Caturday 3/17/2012
Hiked Mt. Carrigain
Ass sledding: the best way to
descend the mountain
Sunday 3/18/2012
Greenman suit is back
The St. Paddy's Day hero
Wacky stuff happened
Monday 3/19/2012
It's so damn nice out
Running was enjoyable
So was that kebab
Tuesday 3/20/2012
Had to read outside
Staying late for the thesis
Totally worth it
Wednesday 3/21/2012
Dave's Fresh: always great
Avocado BLT
You're magnificent
Thursday 3/22/2012
Midnight movies rule!
Guess what definitely sucked:
The Hunger Games sucked
Friday 3/23/2012
Cool Cats rage tonight
Connect-4 flip-cup and then
some darts at the Field
Showing posts with label ass-sledding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ass-sledding. Show all posts
Monday, March 26, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
30% of this hike was spent sledding on our asses
It was ridiculously gorgeous out this past weekend, so eight of us went up to NH to hike Carrigain. It's not too bad of a hike, but in the winter and spring the access road is closed, so that adds about 2 miles each way. Still though, not crazy.
Best part of the hike? Evan with gloves and no shirt.
The temperature (somewhere between "holy balls it's nice out" and "you guys. it's too perfect out right now. I need to go to a hospital") was both a benefit and a detriment. The benefit, as you can see above, was that it was so nice we got to see Evan's nips for the entire hike. The downside was that the snow was a bit melty and we would sink into the knee-deep snow every 10 or 11 steps.
The mittens aren't as helpful as she was hoping
There were a few... "precarious" river crossings before any real elevation gain. But we made it across with less than thirty incidents, so I'm counting it as a win.
We then stomped our way to the top of the mountain quite literally. We were sinking into the snow all over the place. But it was worth it, because the view from the top was ridiculous. It was a big wooden platform at the top with a 360 degree view. Apparently you can see the most amount of 4000 footers from this summit.
Mt. Washington, you think you're so cool, but you're not. You look way small from over here.
After lazing at the top for a bit, we started our descent down the mountain. I had to carefully choose my word there, because most of this descent was spent sledding down the mountain on our asses. THIS IS MY LIFE.
The best part was when Alex and I doubled up our toboggan and nearly smashed into a bunch of trees going 70 mph. SNOW IS FRICTIONLESS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN (no it isn't).
Anyway, we finished the hike soaking wet. The combination of rolling around in the snow for 7 miles and stomping/falling across rivers left our feet more than a little damp. No worries though, because we all went out for Shamrock Shakes afterward. Yaaaaaay! EVERYBODY WINS EXCEPT OUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS!!!
Best part of the hike? Evan with gloves and no shirt.The temperature (somewhere between "holy balls it's nice out" and "you guys. it's too perfect out right now. I need to go to a hospital") was both a benefit and a detriment. The benefit, as you can see above, was that it was so nice we got to see Evan's nips for the entire hike. The downside was that the snow was a bit melty and we would sink into the knee-deep snow every 10 or 11 steps.
The mittens aren't as helpful as she was hopingThere were a few... "precarious" river crossings before any real elevation gain. But we made it across with less than thirty incidents, so I'm counting it as a win.
We then stomped our way to the top of the mountain quite literally. We were sinking into the snow all over the place. But it was worth it, because the view from the top was ridiculous. It was a big wooden platform at the top with a 360 degree view. Apparently you can see the most amount of 4000 footers from this summit.
Mt. Washington, you think you're so cool, but you're not. You look way small from over here.After lazing at the top for a bit, we started our descent down the mountain. I had to carefully choose my word there, because most of this descent was spent sledding down the mountain on our asses. THIS IS MY LIFE.
