Monthly Archives: October 2015

Oct11

A glimpse into my life in Hood River: A week in August.

Posted on by
Standard
Week of 23-Aug through 29-Aug
I love living in Oregon so far.  Granted, we’re still in the sunny and beautiful months, so that’s definitely a factor that I should take into account: I don’t like long dark days, and I hear that we’re going to have a lot of those soon.
But thankfully, my current adventures are filling up my “get outside and rock out” tank, and I’ve got a whole new network of mountaineers to call on once it gets rainy, and my thoughts drift toward muddy hikes and bagging peaks.
So what have I been up to?  Well – let me give you a quick summary of an enjoyable week that I just had.
Monday, 24-August-2015
Interesting fact, the week officially starts on Monday, per ISO standard 8601.  I did not know that until I looked it up for this post.  I really thought it was Sunday.
I started the week, officially, driving from Portland to Hood River.  It’s an early morning drive; a side effect of Sarah having to wake up at 4:30 for her current project.  It’s nice though, because I’ve been regularly seeing something that I previously thought was only a myth: The sunrise.
And this sunrise is over Mt. Hood, through the smoke of the forest fires that’re burning throughout Oregon and Washington.  So the sunrises have been particularly pleasant recently.
Another advantage of being awake early: breakfast.  Stopping in for a good breakfast is an excellent start to the week, especially since it’s definitely a treat for me to be able to have a solid pre-work breakfast.
After work, Monday was a quiet day – my rest day for the week.  Cleaning the house, reorganizing my gear from the previous weekend, doing Laundry and making a big huge dinner so I’d have leftovers for the week.
Tuesday, 25-August-2015
The Columbia River Gorge is huge – 75 miles long, with an average height between 1500 and 3000ft.  There are 75 major waterfalls, and countless rock faces.  I have two books that show climbs in the area, and it will be years before I’ve explored all of them.
This week, Tuesday is a climbing day.  My coworker has been pestering me to go climbing with him, but I’d been dodging him in favor of trip prep and random other events going on the previous few weeks.  This week was finally open, so we left work a little early and headed to a crag that I’d never been to before, but that he’d climbed at once with some other coworkers of ours.
OH8 – Old Highway 8 – crag is a lot like… I don’t know, really.  It’s like itself – it’s got pretty solid Basalt rock, with tons of small fractures throughout.  Though looks can be deceiving, and the climbs had far fewer crimps and nubbins than I expected, going into it.
If anything, it’s like Quincy Quarries back east – semi-tall, good climbing.  Except that everything is Sport (eat your heart out, Daniel), and they bolts are well maintained, and there’re no heroin needles or huge graffiti tags.
So not like Quincy Quarries at all, I guess.  The rock is, though.
Climb #1 – Tidewater, 5.9 Sport, lead by Ben.  A fun route, though kind of run out.  Right at the crux.  With a ledge fall potential.  So… a little bit sketchy.  But not super tough for a 5.9… I’ve heard it called a 5.8, which fits more with what I’d rate it at.
Climb #2 – Sasquatch, 5.11b Sport, set up as a toprope from the top of Tidewater.  It’s a challenge… but a fun challenge.  I work up it twice; the second time I come close to doing it clean, except for the crux section.
Wednesday, 26-August-2015
Another quick note about Oregon – everyone is athletic here.  Like… my oldest coworker still goes free diving and spear fishing on a regular basis.  Portland has the highest population of interesting / adventurous people that I’ve seen so far, so it’s no surprise that there’s more than a few climbing gyms in the area…
Wednesday I run into Portland again – It’s a bit of a haul, but the only climbing gyms in the area are here, and the chance to climb and have dinner with Sarah definitely makes it worth the ride in.
And honestly, my road trip reminded me just how relaxing and calming driving is for me.  So the drive is a good chance to decompress halfway through the week.  Call some family & friends, maybe.  It’s nice.
So this week, we hit Planet Granite – versus the usual Portland Rock Gym.  In all honesty, I find that I like PG better than PRG; the routes are more toward my style of powerful moves, and the gym is a bit bigger, and so less claustrophobic.  PRG is still excellent, with much more delicate & technical climbing, so I’m looking forward to alternating between the two.
Sarah and I take our lead test, and then get on the wall for some adventure…
5.9, sport lead – this is where we take our test.  Fun.
5.10a, sport lead – a solid jug haul, with some good overhangs and committing moves.  Definitely my style.
