ROCK CREEK BUTT(E)CLIPSE AND HIKING OVERLOAD

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The title summarizes this excursion quite aptly. A solar eclipse decided to cover a streak of Oregon for a bit on August 21, 2017. It being such a rare and awesome event, I decided to make the most of it and get to the top of a rock to watch it pass on through. Here is the recounting of this grand adventure.

Rolling out to Baker City

Quick day at work. A meeting, a couple emails, free pizza, then I dipped. Went home, finished packing, and hit the road.

Really easy and relaxing drive out. No traffic, talked to my Mom and Peewee, listened to some podcasts (Hardcore History, check it out), and had a wholesome dinner of a NOS, almonds, and sun chips. Even though I left work early, I didn't get to the Twin Lakes trailhead until about 7:30. I re-organized my food, then started off on the trail!

Sidenote: this is a SHITTON of onions!!!!! Damn...

Starting that late in the day sucks because you lose daylight to see where you're going. Sometimes it surprises me how stubborn I am. I had my mind set on camping next to the lakes, and by golly that was going to happen, regardless of how tired and hungry I was.

Eventually, when it was fully dark, I heard a rustling over to the side of the trail about two hours in. A second later, two beaming green eyes were staring back at me. Needless to say, I was scared shitless, not knowing what the fuck that was. Not wanting to get taken by surprise, I put my pack down and got a few things to prepare. One, my bike light, thank god I brought it's because it's three times as bright as my headlight. Two, my bear bell, which I laughed at when I saw it at REI at first, but holy shit I'm glad I got it. Third, my ax. Just in case something started charging at me, I had at least something to defend myself with.

After a good few minutes of standing there trying to figure out wtf it was, I decided to carefully keep going. The eyes were gone, but I had no idea where they went. I was pretty nervous something was just going to jump out and get me at some point. Well, long story short, it was a deer. And to boot, along the way I saw quite a few of them. But only about 80% of them scared the shit out of me...

Eventually I made it up to the lake! It took me a while to find a spot, because a) searching in the dark is hard and b) there were already a good number of camps setup. Tent up, sleeping stuff in place, time to pass out. Though for some reason I slept really poorly. I'm not sure why, but I was tossing and turning most of the night, and was only awoken by some kind of hooved creature once.

That next morning though, what a view. I open my tent door to look right out on one of the lakes with the mountains right behind it. Gorgeous. I unpacked my schnazzy new camp chair and made breakfast right by the water.

It was quite a lazy morning. After breakfast, I filled up my water, and then proceeded to take a nap to compensate for my shitty sleep. But eventually I packed my stuff, put my shoes on, and I was all set to adventure!

First step was the switchbacky trail to get out of the valley. It wasn't too bad, because every turn brought you higher up the valley wall, with better and better views. On the way, there were a few ultra-marathoners that zoomed by, in both directions. One of whom was wearing chacos. How the hell do you run 50+ mountainous miles in chacos? Damn.

But right after that I got to the top of the ridge. And to my surprise there was a mountain goat!!! My trip was made! Unfortunately my coming up the trail I think scared him off, much to the dismay of the other onlookers. Drat.

I didn't let it get me down too long, so I started making headway. My goal was the more gentle of the two slopes in the area, heading up Elkhorn Peak. That meant back tracking a little bit along the valley crest trail before I could get to where I was going. Only had to head around a few bends and I was already there.

I've always known this, but it for some reason still surprises me every time. But for long uphill stretches, I'm quite slow. And this felt like quite the slog. Luckily, there were a number of false summits! So as soon as I thought I'd made it, there was another mound of rock to taunt me. But by some stroke of luck along the way, there were two more mountain goats! This time it looked like a mom and her baby. I kept my distance, but got a few pictures before they scooted around a ridge.

Eventually I made it to the top. Hot damn. And what a view! I posted up, set out my schnazzy new chair, and made the peak my own lounge for a good while.

I ended up hanging around at the top for quite a while. I whipped out my schnazzy new chair, laid back for a bit, and ended up really enjoying the panorama view. While there, I made a delicious salami sandwich for lunch, took pictures for a couple of groups that quickly came and went (and got one of me too mom), and might have dozed off for a bit too. Eventually though, I started making my way back down to the trail.

