Day 15

Read the whole thing.
Headed to Mt St. Helens today. I have to say, when you see all the news of the eruption on the TV, it looks like it's really straight forward on what happened where and how much damage there was to the surrounding area. However, when you see it for yourself the sheer distances you're talking about make it quite difficult to gauge just what went on in 1980.

The other thing that complicates the destruction and rehabilitation of the area is all the signs that say "Planted in 19xx" next too all the trees. I was furious when I saw those signs all over. Why would they plant new trees everywhere? All they're going to have is a bunch of trees that are all the same age and it will never be the type of forest that was naturally there to begin with. Plus the sheer expense that had to be put forth to plant all these trees by hand. They had to be planted by hand because of the ash layer that covered everything was not full of the minerals needed for the trees to grow. It wasn't directly harmful to them if the roots could get below that layer, but you couldn't just salt the surface with tree seedlings or seeds and expect a forest to spring up, the workers had to scrape down to the soil and place the seedling at that level.

Then I saw it by the Hoffstadt Creek Bridge on the way up the mountain, but didn't take a picture of it for some reason. If memory serves, it cost nine billion dollars to replant the hills surrounding Mt St. Helens and it wasn't completed until 1992, and the first trees will be ready for logging in 2010 or 2012. Oh, that's why the trees were planted so thickly and no care was taken for diversity in the forest.

Thankfully they didn't replant the entire area around the Volcano as there was a large portion directly around the summit that was set aside for science. This area has many little shrubs and flowers starting to grow on it, but very few trees and tree like plants. There were some evergreen trees in some of the crevasses that look like they were somewhat protected from the heat of the blast, but they are small enough that they look like new growth to my untrained and unaided eye. Other than that, the hillside is a bone yard of broken tree trunks and stumps that were left from the sheer force of the eruption. You wouldn't have wanted to be standing up there when it went, and the monument to the people that were shows that some where.

Now for things to get interesting. I was planning on camping at one of the many (ok about three) campgrounds in the near area to Mt St Helens and doing some hiking tomorrow. But by now you know how plans work, or don't. Being Saturday night between two major metropolitan areas (Portland and Seattle) every available campsite I found within about fifty miles was full. New plan for tomorrow: Drive closer to Seattle and spend the whole day downtown... ready... break!

Day 15 Distance: 237, Elevation: 10 -> 4311

Continue?

Day 14

Don't know where I've been? Read about it here.

Schrader and I went to the Japanese Garden today, and I have to say it was pretty cool. We got there on the MAX and took our bikes so we didn't have to worry about parking on a Friday afternoon, which would have been a problem. There were ample options for photos, so I ended up with almost sixty photos.

Today's photos have also been added to the Alaska Trip photo group so you can see part of what I've seen on my mystical journey. It has now grown into two albums as picasaweb only allows 500 photos per album.

First album of pictures includes the first dozen days.
Second album starts on day 14.

These pictures have all been resized to 800x600 pixels for your viewing convenience. If you would like any of the full sized, or modified photos that I have, please email me and I'll send them too you. Eventually I'll get around to picking out my favorites and put them in they're own directory in all they're glory.

Day 12 & 13

Do not pass go, head directly to the beginning.

The "MAINT REQD" light has been flashing for a few days now, I guess it means I need to get the oil changed. Suppose now is as good of time as any. Got Mobile 1 synthetic put in even though I don't know if synthetic was in before, but I plan on keeping synthetic in there from now on. I didn't really want to, but I got the oil changed at a Walmart Express Lube. Give me a break, it was right next to the gas station in town and I did call another service station that my GPS recommended, but they didn't answer their phone.

On the upside, leaving the parking lot I saw a Tahoe with the following bumper sticker:
"GUNS CAUSE CRIME
like flies cause garbage"

I wasn't too ninja taking the photo, so the lady driving saw me take the photo. I don't think she was too friendly because the other bumper sticker on the vehicle said:
"KEEP HONKING
I'm reloading."

