2015 New Years Resolution: Achieved

Whelp.  I'm just realizing that it's been over a year since I last posted.  Probably because life has been pretty busy/rad since moving out Californy-ways.  I attended 7 weddings, went aboard 2 submarines for work (actually going inside the rocket I work on - my skin cells have gone to space!), ran the SF marathon, backpacked some stuff, ate a bunch of foods, high-fived a sea turtle.  Just normal stuff really.  But since the only person probably reading this is my Mom, you already know most of that stuff.  So instead I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about my 2015 New Years Resolution and how, in classic bucket-list-checkoff-champion fashion, I achieved the shit out of it.

I guess here is a good time to say what that resolution was.  Since I can't think of a funny transition sentence at this point in time, I'll just say it: to be on at least one mountain every calendar month of 2015.  Not very difficult given my propensity for outdoors adventures, but I wanted to make sure I had an extra fire under my ass to ensure I was properly exploring my new west coast home.  So follow me, readers (aka Mom) as I transcribe the outcome of this "lofty" goal.


January: Mt. Diablo

Ten days into the new year and I'm feeling pretty damn good about my progress

Thanks to a terrible Tahoe snow season, I was able to convince some great people to join me on a Bay Area jaunt up Mt. Diablo, the tallest mountain in the general area.  A fun little hike and so close to home left us plenty of time to go to Bootie SF after we got back to the city.
(Runner Up: I also went skiing at Bear Valley, so was on that guy too later in January)

February: Mt. Angeles

Ok Mt. Diablo was less than 4000 ft; this mountain is a ridiculous upgrade

Well that escalated quickly! (Do you get it?)  For a few weeks in February (including my birthday) I was sent up to Washington to work on a submarine base near Seattle for work, supporting a rocket test launch setup.  I can't get into the details (or else I'd have to kill you), but I spent a bunch of time scampering about a submarine, crawling inside a couple rockets (YES THAT MEANS THAT MY SKIN CELLS DID IN FACT GO TO SPACE SO I'M AN ASTRONAUT).  There was a little bit of down time, in which I was able to head over to Olympic National Park for a quick hike.  Normally, February would mean most of the park is pretty much off limits due to snow, but like I said earlier, it was kind of a shitty winter for the west coast in terms of snowfall.  Lucky for me, that means I was able to scurry up this beast of a mountain with only a little bit of snow to deal with; I only had my steel-toe boots for the submarine so I'd be up shit's creek if there was a lot of snow.  The views were insane: I could see the Olympics on one side, across the Puget Sound to Seattle on the other, with the Cascade Mountains being all epic all behind Seattle.

March: Mt. Tamalpais

Yeah I don't know either

One of the (many) benefits of having every other Friday off work is that I can go on little day hikes around the Bay Area without them being complete zoos.  Mt. Tam is a pretty popular hike given how accessible it is to SF and the relatively low difficulty level, so going on a Friday was great.  And Laura was a great Friday adventure buddy since she also had off work, so we summitted Mt. Tam with a nice layer of cloud beneath us over the Pacific and some cool views of SF and Oakland.
(Runner Up: I also went skiing at Squaw in Tahoe, and let me just tell you that being in a hot tub on top of a mountain after a day of skiing is pretty damn awesome)

April: Antelope Peak

Buffalos WTF do you think you're doing here, this is supposed to be a peak for Antelopes

Another work drip, this time to Salt Lake City, provided another opportunity for some sweet, sweet outdoorsiness.  One of the work days, after touring the rocket engine factory, I was able to drive over to Antelope Island, an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, where Bison roam free (and theoretically also Antelopes?) and there's a little peak where you can hike up and crap your pants due to an overload of amazing views of the surrounding city and mountains.  The top of the peak was pretty damn slippery though, so I'm pretty pumped I didn't slide down the side of the mountain before I had a chance to drive over to Canyonlands (I mean, if work already sent me to Utah, might as well camp in a National Park while I'm at it, right?).