Quick Thought - I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but every time I ask some rando to take a picture of me, it turns out exactly like this. No one know's what a zoom is, so it's always this exact full-frame view, which yeah it's a picture, but not much more else. This situation makes me wish I could flip a switch and go out-of-body for a while to take a nice, artistically zoomed and cropped picture of me, vs. this in-distinct type. Ok, rant over.

From the top, I took the direct route down. This was not on-trail (the way up wasn't either), but rather cut directly back to the junction of the trail out of the valley. It was a quick route down, and soon enough I was chatting it up with a few dudes while I tried desperately to get sunscreen out of my eyes. Fuck that stuff burns something fierce...

Not wanting to head back to camp too soon, I kept going along the trail, this time towards Rock Creek Butte. I didn't end up going all that far, and after about a mile or so, I found a shade-covered spot right at the base of the cliff-edged route up Rock Creek Butte. There I took a nice nap, enjoyed the view below into the mountain valley.

I didn't feel like hiking further, and I was kinda tired, so I ended up slowly heading back to camp somewhat early. Because the hike wasn't all that far, only about three miles, I ended up getting back to camp pretty early and wasn't sure what to do with myself. I didn't have any friends I was camping with, I didn't have a nice intricate meal to make with a camp stove or anything, and the meal I did make was pretty quick and easy.

So after I got back, I settled in a bit, and ended up taking another nap. Yeah, nap is life. I was awoken from this delightful nap to four folks pitching their tent not 10 yards away from mine. Really? It's the fucking wilderness, gimme at least a little bit of space...

With their not-all-too-terrible racket just next door, I got up, got out, and made dinner. I got really happy then once I realized that I forgot a jacket. Because, you know, it's just the mountains in summertime. They stay warm at night too, right? But, I found a solution. Remember, focus on solutions, not problems.

I posted up in my schnazzy new chair (seriously, the thing's dope) just outside of my tent wrapped in my sleeping bag with my kindle. What a win. It was a gorgeous night, and it was beautiful watching the valley go from colorful to black as the sun went down and the light faded. Then, once it became dark enough, the stars just popped. Wow. It was a super clear day, so there was great visibility, just tons of stars shining down! I think I was even able to see the Milky Way!

After a while though, sleep started creeping in. I was a little nervous about it, because A) I forgot my earplugs (wtf Nial), and B) there were a ton of people in the valley. But, knowing I couldn't change any of that, sleepy time she comes.

Lo and behold, I had nothing to fear. I slept like a rock for a solid 10 hours. I can't even get that much sleep at home. I woke up lazily, had some delicious oatmeal and dried fruit, eventually got my pack together, and headed off for another day of hiking.

The climb out of the valley was easy enough, and after a short time I was back to where I'd taken my last on-trail nap the day before. Sadly though, someone knocked down the rock statue pictured above. Dicks.

From there though, I kept on chugging along. My plan was to follow the Elkhorn Crest Trail (the one that took me to the far end of Elkhorn Peak, and ends up going another 20 miles in the direction I was headed that day) for as long as I wanted to go; to the point where I decided to turn around. So, that's exactly what I did.

On my way, I greeted many friendly passersby, as well as a few mountain bikers. I was jealous of the bikers, but I don't know if I'd trust myself on that trail. Most of the time the trail was sliding along a gradual slope, but there were a number of pretty hairy and thin sections with a heckuva drop off right on the other side.

Eventually I took a little break at a small saddle. My break (naturally) turned into a nice nap. It was such a peaceful spot, with only the sound of the wind and water rushing in the valley below making it up to my ears to grace the moment. After my nap, I explored the rocks and such right around that spot, took a couple pictures, but was shortly then back on the trail.

My journey kept meandering along. I kept crossing paths with more friendly people, and enjoyed the more overcast day keeping the sun at bay. I'm not sure how many miles out it was, but at some point I made it to a larger saddle, which was just on the opposite side of the large, snaking valley that leads up to Rock Creek's peak. You know what that means though, Break Time!!!

