Dog Mountain

On Monday, Ingrid, Ron and I went up Dog Mountain to get a bit of exercise and look at the flowers. It was a bit slow going up but totally worth the views from up there. You could see the top of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. Up top were at least 30 people, and we must've run across another 30 on the ways up and down. Ingrid and I talked to this older gal who was cool as hell, she trains with 2 gallons of water for the hike up. I felt like a siss just carrying 5 gallons when I'm 40 years her junior. She was badass.

Ron and Ingrid

Brown Reunion

Over the weekend I went back to Providence for my 10 year reunion. My friend Jon met gave me a lift to Newport where he's working and living with his wife Aliki and two girls. I hung out there until Alex and Susa showed up and then after eating some fish & chips we went up to Brown.

We had campus dance Friday night after free beer at New Dorm where we ran into some old friends. At the dance I saw Dustin Hoffman. The next day we had breakfast at Brickway on Wickenden after walking by the old houses. Molly, Nicole, Brian, Hilda, Paul and Sofia were at Brickway too. After a nap I went over to the CIT for the Computer Science reunion and ran into a few people I remembered and profs who didn't remember us.

That night the 1997 class had a party behind the main green where I bumped into other people I hadn't seen in 10 years. I saw Tim and we tried to work the word fuck into every sentance. His wife was fucking nice enough to play along too. After that we went down to Water Fire, where they have fire on the rivers downtown. I've always liked it and this time was no exception. There was a living statue who was probably the most striking woman I'd seen in a long time.

Sunday was commencement and after some bagels with mayo and egg (as the Silver Truck is dead, damnit.) After getting some lemon ice (like a slushy) we went back to the dorm and Alex and I played frisbee until he gave up admitting I was the better.

Pauline and Aliki

French's Dome zip line

On Saturday I went up to French's Dome with Keevin and Matt. We did a few climbs and it was pretty good. But the exciting part was there is a zip line there. They're rebuilding the belay areas on the right side of the dome and have a cable line installed to move the timber. So we thought it'd be a good idea for Keevin to do the zip line. We did a few dry runs and then let him rip down. He was on a rope clove hitched to a tree so he wouldn't hit any of the construction half way down the line.

Here's a video of Keevin on the lne

Matt rapping down

Smith Rocks

After the Hood debacle we went to Smith on Saturday to get in a bit of climbing. I forgot toilet paper and that wasn't good.

Mt. Hood

On Friday Ingrid, Keevin, Matt and Moira and I went up to do the Louthold Coulor route on Mt. Hood. By the time we got up to the top of palmer it was already 3:30am and we weren't feeling it. So we called it and went back down. We did get to see a really cool red moon as it rose.

Boot Recovery

On Saturday I went back to the Gorge to get my damn boots back. As I'm paranoid, I brought up some rope and cordlette to help me get the boots out, as they were stuck fast last time I saw them. I got down to where the boots were and was ready to rig up an elaborate system (maybe a 5:1 Z-C pulley system I learned in crevase rescue or some such). There was only one boot and it was just lying there under a small waterfall and I could pull it out with little effort. It came out unattached and with not much in the way of shoelaces. I threw it to shore (which could have gone bad again I realized while it was in midair). I tried to search around in the pool of water for the other one, but the water is too damn cold.

I got out of the water with help from my really unnecessary rope and carabineers. I didn't biff it into the water, so I guess it was all helpful. I walked down the stream, I mean river, for a ways and couldn't see my other boot. I think it was hiding from me under a rock or a branch, probably thinking I wasn't worthy of wearing it. I got back to my bag and solitary boot and packed out to the car. At least I have one boot to add to my growing collection of crap on my front porch

Triple Falls

Nabe

On Thursday, Kate, Dan, Keevin, Silvia, Pam and her boyfriend came over for some nabe. As usual it was good.

Nabe food