I turned the other direction. We'll leave well enough alone.

So I'm driving down I-84 to Portland, and I'm having trouble breathing. I-84 is right next too the Columbia River, which is breath taking, but not so much that I should be actually having trouble breathing so I glance at my GPS to see what the elevation says. 380 feet and I'm still over 150 miles from Portland! This river is more like a huge inland lake that stretches for hundreds of miles. It's so slow moving that from the roadway I can't tell that it's a river at all. This state must be so flat that the river can't... oh, there's the dam. So that's what 'The Dallas' are... I get it now.

My GPS navigated me through Portland to Schrader's place almost flawlessly. I say almost because the last turn when it should beep faster the last quarter mile from the turn it didn't start until I had passed the corner. Crap... U turn and I'm there.

This place is really full of cars and people. They pack the houses in here, but inside the place is really quite spacious.

Now it's Day 13... It's raining... and since I'm not at all a superstitious person I think I'll just stay home today. I mean, my computer needs some software upgraded... and I have all these photos to go through... I've just got so much work to do that I've just got to stay home right? That's it... I'll just do that then.

Day12 Distance: 513, Elevation: 23 -> 4783

Continue?

Day 11

Do you start books in the middle to? Go back to the beginning.

Got up today and felt I needed a good breakfast, so I cooked a few eggs and tried not to leave any scraps for the bears to find. Unfortunately I don't know how large of a morsel is considered "bear worthy" but the pieces of egg that missed my napkin were quickly found by the squirrels around the area. I hate squirrels. Probably a bad idea to drop a boulder on these little varmints in a national park, but I considered it. Little mutton grabbers.

After pressing my luck with a wilderness hike yesterday, I stuck to higher traveled trails today. Namely the trails to St. Mary's falls. On my way back, I was taking the shot of the butterfly you see attached to this post, when it was scared away by people approaching from above me on the ledge. I thought at this point that the only reason for that butterfly to be scarred off better be for two hot chicks walking up. Sure enough, there were two of them, and not bad looking either. Apparently it was snack time, so we sat and chatted for about a half hour. I suppose that was worth messing up my butterfly shot after all.

Time to drive to the other side of the park. Sheesh, makes you wish they had a route through the middle of this park... oh, right, closed.

I picked out a nice circular path that would bring me around a lake and started walking. The forest on this side seemed quite a bit different. I'm no expert on forests, but I noticed that there was much less undergrowth, but a more complete canopy. I'd guess that this side was younger as the older trees hadn't yet died to allow openings in the canopy that allowed the undergrowth to flourish.

At the point the circular path should have turned to return home, I found a surprise waiting for me. No bridge. Well, there was a bridge, barley. Oh yeah, obscene amounts of rain. I continued on for awhile longer, hoping for another path across, but really I knew I'd picked another down and back path. Fortunately, to make up for the fact that I was back to not seeing anything else human on the path, a deer and it's fawn crossed in front of me. Then something I'd never seen before happened; as I watched, the mother deer nestled the fawn down in the shadows, and tried to get me to follow her. She stood for awhile, then rotated in a circle, then walked off, leaving her fawn hunkered down. An easy meal. Too bad I'd just had a snack and wasn't hungry for any native offerings, so I resorted to the next best thing: a good photo op with a captive audience. No need for that 70-300mm lens, I could walk right up to the fawn and take it's picture.

I want to make it to Portland tomorrow, so it's back on the road we go. After Missoula I figured I'd look for a place to camp, but I didn't figure I'd find one _IN_ a rest stop, but that's what the sign said, so I got off I-90 to investigate. Sure enough, there was a little road back to a national forest with camping just off the Interstate. How convenient, but at the same time terribly disappointing. No narrow roadway to follow for miles at a time, or confusing signs to interpret, or signs half destroyed by those people that hunt stationary reflective objects at point blank range with shotguns. Oh well, I guess this will do.