May: Olomana (Three Peaks)

Those are the steepest goddamn peaks I've ever dealt with

After a series of eliminations, here we have the successful completionists of the Olomana hike

Holy shit this might be the scariest hike I've ever done.  It's like 5 total miles of hiking round trip, but includes three of the steepest climbs I've ever experienced.  And since it's an out-and-back that means 5 summits where we had to trust our lives to random shitty rope and twine that some random dude tied to some tree roots who knows when.  Sometimes not even rope, but ethernet cable instead.  WHAT IS GOING ON, HAWAII?  I feel like people are so cavalier with their lives in Hawaii that it doesn't even phase the residents to ascend/descend, completely vertically at times, up sheer cliff where a single slip or trip means immediate death.  I had some reservations.  11 of us started this hike.  Everyone else was sane enough to decide "no I actually value my life" and call it quits along the way, leaving nly Ryan, Steve, and me.  Long story short Oahu is a blast.
(Runner Up: I was exploring Hawaii for 2 weeks, so there were a bunch of awesome hiking on volcanos all over the place, including the top of Haleakala on Maui - and no I don't care that I fucked up the spelling on that)

June: Cherry Lake

Yosemite, are you even capable of being less than 100% gorgeous at any time of the year?

Emmy invited me to come backpack with her friends up in the northern stretches of Yosemite, where you actually start outside the park and backpack in from Cherry Lake.  We weren't intending on summitting any mountains, but after reaching our destination and setting up camp, we went for a little romp around the mountainy cliffs surrounding us.  And that's when the thunderstorm rolled in.  Catching us the exact moment we reached the exposed peak.  You can't tell from the photo, but less than 18 hours before it was taken Emmy was more terrified than I've ever seen another human (not counting horror movies I guess?)  This storm was insane.  Luckily I found a mini cave we could hide in and wait it out, but still the pouring rain-turned-sleet was only small potatoes compared to the tremendous, deafening thunder crashes directly above us.  That lightning was stalking us.  But hey we survived with an awesome and terrible new story under our belts to a brand new world of rain-induced waterfalls that did not previously exist around our hiding cave.
(Runner Up: I was at the top of Angel Island too.  It was foggy though so the views were meh)

July: Mission Peak

That weird thing that everyone on Tinder has a photo of

Yeah it's not the most impressive hike in the Bay Area, but whatever, Jimmy and I had a fun day so go to hell.  Plus the Sun is oppressive as fuck and there is no shade.  But yeah we reached that weird thing that everyone takes a photo standing on and there were some cool views of Silicon Valley, so I'm ok with it.
(Runner Up: Angel Island... again.  This time was super clear so the ferry was a fun ride and also, yeah definitely the best views of the Bay Area come from the Island that is in the MIDDLE OF THE BAY)

Angel Island gives SF residents a chance to be Bay Area tourists

August: Sourdough Mountain

Ok this isn't even Sourdough but it was in the North Cascades and was the best campsite I've ever experienced so I don't give a damn

This whole park is just shit like this

Ok THIS ONE is from Sourdough.  Am I in America?

The North Cascades has solidified it's place as one of my favorite National Parks after Steve and I backpacked around before Scott and Anne's wedding in Seattle.  Our backpacking campsite was easily the most impressive place I've ever slept, with a view to make action hero stalwarts cry.  Definitely the most beautiful place I've ever taken a dump... ever.  And Sourdough Mountain was an amazing day hike, listed as "strenuous" and yeah it certainly was.  Fairly steep, but the views of the lake and mountains were enough to make me forget my destroyed leg muscles.  We were even able to fit in a spur of the moment white water rafting trip through the park between hikes!
(Runner Up: a crapload of mountains and hiking around the North Cascades, so yeah there was a lot going on.  Also I did a day hike at Big Basin later in August, but comparing it to the North Cascade mountains would be embarrassing.)

September: Sentinel Dome

Ok so Half Dome is just going to hang out looking epic at sunrise and nobody but me is going to scream up to the sky in excitement?  Fine.

Also I had a buddy to hang out with while watching sunrise

And then after some hiking I earned myself a relaxing beer by the water

A bunch of friends were all at weddings this weekend so that means I go solo camping at Yosemite.  It was insanely smokey from a bunch of forest fires all over the Sierras, but it just added a nice flavoring to my beef jerky.  Sentinel Dome was not the most impressive hike of my weekend, but had some cool views of Half Dome through the smoke.  The next day I was BLASTED IN THE EYEBALLS by the best sunrise I've ever experienced, complete with a bear friend climbing the trees for pinecones as I watched the Sun climb over Half Dome.  The fuck?  That was insane.  Then I went for a hike over to Nevada Falls and then treated myself to some lazy rivering in Yosemite Valley.