From that saddle, I walked into the valley a little bit, and found a perfect rock to perch upon. This spot was beautiful, with a whole open view to the entire valley and the peak at the other end.

Rock discovered, I pulled off my shoes and socks to let me feet and bandages/braces air out a bit. Damn I've got some stinky feet... But, the fresh, mountain air took care of that real quick. What a beautiful spot! All ready to go though, it was lunch time. Oooooooooh yeaaaaahhhhhh.

Earlier on along the trail, I'd passed by a group of students from Whitman. Then, later on I passed them again, and their group had grown in size. It seemed like it was one of those pre-term excursion groups, and they had a helluva place to explore! Well as I was sitting on my great rock, they were over towards the trail deciding their next trail to follow to take them down into the valley.

At some point, as they were all sitting there, I hear one of them quip up, "that dude sure likes making his lunch over there." My answer (in my head) - You're Goddamn Right.

Fuck yeah I do! You kidding me? Seated in a comfy chair, shoes off, mountain breeze blowing by, watching the sun shining down on a beautiful sub-alpine valley with evergreen trees blanketing the valley floor as rock structures build up to a +9000' peak, how could I not enjoy it? I may have only the stuff on my back with me, but I make sure to make food time good regardless. An everything bagel, ketchup, dijon mustard, red onion, smoked cheddar, summer sausage, and avocado. Now that's one helluva hiking sandwich anyone would enjoy making.

That group eventually headed down the valley after a little while to decide their route. But I kept on keeping on enjoying my spot. With my delicious lunch now comfortably devoured, I pulled out my book and did a little more reading (Wind-Up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami). Similar to pretty much every other book of Murakami's that I've read, I could draw a good number of parallels between myself and the main character.

As always, all good things eventually come to an end. I put my hiking shoes back on, and packed up my gear, and eventually started making my way back to camp. Along the way I took a good few breaks, stopping to enjoy the many views. Shortly into the hike back, I even had the chance to watch a couple of hawks soar around in the skies right above me as they dive-bombed each other for some reason. That was cool to watch!

Eventually making it back to the saddle at the base of Rock Creek Butte, I decided to scramble up the other side of the valley I was camping in and take a look from that side of things. Once I got to the top, it was fun watching all the people down in the valley, and surprisingly enough being able to listen to their conversations despite being a few hundred feet above them.

I wasn't up there for too long, before deciding to call it a day. Back at that saddle, I chatted with a nice lady for a bit, and she ended up pointing out a bunch of mountain goats on the far side of the valley. My day did not end in vain! It was kinda crazy how far away they were, despite being within view, so I pulled out the binoculars and watched them perusing the rocks for grass and salt.

After watching a little Neature do its thing, back to camp I went. I made it eventually, and when I did, I was pretty beat and dirty. Here's the switchback-y trail that gets you out of the Twin Lakes valley.

It was (and always is) so nice to take off my shoes and socks after a good, long day of hiking and wandering. I was covered in dirt, sunscreen, and bug spray, so despite the water being ridiculously cold and me not having a jacket on hand, I decided to wade into the lake and wipe off all of that crap. Needless to say, it was cold, but it felt amazing. And now I was clean(er)!

I got out and dried off, and was surprisingly pretty warm afterwards! That said, I prepped for the next day by filtering out some water for my camelbak, and ended up chatting with the group that parked right next to me. They were pretty friendly, and ended up being from Portland as well. Ready for the next day, I put together another bagel sammich for dinner, got everything ready for bed, then hit the sack. I was pooped.

Today was the big day. ECLIPSE DAY!!!!! I was pretty excited for it, but kinda bummed I had to get up somewhat early to get ready and make it up to the peak in time for the big event. But, knowing I was in some kind of a treat, I made it happen, despite REALLY not wanting to have to leave my sleeping bag.