Day 11 Distance: 315, Elevation: 2733 -> 6017

Don't know where to go from here? There's always Day 12.

Day 10

Start with Day 1... if you dare.

Made it to Glacier National Park today and had planned to drive through the entire park, however last November it seems that they had an obscene amount of precipitation that completely removed the roadway through Logan Pass and there is no route through park. So, I'll have to be content to see the park from the east side today, and the west side tomorrow.

I spent a good portion of the evening hours hiking through bear country mostly because I hadn't had a good hike in awhile. It felt good to be going through a path where I didn't see anyone for over two hours. In fact I traveled nearly four miles total, down and back, on a trail this evening having never seen, or heard anything that sounded human, besides myself that is. I think I still classify as human, I'll have to check tomorrow.

I tried to get a couple of photos of flowers hanging over the path, but because of the canopy of the trees, I had some trouble. That and the fact that I never thought to change the ISO setting on my camera... DOH!... It's still set to 100, which is great for sunny scenery with lots of colors, but awful for the darkness of a forest, so even with an IS lens I couldn't get the photos to turn out quite right. Somebody remind me to change that setting, because I don't remember to do so. The camera can go up to 1600 ISO rating, so I know I would have been able to get the photo to turn out correctly upon hindsight.

As I was setting up my tent and filling out the campground paperwork (twenty bucks... what a ripoff!) the campground hosts drove up. I thought for sure I was in someone else's campsite and I'd have to take my tent down, and because it was quite windy and starting to rain I'd put extra effort into making sure that the tent and rain cover where properly donned. Instead Bonnie just wanted to tell me big tails of all the bear activity they had the last few nights. Something like three bears in the last four nights. I wanted to ask how they knew it wasn't the same bear every night, but thought better of it and didn't. She felt it her duty (rightly so) to inform me on food safety and whatnot. Nothing varied much from the pamphlets they gave you when you entered the park which amount to the same message as "Don't talk to strangers." Nothing in there about what happens if the stranger talks to you first. The one interesting thing she did say was not to keep toothpaste in the tent, as the smell can attract the bears. I showed her though, I didn't even brush my teeth that day.

By this time, it was basically dark, and getting quite chilly. Good thing I've got that warm sleeping bag. I zipped it all the way up for the first time ever, and slept with just my nose exposed, quite comfy really.

Day10 Distance: 286, Elevation 3579 -> 6719

Can't stop can you?

Day 9

What's a story of you don't hear it all?

Well, I changed my mind. Easy to do when you're the only one it really affects. It was recommended to me that I take the scenic Bear's Tooth Pass. I was not disappointed. There isn't much to say about it other than that. This stretch of road is a must drive. Everyone needs to get their hands on some snow in late June.

After going through the pass, there were some sheep on the side hill below the road. I saw them, but they were so far away even with my camera they would have just been white dots, so I didn't bother taking any photos of them, the lake on the other side of the road seemed much more worthwhile at the time. But there were several people taking pictures. The one that stood out the most was a motorcyclist that was walking down the tundra to get an at level shot of them. If I felt adventurous that would have been the place to be to get the best shots of them, but the sun was at their backs, so even then I'd have been at a loss for a quality photo.
A little later, I pulled off to take a look at the scenic overlook and guess who shows up to talk cameras, the motorcyclist. He has the same camera that I have, but instead of going for the 17-85mm IS lens, he went for the 70-300mm IS lens, the exact lens that I am looking at for my next upgrade. From the shots he had of those sheep, it looks like it is perfect for those wildlife photos.

After driving through more of Montana and seeing quite a few deer (which unlike Nebraska deer are found only one at a time) and a turkey (not the brotherly kind), it felt like time for bed, but I figured I could make it to Butte on this tank so I'd look for one of the camp sites on the map just north of Butte. Little did I know that the junction from I-90 West to I-15 North has no services along it. Rather than turning around in the median and with the low fuel light staring me in the face, I had to cross the Continental Divide again before turning around and driving back into Butte to fill up. Let's try not to do that again.

