5:30 to 4

One turkey sandwich pushed me over the edge, and I ended up napping until this morning at 4.  So what to do?  Most people do not enjoy talking on the phone that early and I wondered if Merritt was up!  I prepped for tuning up Sand's car, all of 5 minutes, its not like that takes a garage full of tools. Knitted some, and watched the news with my coffee...almost bought a set of knives.  It was a fifteen piece pocket knife set that was obviously of the highest-quality and thriftiest price.  Would have been a real score.

We had a nice and thankfully small thanksgiving at Mom's, and brought home the leftovers that sent me into the aforementioned food coma. It was mainly nuclear family and spouses but Freddie is one of Fred and Aloma's better (if not best) friends he was there.  He is a transplanted buckeye and retired veterinarian.   

Kid day today = movie, slurpies, and grandpa :)  Dad gave me this business card holder a few weeks ago.  Very nice!

Speaking of business cards, I saw one the other day that said, "Practicing psychology by just walking around." I thought that was cool.

Well, it's 7:04, and light is breaking...46 degrees and not currently raining...I'm making a break for it.  

And the good news is...

it's official, I got a new job. Super stoked!  Not that being a freelancer was a bad experience at all, quite the opposite, I learned a lot and accomplished a lot and freelance gave me a flexibility that was hard to beat.  Self-employment taxes are a killer, and I won't miss those.    

In other news, its sunny out and the blue angels are flying over today making a racket!  I love it when they fire their afterburners and roar (if in fact that is what they are doing, but I am going to go with a little poetic license)!   I would like to post a picture, but this whole getting old thing sucks.  I can't make it out onto the balcony in time.  Anyway, by the time you hear them they are gone for the most part.  I did see a formation of four over the space needle quite luckily.

Sandy is all fired up about the Olympics and watches them until way past my bedtime! Last night she hollered loud when somebody won, I think it was the kid from Bremerton, oh she was hooting and  I woke up ready for the zombie apocalypse!  After that I was like Eeyore what with my bum knee and all hurting. You would be surprised at how much you move your leg when you sleep; I am talking rotational movement on a vertical axis and damn that hurts so you stay half-awake all night...uh oh, here comes Eeyore!   'nuff said.  My plants are dying and I must do something about it.  Today.  One I even have to call Mike for a consultation.  Lord, I used to be so good to my plants and nowadays I neglect them as a hobby. 

A special shout out to Kelly 'cause she's my sister!  Kelly and I had the nerve one time to jump onto the back bumper of Dad's work truck so that we could surprise him at his next stop.  Wholly in God's hand we did not fall off before someone flagged him down in a panic as two children excitedly clung to that one little door handle going down a main road.  When he stopped, we were so proud of each other.  Our plan worked!  We surprised him and he was never so glad to see us!  Hugs all around!  Mom hugged us when we got home!  Even after they explained to us the necessity of NEVER doing that again, and some 45 years of experience that can only imagine how horrifying that would have been as a parent, we know...it worked!   That's the good news.

Things I forgot to mention...

a bee hive on the foot bridge...the proposed letter to Strombo about trail conditions...the sound of the rocks polishing each other as the waves drew back...the guy from Switzerland that asked me about Hornbein "The Younger" (medieval artist depicting plague scenes that are the basis for the tattoo on my right lower leg)...did I mention the whales we saw?...people setting up their tents so close to mine I could hear them fart? (a honyock move if ever there was one)...hole in the wall...oh, and the sun went down behind us (Rob was right)...

This was taken near the end of a long day...

Trip Report - West Coast Trail Suffer-Fest

The Executive Summary of the trip would read something like this:  A long, expensive, and horrific bus ride from Pt. Renfrew to Bamfield on logging roads brought a car sick and somewhat irritable group to the orientation station by 1:00 PM. The Check-In process was expensive and slow for the most part, and I found that some Canadians get snooty when you say something about systems efficacy.  With great pains though, they were pleasant and so was I and we got on the trail at something like 3 o'clock, ahead of others.  Non-existent beach access signs cost us another hour in doubling back to find the trail.  We did spook a bear though, and that was kind of fun.   

West to East a linear measure of the distance is given as 75 km by the Canadian Agency for Miss-communication and Confusion, so who knows how many trail miles of poorly maintained mud bogs, boardwalk, roots and root wads, ladders, and slippery madness interspersed with some well maintained boardwalks,  cable-cars, ladders, bridges (best maintained structures).  Those of us that did arrive at the end definitely felt as though it had been a huge self-rescue exercise.  The author himself is slated to lose two toenails soon and is hoping for at least a partial use of his right leg by this weekend.  

