August 7, 2009
My weeks are passing by so quickly! I can’t believe my internship is more than half over already! It’s rather alarming, because now I don’t have any jobs/internships lined up for the winter.
Well, whether I realize and accept this reality or not, I do need to accept the fact that as of now, I have no definite plans for the winter, and I need to get some things set in stone fast: a job, travel plans, an internship, or a study abroad. I just know that sitting around in damp, cold CT is not on the list. This is consuming much of my free time on the weekends now when I’m not off hanging from some cliff ledge, hiking, or some other adventure.
Well anyways, speaking of rather wet weather in CT, Rocky has had some bizarre weather as of late too. Apparently it’s sort of like their fall weather. In the past 2 weeks, 2 or 3 of the nights I stayed in the backcountry for work, we got hit by hale storms and magnificent, rather windy thunderstorm (some of the most amazing lightning I have ever seen-little more thrilling when you’re staying in a small tent). Hale storms one day, 90 degree weather in Estes the next.
Last week, work was not too exciting except for the fact that Tuesday, when driving to “work” up to the Corral trailhead to head to Mirror Lake for an overnight to do BICAMs and tent pad work, we saw a whole (now mom you are paying attention now right? Read carefully) herd of bull moose (about 8 or so probably). That’s right, the 8 foot high, 12000 lb body with full racks. Oh and then the next day, on our drive out, (keep reading mom) we saw a female moose, with her little calf. It’s times like these I notice that my camera can’t take pictures that really capture the moments. I tried my best though, and you can see the result in photo bucket.
Last weekend was basically spent working on job resumes, running, trying to find climbing partners (suddenly, I seemed to have a shortage of them), visiting the county fair with Jim, and then Kelly and Rohan, research and some pleasure reading. Oh! And I did get to go climbing for the first time at Lumpy Ridge with Brian H. He’s a climbing ranger for the park. We climbed this one cool 5.9 crack called Conad’s Gonads (don’t you just love how climbers name routes?). Then this alright 5.9 crack and a burly 5.11c crack/dihedral. It was pretty fun. Then we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner with Andy (the climbing ranger from the last SAR) and his wife, Rebbecca. Afterward, we enjoyed some rock music from a local band at the Rock Inn.
This week at work was a bit interesting. It was our first week without Jim or Terra. Both were on leave for various reasons. So basically everything was left to us to get done. So on the list for Monday was for Ryan and I to replace a privy base for a campsite in Yipslon’s drainage. We hiked the privy base in 4.5 miles with Mister, only to find that the privy base there was perfectly fine (maybe some touchup paint, but no more). So we ate lunch at Yipslon Lake and then hiked out with the new privy base still with us. Tuesday to Thursday we were on the North Fork Trail that leads from Glen haven to Lost Lake. Tuesday was just a six-mile hike in with both llamas and getting a privy base and BICAM done. The next day however, was an unexpected 20 mile day. The llamas, which were kept in the pen next to the patrol cabin we were staying in, escaped sometime in the night. We chased them all the way down to the trailhead and part way down the road. Luckily, the trail crew was coming in that day, and they helped us capture the llamas. Then we hiked all the way back to the cabin and then to Lost lake to actually get some real work done before we headed back to the patrol cabin for dinner and bed. The next day was a bit more leisurely-everyone burned from the wild llama chase the day before. Basically just pack up, clean up and hike out with a couple of quick jobs to do when we got back to the cache.
That evening, after dinner, I went bouldering with a climbing friend Sam who works for the Fire Management department. We made plans for our adventure the next day-hiking in (about 6 miles) to Spearhead, climbing this four pitch 5.10 route called Syke Sickle, and then hiking out. We met at three in the morning. We got to the trailhead, and quickly started our hike. We flew thru the first intersection, making good time. But then we both started to notice-something was wrong. Neither of us recognized the trail and we had both been up to spearhead before. We soon began to backtrack. We went back about a mile to the first intersection, where we discovered, we both had miss read the sign and took a wrong turn (hey, lets see how awake and attentive you are at 4:00 in the morning when you went bed at 11. And hiking be headlamp rather than daylight makes things feel quite different).
So we debated briefly at the intersection and decided to go with a different plan we had discussed last night-a hard day of climbing at Lumpy, on its fun, but oh so painful cracks. So we went back to Sam’s house, grabbed the gear we needed for cragging, another cup of coffee each, and contemplated stopping at the famed Donut Haus before driving to the ridge. We climbed this on four pitch route on the Book. It’s was pretty cool, definitely had some challenges, especially with the high winds. Then we did some laps on these two single pitch crags and went to little twin owls where I burned out quite embarrassingly on a 5.9 (I’m afraid I already need to resole my new climbing shoes, though I can’t blame my failure of the pitch all on them, unfortunately). Then we finished our very long day by enjoying some pizza with Garrett at his house.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Cut ‘em down! My last days as a raging, hormone swinging, teenager and what life can throw at you. My vacation weekend in Yosemite.