The camp site I chose was a blissful seven mile drive down a rough back woods logging road in the dead of night. Perfect hack and slash movie material really. But the campground was only five bucks for the night so I was sold.

All said and done, lots of miles with plenty to see all day.

Day9 Distance: 365, Elevation 3609 -> 11004

Insert Quarter to continue...

Bankers == Idiots

So, I have a car loan... life sucks. I was hoping to make life a little less in the suck category by getting a better loan from a bank in Aurora, so Mom did some calling around and we thought that Heritage would be the best rate. I believe they quoted her (over the phone) with something like 7.2%, I don't remember for sure, and I've thrown away the piece of paper since then, but I know it was in the lower to mid 7's. So that beats the pants off my 8.95% rate from the dealership.

Later that day I find myself talking to the loan officer and he runs through a few numbers, but we don't have my hard and fast percentage down yet, so I'm not really paying attention. After filling out the credit check information, I tried to hand him one of my forms of identification, knowing that banks don't know who you are until you give them the all holy photo ID, otherwise known as a drivers license or the other ambiguous So-So Security card. However, he doesn't want them. 'Aurora is such a tight community that banks don't have to play by all the rules.' Ok, that's very paraphrased, but that's essentially what he said. Whatever, I already told you the numbers so I guess you don't need a copy of them, you can look them up in the computer to verify that I am who I just told you I am right? Next, he then says he's going to run the credit check, and it apparently takes a few hours. That was news to me, but ok he'll call me when it's done and I can get this thing moving.

About 40 minutes later, I get a phone call. Sweet, it's the banker. I'm not sure why he said hours, but whatever I can just run back into town and get some of this paperwork moving. Nope, bank says I have too much school debt and need my folks to co-sign so we can get the good rate. Well, that sucks, Mom just went to Lincoln, and Dad's at work. I was leaving on my Alaska trip the next day, so we'll have to do this paperwork through the mail.

My folks forwarded the documentation to where I'd be in a few days, and it arrived right on schedule. Don't let the post office fool you with their bland distemper, they get the job done. The mail had already gone out today (Saturday) so I was in no rush to tear into boring paperwork and I let it wait until tonight.

But what should I find when I open the letter? A note from the loan officer saying "Hopefully the car will hold up as well." and it's signed? The 19th... the _EXACT_ day my window cracked from the heat. Nice one Murphy. But wait... there's more!

The ~7.2% that should have been stamped on the papers magically turned into a 8.452%. Yes, that is lower than 8.95%... total savings? less than $75 over 36 months. Sweet, now I can totally eat my two double cheese's from McDonald's once a month. And here I was thinking I'd starve.

Now here's where the banker's word is his bond. There was a sticky note attached to another form. I'll quote it in full:
"Paul, I need a copy of your drivers license & a 2nd form of ID. (Social Security Card, Credit Card - School ID) Thank you."
I couldn't give that stuff to them when I was actually _IN_ the bank a week ago, but now they want my Credit Card... yeah, let me send you that in the mail.

So am I over reacting a little bit? Do I think that 7.2% is too low to ask for? A quick run around the Internet brings me to bankrate.com, specifically their auto loan calculator. The little box in the corner of the page shows National Auto Rates Averages. The rate for a 36 month loan you ask? 7.35% and rising. Damn, I'm good.

I even ran through the "Lender Rates For 36-month auto refinance loan rates in Lincoln, NE", they didn't have Aurora, just to see if we were supposed to be higher than the national average. The three options there were between 7.15% and 7.20%, two of them being 7.20%. Now, do I think I'm getting ripped off?

I've never intentionally missed a credit card payment (and I know I haven't in the last five years), I have a credit rating in the highest bracket (someplace between 780 and 820 depending on the mood of the credit place I think) and I've got enough liquid assets to pay off all my debts (this includes school debts) tomorrow if I chose too. Of course I don't because that's emergency money that the financial planners recommend you have in reserve for the "rainy days", which this is decidedly not.