The best part was when Alex and I doubled up our toboggan and nearly smashed into a bunch of trees going 70 mph. SNOW IS FRICTIONLESS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN (no it isn't).Anyway, we finished the hike soaking wet. The combination of rolling around in the snow for 7 miles and stomping/falling across rivers left our feet more than a little damp. No worries though, because we all went out for Shamrock Shakes afterward. Yaaaaaay! EVERYBODY WINS EXCEPT OUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS!!!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Epic Roadtrip Journal: 6/19/11 Mt. Saint Helens/Mt. Rainier
Bear with me. This journal entry isn't the most optimistic of the trip. I think this might have been a turning point where we were all tired, the weather was shitty, and we had been within 100 yards of each other every moment for literally the previous 192 hours. It wasn't the greatest day of the trip. And when I say that, I of course mean that it was SLIGHTLY less than the greatest experience of my life. Because I'm comparing it to the rest of the trip, which is like comparing winning 500 tons of delicious bacon in the lottery with only winning 499 tons of delicious bacon. SOMEONE TELL ME HOW I CAN ENTER THE BACON LOTTERY PLEASE.
Mt. Saint Helens
We woke up to leave the hotel around 6am. I got another shower, which was amazing. But there really wasn't all that much that happened besides checking out of the hotel and driving to Mt. Saint Helens. Good story, I know.
Driving along the curvy roads toward the mountain, we realized that the weather might not cooperate with us. In fact, we drove through a cloud literally the entire way to the observatory. We got out to see what was supposed to be an amazing view of the mountain, but as Alex so aptly described it, it looked like we were on the inside of a ping pong ball. Fog everywhere. No view. Hooray. I haven't been this downtrodden on the trip since our dealings with the Canyon Campground people in Yellowstone (I recently wrote a review of the campground. I gave them the worst possible ratings due to "extreme incompetence"). Sorry for the less-than-terrific start to the trip, Colleen. Now we're just waiting in the car for the visitor's center to open. Coooooool. But we saw the movie they play before they dramatically open the curtains for a view of the mountain/fog: kind of interesting?
Mt. Rainier
Driving to Mt. Rainier did not so much improve the weather. I feel like morale on this trip has decreased a bit due to the weather, or maybe the fact that we've been in each other's immediate presence for at least 23 hours a day every day for the past 9 days. Most likely a combination of the two. But we played some word games during the drive to lighten the mood, and then once we got to Mt. Rainier, my over exuberance was sufficient. It was so amazing! Super green rain foresty pine trees! LOOK AT ALL THE GWEEEEN (Katie Rizzolo, you've ruined the way I react when I see trees).
This isn't as bad as Mt. Saint Helens, but still kind of looks like the inside of a ping pong ball
We actually didn't do all that much in the park since it is really foggy and there was snow everywhere. Nadkarni wanted ice cream at one point, and I decided to make a note of it.
We drove to a cool lookout over a waterfall. The trail down to the lookout was snowy, cold, and icy, but totally worth it. We then ran up a huge snowy hill to ass-sled down. Still fun... but then my shorts were soaking wet after that. WORTH IT.
Ass-sledding: best kind of sledding?
Oh! Then fun news. Scott, who was driving today, just noticed that we were basically out of gas. I feel like more attention should have been paid to that, but hey, NEW ADVENTURE, LET'S DO THIS. We stopped at the visitor center first to hear a ranger talk about the first Summit of Mt. Rainier. Somewhat pleasant? Then we drove all the way out of the park for gas after a short hike over another waterfall.
Is it just me, or does Alex make the greatest faces of all time?
Almost ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS to fill that huge fucking car. Ugh: it gets like 17mpg HIGHWAY. We've driven about 2000 miles on the trip so far. Intense.
After that, we just cooked some dinner over a fire, trying to get rid of most things since we only have one more camping night. Scott, as he tends to do, messed with a perfectly good fire to the point where it went out. Classic (to his defense, we were trying to use the coals to cook, so we had to make sure it was arranged such that our food wouldn't come out super raw). But it was rebuilt and we cooked a successful fucking meal. We're planning on doing a morning hike, so we're heading to bed pretty soon. I sincerely hope the weather is good tomorrow. I've already given up on seeing stars on a clear night for this trip. It sucks that I'm somewhat pessimistic here, but that's just the way things are proceeding. I better see SO MANY TIDEPOOLS at Olympic tomorrow...