Wednesday, July 29
Ok, so, I sort of broke my promise-I haven’t kept the blog up to date very well lately. As you can tell, there’s a lot to catch up on from the last 2.5 weeks. I’ll try to bring you up to speed quickly and painlessly.
Ok so the week of the 13th, work was not too exciting. Well, for me and most of the wilderness crew at least. We returned with the fire crew to North inlet trail. There, for the next 3 days, the Fire crew with Jim and Terra cut down over 70 MPB kill trees in all the campsites along the inlet. As for the rest of us, we were given the most important duty of protecting the lives of the innocent hikers. Meaning, we sat there at the intersection of the access trail drinking our coffees*1 , eating, daydreaming, what have you; halting and talking to the scattered few visitors we saw. After the fire crew was finished felling trees at each campsite, we usually had the chance to at least help clear out the logs and branches in the site. Oh and I almost forgot, the American conservation Corps were up in the inlet as well, taking down on old hitching rack. They had one boy in their group named Random. How interesting. He basically brought 30 cliff bars to live off of for the four days, besides the dinners. What a random, bad idea.
At night, the conservation group cooked dinner together and the wilderness crew enjoyed our first group dinners (first night provided by Tara, the second by Christina, and dessert was painstakingly and lovingly put together by Ryan (a delicious no bake cheese cake), and it was all marvelous) We all watched with interest as the fire crew ate their MRE meals (which they ate for 3 meals a day). *2
Oh, one good thing out of that part of the week-the boss of the fire crew, Singer, mentioned to me that I should do fire crew, and to give him a call next year. A summer where I actually make money? Good money? Now there’s a novel idea. I am rather tempted-could have some new exciting experiences, and not to mention some free travel (ok, so maybe I wont see much battling fires, but I’ll have the chance to do some resource management-new form of education).
Thursday we worked with the fire crew again, but this time we worked on relocating a campsite that’s north of the big meadow. So we actually got to do some real work, which is always exciting. We created a new trail with markers, put in new tent pads, and did fill.
Lets see, the weekend of the 17th to 19th. I believe that Friday, Jim, Estabon (spelling?), Kelly, and I made an attempt on the Diamond. We were up at 2:00 in the morning, hiking by 3:20 am. It was a long day, and unfortunately, because we got caught in the bottleneck of the climb in this chimney at the base of the diamond with all this loose rock *3 and people flying by, we only got the 1st pitch of the casual route done, before we rapped out. But at least I got my second lead on trad climbing in, with Kelly’s very helpful mentoring.
Saturday, I went climbing with Kelly, her 2 year old Rohoan (no idea how to spell), and her climbing friend, Pete. We went down to the Monastery, and did about 3 good pitches. I then hung out with Kelly at her house and watched that movie on earth houses made out of garbage.
Sunday…I think I sort of just relaxed, went for the first sort of long run in a very long while. It felt pretty good after the first sluggish 20 minutes. Got some other things done. Oh and I went to the library and basically just researched South America.
Monday, the 20th-my last day as a raging teenager and I’m sent out with Luke to do BICAMS (camp/bivy site inventory)-something I have learned now is very tedious and boring. We were hiking up to Meeker’s bivy site by chasm lake, and we were approaching the intersection for the lake and Boulder field on the north side of Longs Peak, when I heard a call on the radio. Someone called into 911, saying a man was having a heart attack on the Home Stretch of the Keyhole route. I slowed, listening to see if it was a real call. Luke said that they’d call us if they needed our help, though they probably wont because they like their regulars. Then the call on the radio came in that people had started CPR and Andy was heading up from Boulder field with the hasty med kit. I called when we got to the intersection, asking if they needed our help. They said yes and to meet them up the Keyhole route. We headed as fast as we could for Boulder field and the keyhole. But when we got to the far side, Andy called us in, saying we should go back to what we were doing, they have the help they need. So we turned around, disappointed and confused. But then they called us in again, asking us to walk down with the party that was with the man. I was wondering what was going on. I knew they called a helicopter, Maybe just Andy and the man were gong to wait for them to come in (I for some reason assumed they had an AED in the med kit). Andy informed me that the daughter of the man was in the group.
