we crossed snow fields with agility and stability.
2nd day we hiked to upsilon lake and took in the sights of the cross-park road
3rd day we hiked to beautiful mills lake. Though we tried to hike beyond to black lake, a swath of fallen trees as far as could be seen blocked the trail. After testing a few through routes we decided to turn back instead of risking impalement on any of a thousand spikes branches in the swampy horizontal forest.
We proceeded back along mills, mainly walking on low planks that formed the trail over wet marshy land.
Once below mills we crossed the outflow on a park maintained footbridge that is a split log with a hand rail installed on the downstream (right as we were crossing). Charles was about 2/3rds across when he misplaced his right foot and slipped. He crashed down to his left knee, then tumbled to his right about 4ft down into the fast moving rocky stream onto his side. He stayed down for a moment. I rushed forward and almost went off the bridge to help him before thinking better of it, running across to the far bank, downstream 5 feet then into the water.
He'd righted himself to knees, seemed to take stock for a split second then left out a roar like a Klingon letting the dead know a warrior was on the way.
"What's hurt?"
"I dislocated my shoulder"
I helped him up a little. Then we tried a little field medicine where I pulled the injured arm out from body and honked him on the shoulder. He roared again and despite being in severe agony moved out of the stream and away from me as if to communicate "we are not trying that again."
(I am going to gloss over the arguments we had about hypothermia and wet clothes)
Yada yada , helpful hikers staying with him
Yada yada my running back and forth on the trail .3 miles each way 3 times to a spot with cell phone reception
Yada yada, rescue dudes Adam and Mike arrive (they look 12 years old except for the beard and muscles) Jump over rescue team radio confusion. Charles WALKS out 2.5 miles with the shoulder OUT. Then I drive him to the hospital where there is NO waiting at all (perhaps the most shocking moment of the day). Nurse and doctor play with his arm for a while , they seem simultaneously professional & compassionate yet masochistic about it. "It's sooo close, tie that sheet to him and pull him the other way" Eventually they decide to drug him. I head back to the hotel to pick up dry clothes for him. At this point he admitted we weren't going to make the 645 dinner reservation. When I get back they haven't put it in yet because Charles has lots of well formed small muscles from swimming and a strong resistance to morphine that comes from I know not where. They add bursad to the drug cocktail. Charles is responsive but slurring. The little lip-smacking thing he does is now comically longs loud and hee-haw-esque. I cancel the dinner reservations entirely. Finally, after *6* hours the shoulder is back in. Charles is high as a kite and does not remember the xrays, the insertion, my leaving and coming back, and a bunch of other stuff. The take-away here is not that people who travel with me get hurt; it's that they get the treatment they need, they get dropped off at their parents, a story to tell, and a script for hydrocodone."I'm homefree not homeless" - adapted from river guide Avery
"Nature or neuter" - from a discussion of whether MIT women are like 'that' when they enter college or whether the school does it to them. (This is a test to see if any of them are reading)
From a theoretical conversation that only took place in my head,
Young hottie: how old *are* you?
Me: old enough to have learned a few things; young enough to still be able to apply the knowledge.
Just because someone thinks a lot doesn't mean he's smart. It just means he's indecisive. A smart person would think on a matter, settle it, then either act on the conclusion or (file the resolution away in his knowledge -base and move on to the next item of thinking or enter a temporary bliss unburdened by rumination)
A building in Moab,UT that has been repurposed
A business in Del North,CO that is trying make its purpose very clear
Have to get used to all my stuff being subjected to the heat of the day in my car and, when camping, the low temps of the night.
When in hotels, usually showering twice a day: morning and after hike. When camping or yurt-ing, not at all
I've since learned that the snake I saw any carrizo plains a few weeks back was just a gopher snake. No big deal.
Also the scientists/naturalists have stopped using the term "cryptobiologic" and now say "biological soil crust".
On the more human side I heard a woman call a laundromat a "washateria"
It's like a big classroom out here with a very important final grade but no intermediate marks with which to judge one's progress
Was on a half -day rafting/kayaking trip on the Colorado river on Friday. Most everyone was on a raft but for me and a british couple who also asked for a "duckie" (inflatable kayak).
The wind had been howling since the previous night (Oy did the rain fly on my tent flap) and once at the launch site the guide gave everyone the option to abort with a full refund since the upriver gale would make it a tough paddle. Only two went back on the bus. I and the other yakers were offered the opportunity to get in a raft since lighter boats would be more effected than the heavier. We declined; they went into their boat and I turned mine around into single paddler configuration and launched.
About 2/3rds of the way through this pectoral & latisimuss shredding, we happened to be next to each other and the male half of the brits (known as a "chap") said, "This is the only river I've been on that flows uphill". Later when we beached and were trying to appear not completely exhausted in front of the rafters he said, "I asked for an easy paddle, this was not 'easy'"
I said it's just a matter of two peoples being divided by a common language like the American term, "Fanny Pack"
He didn't flinch. Spent too much time in the USA. You see here "fanny" means your backside. In the UK it's slang for the part of a woman around the front from her backside.
There was also a young Belgian couple and during lunch I told them that mayo with fries was disgusting but Belgians are used to have their culture denigrated by other Europeans so they hardly acknowledged the slight.
... they're not taken to be too literal, until that %10 of the time you wish you'd paid attention.