Another great thing we've picked up on this trip is that when Scott tells a story that doesn't elicit the reaction he was looking for, he adds "and then I found five dollars!" to add a little ironic "pizazz." Today, Alex added "and then you found TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!" at the end of one of Scott's stories for the same effect, to simply indicate "cool story bro." It was hilarious. Kudos to Alex, because we've started doing that whenever someone has a "seemingly nonsensical" story.
Just remembered my post about Mt. Saint Helens. I was SO frustrated with the weather. Sure it is really our only real setback for the trip, but that really did suck.
Mt. Saint Helens
We woke up to leave the hotel around 6am. I got another shower, which was amazing. But there really wasn't all that much that happened besides checking out of the hotel and driving to Mt. Saint Helens. Good story, I know.
Driving along the curvy roads toward the mountain, we realized that the weather might not cooperate with us. In fact, we drove through a cloud literally the entire way to the observatory. We got out to see what was supposed to be an amazing view of the mountain, but as Alex so aptly described it, it looked like we were on the inside of a ping pong ball. Fog everywhere. No view. Hooray. I haven't been this downtrodden on the trip since our dealings with the Canyon Campground people in Yellowstone (I recently wrote a review of the campground. I gave them the worst possible ratings due to "extreme incompetence"). Sorry for the less-than-terrific start to the trip, Colleen. Now we're just waiting in the car for the visitor's center to open. Coooooool. But we saw the movie they play before they dramatically open the curtains for a view of the mountain/fog: kind of interesting?
There have been better views
Mt. Rainier
Driving to Mt. Rainier did not so much improve the weather. I feel like morale on this trip has decreased a bit due to the weather, or maybe the fact that we've been in each other's immediate presence for at least 23 hours a day every day for the past 9 days. Most likely a combination of the two. But we played some word games during the drive to lighten the mood, and then once we got to Mt. Rainier, my over exuberance was sufficient. It was so amazing! Super green rain foresty pine trees! LOOK AT ALL THE GWEEEEN (Katie Rizzolo, you've ruined the way I react when I see trees).
This isn't as bad as Mt. Saint Helens, but still kind of looks like the inside of a ping pong ballWe actually didn't do all that much in the park since it is really foggy and there was snow everywhere. Nadkarni wanted ice cream at one point, and I decided to make a note of it.
We drove to a cool lookout over a waterfall. The trail down to the lookout was snowy, cold, and icy, but totally worth it. We then ran up a huge snowy hill to ass-sled down. Still fun... but then my shorts were soaking wet after that. WORTH IT.
Ass-sledding: best kind of sledding?Oh! Then fun news. Scott, who was driving today, just noticed that we were basically out of gas. I feel like more attention should have been paid to that, but hey, NEW ADVENTURE, LET'S DO THIS. We stopped at the visitor center first to hear a ranger talk about the first Summit of Mt. Rainier. Somewhat pleasant? Then we drove all the way out of the park for gas after a short hike over another waterfall.
Is it just me, or does Alex make the greatest faces of all time?Almost ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS to fill that huge fucking car. Ugh: it gets like 17mpg HIGHWAY. We've driven about 2000 miles on the trip so far. Intense.
After that, we just cooked some dinner over a fire, trying to get rid of most things since we only have one more camping night. Scott, as he tends to do, messed with a perfectly good fire to the point where it went out. Classic (to his defense, we were trying to use the coals to cook, so we had to make sure it was arranged such that our food wouldn't come out super raw). But it was rebuilt and we cooked a successful fucking meal. We're planning on doing a morning hike, so we're heading to bed pretty soon. I sincerely hope the weather is good tomorrow. I've already given up on seeing stars on a clear night for this trip. It sucks that I'm somewhat pessimistic here, but that's just the way things are proceeding. I better see SO MANY TIDEPOOLS at Olympic tomorrow...
Another great thing we've picked up on this trip is that when Scott tells a story that doesn't elicit the reaction he was looking for, he adds "and then I found five dollars!" to add a little ironic "pizazz." Today, Alex added "and then you found TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!" at the end of one of Scott's stories for the same effect, to simply indicate "cool story bro." It was hilarious. Kudos to Alex, because we've started doing that whenever someone has a "seemingly nonsensical" story.