So we waited and listened. Soon I heard mention of a body on the radio. I wondered, but it just didn’t sink in (I guess I’ve just pictured all the rescues of me being on, being successful-the first one gave me that false sense of security). I confirmed the truth though with Michelle (a back country ranger) when she arrived. I wondered now how old the daughter was. I figured if the father was 62, she must be late 30’s, early forties. Oh how I was wrong. When they finally met us at Boulderfield, we found out that the daughter, Natalie, was really was the only one in the group that was actually with the man, the rest were just involved in CPR. Natalie, it turns out, was only 22 years old. Within 10 minutes of their arrival, I was walking with Natalie to the trail head, six miles down trail, while Michelle and Luke interviewed all the people involved in the incident. Andy waited for the helicopter. He waited with the body. Alone.
Just before the trail head, we met with a couple who were like Natalies Family #2. I stayed with them to the trail head, unsure what to do. There we met with Donna, the stress counselor/dispatcher for the park. She had Natalie, the couple and me join her in a ranger house, and I stayed with them for the next hour and a half, as Natalie went over probably 3 times the details of her father’s death. I don’t know how she did it.
One thing good thing that I think came out of the day, I made a new friend. Thought I’m afraid she has some hard time ahead of her, and her mom who is not in the best of health. She asked me though if I’d join her on this hike she and her dad were supposed to do the next day.
July 21st, after work where I actually did get the chance to do some BICAMS with Luke over near Morraine Park *4 , I organized a very last minute dinner, and met up with some friends at Nepal’s Café. I was really excited and happy actually with the turnout. Terra, Christina, Ryan, Matt, Monica, Estabon, Kelly, Rohoan, Garrett, and Brian Drew all made it to the party (Jim wanted to come, but unfortunately he had band practice, though he left me a gift at the restaurant). And after dinner, Garrett surprised me with a German Chocolate cake and everyone covered my bill, which I hadn’t expected at all. It was definitely one of the best birthday dinners I have ever had. *5
Wednesday and Thursday were just some more BICAM days at work. Thursday night though, I went to Terra’s friend’s house for the night and caught my flight out of Denver to San Francisco Friday morning. I was off to the re-supply for the new Joie Armstrong scholars, hoping that all my random rides and connections on places to stay, falls through.
The weekend was fantastic. I was easily able to meet up with my first ride, Steve Lockhart, who I believe is the president of Yosemite Institute (the fist of several connections I made this weekend). He turns out to be a climber of 20 years, so when he drove Jane (JAS alum from 2008) and I to Yosemite, he tells me all about these different climbing routes in Yosemite, especially alpine (now I have to go back to do them one day).
That night, I ate a delicious swordfish sandwich at a Mobile gas station *6. I stayed at a campsite that night with all the other re-suppliers and we left about 6:30 in the morning to Twin Lake, where we hiked up to Peeler Lake to meet the JAS. It was a rather hilarious time. Refer to pictures to get the thousand word details. Oh and don’t forget to watch the after lunch dance party video.
The next morning I did some crag climbing with Jesse and Alison who were on the re-supply (and had just returned from Alaska) and that afternoon, after seeing my first sequoia trees, Leslie (my former JAS leader) and I headed to Oakland, CA. there I stayed at Marcia’s (member of HI board) house and got to enjoy a nice hot Jacuzzi and shower. I headed off about 8 the next morning to San Francisco via BART. After walking around San Fran for about 4 hours, eating delicious, though odd Chinese donuts, I headed to the airport. By this time, I have realized that I left the charger for my cell phone at Marcia’s house, but know there’s nothing I can do about it now. I apologize now to those I have not gotten back to that I said I would. I’m gonna be out of cell phone communication until my charger travels halfway across the US.
Ok, I think that covers it for this entry, I’ll catch up on the last two days of work in the next one.
*1 In Ryan’s case at least. He’s been on coffee since he was 10 when he had hockey practice at 5 in the morning (yes, I did feel that the underline, italics and bold was necessary) and his dad gave it to him to perk him up.
*2 We read the ingredients on some of those packages-talk about a long list of who knows what? We think some of the ingredients are in plastic.
*3 Jim accidentally knocked a huge one loose while Kelly and I were still tied in the anchor below. I’ll confess, I was a little terrified, clinging closely to the cliff, listening to the crashing of something very big and helmet penetrable coming down toward us. Oh, I’ll give away the ending for you so you don’t have a heart attack-we lived, it missed us completely. But a helmet is first on my list of things I need to pro-deal this summer.
*4 This was somewhat exciting, because I hadn’t been on this trail before, and I got to see a coyote.
*5 So now that I’m 20, does this mean I’m a normal person now? And seen as an adult? Because all those crazy, spontaneous hormones and crazy teenager ideas all disappear on this day…right?
