CB, CO so far: Bikes, Hikes, and the Gnarkansas!

Greetings from Mount CB! Erin lied, she doesn't actually live in Crested Butte proper, and for that matter neither do I, but I do sit in an office there for a good portion of the day. I'm interning at a tiny engineering firm that does mechanical and structural engineering for buildings with a focus on efficiency. When I get to work on actual projects, which I guess is a fair amount given I'm an intern, it's pretty cool, but I also get to scan files every so often when things slow down. The best part about the office though is that as long as you get your work done by the deadlines, you can work whatever hours you want. People regularly leave early or come in late to go on rides, or even go during lunch and come back. Methinks this would be a pretty good gig come ski season too..

But on to the real adventures, since there have been several! My first was discovering immediately after unpacking my life into my new apartment that my car had a broken axle, but AAA and a guy named Earl got me through that one pretty quick, and for much less moolah than I'd anticipated. As Erin said, we've been doing a lot of biking, which is still new to me but my wrists are no longer sore from braking compulsively after every ride anymore (just the long ones...). Although the folks at RMBL initially struck me as rather chubber-esque (sorry Erin!), I realized the error of my judgement (or maybe found the exceptions?) and warmed up to them pretty fast. Since the majority of the 7 other people in my office are approaching or past 30, in serious relationships or married with small children, the RMBLites are still kinda the only friends I've made, and have a refreshing intellectual side that isn't as common in town, where the predominant inclinations are to have a lot of fun, never grow up (this includes a lot of flair, which I do appreciate), and drink impressive quantities of beer.

The 4th also featured the wonderful CB parade, in which all of the RMBLites wear veratrim (not skunk cabbage, but I don't know the difference) leaves and proceed to be first to get sprayed by the CB fire department in the town-wide water fight. Deciding that I'd rather be a fake biologist than a lonely wallflower, I donned some leaves myself and joined the masses of chanting scientists. Luckily, beer was provided:

This week featured three great rides with Erin, one of which the famous 401 again, and today we finally summited our first CO peak. At a modest 12805' it wasn't quite the 14er we'd hoped for last weekend, but we were pleased nonetheless and had a fun (and buggy...) little adventure coming down a slightly more creative route..who said there were actual trails out here anyway? We got great views all around, including our first glimpse of Snowmass (the big one behind me in this picture!).

My other adventure this week was on Tuesday when I hit the road and drove over Cottonwood Pass--also the continental divide-- to meet Ellen at the Arkansas river in Buena Vista (usually pronounced boona vesta, or some such silly variation) to do some paddling. Levels are getting pretty low at least by CO standards--as in, the Numbers were at around 700 cfs as opposed to over 2000--so after taking a look at the rapids on the way up, we decided to go for it and do the famous class IV run. We put on in high spirits, enjoying the clear water and sunshine. The first drop, supposedly the most technical, was kinda creeky and definitely required some attention. The first incident hit about halfway through when Ellen got caught by one of the squirrely holes and proceeded to attempt to roll up on top of a rock. Blame the loose outfitting, not boating in 3 weeks, or both--we had our first swim, but Ellen executed it with impressive grace, never more than 5 feet from her boat and making it very easy for me to help her self-rescue. After some roll practice we proceeded on to a series of awesome rapids, which seemed to be the perfect balance of difficulty and fun--we both agreed that this level was just fine for us. Near the middle of the run, I started having a little too much fun punching holes and found a real winner that gave me a thorough thrashing. Despite my best efforts to hang loose and flush out, every time I rolled up I found myself surfing straight back into the sucker via the oh-so-convenient eddy I flushed into. I pulled my skirt, floundered around, and managed to reclaim my paddle and start walking downstream. I'm still amazed at Ellen's boat wrangling skills--as I walked my sorry, hyperventilating self down the river she successfully got my boat into an eddy and was waiting peacefully for me when I caught up. I noticed on my (perfect SRT technique) whitewater swim across the river that the hole had gotten the better of my right shoulder, but it was at a very tolerable level of pain so after a little breather to calm down we pressed on again.