October: Mt. Hoffmann

I found a pleasant little seat with a nice view

Hiking with a cast of characters > hiking with boring people

Just throwing this in there because this might be my favorite photo ever taken (THANK YOU KENDALL)

There is no such thing as too much Yosemite.  I went up to my favorite place in the country with a group of fantastic and energetic people for a great camping weekend.  Our hike of choice was what turned out to be John Muir's favorite view in Yosemite, and I can now understand why.  It was a nice little hike with a bonus ICE COLD DIP INTO AN ALPINE LAKE at the end.  Super refreshing.  Then we had some fun with campfires and long exposure photos at night.  Did I mention I love Yosemite?
(Runner Up: I went to Washington again for work, climbing some peaks in Olympic National Park and doing a phenomenal hike around Mt. Rainier.)

See what I did there?

Just banana time up on ole Hurricane Ridge

November: San Bruno Mountain

Surprisingly there were some cool views of Pacifica and SF from up there

This place is super close to SF and had a real short trail, so I just went up for a little trail run.  Nothing too exciting.  Moving on.

December: Cone Peak

oh mountains AND ocean.  Come on California, at least give other places a chance

After Thanksgiving, a magnificent crew went backpacking in Big Sur in, what I should be used to by now, amazing California weather.  But we were hiking along a ridge and down to some natural hot springs, so that trip didn't count.  But the following weekend Katie was visiting and we went backpacking in Big Sur... again.  We did a loop around and up to Cone Peak, which has some awesome views of other Big Sur mountains and the ocean and it's just ridiculous up there.  Oh and we were SURROUNDED by hooting owls all during the nights.  We also explored some of the Big Sur/Monterey area by kayaking with some sea otters, romping around Point Lobos shores, and enjoying some beer right on the coast.  Not a bad weekend.

I'd say I'm fairly pleased with the success of the New Years resolution.  I think the trick is to do something where your progress is measurable.  I saw some cool views, got some great exercise in some amazing places, and I didn't die!  Win-win-win.

SF to Vancouver Adventure Part 3

Fun fact: reading this means you are indebted to me for life.

And now for the solo portion of the trip.


Friday 6/27/14 - Northern California Coast
I woke to the smell of PANCAKES.  Jimmy had cooked us breakfast (can you believe this guy?) as we cleaned ourselves once again and packed.  Then finally some down time to watch a little TV while Jimmy worked from home and we waited for Kyle and Amanda's flight.  It was all too quick though; I drove them to the airport for our final, tearful goodbye.  Fairwell you magnificent bastards.
And then my solo adventure began.  The rest of the day was just me driving.  All day.  From noon until 10pm.  It was both fun and exhausting.  It started through San Francisco, which had some aggressive traffic.  I am not looking forward to that when I move there (hah! joke's on me, I deal with that all the time now!).  Then across the Golden Gate and on to CA-1, which I drove the entire way up the coast North (until it merged with Rt. 101, which I drove into the Redwoods).
I had a few nice stops along the way: Hog Island Oysters, where I had a few delicious, fresh oysters and beer, Stinson Beach (the water was cold!), and Point Reyes Seashore: all tremendous places.

This bridge.  EVERY. FREAKING. TIME.

Yumfest 2k14

Oh hey I found those sunglasses in Yosemite!

And the drive is beyond gorgeous, so I obviously stopped plenty of times for beach overlooks.  After a while though (several hours), the twists and turns started getting to me.  But I powered through.
HOURS later, I finally made it into Redwoods National Park, which seems to be just an amalgamation of state parks all tied together.  Very strange.  Before the Sun set I was able to get a few cool views of the area: the entire landscape was covered with evergreens.  It was beautiful.  And the "highway" turned into a scenic tour where I was literally surrounded by enormous Redwood trees.  Not as wide as Sequoias, but taller.  Holy crap so tall.
I stopped for shitty fast food and was way too tired to be driving, but I did manage to make it to my campsite.  Luckily this is the one night that I had booked ahead of time, so it was there waiting for me.  It was so late when I arrived and I was so tired that I just decided to sleep in the backseat of the car.  So much for camping.


