Carve It Up

Katie and her roommates threw a rocking pumpkin carving potluck party. The food was great, the 40 something people there were great, and the carving was great. It really was a fun night.


Jay above. Every main room of the house was crowded with people carving stuff!
There were some very cool pumpkins that came out of the evening.



Jane, one of the roomies, and my Picasso-esque production that came about due to several knife slips! The damn thing was so large that it was like 4 inches thick! Once the knife got in and started moving, it was hard to take the action back.


And at some point, people started wanting to wrestle in one form or another. Katie learned not to take on Dave!

Liking the Lichen

The Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park was pretty awesome. Most photos just didn't do it justice. Half the time it seemed that the main body of the tree couldn't even be made out because of the amount of mossy lichens hanging all over everything.

Also, all was soft and cushy, below, like the well-padded paths of many fallen leaves and trees.



Unfortunately, upon leaving we hit rain for several hours. Motoing with a passenger went pretty well. I hadn't ever done it before and Katie and I only had several near-falls when going super slow and turning or something like that! Overall, the Olympic Peninsula was awesome. It is very well guarded, though. We got pulled over TWICE by a Park Ranger in Fort Worden State Park, in Port Townsend, where we spent the first night in a cool hostel.

First, I was apparently going almost 30 MPH in a 15 MPH zone! But even better, we walked down by the beach that evening and he came out on the beach to tell us it was closed off. Then he was like, "Oh, bummer, I already pulled these two over earlier this evening!"

The Sea Cowboy meets Second Beach

I'm not sure how this amazing place could be anyone's Second Beach? I think it was only that in name, because it was absolutely stunning. Katie Donze and I took the moto out to the Olympic Peninsula and were lucky enough to get at least one clear day and night to camp out on Second Beach on the west coast. I was hopping, below, in my excitement when we reached the beach and unpacked!

We ended up scavenging some mussels from this rock, if I remember correctly, and cooking them up with dinner.

Although none of the photos came out well, we camped on a full moon night! We also saw a sea lion while walking the beach that evening. The ideal weather that day made the whole trip worthwhile!

It was a really cool place.

The Sea Cowboy! I'm a raging dork!

Reunions

Things have an odd way of coming back around.  People that you don't expect pop up in usually good ways.

I had several great reunions in Seattle.  I had dinner with Ben and Sarah, above, some wonderful rafting friends from back in my Portland days.  We all admired the fish tank.

Then, I had the wonderful surprise of discovering that Emily Orling resides in Seattle.  We hadn't seen each other in over 10 years!  We sang together many years ago in the St. Louis Children's Choirs.  Emily continues to sing, outdoing me, as the lead vocalist for a bluegrass group!

Further Up and Further In

No climber am I.  The shaky Elvis leg came out many times as I struggled to find correct footing and hand holds.

I joined a large group of Katie Donze's friends as I visited her in Seattle for a climbing trip.  There were over a dozen of us that went to central Washington.  I was the least experienced and happy to watch the good climbers, but they insisted I tried a few runs.  

When not climbing, the camp fire offered lots of entertainment, such as Mike with his smoking coozy!  The results the following morning, below!

Maggie, the obligatory cute puppy along.  And my tent near the feathers, some of the many basalt columns in the area.

The central crag in the above photo is the one successful climb I made.  I hadn't climbed in years, so I was happy to reach the top on at least one.

A bunch of climbers were out for the weekend.  And a lot of butts were seen scaling one run or another.

Getting ready to shotgun some beers after a hard day of climbing.

Along the Way

Logging is a huge industry, but it's often hard to see evidence while out and about.  Every now and then you come across huge amounts of timber.  I struggle with opinions about it.  Many are opposed to it, but it's a pretty necessary industry overall.

Some views around the University of Washington library.  College campuses are always very interesting for the diversity of thought and people that they offer.

A view of the sky from my camp in southern Canada.

Rocky Mountain High

Canadian Rockies, that is.  Okay, so the Canadian Rockies are beyond description.  Absolutely awesome.  I loved the several days that I spent up there, although the weather wasn't ideal.  I hit a lot of snow and ice on the passes.

I had better weather in Banff NP.  Then headed into a graveyard of mountains as weather came in for my trip through Jasper NP.  The Icefield Parkway, Highway 93, had huge tombstones peaking in and out of the foggy cloud cover as I made my way through a beautifully frightening valley.

Surprisingly, the Canadian Rockies are not taller than the US counterparts.  However, they are much more striking.  With sharper peaks, more stone and few trees, they are very dramatic.