At this point I was quite leery of even the tiniest holes, following Ellen rather tentatively. As we approached a horizon line with some ominous spray coming up from the unseen rapid below, I think we both realized that we probably should have at least eddied out to try and boat scout, but as the thought crossed my mind I saw Ellen going for it, skirting a big hole before entering a melee of foam. As I dropped in I saw her get flipped and soon after got a little roll practice of my own. Coming up (bow pointing upstream, oy vey) I saw that the loose hips of the all-star had failed Ellen again and seeing that she was well on her way to a nice looking rock, I mustered what gumption I had to get after the little red boat. Unfortunately, my boat chasing experience up until then was pretty much limited to Fartlands, and the gnarkansas is, well, not fartlands in terms of difficulty or familiarity. With the friendly, armada-bolstered cushion of Ledyard now decidedly yanked out from under my ass, I kept up the chase for a while. My thoughts alternated between fiery determination--OOH THERE IT IS C'MON GIT IN THE EDDY--and verging on freaking out--SH@$MONKEYS HANG ON, FRICKINF@#K EDDY OUT, SCOUT THAT RAPID! I came close to getting it a couple times, but always relented when I realized I had to turn my attention to the upcoming whitewater. I passed a spot that looked suspiciously like our takeout (it later proved not to be), worried about going too much further. Still a little shaken up by my swim and my own brush with the series of holes that had gotten Ellen, I soon got to the point where I was uncomfortably far from my partner, alone and quickly approaching "really freaked out" on an unfamiliar and rather demanding river. With a sinking feeling of failure I eddied out and pulled my boat up on shore, thinking that the car was just up the road and that we'd hop in and catch up to Ellen's boat, which really wasn't moving very quickly. Sadly this was not the case, and we ended up walking for a good 20 minutes, Ellen barefoot and I carrying my boat (and down to one contact after the right one ripped in half...whoops!). Unfortunately the only people who drove by were some old people from Arizona and a van for a spa company. By the time we reached Ellen's car, further pursuit was out of the question. We kept our eyes peeled on our way back to the put in for my car, and back in BV talked to some folks in the play park, none of whom had seen it come through.

As we reviewed the day, we realized a few things--first and foremost, while Ledyard has unquestionably provided us with a great learning environment to boat in, it has also sheltered us from what boating in the real world is like. That is, we didn't have the numbers or experience of a full Ledyard trip, both of which we're accustomed to relying on and which would have been quite helpful. We also learned that even when you're having fun and slaying rapids, it's ALWAYS a good idea--rather, a necessary one--to slow down, eddy out, and assess what lies ahead, especially when you don't know what it is! Despite the saga that our day evolved into, we both felt like the level of difficulty was one that we were comfortable running, but agreed that we got into trouble when we started to get overconfident and disregard the challenge that it was. Given that, we humbly took the river gods' slap on the wrist--thankful it was just that and not more of a punch in the face--and did our best to make it up to them, ostensibly through the consumption of multiple booty beers but also by absorbing the lessons learned.

After reporting the missing boat, we sought out the local liquor store. I managed to find a single can of bud light and Ellen, trooper that she is, went all out and got a true 24-oz man can of PBR, which she proceeded to drink in just 3 bouts of booty-draining gusto (1.5 of which I accompanied her for). We stocked up on gas and snakes before parting ways and heading for home.

Lo and behold, the next morning Ellen heard from the Arkansas river rangers, who had found the stray boat which is now awaiting her return in BV. Moral of the story: be safe, be careful, and drink your booty beers!

Hope everyone's still having good summers, and for goodness' sake come to CB, it's obviously where all the fun is at, AND I have a couch for you to sleep on!

-Laura

Anson Goes to Rural Alaska

So I finally made my way home up to Alaska and was working an oh so interesting 9-5 job in an office killing trees by the reamful until I got shipped off to Kokhanok, AK (population: small) to work on a wind turbine project that my company was contracted for.

I was mainly working on setting up all the underground stuff, so foundation, wiring to the grid, that sort of stuff. All hard construction, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. My work involved a lot of shoveling, concrete mixing (we had a truck unlike those silly guys at titcomb who are doing it by hand), and jumping jacking (no not the exercise, instead using a compactor). When it wasn't windy the bugs came out like made, no skin could be exposed or else you were in trouble.