Bankers, Lawyers, and Politician there just isn't enough rope, bullets, or water to get rid of them all.

Day 7 & 8

Have you read them all?

Wow, Grand Teton National Park is quite amazing. The trail system offers some great views of the mountains, and there were all kinds of swallowtail butterfly's to be seen hiking around the park. I did a quick three miles around String Lake. The original plan was to spend some time around Jenny Lake, but that must have been the hot spot today as there were people absolutely everywhere and there wasn't a parking spot to be found. But as it turns out, I think String Lake was a much better, and somewhat shorter, route to take.

Then it was on to Yellowstone. However, the recommendation from this side of the keyboard leans heavily toward the Teton's as it was a much more impressive park. Oh sure, Yellowstone has got some really unique things, such as the mud pots, but for all the space Yellowstone occupies, you can't see much of it because of the trees. We'll give Yellowstone another chance tomorrow, but for the view, I'd go to Teton's again and explore more of the trails there.

After that, I drove down the WRC style gravel road that goes out of the park to Cody, Wyoming. It's probably a good thing I was following another car because I might have died going down the rather sudden drop off.

In Cody, I spent a couple days with Glen, and he showed me all the expensive toys he works with everyday. He sells GPS equipment for use in surveying. You know, the sub-one centimeter equipment. He had some older stuff like a robotic total station. Yeah, he things that stuff is old equipment.

Tomorrow looks like a good day to head toward Glacier, but I'll go through Yellowstone again and take the northerly route. I've heard good things about Glacier NP, so I'm hoping it isn't going to be all hyped up beyond what it can deliver, but here's hoping it won't disappoint.

Day7 Distance: 195, Elevation: 4997 -> 8652
Day8 He rested... or learned about GPS...

Continue?

Day 6

Did you forget about the beginning already?

On the way out of town (Moab) I decided for the first time that I would ask someone from the area on the best way to take to my next destination: Provo, Utah. My question seemed quite simple to me: 'Would US Hwy 6 be a good road to take to Provo?' The answer: 'I think I'd take 71.' So I dive into my maps looking for a Highway, Interstate, or back road that was named "71"... if anyone knows where a road in Utah is named that, please let me know, because after looking for about thirty seconds and seeing only I-70 (which goes way southwest to meet up with I-15... so that's a hell of a lot of miles I didn't feel like traveling) I came to the conclusion that US Hwy 6 was the best way to proceed. Except for the five minute or so delay for road construction, I was not disappointed.

When I arrived in Provo I set to my task of figuring out who could answer some of the questions I had about iProvo. For those that don't know the City of Provo is funding a project to provide Fiber to the Home to every household in the city. The fiber has all been installed and they are now selling this last mile to companies to provide services to the residents of Provo. To find out the details of their system I found myself at the iProvo headquarters where I asked if they gave tours of the setup. In short, the answer was a stiff no. However, I started talking to Aaron, a Computer Science major who was mostly in charge of the translation of MPEGv2 streams provided by the television networks to the iProvo network. Turns out, he gave me a tour of the facilities anyway and I have to say they get to play with some very nice toys.

From what Aaron was telling me, the biggest problem they've run into isn't a technological limitation of the setup they have, it's a problem with the Telecoms that don't want anything to do with an already setup system. Big business wants to control everything and lock an area into an oligopoly that residents can't get free from, so any system designed to encourage competition and keep prices low is fully refused. Provo does have two providers currently providing voice, data, and video to customers, but it's been a long time coming. Financially, iProvo needs about 50% of the population subscribing to some sort of service in order to break even, and they currently have roughly 30% of the population subscribing between the two companies providing service.

Next, I had to make it to the Great Salt Lake.

- And?
- Yeah, dude. There's salt in it.
        
It's, like,
the saltiest lake in the world.
         