Just remembered my post about Mt. Saint Helens. I was SO frustrated with the weather. Sure it is really our only real setback for the trip, but that really did suck.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Epic Roadtrip Journal: 6/12/11 Grand Tetons/Yellowstone National Parks
Writing from Grand Tetons:
It rained all night, and it is still drizzling now, and my fingers are numb writing this, but who gives a fuck; I'm in one of the most beautiful places in the world (sweet attitude brah!). No stargazing, sunset, or sunrise due to cloud cover, but it honestly doesn't matter. I passed out right when I got in the tent last night. I barely made it into my sleeping bag.
This morning, I got up before everyone else and walked down to the lake (Jenny Lake, where we camped at). It was preposterously amazing, even with clouds covering the mountains. Shit's getting tranquil up in here. Then I saw another moose. Holy shit. I was, I kid you not, about 10 feet away from it. No exaggeration. I took some amazing pictures (including one of myself on a timer), stalked it a bit, and then went to have a bagel-y breakfast.
Am I doing it right?
Writing from Yellowstone:
After breakfast, Scott, Alex, and I went for a short hike around String Lake toward Paintbrush Canyon. It was a really pleasant hike made better by the fact that we didn't see another person the entire time. The mountains were covered by clouds, but the awesome pine trees and snow covered mountain slopes were still gorgeous. Stomping through virgin snow in the middle of June is probably one of the top things you can do in life. We got to a mini hill, where Scott suggested we trail blaze up the hillside. Alex then had the incredible idea to sled down on our asses. It was I who recommended we do it again. It was a blast, even if our asses got soaking wet. Then we ran/slid down the snowy slopes and made it back to camp pretty quickly.
Soaking wet pants are TOTALLY worth it
After breaking down the tent, we drove to the Colter Bay area for a quick, easy little hike by Jackson Lake. It was a nice way to say our goodbyes to the Grand Tetons. We then drove along the Rockefeller Parkway into Yellowstone. There was a crapload of snow and everything was beautiful. Yep, that's how I'd sum up the entire park so far. We crossed the Continental Divide (where water flow changes direction from one side of the continent to the other) like 3 times and drove the zig-zag mountainous road through a lot of the southern portion of the park. I probably had about 10 mini freakout sessions due to everything being so epic.
Our first main stop was Old Faithful, which is a geyser (no shit) that goes off every 90-130 minutes or something. Whatever, I'm not a stopwatch. Our timing was incredibly fortuitous, because it blew it's load RIGHT AS WE ARRIVED. Perfect timing. It was a really fantastic sight to behold: boiling water launched up about 130 feet. We then took a long walk around a lot of the other geysers, hot springs, and other geothermal sites. Oh wait, that's the ENTIRE PARK. Everywhere you drive there is sulfur-y, acrid, smelly steam coming off the ground, or some thermal vent or hot spring. It is unbelievable. Anyway, we saw about 20 geysers, including Beehive Geyser, which is WAY better than Old Faithful. The blast is actually taller and you can stand way closer. The nozzle is also smaller, so the water rockets out of the opening like it's on crack or something (I'm pretty sure that's not possible). It only goes off once or twice in a day, so we were super lucky to be there. Granted, my warm weather clothes got soaking wet with boiling sulfur-water (I took them off when it got warmer out, and when the geyser went off, it shifted directions and sprayed Nads, Scott, and Alex, who forgot that my shirts were right next to them in their insane panic to get away from the steam), but hopefully they will dry by tomorrow morning... (spoiler alert: they didn't.)
We also saw 6 or 7 buffalo RIGHT NEXT TO the walkway, so close that I could literally touch them if I wanted, and they didn't give a shit about ANYTHING. There were 3 tiny baby bison with them, and they were adorbs.
Scott and I ran to a lookout (literally ran) that overlooked the entire geothermal area, which was a really interesting perspective. We came down, saw a few more geysers (oh, at this point I'm apparently underwhelmed by the FANTASTIC MAJESTY THAT IS A GEOTHERMAL EVENT), saw Old Faithful go off again,and then saw the CUTEST black and brown puppy that I have ever seen in my entire life. Without superlative, that puppy was the best. So yeah - saw Old Faithful go off 3 times from different angles, saw a buffalo family, saw a shitload of geysers, saw the cutest puppy in the history of the Universe: great stop at Old Faithful Village.