Eventually I got out and made some breakfast. As I was sitting there, I watched a mountain goat on the far side of the valley meandering and chowing down. Hot damn! It was peaceful sitting there, eating some oatmeal, watching some neature, and feeling the day just getting started. I was a little slow getting ready for everything, and had to do my pre-hike poop. That is easily the worst thing about backpacking and the wilderness, going number 2. But, because I had to hike a little ways to do my business, it got me warmed up and ready to get for the cool morning hike out of the valley.

Shortly thereafter, I was up and on my way. Weirdly enough, I really powered through most of the hike. Again, it's weirdly amazing at how headstrong I am. In just a quick bit of time, I made it back up to that central saddle. From there, it was just straight up to the top of the Butte. I'd allotted a good bit of time for myself to make it up, and was so far crushing my estimate of how long it'd take me. Hot damn.

The only thing left now was the peak. I was looking up towards the top and fearing a pretty long and tough climb up. But although I could see the peak and where I was headed, I just had to put my head down and power through. Long story short, what I thought would take me about an hour to do took me all of 20 minutes. I guess I'm a helluva lot faster than I realize.

Once I got to the top, I was greeted by beautiful 360 view of Eastern Oregon, as well as a ton of other people with the same plan in mind. But, I set my backpack down and wandered around to enjoy the beautiful landscape.

Needless to say, it was absolutely gorgeous up there. Well, after a bit of walking around, I look to my side and randomly see someone from my OHS Class of '08, Rosa! What a small world! We spent a good part of the time leading up to the eclipse catching up and sharing what we've both been up to since high school.

Well, I got up to the top around 09:15ish and the totality wasn't supposed to hit until about 10:24. I had a little time until the darkness set in, and I gotta say, I was not expecting how awesome of an experience I was about to have. Even though I had a full hour to go, the passage of the moon had already started. As soon as I pulled out my glasses, I was pretty damn awe-struck at seeing part of the sun just cut out of visibility.

Let me preface this whole thing by saying that I was COMPLETELY blown away by totality. Wow. Un-freaking-believable. Seeing the total solar eclipse was as near to a religious experience as I will ever have. Yes, all of it was predicted by science, but holy bajeezus. All of the aspects of the eclipse just blew my mind.

Well, even though the passage had already started, it was super crazy and exciting to watch the moon slowly creep across the bright sun. Without the eclipse glasses on, it still seemed like normal. But the growing black spot over the sun proved other wise.

After a while though, there was noticeable change in our environment. Slowly the brightness started to drop. Even with the glasses off, things became weirdly darker, just in the middle of the morning. Then, this was a more noticeable change, the temperature kept dropping. And without my jacket or anything to cover up, the cold really was surprising and intense.

But, the moon kept moving, the darkness kept coming, the temperature kept dropping, and I kept wigging out about how crazy awesome this was! Soon enough, totality had arrived. WHAT THE.......... If you've never been in totality for a solar eclipse, do it, seriously. It is more than bucket list worthy.

The moon had completely covered the sun, and night time had set on Eastern Oregon for a brief couple minutes at 10:30 in the morning. WOW!!!!!!!! We had about a minute and a half of totality, and it went by so fast but showed so many crazy aspects of such an amazing phenomenon!!!

From the top of the peak, we had a full view of the area, and the whole surrounding region reverted to night time.

Because we were at an elevated location, we could see through the path of totality on both sides to the area outside of totality; to the north and to the south of us we could see daylight through the darkness. Crazy.

As I learned later, we saw some crazy shit from the sun. Well what we see daily from the sun are the yellow-ish wavelengths of the sun's light. Hot and bright. But the white light we saw as the moon got in the way were the crazy white-hot temperature wavelengths in the outer atmosphere of the sun. Because the moon was blocking the core, the outer atmosphere became visible.

What an absolutely unreal experience. I was completely blown away by all of it. But, sadly, the moon kept moving and eventually started pulling away on the other side of the sun. The brightness slowly cranked back up, the temperature started returning, and we could see more and more of the sun return to the night sky. Whuh, what an absolutely AMAZING experience!!!