- It makes things buoyant, you know?
- Buoyant!

Now, I knew that there was an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, but I didn't know it was big enough to support over 600 head of buffalo and a passel full of elk on it's grasslands and freshwater springs. Oh, and in case you try (like I did) to get to the Great Salt Lake from you guessed it, Salt Lake City, you'll have much better luck getting to it from Ogden... Go figure, it is Utah after all.

From the Great Salt Lake it was time to find a place to crash for the night, and I knew I wanted to get a good start to the day in Grand Teton National Park. What I didn't count on was the fact that a few of the camping places would be full. So I ended up driving through a good portion of the park at night hoping to come across a camping site with my craptastic map and my GPS didn't have camp sites listed in it, which I was counting on. After driving on this narrow back road, I finally came upon the visitors center. Why the park entrance didn't have maps available I may never know, but once I found out where the camp sites where I got to spend some well needed shuteye.

It was the longest day of the year, and hopefully the longest day of the trip. Now, time for the numbers:

Day6 Distance: 605, Elevation: 4075 -> 7480

There's more? Much more!

MTB - Moab

Did you miss the beginning of the Trip?

Today was a big day. The biggest. Literally. Today was the longest day of the year, and I saw ever minute of it. My phone woke me up at 5:30 with a glow coming from the windows. I threw on the same clothes I had on yesterday and headed out of town to 'Klondike' trail. When I got there, I found out not only that I wasn't the only one taking the trail today, but I wasn't even close to the first person there. At the trail head there were already two vehicles emptied of their bikes, and I followed another car in as well.

I have to say I greatly underestimated this trail at first. After checking out my gear I set off down the trail, which I would call more of a 4x4 track, I found myself switching gears. First it was about 1-4, then 1-7, then 2-4, then 2-6. The trail wasn't exactly going uphill, but it defiantly wasn't going downhill either. The dust was flying behind me and I was getting upset because I wanted a medium difficulty trail, not some path I could just as easily drive my vehicle down. But then it happened... sand... lots of sand... I hate sand. This wasn't even the nice kind of sand that almost supports your weight, it's the kind of sand that anticipates your coming and gets out of the way of your tire just to flow around it and bury it six inches deep rendering any amount of peddling futile. After walking my bike through it for about two hundred feet, there was another patch of the same sand later on down the trail. I hate sand. This one was only about one hundred feet long. In case you were wondering, still hating sand over here.

Now the trail splits into the full blown 'Klondike' and 'Baby Steps' trails. At the fork, the both appear to be quite easy, but I continue down 'Baby Steps' as was recommended to me. Pretty soon it narrows to single track. This is a welcome change from the tire track trail. Then it starts getting little ups and downs that forced me back down to my more normal gearing of about 1-5. Then the trail disappears into a slick rock, and begins to climb. And climb. And climb. And I begin to walk my bike. And climb. And climb... and this trail isn't quite so simple anymore. If I were in halfway decent shape, and if I wasn't at nearly 5000 feet the next part would have been awesome. Tight technical switchbacks with quick downhills and short climbs twisting around, through, and over large boulders. However, I've had enough, and when 'Baby Steps' meets back up with 'Klondike', I take it down. Even though I'm exhausted now, 'Klondike' is quite boring in comparison to 'Baby Steps'. It's just a gradual climb over granite slabs. Supposedly there are dinosaur prints in some of these rocks, but I was going much to fast down to see anything of much detail.

There are so many different trails to explore in Moab, so I would defiantly recommend it to anyone wanting to do some hiking or biking.

MTB Distance: 6.08, Elevation: 4583 -> 4987.

Continue with Day 6.

Day 5

Did you start at the beginning of the trip?

Didn't get up as early as I was hoping today, that bike ride really sapped the energy out of me. But I still had plenty of time to get to Moab while it was still light out, and perhaps even go on a short trail until I hit the perfect traffic jam going through the mountains. Not once, but two times all the traffic ground to a halt and took several hours combined to get back up to speed. So much for hitting Moab during the daylight hours as I rolled into town just after sunset.