We then drove to Canyon Village, where we are currently camping. We stopped at a few notable views, were amazed by the green awesome trees (LOOK AT ALL THE GWEEEEEN), and rocked out to Queen whilst driving some fun roads. But the best was having a HERD of buffalo cross the street all around our car. There were probably 60-70 bison. They stopped traffic for about 45 minutes, but it was absolutely worth it. I got great pictures and it was a quintessential Yellowstone adventure. Some of them were fucking enormous. I think my adrenaline was going nonstop (however, my adrenaline going nonstop is not an abnormal event).
We then had to deal with some incompetent, over 60-year-old campground people at our campsite, but after an hour-long fiasco of changing our snow-covered site to a site where we could AT LEAST set up our tent on the pavement next to the road (there was also an unnecessary amount of highlighting on our site map by the campground guy who didn't know how to use a computer). (WOW. I really toned down the intense frustration here. Dealing with those people was seriously the worst. In fact, I literally just filled out a survey for customer satisfaction. I gave them the worst possible score in every category. WE COULDN'T EVEN FIND OUR FIREPIT in the 3 feet of snow that covered our campsite). It is a shitty location, but at least our tent isn't DIRECTLY on snow. There is seriously about 2-3 feet of snow everywhere; I think it might be a cold stay...
One benefit to having a wall of snow around our picnic table is that we have a place to keep the beer cold
We had noms at the Canyon Village Lodge, where I had some Wyoming beer and Bison ravioli. Pretty damn good. Now I'm lying on pavement in our tent, freezing cold, starting to smell, and super tired and dirty - it was a great day.
Some notable moments were when Nadkarns coined the term "Hagstag," a clever play on the twatter phrase hashtag. I rofl'd. Another is when we had just left our snow covered campsite for dinner. We had just finished eating and Alex goes "should we buy some more ice?" (Nadkarns needs ice for cooling her newly healing knee). I simply responded "shut up," assuming he was being a jackass talking about how COMPLETELY COVERED our campsite is with snow. He apparently had forgotten. I hadn't.
It rained all night, and it is still drizzling now, and my fingers are numb writing this, but who gives a fuck; I'm in one of the most beautiful places in the world (sweet attitude brah!). No stargazing, sunset, or sunrise due to cloud cover, but it honestly doesn't matter. I passed out right when I got in the tent last night. I barely made it into my sleeping bag.
This morning, I got up before everyone else and walked down to the lake (Jenny Lake, where we camped at). It was preposterously amazing, even with clouds covering the mountains. Shit's getting tranquil up in here. Then I saw another moose. Holy shit. I was, I kid you not, about 10 feet away from it. No exaggeration. I took some amazing pictures (including one of myself on a timer), stalked it a bit, and then went to have a bagel-y breakfast.
Am I doing it right?After breakfast, Scott, Alex, and I went for a short hike around String Lake toward Paintbrush Canyon. It was a really pleasant hike made better by the fact that we didn't see another person the entire time. The mountains were covered by clouds, but the awesome pine trees and snow covered mountain slopes were still gorgeous. Stomping through virgin snow in the middle of June is probably one of the top things you can do in life. We got to a mini hill, where Scott suggested we trail blaze up the hillside. Alex then had the incredible idea to sled down on our asses. It was I who recommended we do it again. It was a blast, even if our asses got soaking wet. Then we ran/slid down the snowy slopes and made it back to camp pretty quickly.
Soaking wet pants are TOTALLY worth itAfter breaking down the tent, we drove to the Colter Bay area for a quick, easy little hike by Jackson Lake. It was a nice way to say our goodbyes to the Grand Tetons. We then drove along the Rockefeller Parkway into Yellowstone. There was a crapload of snow and everything was beautiful. Yep, that's how I'd sum up the entire park so far. We crossed the Continental Divide (where water flow changes direction from one side of the continent to the other) like 3 times and drove the zig-zag mountainous road through a lot of the southern portion of the park. I probably had about 10 mini freakout sessions due to everything being so epic.