This happened to me at Bryce because I was hiking a popular trail filled with non-hikers and I'd just slogged through a water filled canyon the previous day. The posted time was actually my duration.
But when I hiked bell & little wild bill canyons outside Goblin Valley State park, I did the loop in 3.5hr when the sign indicated 4-6 hours for most people. This was after I'd already hiked 1h40m @ Goblin plus I ran out of water at 2.5 hr (don't read that last part mom). But that timing didn't matter, if anything I was going to arrive at Green River's "robber's roost" motel a little early.
But the following day's timing did matter because I had a ticket to the 4pm ranger led walk in Arches NP's Fiery Furnace area which can only be accessed with a guide and was sold out for the next 3 days. So when I picked the hike I wanted to do in the nearby Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands NP I tried to keep a schedule. Some intervening roadwork and misunderestimating (thanks for the wurd preznit Bush!)made me about 45m late starting at the trailhead.
The sign at the Syncline loop says that experienced hikers find this trail difficult, it should not be started after 11am in order to finish in the light, and that it takes 5-7 hrs for EXPERIENCED hikers. So I decided to not do either of the optional spurs
3h50m it took me. Yes it was abnormally cool that day, yes the native americans have a saying "if you want to go fast, go alone. If you to go far, go together"
But seriously, where are they finding these bacon-wrapped reality TV afficianados to set the trail gtiming standards? I hike well but I'm frickn' 42 and not a former varsity athlete (I lettered in debating).
Anyway, time is something I usually have but want more. Is there a word for such a thing?
I think maybe I accidently learned something (like when watching and episode of "Fat Albert") from telling that Euro to stop smoking. Usually I'm more assertive with people the better I know them (most brusque with family) and let strangers walk over me. Perhaps I should try to even that out and be more flexible with friends & kin and stop being passive when the world outside my social network pisses me off with it's willing stupidity and selfishness.
If Zion is the mostly treeless red sandstone version of Yosemite valley, then Bryce is 1000x scale model of the drip castles you made on the beach as a child. If your drip castles come in 10 colors from pink,orange,brown, to white and have been eroded by freeze, wind, and water flow for eons.
That is to say, Zion is grand and Bryce is intimate.
Woke up yesterday in Torrey,UT in a chilly bed, one of those moments when you don't want to move because the sheets you haven't warmed with your body heat are startlingly cold.
It got me thinking that I'd really like the hottest woman from my past to be beside me right now. Not the best looking most desirable one, I want the one with the highest thermal output.
I smelled a cig. Opened the motel door. Saw him and said, "please don't smoke outside my room"
He was stunned. He paused then replied in a continental accent , " I have never heard of such a thing but ok."
This motel is all non-smoking rooms. He's got some culture shock going. This is one thing about America indisputably better than yup: we've established a dominant anti-smoking culture
<p>Last time I was at Zion in early May 2008 I couldn't walk up the Narrows because the flow was too high/swift. You see "The Narrows" isn't a trail; it's walking up the the Virgin river where the canyon walls close in to anywhere between 10 and 50 feet and the walls zoom mostly strait up more than 1000ft in some places.</p>
<p>In early spring, those doing the trip wear wetsuits or dry suits because the water is about 50 degrees. Right now it can be done without body insulation but neoprene socks are reccomended</p>
<p>Now, this I all knew before departing the Bay Area. What I did not read carefully enough on the NPS website is that sports sandals are not appropriate footwear. I should have intuited this since the bottom of the river and most of banks are rocky, not silty.<br>
So when leaving the Bay Area I left two decent, but semi-disposable, pairs of boots in storage ( I did not want to use my hiking boots as this excursion would ruin them or leave them wet for several days).<br>
In L.A. with the rents, I finally read the NPS site thoroughly and decided to buy some used boots. Internet & Yelp to the rescue, 50 min later im back at Ma's with a pair of $25 Bat Chucks boots that are a scotch too large as to acccomodate the rental socks.<br>
I then call Zion Adventure outfitters to reserve renting the neoprene socks. Lo and behold, if I had read *their* website thoroughly I'd have seen that they rent special cayoneering boots for this. Also, I am informed that despite what the website says, and that I *had* just read, they only rent the socks as part of a package with the special boots and a tall walking stick. Bah, I hate planning.
When I show in person on Wednesday morning the very pregnant girl and the blonde pro queen staffing the place say "sure, u can just rent socks"
I got to use my new dedicated water boots, they worked great, the narrows is a must do activity if you're within 100 miles of Zion (and are reasonable fit and can swim)
There are no pictures from me because I didn't take anything electronic due to the swimming and wetness and slipperiness and hard rock. But do look online for vids and pics, it's amazing (so by the power of association, so am I)
I hiked to the top of turtlehead peak (does it make me dyslexic that I keep wanting to call it "turtleneck creek"?) At Red rock canyon west of Vegas. Not long but steep. I hate when the trails become many and 4 of 5 can actually work.
Finished around lunchtime
Then I gobbled down a pie at Dom Demarco's and got another to go.
(Goodscott.yelp.com)
Overnight at a better Days Inn in hurricane,ut
Right forearm sleeve near the elbow is for nose wipes. Right, near the wrist is for mouth wiping. Left is for brow sweat.
I'm lost in short sleeves. Also, open to sun, bugs, and irritant plants
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| Just after a 17 person Mother's Day brunch. Standard entertaining fare for them |