5.12a, sport lead – Why did I get on a 5.12a, you may ask?  Because I’m trying to show off to Sarah, is what I’ll answer.  Also, I was curious… and it turns out that PG has very soft ratings… I nearly finished this route with only a single fall.  I wasn’t able to move past the crux though, but it’s a project that I’ll be working on.
5.11b, top rope – Again, proof that their ratings are soft… yet very fun.  I did this route twice in a row – only falling once during the second run.
From the gym, we headed back and made dinner – an amazing charcuterie plate and a bottle of wine.  Because Portland is a classy city, and we’re classy people.
Recipe: charcuterie plate
2 oz prosciutto smoked ham
1 Fuji apple, sliced thin
1/3 of a thick baguette, cut into medium chunks
1 pot of home-made fig jam (or bought, if Sarah isn’t around)
1/2 summer sausage, sliced
8oz Brie, thick cut and slightly warmed so it’s spreadable
8oz blueberries, in a small bowl
All served on a large cutting board, and artfully arranged with a selection of rock climbing gear (see picture)
Paired with Cabernet Sauvignon.  Because the bottle was interesting looking.
Thursday, 27-August-2015
Thursdays are my favorite day of the week.  You’re close to the end, but there’s still enough time to get everything done before the weekend.  And that ties in with both work and pleasure: At work, everyone’s relaxed because we’ve still got Friday to get those projects finished up.  At home, all I ever really have to do is some basic packing and prep work for the weekend.  So, by this rule, Thursdays have become my gym/gaming night.
Thanks to the fact that I stayed in Portland Wednesday night, I find myself in Hood River (awake) much earlier than normal – I’d love to say that I get into work super early and beast-mode the day, but… that just wouldn’t be even remotely true.
Instead, I head home and make myself breakfast.  I’ve done breakfast out on some of the occasions that I’ve driven down the gorge early in the morning, but it’s not really as excellent as I’d like… half the fun of a huge breakfast is knowing that you don’t have to go to work afterward.
So instead of eating out, I save a few bucks and stick with my usual smoothie.  I grab a quick shower, a less quick nap, and then head into work a little bit earlier than normal, as opposed to super-early.  It’s still pretty good though, and the day goes by quickly.  Especially since I’d spent some of the early morning making lunches, and so I had an excellent Brie & prosciutto & apple sandwich to eat.
Then after work, I bike over to the gym.  Very exciting.  I pick up some stuff.  Put it back down.  Pull some things, push some others.  You know, the usual stuff that a dude would do at the gym.  Flex.  Growl.  etc…
Leaving the gym isn’t particularly pleasant though, since it’s not actually the end of my workout… I still have to bike myself home.  Which isn’t generally particularly pleasant, at least after doing squats for half an hour.  But home means dinner, and dinner means happiness, so I push through and have myself a plate of delicious food ready before too long.
Then some gaming, then soaking in the tub full of salt water (Epson salt is amazing, and I’ll be forever thankful to my old roommate Lizzie for introducing it to me), then some more gaming, then a bit of packing for the weekend.  A simple and pleasant Thursday.
Friday, 28-August-2015
Friday’s are not my favorite day at work – but they’re almost always the best day of the week as soon as I leave the office.  That’s because, especially out here in Oregon, I get to go on some amazing adventure for the weekend. 
This weekend was originally going to be a pure climbing weekend – Saturday and Sunday at Smith Rock, trying to get a semi-insane number of climbs done in a rather short period of time.  Sarah was going to meet me in Hood River, and then her friend Josha would meet us at Smith.  Then on Saturday we’d start on a five-pitch sport route, then get two single-pitch routes done, then finish off on a three-pitch trad route.  Then I’d drop Sarah off for a mountaineering trip on Sunday, and Josha and I would spend Sunday climbing some lighter routes.
However, plans change… pretty regularly, in fact.
The forecast was for rain, so Sarah’s mountaineering trip was canceled.  Not a bad thing, since it meant we’d have more time to climb.
But then the back-breaker – Jasper (Sarah’s arthritic, geriatrically lovable dog) got sick.  Sick enough that he couldn’t be left home alone.  Sick enough that he had to go to the vet that evening, to make sure he was okay.
So instead of leaving the house early to drive down to Smith, I hit the gym on the way home.  Then, Sarah and Jasper drove out, we ordered some Chinese for dinner, and settled in to have a low-key rest weekend.  A nice change of pace, since I haven’t had a real rest weekend in over a month…
Oct9