I'd set down my pack in a pretty good spot, right in the area of a really fun group of people. As I was about to head down, I started talking with some of them (mostly laughing at all the funny stuff they were talking about), and Mike, one of their crew, invited me over for a little fun. Long story short, I hung out with them all the way through the passage of the moon. Mike is a physics professor, and it was awesome to hear a bunch of cool facts about the eclipse while enjoying the tailing edge of it, and seeing a paraglider do some stuff to the oos and aaas of the crowd.

But, eventually, the moon went buhbye, and I started heading down. Apparently there was a trail that I tried to take, but it got faint really quickly and I ended up taking a fairly treacherous way down via a bunch of rock falls. It worked out though, only tweaked my ankle once.

Once I got back to camp, I changed and went to the lake to cool off. Damn it was cold, it felt wayyy colder than the night before. It took a little bit of time to build up the courage, but eventually I dunked in and cooled down pretty well.

After that, I was planning on just packing up and heading home. But in came an unanticipated nap, and I wasn't complaining. It felt faaaaaaantastic, as naps pretty much always do. Eventually though, I had to get a move on. I packed up my quant and delightful little camp, threw it all in my bag, and started heading back down to Marvin.

Remember how I said that I was pretty headstrong? Well, the trail back down to the car was WAYYYY longer than I remembered. I really powered through that to get up to the trail, because I A) didn't remember most of that, but B) have no clue how I made it up to the lake at night in the dark on a near-empty stomach. Whuh. I was definitely in the zone.

After what seemed like forever, but really only about 4 miles down, I made it back to the trailhead, and a short walk later, I'd made it back to Marvin!

I was pooped. That was a long weekend of hiking and wandering, and that trek back to the car was long. Luckily enough for me though, I had work the next day in Portland and had to make it back to get some kind of sleep before then. Marvin all packed and buttoned up, I slowly cruised out of the woods with "Coloring Outside the Lines" by Misterwives blasting through the speakers and was in one helluva great mood! What an amazing trip!!!

Quick Thought - I love the outdoors. For some reason, of late, I've been out of it way too much. This trip was an excellent breath of fresh air and a wonderful reminder of how relaxing and energizing it is for me to get out of the world and lost in nature. Hot damn!!!

Not wanting to hit the road on a completely empty stomach, I headed back through Baker City and wandered over (thanks to the recommendation of my good buddy Ryan) to Barley Brown's Ale House to grab some food and a victory beer. I wandered up to the bar and really melted into the chair. Ah, the relief to sit down and relax.

The bartender was a pretty gorgeous, tall brunette, and she helped me figure out what I wanted. I opted for the pale ale, and with her recommendation, chose super correctly to order the jalapeño chicken pasta. HOT DAMN was it delicious. Nomnomnom.

Vittles and Ale successfully and deliciously achieved, I grabbed some coffee, filled up my tires, grabbed some road snacks, and pointed Marvin back home. It was a quick five-hour podcast-filled, mommy conversation, cruise-controlled journey towards Portland. Green lights all the way.

New Bike!!!

After 15+ long years, I pulled the trigger and added a new two-wheeler to my arsenal. It doesn't have a name yet, and it was a bit pricey, but I am all set to crush the trails here and wherever. Now I'm just stoked to get out and ride it!!!

Wyeth Falls

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a global workshop for work, which brought a couple of colleagues over from Germany, as well as a couple from Detroit. It was a long week, but we got a lot done, and have a lot of potential to get a lot of momentum to get some global synergy installed for some stuff. Pretty cool.

But at the end of the week, one of my German colleagues ended up staying through the weekend, and he was looking to get out and experience a little bit of the beauty of Portland/The PNW. Luckily for me too, I get to get back out into Neature!

The plan was to head to The Gorge and hike up to Tunnel Falls. We get to the trailhead, get all ready to go, and then start off. But before we get to the trailhead, we went to the trail board and saw that the majority of the trail was closed due to a fire (which we'd learn later would decimate the majority of The Gorge). But not wanting to cut our outdoor adventure short, we decided to find another trail for our day.