Here I am jumping jacking away...
Yeah not so much fun, though my forearms are much more ripped than before. Basically the thing bashes the ground at something like 13 times a second and I walk it around the dirt a couple times compacting it, then more dirt gets put on, then more compacting, it was pretty much an endless process. Luckily it wasn't as bad as our 17.5 hour day (we ended well after midnight) pouring concrete, all day, no lunch break. I barely had time to run to grab a snack out of my backpack. Luckily we only had two super long days like that.

Oh yeah did I mention it was beautiful?
Yeah seriously gorgeous. One day we got off early so I helped Paul (a local guy hired to help run the dump trucks and loaders and do general labor work) set his net out. There is basically very few ways for locals to make money, most rely on the PFD. You know that thing you make fun of Alice and I for, our free money. They get some food flown out (oh and gas is $7.25 a gallon, so you have to pay for that too). But a large portion of their food comes from subsistence fishing. So Paul and I set his net out and waited for the salmon to swim in...














I went to check the net the next day (another short day), but there were 4-6 foot seas off the lake so I risked losing the net all together. While we worked the next day, Paul's wife and son brought in 350 fish from just over a day and a half of fishing. Paul let me have as many as I wanted as it was more than enough for his family for the summer. He'll catch another 100 or so for the dogs.

I went over to his house to get some smoked fish before I took off to the big city. The first dry the fish for a few days outside (left), then throw it in a salt brine to preserve it and give it the taste they want, then finally put it in the smoker for at least two weeks (right).















After that the fish is good for the entire winter. Paul likes to go around when they are smoking and take tastes of the tips as they finish smoking. So I got a healthy dose of freshly smoked salmon.


So besides flying in food, you can get some food at the local Wal-Mart... well not so much a Wal-Mart. The general store was not exactly the place to look for low prices. It was $7.50 for my thing of Oreos, almost $9 for some peanut butter, and over $3 for a thing of salt that's normally around a buck. We also had a bustling post office. Open only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for about an hour after the mail plane arrives.















And since everyone seems to be posting photos of their great living arrangements here's mine. I lived in a one bedroom apartment with someone already in the bedroom. So I slept on a cot in the kitchen/dining/living room. We had zero counter space, a microwave, fridge, sink, and stovetop oven. We made a toaster out of old copper wire to hold bread above the electric stove... classy. Anyway no pictures of the inside, but here's the outside with my car I drove to work every morning. It got really cold sometimes (also note the batman sticker).

But after 3 weeks, I got to leave, but not after a short trip up to Lake Gibraltar for some great views. Oh right did I mention it was beautiful?

So now I'm back in Anchorage, probably won't go back to the office, might try to find a more fun job, though doubt I can this late for that short of time. McCauley just showed up tonight and is living at my house for a bit until he finds an apartment or something (He's working for Alice's Dad). I've seen Chelsea a few times (she's up in Sarah Palin country up north of me), but we're planning on driving down the Alaska Highway sometime in August. She seems to be doing well leading kayak trips around the Wasilla area. And Elar if you read this, call me when you get back to cell range and we'll have a beer when you get back to Anchorage.

if anyone else is headed up my way let me know. I will also probably be road tripping around out west with Tom C. at some point in September so I might see some of you guys then!

-answoon

Hello from the Butte (Crested, that is)

Hello from Colorado!

I hope you all are having an awesome summer so far. So far it sound like you've all been having an amazing time, which is great :)


I'm living in Gothic, CO, right outside of Crested Butte for the summer, working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab doing thesis research on rock snot (fascinating, I know) and working as a research assistant for one of my FSP profs. Work generally means wading around in streams all day, electrofishing (kind of like playing lacrosse with fish) and taking water and algae samples. Or on days like today, it means mountain biking to one of my sites, taking samples and biking back for the afternoon. Not bad.

RMBL kind of reminds me of being at summer camp all over again (with awkward summer romances, dining hall food and all) but the people are great and it's an absolutely gorgeous, awesome place to be. One of the best mountain biking trails in CB, the 401, is literally half a mile away from my front door, and makes for a great, long post-work ride.