*6 Who would have guessed a four star chef would quite his job at a fancy restaurant to be able to ski in the winter and serve food to the local hiker and at a gas station no less?
Ok, so, I sort of broke my promise-I haven’t kept the blog up to date very well lately. As you can tell, there’s a lot to catch up on from the last 2.5 weeks. I’ll try to bring you up to speed quickly and painlessly.
Ok so the week of the 13th, work was not too exciting. Well, for me and most of the wilderness crew at least. We returned with the fire crew to North inlet trail. There, for the next 3 days, the Fire crew with Jim and Terra cut down over 70 MPB kill trees in all the campsites along the inlet. As for the rest of us, we were given the most important duty of protecting the lives of the innocent hikers. Meaning, we sat there at the intersection of the access trail drinking our coffees*1 , eating, daydreaming, what have you; halting and talking to the scattered few visitors we saw. After the fire crew was finished felling trees at each campsite, we usually had the chance to at least help clear out the logs and branches in the site. Oh and I almost forgot, the American conservation Corps were up in the inlet as well, taking down on old hitching rack. They had one boy in their group named Random. How interesting. He basically brought 30 cliff bars to live off of for the four days, besides the dinners. What a random, bad idea.
At night, the conservation group cooked dinner together and the wilderness crew enjoyed our first group dinners (first night provided by Tara, the second by Christina, and dessert was painstakingly and lovingly put together by Ryan (a delicious no bake cheese cake), and it was all marvelous) We all watched with interest as the fire crew ate their MRE meals (which they ate for 3 meals a day). *2
Oh, one good thing out of that part of the week-the boss of the fire crew, Singer, mentioned to me that I should do fire crew, and to give him a call next year. A summer where I actually make money? Good money? Now there’s a novel idea. I am rather tempted-could have some new exciting experiences, and not to mention some free travel (ok, so maybe I wont see much battling fires, but I’ll have the chance to do some resource management-new form of education).
Thursday we worked with the fire crew again, but this time we worked on relocating a campsite that’s north of the big meadow. So we actually got to do some real work, which is always exciting. We created a new trail with markers, put in new tent pads, and did fill.
Lets see, the weekend of the 17th to 19th. I believe that Friday, Jim, Estabon (spelling?), Kelly, and I made an attempt on the Diamond. We were up at 2:00 in the morning, hiking by 3:20 am. It was a long day, and unfortunately, because we got caught in the bottleneck of the climb in this chimney at the base of the diamond with all this loose rock *3 and people flying by, we only got the 1st pitch of the casual route done, before we rapped out. But at least I got my second lead on trad climbing in, with Kelly’s very helpful mentoring.
Saturday, I went climbing with Kelly, her 2 year old Rohoan (no idea how to spell), and her climbing friend, Pete. We went down to the Monastery, and did about 3 good pitches. I then hung out with Kelly at her house and watched that movie on earth houses made out of garbage.
Sunday…I think I sort of just relaxed, went for the first sort of long run in a very long while. It felt pretty good after the first sluggish 20 minutes. Got some other things done. Oh and I went to the library and basically just researched South America.
Monday, the 20th-my last day as a raging teenager and I’m sent out with Luke to do BICAMS (camp/bivy site inventory)-something I have learned now is very tedious and boring. We were hiking up to Meeker’s bivy site by chasm lake, and we were approaching the intersection for the lake and Boulder field on the north side of Longs Peak, when I heard a call on the radio. Someone called into 911, saying a man was having a heart attack on the Home Stretch of the Keyhole route. I slowed, listening to see if it was a real call. Luke said that they’d call us if they needed our help, though they probably wont because they like their regulars. Then the call on the radio came in that people had started CPR and Andy was heading up from Boulder field with the hasty med kit. I called when we got to the intersection, asking if they needed our help. They said yes and to meet them up the Keyhole route. We headed as fast as we could for Boulder field and the keyhole. But when we got to the far side, Andy called us in, saying we should go back to what we were doing, they have the help they need. So we turned around, disappointed and confused. But then they called us in again, asking us to walk down with the party that was with the man. I was wondering what was going on. I knew they called a helicopter, Maybe just Andy and the man were gong to wait for them to come in (I for some reason assumed they had an AED in the med kit). Andy informed me that the daughter of the man was in the group.