Caturday 6/28/14 - Redwoods and Lassen Volcanic
I woke up in the car at sunrise, but the area was overcast, so I slept in half an hour (what a badass).  Then at 6am I started touring the Redwoods area near me: Elk Prairie.  I found out why it was named this when I exited the campground passing a field full of elk.  Pretty cool.  I drove over to Gold Bluffs Beach and walked around for a bit on the beach.  It was nice, but a little foggy that early in the morning.
I then took a scenic drive through some very impressive Redwood groves, a a few walks here and there.  I was making my way toward Crescent City, the northern part of the park which had a lighthouse and a few really interesting beach/harbor areas.  It reminded me of New England with the water on the wrong side.
At 9am I started my way back down south through the park, backtracking to catch the 299-East highway to head to Lassen Volcanic National Park, my next destination.  Also I had some reception, so I was finally able to talk to my parents!  Yay!

Mr. Rental Car enjoying some redwood shade

This is normal

Dinobombing the redwood forest?

Oh there are beaches too.  I do not understand: this state has it all.

This looks like a regular house that someone just said "btw you're a lighthouse now." "ok."

The drive back through the Redwoods was gorgeous, but unexpectedly the eastern highway was also really pretty.  It went through Shasta-Trinity forest, so I had a few views of Mt. Shasta and happened upon a pretty cool lake, Whiskeytown Lake.  I stopped for lunch by a river that followed the highway and decided a little dip in the water couldn't hurt.  Yes it could, if it were surrounded by thorns.  Blackberry thorns.  I scarfed down every single ripe berry as retribution for my thorn stabbings.  So I got a good swim in and a ton of blackberries at the cost of a few thorn scratches: good deal to me.
After a bit more driving I made it to Lassen Volcanic, a park dedicated to the second most recent volcano eruption on the US mainland.  Lassen blew in 1914, so a lot of the plant life has returned at this point.  I got in at 3:30, so I had a fair amount of the day to use.  I got a campsite right away at the northern section of the park, Lake Manzanita.  Then I immediately took off for some high-speed adventuring.  Saw a few high elevation ponds here and there (most of the park is between 6000 and 10,000 ft), then I took a swim in Lake Helen - a glacial lake.  It was so cold.  But so freaking refreshing.
The road basically circled the volcano, so I was able to get a good view of it from every direction as I explored - it was pretty interesting.  There are still a few snow fields at the higher regions and you can see the little plug where the eruption first occurred.  After the swim I hiked down to Bumpass Hell, which is a sulpher-spewing area with vents and bubbling pits.  It reminded me a lot of Yellowstone.  Especially the smell.  Yum.
Then I hiked up the Lassen Peak trail, but only so far; the upper region was still closed for winter(?).  So I went up part way and then "didn't" continue my way up and then "didn't" summit.  Because there were signs and gates that said it was closed.  And that would be dangerous.

Somebody hasn't been paying their heating bills because that water was very cold.

[poundsign]volcanoselfie

It's ok I guess

Ugh, moooooove geese; I'm trying to take a picture

That object on the right was either a log or two very drunk, very wet guys on inner tubes paddling back after a day of fishing.

After "not" climbing to the top, I drove back to Lake Manzanita for sunset.  It was beautiful over the lake and was surrounded by Canadian Geese.  Then I fired up my new stove and pasta'd it up before bed.  What a day.


Sunday 6/29/14 - Crater Lake
I decided to try for sunrise again today, waking up and packing up by 5:15am.  I stayed near Manzanita Lake to watch the Sun rise over the lake.  After splashing into the river crossing and getting wet and dirty, I eventually found a nice place to see some cool colors, but unfortunately the elevation wasn't right to see the Sun.  So I left the park, heading North toward Crater Lake National Park.
The entire drive was really pretty.  Basically it circled Mt. Shasta.  I took a few pictures, but other than that the drive was pretty quick and easy; I got to the park at about 10:30am.  I drove in the South entrance and grabbed a campsite at the South of the rim.  I am setting records for my tent construction speed.  Then I sped off to the East side of the rim drive.  Well, as far as I could; part of the East rim drive  was closed for snow.  I was still able to see a waterfall and the view of Phantom Ship, which is a rock outcropping in the lake that kind of sort of looks like a boat maybe.  But it was my first view of the lake fro the rim: it was incredible.  So blue.  So intensely blue.  And clean and clear.  The story behind Crater Lake is that it used to be a volcano that erupted almost 8000 years ago.  It then collapsed in on itself, and rain/snow gradually filled the crater.