Home sweet home! Sadly the cliff face in the background is unclimbable (apparently people have died trying, which is scary)


Laura Tabor and I have been mountain biking a lot and having some fun adventures on the weekends. This past weekend we went with some of my cabinmates to hike over Triangle Pass to try and climb a 14er in Conundrum Basin. Sadly weather kept us from actually reaching the summit, but it was a beautiful hike and we got to hang out in the hot springs in Conundrum basin with a bunch of hippies and yuppies from Aspen, including a guy who has probably been high since the '60s, and kept telling us how he'd recently figured out how to hear like a wild animal.



So if any of you happen to be in Colorado or anywhere else in the Wild West, come to CB to go mountain biking, hiking, climbing, whatever.

-Erin

Hello from Moose, WY

Hey everyone!

Just to start off, Julie, if you are reading this, I owe you an apology. You know how I gave you crap for living in "Moose, Maine"? Well, now I am actually living in a place called Moose, WY, so this is me putting my foot in my mouth. You now have free reign to give me crap. Bring it.

So yeah, I am currently all set up living in a national historic landmark near the visitor center and entrance to Grand Teton National Park. I am living in this building:

The place I am living used to be owned by Olas and Mardy Murie (famous early conservationists, look em up if you care) so people drop by all the time to look at the place. Its a little strange living more or less in a museum, and sometimes I do feel kinda like some sort of troll hanging around the place. But I do have the best view of the Grand in the entire valley, so I guess having to answer questions and give couple tours a week is a small price to pay for free housing...in a national park.

Besides working with the Murie Center, I am spending the rest of my working time with this dude Forrest and the Winter Wild Lands alliance. Forrest is real legit (Exum senior guide, calls himself "a packrafter") and I really believe in the work we are doing, so its been awesome. The main thing I am doing for them is working with the forest service to help them manage the Jed Smith wilderness area. Right now I am trying to get a sense of how much the skiing and the snow machine use has increased in the last 10+ years, so that we have a baseline to start with. I am also doing a bunch of other kinda random stuff, like organizing a "listening session" for a bunch of the outdoorsy people here. Everything I have done so far has involved meeting a bunch or really interesting people, and seeing what it means to actually do advocacy for real, so it had been a great experience so far.

Its not like I'm working that much though...I've been able to get out and play nearly every day, mostly mountain biking. While there are not trails from my door, within a short drive are at least 4 awesome areas to ride. The trails here are mostly smooth, with tons of banked turns and lots (and lots and lots) of climbing. So basically heaven for what I like to ride. One of the good areas is around Sno King:

Last week Noah was here, hanging out and waiting for his WV trip to start, so we hung out a bunch. Highlights include Noah looking like a gumby in running shorts and shoes and a woman's helmet when he rented a mountain bike. Also, Noah lifting random people onto his shoulders at a concert after he had a growler to himself earlier in the evening. His antics got him deemed "king of the stain balls".
I also hung out with this guy:

Forrest's dog Wister, who is something like 15 yrs old, and has skied (well, ran down...) more peaks in the Tetons than most locals.

Well thats about it from my end. I'd love to hear more from all you guys, and, if at all possible, YOU SHOULD COME TO THE TETONS! Because its beautiful here:


Talk to you all soon,
-Tom

Dom

Hey everyone,

Lily just told me about this blog, so I thought I'd drop everyone a line and let you all know what I've been up to.

So as you all probably know, I've been at UMaine for the past year for grad school. Living in central Maine and doing more earth science hasn't been particularly exciting, but it hasn't been bad either. Learning about glaciers and climate is interesting and I still make a point of leaving every weekend for trips into the hills.

Easily the best part about being at Maine is that they think sending students around to lots of places is important. So last year I went to meetings in Woods Hole, MA, San Francisco, and Winter Park, CO. Since my thesis deals with how the energy balance at the snow surface affects the snowpack and melt rate of glaciers, I had to go to Alaska last month to take a bunch of measurements. I spent a whole month on the Kahiltna glacier which is the easy standard route for climbing Denali. So it turned out that I got to climb the bottom 2/3 of Denali several times and even though I missed the good part of the climb, I got to do a little rock climbing and mountaineering on some smaller stuff around base camp.

