I was looking at this site treehugger.com that has links to interesting tree hugging things, like solar or wind power or super earth friendly cotton. I saw they talked about compostable plates and thought that looked interesting. It's really not that more expensive than plastic, but you can compost it. I was thinking back to the Pig Roast and when I cleaned up I would put the scraps in my composter but then throw away the plastic. So with these plates and forks I can just put everything into the composter. I also bought a T-shirt for the hell of it. They're supposed to have olive oil soon, so I'll pick some of that up too.

I saw this yesterday from craigslist. Talks about the difference between the "red" and the "blue" states. red vs. blue

Two weekends ago I went up to north to hang out with my buddy Sara on the Olympic penninsula. We did a little ride around Crescent Lake where we saw a bunch of kids jumping into the lake from a rock. Crazy I think. Sara was a tad sick but we had a good time relaxing in the trees. I had a horrible time starting a fire that night and Sara showed me up the next morning with some paper towels. So I'm off to Man School.

Last weekend I went up to Twin Lakes with Aimee and her dog. It was a nice little hike and we had the upper lake all to ourselves. I tried to take naps on the ground but the dog decided to shake off the water on me. So I threw it into the lake. Hahahha.

Then on Sunday Aimee, her buddy Kim, Scott and I headed up to Hood again and went to Salmon Bluff for some climbing. We did a few climbs that ranged from 5.7 to 5.9. Ok, one was rated a 5.3, but I call BS on that because it had a traverse and the rock moved when I touched it.

Anyoo, here are some pictures from those weekends.

Dig.

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For the 4th of July we went over towards Bend to do some mountain biking and rafting. We camped on the Metolious river just the other side of Santiam Pass. We rode Phil's Trail on Saturday and everyone had a great time going down the Whoop-De-Doos. I finally got a few pictures of people on the trail, so you can all be jealous now. On Sunday we went over to the Mckenzie River and did a half day raft. I found out you're not supposed to yell out that you're hung over when they ask how everyone is doing. Who knew? The rapids were class II for most of the way and we had a great time doing 360s off of rocks and through rapids. The rest of the time we spent eating and drinking at camp. Ron and I played a game called cleave the quarter with a hatchet. That was fun.

Phils Trail Photos

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Mckenzie River Photos

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On Saturday I held a piggie roast in my backyard. I have pictures from my camera over here and will put up better versions soon.

My buddy Vince supplied advice and a lot of wood for the fire. I got up at 5:30 to start the fire in the pit. It took me longer than I wanted because I suck at starting fire. But, after using lighter fluid, a 1/2 gallon of paint thinner and the gas from my lawn mower, I got the fire going. I spent a few hours adding wood and rock until it was so hot I couldn't stand within four feet. Apparently I had "hot ash" flying through the air into my neighbors yards.

Dan came over at 8:30 and helped me out as I went to the butcher to get the pig. I got back at 10 and we started preparing the pig. I put down the chicken wire, then banana leaves, then pig, then stuffed pig with hot rocks, threw down the onions, garlic, potatos, and yams, covered it all with more banana leaves, wrapped the wire around it and threw that bad boy in the pit. Then we covered it with tinfoil, hot logs and a wet sheet and a few feet of dirt.

I cleaned up the yard and house while Dan played football. When he came back around 3 we started drinking beer and people started showing up. I think like 30 people were in my back yard waiting for the pig to rise from the grave. Dan and I exhumed the pig and threw it on the table (which almost fell over) and I started hacking away at it. I think everyone liked the meat, which was pretty tender and tasted like banana.

After the piggie was eaten we had another fire in the pit and sat around drinking beer until I fell asleep in my chair.

I'm getting ready for my pig roast tomorrow. Last night Dan and Kate came over and helped me dig the pit for the pig. It's about 4 x 2 x 3 feet. It felt like we were getting ready to bury someone, I guess we are going to bury Bessie (I know it's a Cow's name, but I don't discriminate.)
Today I ran out to Mt. Scott Fuel and bagged up 8 cubic feet of lava rock for the pit. Who woulda known it'd be so heavy?
Tonight I'm picking up chicken wire (to get the pig out of the whole), some cloth (to cover the pig so it doesn't get dirty) and maybe some charcoal to start the fire going.

I got myself a new crown today. Here's my tooth pre-crown.

Over the weekend I went out to Smith Rock with my buddies Dan and Kate. On the way I found out that gas stations inbetween Sandy and Madras close at 9 the hard way. I ended up driving back to Sandy after dropping Dan and Kate off at a bar.

On Saturday we went into Smith and walked over to Spiderman. It is a two pitch climb so we got to hang out at a set of bolts a hundred feet off the ground. Kate and Dan led by placing nuts, cams and hexes along the crack. I would follow and just unhook as I went up. The climb was pretty awesome. It was rated as a 5.7, but I think some moves were pretty difficult. Near the top is a roof that you have to traverse under and then climb around. That was frickin scary, but awesome once you get over.

The next climb we did was under Monkey Face. We did two pitches up this time as well. There were awesome views of the Sisters and Jefferson from our belay station. The top of our climb didn't end up at any bolts so Kate built a 4 point anchor and I sat above her with two additional pieces of protection. Dan came up last and did a traverse whil being belayed by Kate. I followed while being belayed by both Dan and Kate and then she came over last after clearing her anchor. Then we had a 200 foot rappel down the face. I think this was 160 feet further than my last rappel, so I was freaked out most of the way down. But it was good.

On the way out we ran across some climbers who couldn't free their rope from above. So Dan climbed up at 5.10b route to bring them another rope. I thought that was pretty bad ass of him. We had a nice walk out along the river. We were the last ones to leave the park, so it was all ours.

On Sunday we drove down to Bend and rode up Phil's trail to the Whoop De Doos. Yet again it was an awesome ride. Until Kate got attacked by a log and did an endo. We thought she might have broken her collarbone or torn something. We drove to the hospital in Bend, which is like 15 minutes away from the trailhead and took her to the emergency room. Turns out she sprained her somethingorother on her shoulder and should be back in business in 2 weeks. That's pretty awesome given she could have been out for the whole summer if it were the collarbone.

Photos

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Last week I realized one of my molars was hurting me. I was thinking it was a cavity or something - it hurt to eat french fries and drink beer at the same time. Which is totally unacceptable. So I rolled down to my dentist in Corvallis today. And I have broken my molar by grinding my teeth at night. It was a "virgin tooth" and it's rare to break one like this. I'm getting a crown, nothing like Trey cos I don't want gold. This blows. Now I have to wear my nightguard. Which if I had been wearing it before I wouldn't have gotten this damn crack in my tooth. So I'm going to drink beer until my tooth is fixed. Advil is bad for your stomach I think, so this is a better approach.

On Saturday Aimee, her buddy Erica, Kala and I went for a hike up to Larch Mountain. We dropped Erica's car off at Multnomcah Falls and hiked in through Horsetail Falls. We actually didn't make it up to Larch Mountain, I had the bright idea that the map wasn't right and that I was. So we headed down trail 427 towards Larch Mountain trail.

After going a mile down a really cool ridge we realized the other trail was the one we wanted, but it was late and we were lazy. And someone mentioned ice cream cones - that's enough to not hike back up the hill. We went down to Multnomah Falls and pushed past the little fat kids and grabbed ourselves some cones.

Photos

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