Mt. St. Helens Biking

On Sunday my buddy Sara and I met in Woodland, Wa to go up to St. Helens for a little biking. My body decided it was time to get the runs, so I ate a few Immodium ADs. I thought it was the calamari from Saturday night when I went out for greek food with Faustina after the Tears for Fears concert. They only played a few songs, but it was all good (and free!)

At the trailhead there were two other cars with bikers going up the hill. And a hunter in camo sitting on a rock near us. I asked him what season it was.

He looked up to the sky, "Summer."

The other bikers laughed a little uncomfortably and said "We asked him the same thing."

"It's Elk season", he finally said, " and bikers." No smile.

"Well, we don't taste too good."

"That's ok. I just drop the Elk and bikers and leave them there."

I figured he was just joking with me and seeing if I'd react like a liberal and say "Hey, you can't just leave the animal there, that's wrong." So I just laughed.

We got ready and he came over and chatted more with us. I think we passed some sort of test. Or the runs made me think more was going on.

"I see all of these fancy bikes." Which makes me worry when people say that... "And no kick stands!" I had to laugh.

"I know, you'd think you'd get one."

"I'd take it back. Those shoes good for pushing up the hill?"

"You know it, not good for biking, good for pushing."

And we were off up the hill, to do some pushing. I remembered the Ape Canyon trail being pretty difficult cos of the elevation and being out of shape. It wasn't too bad this time. I stopped from time to time to relax. Ok, to breathe. But it was ok.

It was pretty up on the Plains of Abraham and we toodled around, taking pictures and looking around. We couldn't see the top of the mountain because of the low clouds, but every now and then the sun would pop out and make the area look like pictures of Tibet.

We went over towards Windy Ridge, which funnily enough was pretty windy. You could see the main visitor center towards the North, with no real vegetation inbetween.

The clouds started to come in so we started back and flew down the hill back to the car. We celebrated our conquest of St. Helens with a shake, a few burgers and some fries.

China

I just bought my ticket to China for my buddy Moo's wedding. I'm going to Hong Kong for a week to hang out with Moo and see the boats, then train it up to Beijing for a week to see the little fence. Then it's down to Singapore for a few days of food and wedding. Turns out that it's going to be cold in Beijing (with lows of freezing), which is funny because I'll be in Singapore where it's hot (with lows of 75 degrees) a few days later.

Mountains

Over the weekend I went up to Mt. Jefferson with my climbing buddy Brynne. We didn't actually climb the mountain, though we did do some bouldering on a 30 foot tall slab of rock.

We camped out at Jefferson Park, along with about 10 other groups spaced around the various lakes. We had a nice perch about 30 feet above the lake with a nice view across the water. There were even fresh wild blueberries for our pancakes in the morning.

On our way out of the park we ran into a group of climbers who just finished climbing the mountain. They looked pretty bad ass, it was probably the ice axes and helmets. Brynne and I have been talking about climbing mountains for a while, probably since Mt. St. Helens. I asked my dad to take us up next spring so we can get in some practice. I think we're going to take a few classes during the winter, maybe a first response class too.

I've realized to go up these mountains I have to get in some decent shape. I thought I was doing okay, but my legs weren't too happy carrying my pack up the hills over the weekend. Which scares me, I've been biking to work 5 days a week and running 2 days a week. And I still huff and puff.

I ran into a gal while running about a month ago and have started jogging with her during the week. At first it was just once a week when we'd run up to the Japanese Garden, and run sets of stairs (with pushups inbetween sets.)

Her normal jogging partner had to stop running so now I'm jogging with her more. She's training for a half marathon in the spring and is wanting to jog 5 days a week. So I'm going to go along with her.

I think in a few weeks I'm going to start carrying weight in a bag when I go jogging. Maybe start off with a gallon of water and work up to 3. I'll have to pad the pack so it doesn't jostle around too much. I've seen other people train for mountains doing this, so it should help me out.

The main problem with my increase in exercise is food. Yesterday I spent 38 bucks on food for lunches for this week. And it's a four day week too. Kinda sick.

5.11 baby!

I finally climbed a 5.11 at the gym this week. I did it clean on Sunday and then again yesterday after a few false starts. In the bouldering area I even climbed a few V1s pretty easily. When I started climbing I had trouble doing VBs (which are 2 lower than V1s) and could barely eek up a 5.7. I ran into a buddy Ben at the gym after I was done. A few months ago he asked if I wanted to climb Beacon Rock. Then I didn't run into him and figured it wasn't going to pan out. Last night he said "So, we gonna do Beacon Rock?" Hell ye. We're going to figure out when we can both go (maybe calling into work 'sick'). Should be pretty fun.

Ants

I've been slowly getting new housemates this past month. They're pretty quiet but they are everywhere. I was ok with them being in my bathroom, I'd just kill them and shower off. Then they took to my kitchen. I'm not a slob or anything, but apparently they've found out there is food residue in the sink from time to time. My spiders seem to be sissys and don't do anything about the ants. So I got some ant traps and put them in my cupboards and under the sink. I even taped up some areas to see if that'd help. It doesn't. My boss at work reminded me that ants leave a pheremone trail. I'll have to do some serious cleaning to make sure the little bastards can't figure out where to go so easily. Now I do my dishes within a few minutes of using them, so that's good. They crossed the line when I saw one in the top of my Britta jug. It's in the fridge now. I'm going to open one of the ant traps and take the gunk out and mix it with some syrup. The gunk is supposed to kill the ants later back in the nest/hive/scary place. But they don't like the gunk. They'll like it with some syrup mixed in it. I forget that I can't kill all the ants because then they can't take the gunk back to the queen - who needs to die.