Um wut

Holy hell

I'm actually frozen in that position; this is not a pose

I put my beer in that snow to cool down

Oh man that is just ridics

So here I was staring at this insanely blue lake from the rim of an enormous crater.  So amazing.  I stopped off at a few more overlooks along my drive around the western part of the rim drive.  I stopped for a hike up to Garfield Peak, which offered some more ridiculous views.  And butt sledding.  Then I drove to the North side of the lake to hike down to the water.  Not a bad little walk.  The water temperature was 51 degrees, so naturally I jumped off a high rock into the lake a few times.  So freaking refreshing.  I've really started to get into this cold water swimming thing.
Now, I have a few hours before sunset, so I'm going to hang out at the Watchman overlook and wait for it.  With snacks and beer.  You can't really beat the view.

The jacket is to avoid the mosquitoes

This. Freaking. Sunset.

Eeeeeeeasy

SO MANY MOSQUITOES

What is going on with that sky?

Whatever.  I just don't even get it anymore.

Whelp.  That sunset was unbelievable.  The rim is such that you see the actual Sun setting on one side of the lookout, and the shadows and colors playing out on the lake and across the rim on the other side.  Might be the best sunset I've ever witnessed.  Except there were about a billion mosquitoes.  Oh well.  Now it's time to race down to my campsite and get ready for sunrise.


Monday 6/30/14 - Portland, OR
Ah, the land of Portlandia.  That was my destination this day.  But first I had to get there.  I woke up super early, took down my camp, and drove up to the Watchman Overlook for sunrise.  Are you shitting me?  It was yet again spectacular.  The colors and shadows around the crater rim were unbelievable.  Not a bad way to start the day.

I mean really, we have the atmosphere to thank most of all

That's it.  Stare directly into the rising Sun.  That's good for the old eyeballs.

The drive to Portland, OR was actually really short and easy (relative to some of my other drives).  I didn't have reception, and therefore didn't have maps, for most of the drive, but I basically drove North and West through the mountains until I did finally get reception.  Ryan Jacobs, my buddy/housemate who is temporarily working and living in Portland, is who I'm bunking with tonight, but he was at work (internship at Nike) when I arrived.  The guy is great though, because he gave me his key so I could shower (first one in sooooo long), and I started exploring on my own.
The first mission of the day was to get food.  I stopped at a place called Tilt, which had good, heaping mounds of food and some good local beers.  The guy serving me was like "whoa, starting early" at my beer request.  It may only be 11am, but I've been up for about a million hours.  Give me a break.  With that said, that beer did a number on my stomach.  Could be a combination of no alcs in a week and a really weird diet up to now.
My next task was to go find a beer garden to watch the Germany World Cup game.  I talked to a few Portlanders at what seemed like a cool place (flags everywhere surrounding a bunch of school-bus-converted-to-outdoor-bar kind of things: super Portlandy).  They were incredibly friendly, but this city is definitely a bit odd.  A place where young people go to retire.  So yeah - strange and friendly.  Germany won, so that's good.
Then I walked around a bit in the Pearl District and Washington Park, which has a rose garden that maybe my Mom would go crazy for.  At this point, Ryan got back from work and it was time to get a guided tour of more of the downtown area.  We got some pizza, went to a few brewpubs, went to a bar-cade (arcade that is also a bar: how are these not everywhere yet?) with tons of classic games.  It was a blast.  At the top of a hotel we got some drinks on a roofdeck bar and saw the city from a decent vantage point.  All-in-all a pretty fantastic evening around town, and it was good to hang out with Jacobs.

It's called a camera.  No need to get cranky.

Portlands gonna Port