Mike’s Birthday bash in Davis!

Posted on by
Standard
Mike’s Birthday bash in Davis!

Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 21-Aug, 22-Aug, 23-Aug

This is a tale of adventure and drinking.

Of reunions and new friendships, competition and group success.

This is the story of a Californian Beerfest.

Mike had moved out to Sacramento, in California, a few years back. We’d adventured together on my roadtrip, but I hadn’t seen him since.

His birthday seemed a good enough excuse as any to fly down and spend a weekend rocking out. I mean… I hadn’t been to a real heavy-duty party in a very long time, so that was also a pretty good draw to get my out there.

And so, I bought tickets and planned it all out. And then, on Thursday when I confirmed all my plans, I got a nice little surprise…

I’d booked tickets for the wrong weekend. One week late, to be specific. So the adventure really started on Thursday, when I started making frantic phone calls to the airline, trying to figure everything out and get new tickets for the right weekend. They happily oblidged, only bumping the ticket price up by a measly 150%… so my $200 round-trip flight turned into a $520 flight concerningly quickly.

Whatever. The rest of the plan was solid, and I was happy…

Friday, 21-August-2015

I left Hood River on Friday evening, driving into Portland right after work. I had a mission in mind, though not one that tied into the weekend party plans.

Sarah’s parents were in town, and the timing was perfect for me to get to meet them quickly. Not long enough for us to do a fully awkward “Hi, I’m the new boyfriend, nice to meet you ohh god what do I say” thing, but just enough time to break the ice and chat for a bit, before I was forced to run and catch an airplane.

And it worked flawlessly, in my opinion. I picked Sarah up from her work right on time, and then we made it back to her house with just enough spare time to destress and do some last-minute cleaning.

We talked, introduced, and discussed the perks of being from New England along with the excellent places in New Zealand that we’d visited.

Like I mentioned – just enough time to break the ice, and leave me wanting more time to get to know them. Just enough time before my scheduled cab arrived, and I was whisked away to jump into a small metal tube that went careening through the sky.

One quick note: I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get onto the plane as easily as I did; that security was as quick and simple as it was. See… my new job involves working with engines. Specifically ones that run heavy fuel… and I’d gotten some spilled on me earlier. Really thought TSA would call me out on that one…

Whatever. They didn’t, I flew, I napped, and then Mike picked me up at the airport.

And seeing Mike was awesome – it’d only been a few months, but it seemed like forever. There was a party going on at his house when we walked in, but between drinks and games and rocking out we still made time to do some quick catching up before crashing out.

Saturday, 22-August-2015

How you start a party weekend is very important. A boring, poorly fed, unenergetic start can taint the whole adventure. Whereas a solid, happy, fueled and energetic morning can just jump start the whole day, and start everything off right.

We started it off right. Tyler, Mike’s roommate, made breakfast sandwiches. He even made too many of them, so we got to have doubles. Then, we knocked back some excellent coffee, and did a quick grocery run to grab all the last little bits that the party needed. You know… Beer, ping pong balls, colored headbands to differentiate teams, string, that sort of stuff.

Then. Then we headed back to the house and started into the main event.

The main event, you may ask, what was that? Well, my friend, the main event was a recreation of the classic movie “BeerFest”, where we’d split everyone into teams (tied to counties, preferably, with the threat of being rebranded to “North Korea” as a threat to keep anyone from complaining about rules) and then proceed through a series of drinking games.

We wrote up a list, posted it on a whiteboard, and started playing…

The party started at 2:00, give or take, and the first set of events was:

  • Spin Bat – simple childs game, where you have to run to the other side of the yard, spin around a whiffleball bat a few times, and then run back. After chugging a beer, of course.
  • War Pong – Where two teams line up, and play concurrent games of Beer Pong, but with fewer cups per person. First team to run out of cups has to drink the whole table.
  • Quarters – Simple and efficient, the team who can bounce the most quarters into a shot glass wins. The looser has to chug a beer.

After the first split, we took a break for snacks, refreshments, and a chance to tally points. No one really remembered points, if we’re being honest. But clearly my team won. Clearly. I am trustworthy, and not lying about how badly Tyler and Spring stomped us. We also spent more than a few hours lazing around in the pool, while Tyler cooked some amazing food for us all.

  • Depth Charge – a new game to me, where you put a shot glass in a glass of beer, and slowly fill it up. The team that sinks the shot glass looses, and has to chug the beer. Noticing a pattern, yet?
  • Thumper – I don’t even. Basically a memory game, where everyone makes silly signals and signs and slaps their legs and I don’t even know, whatever.
  • Boot Race… the final battle!!! – This one was serious business. Very technical section. Line up teams, and have a straight drinking contest. First team to consecutively chug all their beers wins. Final member must drink from “DAS BOOT”.