Since I've been back from that I spent a week dealing with gear and organizing my data followed by a week with my family which mostly consisted of eating tons of free food. The latest is that I just spent a week in Boulder visiting Clara, Lily and Palmer and doing some laid back hiking and climbing.

For the near future, I'll be in Maine from now until mid November aside from a couple weeks in late August when I go to the Beartooths in Montana for school. So if anyone is going up that way, let me know. I'm decently close to Acadia and Katahdin. Then I'll be in the middle of Antarctica through all of our winter (their summer) before coming back and hopefully finishing my degree by May.

It's great to hear about how all of you are doing. I hope lots of good things happen to all of you in the near future.

Dom

Since you been gone

Hi '10s, and others who may be reading this!

I'm not going to lie, everyone's adventures in Alask-arado-fornia sound pretty exciting and like lots of fun. (Lily, if you trap a pika and smuggle it back east for me I will drive Teo down to NY to see you!) But don't worry, I'm here holding down the fort in Hanover. Some updates from the Soph's summer: the entire food court building is closed, disaster! The front door is plastered with about eight signs, the biggest of which says "WHERE WILL I EAT?" with some informative suggestions. The college has negotiated free passes to Storr's pond for all students, but has also completely banned swimming at the Ledyard docks. S&S installed some pretty heavy duty "danger no swimming" signs that are sunk solidly in cement. The signs have transmogrified to read "danger, rhiNOs swimming." The college has yet to formulate an appropriate response plan to prevent needless deaths of innocent students at the hands of the Northern River Rhino.

Right after graduation Ben and I spent a couple days in Laconia and took in the sights and sounds of Bike Week at Weirs Beach. Then we took off for the Canadian border and then chubbered our way down 50 miles of the Long Trail. It was hot and quite muggy and buggy, but I hadn't been on a real backpacking trip in a long time and after TITS, finals, and senior week some nice long days of exercise were long overdue. The crown peak of that section is Jay, and we hit it right around sunset as the last gondola full of sightseers was heading back down. To see a longer account of the trip, please refer to our new blog, famousinternetlongtrailhikers.com.

The day after we got back I started work on Titcomb cabin. We first had to get rid of all the debris from the old cabin, so we spent several days digging holes and then filling them with bricks and broken concrete. We've also finished peeling all the logs out at the O-Farm, placed 8 cardboard tubes in the ground to fill with cement for the cabin's supports, and canoed 3,360 pounds of concrete (this is exact) out to Gilman Island. We should get our official building permits tomorrow, and then the fun really begins: we get to float the logs downstream to the island and start building! If you're interested in seeing some photos and following the cabin as it progresses, you can actually read more about it here.

My plans for the 4th of July weekend include a pre-festivities Whiskey War Canoe expedition on Saturday, a day climbing at Cannon, and then a night at the Lodj where an enthusiastic alum has created a life-size vinyl banner of the old Tip Top house to be put on the summit.

Headed off to see Toy Story 3, finally, can't wait to hear more from everyone!



Kate





Lily update (includes new email address!)

Hey - I hope everyone is having a good summer so far and sounds like plans for people are falling into place!

I spent a week in Yellowstone/the Tetons with my family right after graduation. I saw so many animals close up! Bison, elk, black bears, grizzlies (with cubs!), pronghorn sheep, pikas, and moose. The one thing I really wanted to see was a wolf ... and sitting on the tarmac at Jackson Hole, I saw one on the runway next to us!!
The bison were everywhere. We got in a couple traffic jams because a whole herd were crossing (and taking a while).




We also went on a horse trail ride and I loved it. It was so cool - my horse was a bit of a bitch though (actually, the only girl horse on the ride too). She actually kicked my sister's horse in the face behind me for really no good reason. I want to ride more horses!

Then I met Andrew in the Denver airport and got picked up by Steve-o and Jake (the burlington boulderer, not Big Feintzeig). We've been crashing on Steveos' couches and bumming around. We climbed at a different climbing area every day of last week (so many places!!); spent the weekend in Rifle (where I couldn't climb hardly anything...limestone is hard!). I've spent this week at one of the four awesome climbing gyms here in town (Movement) -- just because I don't have anything else to do, and their air conditioning saves me from the balls hot heat wave. Mark will be happy to know that I've been practicing whippers and I've been trying to lead stuff that I will definitely fall on. Hopefully I will grow some bigger balls to be comfortable leading outside. Or at least borrow some from the heat wave.