So we waited and listened. Soon I heard mention of a body on the radio. I wondered, but it just didn’t sink in (I guess I’ve just pictured all the rescues of me being on, being successful-the first one gave me that false sense of security). I confirmed the truth though with Michelle (a back country ranger) when she arrived. I wondered now how old the daughter was. I figured if the father was 62, she must be late 30’s, early forties. Oh how I was wrong. When they finally met us at Boulderfield, we found out that the daughter, Natalie, was really was the only one in the group that was actually with the man, the rest were just involved in CPR. Natalie, it turns out, was only 22 years old. Within 10 minutes of their arrival, I was walking with Natalie to the trail head, six miles down trail, while Michelle and Luke interviewed all the people involved in the incident. Andy waited for the helicopter. He waited with the body. Alone.
Just before the trail head, we met with a couple who were like Natalies Family #2. I stayed with them to the trail head, unsure what to do. There we met with Donna, the stress counselor/dispatcher for the park. She had Natalie, the couple and me join her in a ranger house, and I stayed with them for the next hour and a half, as Natalie went over probably 3 times the details of her father’s death. I don’t know how she did it.
One thing good thing that I think came out of the day, I made a new friend. Thought I’m afraid she has some hard time ahead of her, and her mom who is not in the best of health. She asked me though if I’d join her on this hike she and her dad were supposed to do the next day.
July 21st, after work where I actually did get the chance to do some BICAMS with Luke over near Morraine Park *4 , I organized a very last minute dinner, and met up with some friends at Nepal’s Café. I was really excited and happy actually with the turnout. Terra, Christina, Ryan, Matt, Monica, Estabon, Kelly, Rohoan, Garrett, and Brian Drew all made it to the party (Jim wanted to come, but unfortunately he had band practice, though he left me a gift at the restaurant). And after dinner, Garrett surprised me with a German Chocolate cake and everyone covered my bill, which I hadn’t expected at all. It was definitely one of the best birthday dinners I have ever had. *5
Wednesday and Thursday were just some more BICAM days at work. Thursday night though, I went to Terra’s friend’s house for the night and caught my flight out of Denver to San Francisco Friday morning. I was off to the re-supply for the new Joie Armstrong scholars, hoping that all my random rides and connections on places to stay, falls through.
The weekend was fantastic. I was easily able to meet up with my first ride, Steve Lockhart, who I believe is the president of Yosemite Institute (the fist of several connections I made this weekend). He turns out to be a climber of 20 years, so when he drove Jane (JAS alum from 2008) and I to Yosemite, he tells me all about these different climbing routes in Yosemite, especially alpine (now I have to go back to do them one day).
That night, I ate a delicious swordfish sandwich at a Mobile gas station *6. I stayed at a campsite that night with all the other re-suppliers and we left about 6:30 in the morning to Twin Lake, where we hiked up to Peeler Lake to meet the JAS. It was a rather hilarious time. Refer to pictures to get the thousand word details. Oh and don’t forget to watch the after lunch dance party video.
The next morning I did some crag climbing with Jesse and Alison who were on the re-supply (and had just returned from Alaska) and that afternoon, after seeing my first sequoia trees, Leslie (my former JAS leader) and I headed to Oakland, CA. there I stayed at Marcia’s (member of HI board) house and got to enjoy a nice hot Jacuzzi and shower. I headed off about 8 the next morning to San Francisco via BART. After walking around San Fran for about 4 hours, eating delicious, though odd Chinese donuts, I headed to the airport. By this time, I have realized that I left the charger for my cell phone at Marcia’s house, but know there’s nothing I can do about it now. I apologize now to those I have not gotten back to that I said I would. I’m gonna be out of cell phone communication until my charger travels halfway across the US.
Ok, I think that covers it for this entry, I’ll catch up on the last two days of work in the next one.
*1 In Ryan’s case at least. He’s been on coffee since he was 10 when he had hockey practice at 5 in the morning (yes, I did feel that the underline, italics and bold was necessary) and his dad gave it to him to perk him up.
*2 We read the ingredients on some of those packages-talk about a long list of who knows what? We think some of the ingredients are in plastic.
*3 Jim accidentally knocked a huge one loose while Kelly and I were still tied in the anchor below. I’ll confess, I was a little terrified, clinging closely to the cliff, listening to the crashing of something very big and helmet penetrable coming down toward us. Oh, I’ll give away the ending for you so you don’t have a heart attack-we lived, it missed us completely. But a helmet is first on my list of things I need to pro-deal this summer.
*4 This was somewhat exciting, because I hadn’t been on this trail before, and I got to see a coyote.
*5 So now that I’m 20, does this mean I’m a normal person now? And seen as an adult? Because all those crazy, spontaneous hormones and crazy teenager ideas all disappear on this day…right?
*6 Who would have guessed a four star chef would quite his job at a fancy restaurant to be able to ski in the winter and serve food to the local hiker and at a gas station no less?
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