Once the games were over, partying and relaxing began in full. Wizard staffs are made (as you finish a can of beer, you tape it on top of your previous can. Thus making a staff. The tallest was 30+ beers) Alcohol was consumed, parties were had, and I crashed on the couch happy as a clam.

Sunday, 23-August-2015

I didn’t wake up unhappy, hungover, tired, or sore. Somehow, somewhere, someone was looking down on the house and saying, “well done, everyone. You earned a good Sunday, so please – have one on me”.

I was the first awake though, so I took the chance to repay a debt that I had since I visited Davis during the roadtrip – when I partied then, Spring had done all the dishes before I was able to get up to help. So this time, since I was the first awake, I was able to jump into the kitchen and start getting things cleaned up. I even cleaned up, fixed, tested, and used Mike’s espresso machine. You know, the one that he bought nearly two years ago, but never got around to even plugging in?

With the kitchen clean, we head to Black Bear diner for breakfast. Mike explains how the entire diner chain is an Illuminati front, and that the bears are actually the woodland critters from South Park. Mike is a very special man, and we all love him dearly.

Well fed, Mike and I finished cleaning the house, and then headed out for a bit of biking around Davis itself… I’ve only visited twice, so the chance to actually see the campus and the back roads / bike paths was really excellent.

Let’s be honest – even if I wasn’t feeling hungover, my body definitely wasn’t feeling completely up to snuff. So the relaxing bike ride was really exactly what I needed at that moment. The Yoga class that happened right afterward didn’t hurt either, especially since it was a super relaxing class, especially in comparison to Whitney’s classes that I’m used to (Ed Note: Whitney is the head trainer at the climbing gym that Ben went to in Cambridge. Her yoga classes are more accurately categorized as “core-focused torture”, versus simple “yoga”). I mean… the last 15min of class were literally us taking a nap, with lavendar warm towels on our foreheads. It was glorious.

But all good things must come to an end… and after yoga Mike and I had to accept the actual fact that I’d need to be on an airplane soon. We had dinner (sushi, with some burgers a-la Tyler), relaxed, finished our goodbyes, and then headed to the airport. The flight was delayed twice though, which gave us that little bit of extra time to really enjoy the burgers, and really get all sad that we wouldn’t be rocking out again too soon… boo…

And then, I was flying.

I was going to take the chance to get some writing done, but in all honesty I just relaxed, listened to music, and napped. Party weekends are tiring.

But I was awake enough to pull off a scheme of which I’m quite proud… See, Sarah was going to be picking me up from the Airport. And although we’d only been dating for a week, I had a feeling that she would have thought up something sneaky and amazing as a “Welcome back to Oregon” thing. So I took advantage of that knowledge, and asked a fellow passenger to hold my camera, and take a picture of when she greeted me at the terminal.

It was exactly as cute as you would expect.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Oct8

A low-key adventure weekend – climbing Horsethief and The Beacon, along with exploring Hood River.

Posted on by
Standard
A low-key adventure weekend – climbing Horsethief and The Beacon, along with exploring Hood River.

14-Aug, 15-Aug, 16-Aug

So this weekend was, originally, going to be an alpine weekend. Drive down to the trailhead in the evening of Friday, take a quick few hours worth of nap, then start onto the trail sometime around 03:00 in the morning. Summit before noon, and then head back down to grab some well-earned burgers.

Instead, it rained on our mountain… and this isn’t a mountain that you’d want to ascend in the rain. We’d aimed for Three Finger Jack – a 5-mile approach, followed by a 5.2 traverse and a 5.4 chimney. Both made up of loose, frictiony rock moves… not something pleasant or safe to do when it’s even partially damp.

So we stayed in Portland Friday night, then Hood River for Saturday. Horsethief and The Beacon were our goals – I’ve already discussed Horsethief, but The Beacon is described as “The best climbing in Northern Oregon… even though it’s in Washington”.

Friday, 14-August-2015

The weekend started when I met up with Sarah in Portland, tracking her and her dog Jasper down as they took their early evening walk. We discussed plans; how we’d planned on doing Three Finger Jack, but that the weather was starting to turn against us, and what other options we had for the weekend.

We flopped back and forth, debated, called Dave (the third member of our rope-team), discussed options, and finally ended up canceling the plan completely. In its place, we aimed to meet up with Dave in the morning, and do some low-key adventuring around my place in Hood River instead.

With the plans locked down, Sarah and I turned our attention toward dinner – we were in Portland, after all, and had roughly infinite options of where to go. We finally settled on a small Pizza place near the house – since it had the advantage that we could easily walk both of the dogs (We had Sarah’s roommates dog with us as well) there, and then keep them with us thanks to the outdoor seating.

