Lots of Fun

So it has been a little while... I have been keeping busy here. Here is a quick run down of what I have been up to since I last posted.

I went to the Nesika lodge with Sarah and Lisa for a backpacking seminar put on by Lisa's mom. We got out to Multnomah Falls at 8 am on Saturday the 3rd of November and hiked the 5 miles up into the gorge to the lodge. During this hike up I pulled out my Canon digital camera and realized that the screen was cracked! O boy was I pissed... (more on this below) The seminar was pretty slow and rudimentary for my tastes but the best part and of the weekend was this old guy Merle who was a retired chemistry professor and avid mycologist. He looked like a wizard with his long white beard and walked a little like a penguin. He took us on a walk through the woods identifying different mushroom species to us. There were probably 20 unique species out at that time. One of them he pulled up was a little red bugger that oozed white milky stuff when the gills were cut. He warned us this was a slightly poisonous mushroom if ingested. With that said he said it was all right just to taste it and spit it out. I gave it a shot and found out it tasted like a cross between horseradish and Tabasco sauce! Crazy. The owner of Six Moon Designs was there and he was a pretty knowledgeable guy and had some really cool ultra light packs and tents. We hiked out kind of early on Sunday and got back to Portland and ate some good burritos at Cha Cha Cha's.

There is a few weekends there in November I really don't recall.... I think I hung around Portland. My buddy Danny G. flew out here from Colorado over Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving day we went to my co-workers Kari's place and had Turkey and all the other goodies that come with that day. We went out to a few bars with some other co-workers and Jeanine P. Friday morning Dan and I headed to the coast on 30, had some amazing corned beef hash at a place in Astoria, saw the goonies house there and the jail and headed down to Canon beach and went to a Bills Brew Pub had a beer and some onion rings after a romantic walk on the beach. Back to Portland, went to Clay's Smoke House (one of my favorite places to eat) with Jeanine and then went out down town with some other folks to the Tugg Boat Brewhouse (there Chernobyl porter is amazing) and then to the Matador and then to the Bitter End (which has Hank Williams Sr. on the Juke, nice!). Next morn went on a hike out in the Gorge to Watchella Falls and then back to town to get lunch at the Acropolis, if you haven't heard about this place read up on it here. I also showed Dan the Portland Memorial Mausoleum, the second largest Mausoleum in the US, this place is massive, with lots of long hallways and about 7 floors, old elevators, Tiffany stain glass windows, very neat place. Pretty fun weekend!

So winter is here and the winter sports begin! I TOTALLY lucked out on getting set up on some nice Alpine Touring (AT) ski gear from one of portland's best outdoor outfitters Oregon Mountain Community (if you don't know what AT is read this) . They have rental gear at OMC and every few years they sell it off at very good prices. I got to the sale 20 minutes before the store opened and there was at least 30 people in front of me. Having talked to a store employee the previous week I knew exactly what pair of skis to grab and I got them. lets just say I spent less on the total set up of boots bindings and skis than the price of the cheapest of the three components retail for.

I got a 10 punch pass for Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort and went up there for my first time on December 1st. I was very very nervous for a bunch of reasons but mainly because I haven't skied in a while. The last time on the slopes for me was in 2004 in Colorado and before that it was about 1996 on Mount Kato, and total number of times life time is around 5. I was also nervous about the weather. There was a big storm on the coast with 100 mile an hour winds and we were getting alot of snow up there near Hood. I was carrying chains but didn't need them this day. Well to make a long story short I did just fine and only fell once. I went to the bunny hill first but I felt very comfortable and was doing harding routes right after that. The people at Meadows were 99.9% affluent white people, with lots of snow boarding punk kids. It was a blast and I plan on getting very good very fast so I can get out and do some back country skiing away from the crowds.

Another winter sport that I will be doing a lot of independently and in conjunction with my skiing is snow shoeing. I had my first snow shoeing trip the day after my first ski trip in the same vicinity. Sarah and I drove out Sunday morning to the Trillium Lake sno-park. The roads were worse and I saw one guy spin out. We made it to the sno-park safely with out chains and began our 5 mile walk around the lake. It was a very beautiful quite day, lots of heavy snow falling and lots of heavy wet snow on the ground. We cruised through the 5 flat miles very easily and were excited to get to something more challenging soon. We decided to put the chains on on our way out. They are a pain to put on and when we pulled over to take them off it was raining and very miserable to take off as well, I really don't like the things.

And I almost forgot about my broken camera.... I called canon and found out that they sell replacement parts. So I bought a new screen ($50 including shipping) and opened my camera up an replaced it myself. It was almost too easy.