Wyeth State Park was pretty close by, and looked to have a decent trail available for us to explore. We arrived, got ready again, and up we went. This trail was quite a doozy. Within the first four miles, we climbed about 4000' up. Lots of switchbacks, some pretty steep spots, and just a lot of ground covered in a short time period. But we made it happen, and headed on up with increasing beautiful views of the Columbia River Gorge.

Roughly 6 miles in, we made it to our destination, a nice little mountain lake where we could take a break, take a breath, and enjoy a little bit of water. Unfortunately there was a ton of silt in the water, so it was a little icky, but we stuck our feet in anyways.

I was really weirded out though, because as soon as we looked in the water, we saw a ton of lobsters!!! Well, I was wrong, they're actually crawfish, so that was still interesting. And, weirdly enough, they were super cannabalistic, eating each other as much as possible.

But, we had a nice little break up top, enjoying the beautiful day. Then we started our descent. Six miles and another 4000' down. Whew, that was a huff.

As is customary after most outdoorsy events, we were now on the hunt for food and beer. Initially we wanted to head to Hood River, but changed that up and headed to Thunder Island Brewing at Cascade Locks. On the way though, we were completely surprised by a huge plume of smoke coming from the Eagle Creek valley, right where we were at the start of the day.

We got into Thunder Island, and both got some delicious stuff to fill up with. The food and beer were both delicious, but we were shocked the entire time by the extreme smoke blowing through the valley. But after we filled up, it was time to head back to Portland after a successful day of hiking.

Timberline Loop

Not to waste the rest of the weekend, as soon as I got back home, I had a number of errands to run. Earlier in the week I'd gotten a phone call from my buddy Sam, asking if I had any plans for the three-day weekend. Well, not wanting to throw an invite out the door, we compromised and set out to make something happen for Sunday and Monday of Labor Day Weekend. Beers on Friday night turned into a plan to hike the Timberline Trail (the 40-mile loop around Mt. Hood) in two days.

So I had some supplies and food to get, and got that done as fast as I could. Planning to pick up Sam at 06:00, I needed to get shit done and get to bed. I woke up early, got the rest of my stuff in gear, and then picked up Sam to hit the road and get up to the mountain. Had to stop by McDonalds first for some pre-trip fuel. Done.

We made damn good time and got up to the mountain real quick. Timberline was pretty smokey when we arrived, and that would be a pretty damn consistent theme throughout the trip. But, ready to go, I found out my pack was nowhere near ultra-light (which would end up causing me some notable problems) compared to Sam's feather-weight gear, strapped in, and we hit the trail.

The first part of the trail was part of the PCT. So I guess I can check that off of my to-do list, right? We buckled down and got ready for a nice long excursion through the mountains. At the permit station, we met a nice group of Russian dudes who had the same plan as us. You know, it's amazing how nice it is to encounter nothing but friendly people in the outdoors! And even better though, is the chance to enjoy the outdoors with such a great dude!

There are a ton of thoughts I could throw out from this hike, but I'll give you all the spark notes version of the trip.

The entire trip, I was blown away at the size of the valleys, ridges, and spurs that we climbed and descended. Yes, I know Mt. Hood is a big mountain, but being face-to-face with the immense size of not just the mountain, but the gigantic foundation of it as well, it really put me in pure awe.

The sheer variety of the entire region really blew me away too. Yes, the loop was 40 miles, and that covered a lot of ground. But each section on the entire loop really contributed something. One hour we're hovering around the tree line, with sparse trees and meadows; the next we're in the middle of the forest descending into a valley with sparse foliage and moss-covered trees; and then we're strolling through a forest burnt down years before showing a skeleton of what it used to be. The variety and beauty was amazing.

In the many valleys along the way, it was pretty impressive how organically everything seems to have formed and how it is all set up. Most valleys containing some kind of river, some bigger than others, there were also a ton of waterfalls that came with that.

Lunch time of Day 1 took place in the valley for the Sandy River. After we wrapped up and continued on, I was completely floored by the size and view on the valley floor. For some reason, it reminded me a little bit of Yosemite, but I have no idea why. The valley was huge, with the peak of Hood peeking up right at the end, but it was a very broad valley, with beautiful tree coverage on both sides, and just a gorgeous view.