We walked over, relaxed and chatted and dreamed about where to go over the next few days, and about bigger adventures that we could take over the course of the next few months.

That discussion ended up being a pretty in-depth one; we kept it going as we walked home, and then continued dreaming late into the night… possibly too late, with how early we were aiming to get up in the morning. But trip planning and telling stories about previous adventures got the better of us, though sleep did finally happen at some point.

Saturday, 15-August-2015

We started out early… but not excessively early.

Definitely nothing like the 03:00 plans that Three Fingered Jack had called for, at least. We had time for a quick bit breakfast before heading over to Dave’s house, where we traded cars, packed up the climbing gear and basic other stuff, and headed out to our first adventure location of the weekend: Horsethief Butte! You know, the nice and quiet crag that I’d started exploring… We all figured that it would a good spot for an uncluttered day of climbing.

Nope.

What did we see when we arrived? Three vans, with the name of a local church group on the side. A fair number of cars too.

But we didn’t give up, being the tough and resilient adventurers that we are. We headed in anyways, braving the storm and figuring that we’d at least find a few good routes to set up and play around on.

And we did find some spots… But not nearly as many as I had been hoping for. These groups were sieging the entire area, setting up dozens of ropes for the 60+ kids that were mostly hanging around. I mean… they even had a poop tube, so that people wouldn’t have to walk the ¼ mile back to the restroom at the parking lot. They had multiple huge Gatorade buckets, and massive piles of gear strewn about.

It was impressive, but I can’t complain too loudly, because at least it’s better than sixty kids running around a tiny soccer pitch, screaming and crying. Climbing is always ideal.

So we put up a few routes, and enjoyed ourselves as best we could.

Side story: The kids were screaming and carrying on as they climbed. Cool. But it started getting a little much… so Sarah headed over and politely asked one of the leaders if he could, and I quote, “keep the death-screams down”. For good reason – death screams mean injury, and we’d been kind of on-edge constantly looking around the corner to see if someone had been hurt.

So he said he would, and soon enough the screams ended. And were replaced by “Ohh god I’m dying ohh no! Death screams!” Literally the words “death screams”, at full-tilt.

So Dave one-ups them by screaming “Does anyone need medical attention?! I have a first aid kit!”

They finally quieted down to more normal kid-levels after that.

So from there we continued climbing, moving around, and setting up routes. I couldn’t list the specific climbs that we did, since I don’t really know any names for the area… But Sarah lead a chimney, I led a few face & crack climbs, Sarah met a lizard on one of her routes, and Dave showcased his level-headedness when leading sketchy sections. It was a fun, yet relaxed (aside from death-screams) day.

Once we finished up and headed toward home, we were kind of famished… so we hit The Mesquitery for dinner… You know, since I’d been there a few times before and it’d been quick and simple. But it was a weekend, and for some reason they were super slow… our Burgers took nearly two hours to get to the table. Thankfully, our soup came out earlier, and the appetizer does come out a bit earlier as well… but lesson learned – don’t go there on the weekends, if you’re hungry and looking for a quick meal.

Then we hit a pub afterward, a small British-inspired place down the street. Drank some beers, chatted with some people, and then took the walk back to the house. A good night; relaxing and low-key. Even if it took a little while to get fed, heh.

Quick note: I felt tough, since everyone had mentioned how cold it had gotten that evening. I thought it was kind of warm, actually…

Sunday, 16-August-2015

Sunday is a day of rest and relaxation… so we woke up slowly again. But instead of getting up super slow, we still got up in time to get some good stuff done – breakfast, guide book review, and time to form some schemes for the rest of the day.

The decision was to explore Beacon Rock – a pretty famous climbing area on the Washington side of the Colombia River Gorge. So we ate, drove over, and started up the South East Face, the most famous of all the famous climbs up this famous rock.

Famous.

So I lead the first pitch of the 8 pitch climb, and then belayed Dave up, followed by Sarah. We were originally going to continue up for a bit, but unfortunately there was roughly a million people in line to climb the route… and a lot of them weren’t being particularly safe or pleasant.

Like… they were starting to climb up “alternate” routes to cut other parties off… and by alternate, they were climbing random spots and just getting in everyones way, while being rude / unsafe.

So, we moved on. We headed back to Portland, and dropped Dave off at his house after doing a thorough review of the gear, and taking some time to clean everything up.

Then, with the whole rest of the day/evening in front of us, Sarah and I took our time to enjoy Portland. We got slightly dressed up, leashed Jasper up, and wandered over to the grocery to get ourselves some dinner.