Further report: At this writing, it is 1:38 AM and I am unable to sleep for the pain of it.  My friend Christopher, who you met in an earlier post, and I completed the trail in 4.5 walking days arriving at some camps as late as 9:15 PM.  

You could not go fast, you could only go long if that makes any sense.  In places, I was surprised as I have never seen a trail in such disrepair.  On the other hand, there were parts of it very well maintained.  After speaking to a number of those we shared the trail with, we found out that the proceeds of the park are returned to the provincial general fund and not necessarily returned to the park proper.  Go figure.  The day of our orientation the number of evacuations by the park was 53 since it opened in May.

We did meet some really cool folks on trail.  Honorable mentions to Francois, Caroline, the crew at Chez Monique, Al and Dane, and Lanny from Vancouver.  It was good meeting you!  And to the bunch of others we chatted with, wished well and will never see again, take care too.

Poor Mike, he had to throw in the towel at about half way through due to his knee.  He made the right decision, I wouldn't have wanted to hit that with anything but full confidence either and I already told you part of the toll I am paying.  It was worth it though, if for nothing else bull-shitting rights.  I had happily decided a couple of days before the end that I would never have to walk this path again, but I'll be damned if Mike isn't already talking about going back for just the half he missed.  Good Lord pray for me, because I have agreed in theory that yeah, we should go back for it.  

  

 "if it looks waist deep, it probably is" 

 can't remember which one this is, but it's one of the longer ones of five

 the trail, really, for miles

 very narrow suspension bridge, with ladders up at the end

 funky angle, eh?  no worries though cause it went nearly 

straight up for about 150 feet after that

 random ladder not associated with the previous picture,

I would estimate that there are about 1.5 vertical km of ladders on the trail

boardwalk to nowhere, roots and mud aplenty.

seriously, for most of the trip

Back on a sunny Saturday

Early to an empty house.  Nice visit with the kids, just not enough time.  July is shaping up to be pretty nice after all, its like we paid out purgatory in rain and are looking at the gates of summer.  Of course, we had the fireworks last week.  That was chill.  There were more people in the streets this year, compared to last, but Officer Friendly kept the kids in line.

This was early in the day.  We went to a local place and I had the muffuletta for early lunch

and it was grubbin'.  Sandy had the trad breakfast.  It was ok this time.  Last time 

I got zonked on their biscuits and gravy.

Getting ready for the WCT.  We are going West to East 45 miles which seems counter-intuitive when hiking an island that is oriented North South.  Got lots to do between now and then.

I can finally talk about it...The Stanley Cup Report

Thank you all for your condolences for still having to wear this NJ Devils cap.  Know that I am upbeat and went through the 7 steps rather quickly.  Some of you may not have been aware that I had this condition.  We don't have to bring it up.

Thanks Angie, for hanging out when no one else would; to cheer for a team she "felt funny about." (Angie being a Red Wings fan)  To my family who would let me completely ditch them on the phone if the game was on, I thank you for understanding.  To Merritt, who traded me labor (rigging his beams to fly) for a chance to see the game on the big screen and eat some grubbin' food. Maybe he'll submit photo's.  To the grocer at Eastlake Market who chose the Kings early in the tournament, ok I get it.  Bigger skaters + better puck handling = Stanley Cup win for the LA Kings.  

Special thanks to Sandy for giving me the remote during the struggle, and for her constant reassurance that I was out of my mind for rooting for the Devils.

I will try to put on my Canucks hat when I go out in public, but you gotta admit it would have been cool had NJ pulled it off.

And yet more waterfalls!

Yesterday Sandy, Christopher, and I went to Otter Falls and Big Creek Falls, up the Snoqualmie Lake Trail.  It was an easy 10 mile round trip that took us about 4 hours, including the lunch break and such. 

 The trail is an old logging road that is being reclaimed by the forest.  It had a nice gentle grade and was wide enough to walk three across for god portions of it.

The first falls we came to were small, but you got to cross in front of them on this really cool foot bridge.  The logs that are supporting this bridge are HUGE!  

 The next falls we got to, at the 5-mile mark, are the Big Creek Falls and were bigger and had a lot more water coming down them.  The rocks were mostly smooth, and the water had a really cool sheeting effect over the rocks.  The bridge is a lot more modern too.

 We sat on the curb and looked at our feet.  

The we got up, turned around and walked about a 1/4-mile back down to the "non-trail" that is the trail up to a tiny lake and Otter Falls.  This was the coolest of the three falls for sure.

 It's at least a couple of hundred feet to the top of Otter Falls.

By the time we got out, we were all hungry and kind of tired.  We ended up stopping at a bar and grill in North Bend for dinner.  We tried to find a pizza place, but the only one we saw was closed...oh well.  We were back in plenty of time to chill around the house before Monday snuck up on us.  Happy Monday! Yeah, right...