My weekend

This last weekend seemed to involve drinking and Maalox. I went out with Ron on Friday night to Hawthorne and got some pizza and a beer or two. We were accosted by a petition lady wanting us to sign some deal to get Nader on a ticket. Immediately we started arguing with her about politics and the war. I'm not for the war, not for Dubya and would be for Nader. Except the fact that one of the reasons Bush is in office is people "making a point" and voting for a third party candidate - Nader. I think there is too much at risk to let that happen again. The petition lady told us that we were stifiling the democratic process and was a little beligerant about it. I was being a pain just to be a pain. What got my goat was after she left, the people next to us said to her "Sorry you couldn't convince those guys." I hate it when people apologize for what I've done like that. I'm exercising my right as an American to not sign the petition and vote how I want to. We bailed to get some whiskey sours down the street. If that doesn't make you forget about politics, not much will. Ron and I were joking about who we could "take" at the bar. I figured most everyone in there would be fair game. A biker guy sat next to us and we chatted about travel and Asia. He was a Sergant in the Rangers and the Marines and was a bodyguard for an Admiral. We decided we'd want him on our side in a fight. He looked pretty frickin' tough, nice guy though. On Saturday I decided it was time to get out to the Gorge again and get in a little hike. I went up towards Horsetail Falls and took the little trail up to Devil's Backbone. I had forgotten how steep the trail was. I really think it's 2 feet up for each foot forward. The views from the Backbone are pretty cool, especially when you feel you've earned it. The down was a little more painful, my knees must be getting older. That night I went drinking with my climbing buddies at Henry's on Burnside. It's a pretty trendy place, I felt a little out of place with my shorts and Chacos. They had a very large screen with the Olympics playing and mojitos kept streaming to my table, so it was all good. I was smart and went climbing the next day. No good. I brought in my bottle of Maalox and drank that inbetween attempts to crawl up the walls. After helping Brynne move some stuff to her new apartment (that's larger than my house) I went home and slept. Until going to Faustina's and watching the scariest movie I've seen in like 8 years: Ju-on. This is a Japanese made for TV movie that was freakishly scary. Even in the parts that looked a little cheesy scared the crap out of me. If you need a scary movie, this is it. We had some cranberry vodka drinks to make it easier, but it didn't really help.

Visiting friends

This seems to be the time of friends popping into Portland. Three weeks ago my buddy Sara came into town for a conference and we hung out at my house placing frozen wet towels on our necks to cool off. And of course ate at Stanich's. A few days later my buddy Molly came into Portland for a conference. I took her around town, through the Gorge (where we hiked Triple Falls) and Mt. Hood. While she was in town, Michael was in town for a conference. So we had some beer after work and before I swerved home on my bike before rock climbing (not a good combonation.) Then last Friday my buddy Bethany was in town on vacation from Illinois while her hubby Alex was in Russia. We had some beer in the Pearl while I limped around cos I tweeked my back while lifting a burning car off of a flock of children. Now this week my buddy Apurva and some other friends are going to Vancouver BC and coming through Portland on their way up north. I'm sure no one I know will visit Portland for like two years, but it's been neat to catch up with people. And here is the funniest stuff I've read in a long time. It's humor from this guy named Mitch Hedberg.

Bug me not

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Mt. St. Helens Climbing

Last weekend I went up Mt. St. Helens with a few of my climbing buddies. I have no pictures of the adventure because I still don't have a digicam. But, it was pretty fun (except for the last hour, that's pretty tough.) Maureen and I glacaded (sp?) down from the top for about 3 miles. That was pretty kick ass, even got air a few times. Brynee and I decided we're gonna do other mountains next year. Which probably means I need to bump my bi-weekly 3 mile jog up a little bit.

Downtown Bike Gallery

So a few weeks ago I was biking with my buddies up in Washington, doing the Falls Creek ride, when my Crank Brothers pedal broke. It wasn't a normal break where the bearings were worn or a bushing was [whatever bushings do when they break], but the actual metal spindel snapped. This was a pain in the ass because this ride is the ride, 5 miles up and 20 down. I was on the top of the hill, just getting ready to go down. But you shouldn't try and bomb down technical hills with one pedal, just won't work. So I limped back to the cars on one pedal. I jogged by the Bike Gallery today on my way up to Washington Park to drop off my pedal. I handed my broke pedal to the guy at the counter. 'Do you have a receipt?' "No" who keeps a receipt for a pedal? Those things are supposed to be bomb proof. "The Sandy shop said they'd warranty it." 'Why didn't you take it there?' "Uh, cos you're on my jog route." Another guy came over. 'What broke?' "The spindle." 'You have a receipt?' "No, Sandy said they'd do it though." 'Oh, why not take it there? They do the warranty stuff.' "Because, you're both the same store." 'Yea, it's not a problem. We can't guarentee it'll get fixed.' "Right." 'It'll cost $10 for shipping. They'll probably fix it though, because it's a cheap pedal.' Right, I spend $75 for a pedal and it's cheap. I don't mind spending money on shipping and all that, but it's always a hassle to deal with the downtown Bike Gallery. You'd think I'll learn.