Our first main stop was Old Faithful, which is a geyser (no shit) that goes off every 90-130 minutes or something. Whatever, I'm not a stopwatch. Our timing was incredibly fortuitous, because it blew it's load RIGHT AS WE ARRIVED. Perfect timing. It was a really fantastic sight to behold: boiling water launched up about 130 feet. We then took a long walk around a lot of the other geysers, hot springs, and other geothermal sites. Oh wait, that's the ENTIRE PARK. Everywhere you drive there is sulfur-y, acrid, smelly steam coming off the ground, or some thermal vent or hot spring. It is unbelievable. Anyway, we saw about 20 geysers, including Beehive Geyser, which is WAY better than Old Faithful. The blast is actually taller and you can stand way closer. The nozzle is also smaller, so the water rockets out of the opening like it's on crack or something (I'm pretty sure that's not possible). It only goes off once or twice in a day, so we were super lucky to be there. Granted, my warm weather clothes got soaking wet with boiling sulfur-water (I took them off when it got warmer out, and when the geyser went off, it shifted directions and sprayed Nads, Scott, and Alex, who forgot that my shirts were right next to them in their insane panic to get away from the steam), but hopefully they will dry by tomorrow morning... (spoiler alert: they didn't.)
Scott and I ran to a lookout (literally ran) that overlooked the entire geothermal area, which was a really interesting perspective. We came down, saw a few more geysers (oh, at this point I'm apparently underwhelmed by the FANTASTIC MAJESTY THAT IS A GEOTHERMAL EVENT), saw Old Faithful go off again,and then saw the CUTEST black and brown puppy that I have ever seen in my entire life. Without superlative, that puppy was the best. So yeah - saw Old Faithful go off 3 times from different angles, saw a buffalo family, saw a shitload of geysers, saw the cutest puppy in the history of the Universe: great stop at Old Faithful Village.
We then drove to Canyon Village, where we are currently camping. We stopped at a few notable views, were amazed by the green awesome trees (LOOK AT ALL THE GWEEEEEN), and rocked out to Queen whilst driving some fun roads. But the best was having a HERD of buffalo cross the street all around our car. There were probably 60-70 bison. They stopped traffic for about 45 minutes, but it was absolutely worth it. I got great pictures and it was a quintessential Yellowstone adventure. Some of them were fucking enormous. I think my adrenaline was going nonstop (however, my adrenaline going nonstop is not an abnormal event).
We kept yelling at the buffalo from the car: "CROSS IN FRONT OF US, WE WANT TO LOOK AT YOU."
We then had to deal with some incompetent, over 60-year-old campground people at our campsite, but after an hour-long fiasco of changing our snow-covered site to a site where we could AT LEAST set up our tent on the pavement next to the road (there was also an unnecessary amount of highlighting on our site map by the campground guy who didn't know how to use a computer). (WOW. I really toned down the intense frustration here. Dealing with those people was seriously the worst. In fact, I literally just filled out a survey for customer satisfaction. I gave them the worst possible score in every category. WE COULDN'T EVEN FIND OUR FIREPIT in the 3 feet of snow that covered our campsite). It is a shitty location, but at least our tent isn't DIRECTLY on snow. There is seriously about 2-3 feet of snow everywhere; I think it might be a cold stay...
One benefit to having a wall of snow around our picnic table is that we have a place to keep the beer coldWe had noms at the Canyon Village Lodge, where I had some Wyoming beer and Bison ravioli. Pretty damn good. Now I'm lying on pavement in our tent, freezing cold, starting to smell, and super tired and dirty - it was a great day.
Some notable moments were when Nadkarns coined the term "Hagstag," a clever play on the twatter phrase hashtag. I rofl'd. Another is when we had just left our snow covered campsite for dinner. We had just finished eating and Alex goes "should we buy some more ice?" (Nadkarns needs ice for cooling her newly healing knee). I simply responded "shut up," assuming he was being a jackass talking about how COMPLETELY COVERED our campsite is with snow. He apparently had forgotten. I hadn't.
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