I have to say though, that Moab is a happening place. Coming into town I saw a bunch of rock crawlers, buggies and other 4x4 equipment all getting strapped to trailers after hitting the trails. Then, going through town I lost count of the number of mountain bike shops somewhere around ten, which just so happens to be the same time I lost count of the number of bars with a decidedly younger crowd hanging out to start drinking.

I ended up crashing at the hostel in town, which, for the first hostel I've ever been to, was a much better experience that they show in the movies... All I saw where a bunch of twenty something dope heads that just wanted to tell stories of the sick trails or tricks they could pull and drink beers. And since I was upwind, it was a good time had by all. (Note to self: These kids must have spent all there cash on good bike equipment because their weed was some really foul smelling stuff.) They recommended that I try out 'Klondike' trail and take 'Baby Steps' sub trail.

Right about then it was about time to call the folks and figure out what the cryptic message about the space station and shuttle was about. Turns out, you could see them both (now separated) from most parts in the US. Just as Dad is looking up what time to see them in Moab and determines that we've missed it, I spot them appearing just above the mountains and follow them as they disappear overhead. A good end to the day and I head to bed as I'm planning to get up around 5:30 to see the sunrise on the trail tomorrow.

Day5 Distance: 424, Elevation: 3983 -> 11037

Continue the Trip.

Days 3 & 4

If you missed part 1, go read it!

Well, it happened. Something not good. Something car related. That's right, I got pegged by a rock. Not your normal rock that is less motivated than your average pet rock, but a rock traveling at close to supersonic speeds on I-25. Then later that day, my car is sitting in the sun (lots of that during summer turns out) and the expansion causes a force on the windshield and, well, let's just say it's not a rock sized problem anymore. I guess I'll just drive with a cracked windshield for awhile. It's not like I've ever done it before though... lol.

Other than that, I hung out with Vern for a couple of days and that was a blast. I even got a tour of LSI before the drinking started.

On Tuesday, I decided I should sleep in, or rather the beer decided for me. You know that thing about altitude affecting the rate you get oxygen? Well, it has something to do with alcohol too.

After a while I got going and took the short trip down the road to Garden of the Gods and did some sight seeing as well as my first biking since my leg go so gnarled. This happened to be the first real exercise since that happened as well and exercising at 6300 feet when you aren't even in shape for 1200 feet might make a little bit of difference. What I'm saying is that I sucked... big time. Not only was I constantly out of breath, but I was so timid on the jagged rocks that I basically ended up with a fancy hike rather than a bike ride. But at least I can say I did it.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Moab, hopefully I'll be more prepared for my excursion there.

Day3 Distance: 81.9, Elevation: 5180 -> 7270
Day4 Distance: 2.04, Elevation: 6352 -> 6444

Continue the Trip.

Trip so Far

I've got two days under my belt now, and I've only traveled about 600 miles so far. I think you could call that a leisurely pace, don't you?

The first night I went to my Cousin's place in western Nebraska with most of my family for his graduation picnic party. The only problem with that idea was that there were forty mile an hour gusts of wind that forced us inside for the duration of the night. For as wet as Central and Eastern Nebraska have been (and now I find out most of Colorado) the panhandle has missed all of it. That night the skies threatened rain with dark clouds and lots of ground strike lightnings. Unfortunately, they got just enough rain to put a few dots on the sidewalk and no more.

The next day, I spent some time hanging out and ended up going fishing for about an hour at Box Butte Reservoir. Apparently the Northern fishing there is quite good, and I could get them to chase a red spinner bait all the way to the side of the boat, but they just wouldn't hit it well enough to set the hook. Oh well, that was more action that my Uncles could drum up as they were fishing for walleye.