Along the lines of a few thoughts already mentioned, I'm really fucking impressed with how much ground I can cover just by putting my head down and going. A couple of times we could see where we were heading; a further section of trail on the other side of the valley that seemed oh so far away. We'd stop and take a look at it, get a feeling of damn that's far away, and then keep on. But sooner than you'd think, we were already to that oh-so-far-away spot, and continuing on. The body can really do some work if you put your head down and go for it.

The smoke from the many fires blazing in the area affected visibility for the majority of the trip, most especially on Day 2. For a brief period of about 1.5-2 hours on Day 1 though, the skies opened up and we were blessed with some beautiful blue skies and evening sunlight. This period of time really popped, with the colors jumping out, the mountain really shining, and just everything aligning. It was absolutely gorgeous. Although we were lucky for a good bit of it to have the smoke covering the sun for a bit, the views we had in that brief stretch were gorgeous, and just make me wonder what it'd be like if it was clear the whole way around.

Glaciers are foooooooooooking hoooooooooge. Seriously. And then you add this whole hanging aspect to them too? Damn! That's absolutely impressive! Add to that the faint blue color of the face of them, glaciers are really majestic to admire.

As I said, the smoke was pervasive throughout the entire trip. What it would eventually evolve to makes me both extremely sad seeing the natural beauty of our lovely Pacific Northwest slowly being destroyed, but also absolutely livid at the dumb little shit who thought fireworks in a dry forest was anything more than a forbidden thing. Fuck that kid, he better pay for what he's caused.

Day 1 was quite the doozy. I hiked the most I'd ever had in a day in my life, and was super pumped when we finally made camp. We found a helluva spot in Elk Cove to fit the cozy little tent and have a wonderful evening. Day 2 ended up being a body-breaker for me. My feet were killing me (five blisters on my right foot alone when we finished), I ended up straining my popleutis from a slew of reasons (heavy pack, poor footwear, poor descending technique/form), and my still-recovering ankle was really feeling it at the end.

But, all in all, it was a helluva trip around Mt. Hood. It was a lot of hiking, a lot of good discussions with Sam, a lot of beautiful views, and a great time in the outdoors. The last couple miles were quite a doozy. After a long descent into a valley, it was a two-ish mile slog back up out of the valley, all the while being pelted sideways from sand getting blown up out of the valley. It was rough, but we toughed it out and were stoked to be back at the car.

Victory beer and pizza was the mission now. Beer, however, was taken care of in the parking lot. There was a crew that had come up and they had a couple of kegs in the back of their jeep, and they started a little pow-wow to help drink them down. Sam and I were happy to help, and in the process met a good few townies from Govvie (Government Camp, who knew it had a nickname...), some more Portland folks, and a smattering of others as well. After a while, it was getting windier, and we were getting hungry, so we hit the road.

Food was achieved in Sandy at some hole-in-the-wall pizza joint. We got there, ordered a pie, and waited for our gluttony to be satisfied. We were definitely not disappointed once it came out, and it ended up being absolutely fantastic.

What a helluva way to end a 50+ mile hiking weekend, and who knows how many feet of elevation I covered. Needless to say, it was amazing to be in the outdoors for such a long time, and something I need to continue doing. Next time though, I need to take care of my feet and technique a little more. It took me a few days to be back to normal once I got home! It sucks getting old.

Up Next

This week, after not being able to play the full weekend of Sectionals, I'm heading out to D.C. to hang out with my little sister Peewee and Katherine! I'm looking forward to a little trip to see Peewee in her world, which I haven't seen since right before I moved back to Germany in January 2016. Also, Katherine and I are WAYYYY overdue on our biannual meetup, so that'll be great to see her and how she's doing!

After that though, I've got a weekend of mountain biking planned out (CANNOT WAIT to get back on the trails!!!), some awesomely amazing folks from Columbus visiting soon (can't wait to see you Giggles and Fish!), and then hell will freeze over and I am going to be consumed with our next quarterly testing workshop. Whuh.

All in all though, it's going to be an exciting few weeks!!!

Original Publish Date: September 10th, 2017