After all the fond farewells, I set off for Denver by way of Wyoming. To do this, went through Scott's Bluff. You know I don't think I've ever driven into that town from the north during the day? The view from the top of the hill is quite spectacular. The scene reminds me of the little wave that comes in front of a large ship; it looks like the Bluff is just pushing the city east at will.

When I got to another Cousin's place in Denver it was a little past supper time, and before long it was time to put the kid down. As she is just two months old, I had the opportunity to rock the baby to sleep. My specialty. I guess the kid works like a clock, normally crying herself to sleep by nine at night. No such crying on this night as I was in control. Maybe it's the fact that I bore the kids to sleep, or maybe it's the red beard lulls them into a soft slumber, but whatever it is these single digit month old kids don't stand a chance when they're in my arms. Needless to say, I'm invited back to they're place anytime.

Tomorrow, it's on to Colorado Springs, and before you think I don't know where Alaska is, know this: wander doesn't mean going straight to your destination.

Day1 Distance: 335, Elevation: 1795f -> 4160f
Day2 Distance: 286, Elevation: 3868f -> 6368f

Continue with the next post!

Family Time

Well, yesterday I had a chance to hang out with my sister and her kids before I take off for Alaska. AnnaLiese was a lot of fun to watch. After supper at Val's, she was catching fireflies and the picture here is one of her victims. It was good to see Eliot and AnnaLiese for awhile. We had to work to keep food on Eliot's plate... man can that kid eat, and he's only about a year old right now. AnnaLiese was more excited to find out if I liked the card she wrote for me a few days ago. She wrote me a get well letter and drew a few pictures for me. Boy was I surprised to see that when I opened the letter. It seems that Julie told her about my biking accident and AnnaLiese was sure to tell me all about how bad my "owe" was. That kid doesn't forget much of anything anymore, but it was really cool to have her concerned for me.

I finally broke down and installed Picasa on my laptop. From a first glance, it's very easy to make quick clean edits to photos to add a little more warming to pictures such as this one. I'm sure there are more professional ways to edit this photo, but I'm happy with the result here for all the work I put into it, which was not much. I think it took about four or five minutes to download and install Picasa, then about ten minutes to import all the photos currently on my laptop and less time than that to glance through the features of Picasa, modify a few options, edit this photo and export it to picasaweb. I didn't figure out how to export directly from picasa to picasaweb, but I didn't look that hard either.

Bow Fishing Trip to Calamus

Well, we figured it would be late enough in the season for the carp would be rafting all over the place. We were wrong.

The trip up there went smoothly, and as always, the Manning's were very hospitable feeding and housing my brother and myself. I suppose it has something to do with us bringing there son back to them. When we finally got ourselves up on Saturday and got the boat launched, we were expecting the carp to be quite oblivious to our existence. What we found instead were very few carp in the deep shoreline making for some very difficult shots. The first day we all got a fish, but it wasn't easy to sneak up on them at all. Hopefully when Manning and Knudsen go back next week the water will be warmed up for the carp to be spawning and a massacrer will occur.

Even though the fish weren't easy to find, it was a good weekend with some excellent weather. I've uploaded more GPS maps so you can see where the fishing was good.

Oh, and Scott is G... Hey, I'm just repeating what I read.

Some time on my hands.

Well, as you might imagine, I've had a little time on my hands as I've been recovering, but lucky for me I've got some new toys to play with. This post is to demonstrate the wonders of GPS. Now everyone can see the location and epic journey that took place the night my leg got beautified.

I purchased a handheld GPS unit a few weeks ago, and this was the first trial run for it in the wild. Oh sure I'd driven around town a few times with it, used the GOTO function a few times, but nothing as resourceful as picking out a nearby hospital in order to treat my wounds in a time sensitive matter. How did my Magellan eXplorist 400 fair? Well, you can now see for yourself.

Oh yeah, encase you were wondering why I didn't walk to the road that was close to the location of my injury it's because that's a huge hill, and the way I walked is nice and flat.

Isn't technology grand?