I don't want to continue to complain -- but I definitely didn't know what to expect with the altitude. Man, so much huffing and puffing! I guess I didn't really think about it before getting here, but it's taken me a little to get used to it. Lungs, fill with oxygen!

I realized on Saturday that was the longest I'd ever been away from Teo. 10 days for spring break. 11 days since I'd been in Hanover.

If anyone sees him around Hanover, tell him I love him. And if you are traveling from Hanover to New York and want to bring him for a visit, I'd love you.


And now the name-dropping section:
Seen a couple days of Clara Chew! She's doing great and I think is really enjoying Boulder. She's a busy bee though, lots of work/waking up at 6 AM. I woke up today at 10:30. Her car window broke today but at least her bumper is aligned because that was broken too.
Dom is getting here tonight. I do not want to hike, Dom. But I will sit in the air conditioning with you! And I can't wait to see your glacier-chiseled guns.
Egan is getting here July 6th!
Also heard that Shellito, McCauley, and Alice are showing up on the 6th!
Ellen says she'll be coming to visit from Creede sometime on a weekday(s). She can write her own update though.
So yeah, if you are around in Boulder and don't want to see me, at least come say hi to these nice people! If you do want to see me:
Today - July 18th: Boulder and vicinity
July 18th - July 23rd: Philadelphia
July 23rd - on: New York. 1st and 19th street. Come crash on my floor or use my pasta machine! I can't even offer you a couch because I don't know what the furniture situation is.

ALSO - my new email address is lily.he.2010@gmail.com if you don't already have it. Keep in touch! I miss Dartmouth!

Colorado is the place for adventures

Laura and I successfully made it from the East coast to Colorado with only a couple false alarms regarding car trouble (I was convinced I had a flat tire, Laura was convinced her gas tank was leaking, my check engine light went on - turns out it was all nothing). We left Wednesday morning, June 16th and spent the night at an extremely buggy campsite run by a very friendly family. On Thursday, after driving for 12 hours the second day in a row, we were planning on camping again, except after hearing warnings of tornadoes and floods and certain severe thunderstorms, I decided it might be wise to take up my dad on his offer of a motel room. We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Lincoln, NE and watched the sky change colors as the storm rolled in (we weren't lucky enough to get a tornado, however).

Friday afternoon we made it to Denver and I followed directions on my iPhone around the city to a new (to me) kayak and mountain bike. Friday night we were crashing at Greg's friend's house in Boulder and were headed there when we ran into two kayak bums on the side of the road. They looked pretty cute and we could tell they were definitely sweet dudes cause they weren't wearing any shirts so we decided to stop and ended up joining them for a makeshift dinner party by our cars.

Saturday we headed down to FIBArk and got there in time to see the Hooligan race: only qualification for entry is that your craft can NOT be a boat. Some people got quite creative. There were a couple of crafts that looked a lot like Max F's inflatable pool. My favorite was the giant PBR 6-pack. We saw it the next day when we ran a section of the Arkansas a number of miles down stream pinned against a rock and with only 5 "beers" remaining. Sunday, after an epic road trip, we finally parted ways.

Monday was my first full day on the ranch. There was one other student already here, Harry, who is just graduated from St Michael's in VT (thats a college not a hs). Joey (Tri-kap #1) showed up on Wednesday and John (Tri-kap #2) and his friend from Hamilton, Chase, arrived on Thursday. They all seem pretty chill, but I haven't gotten to know them that well yet. Partly, because I am completely segregated from the male species. As I'm sure Kate and Ben will recall, the boys are put in the "Hodge Podge Lodge" a mile down the road from the ranch and I, being a female, am in a cabin right on the ranch. Also, as Kate and Ben experienced, the work is completely divided by sexes. Boys use weed-whackers and cut wood, girls

clean cabins. (I'm the only female "student", but I work with Emily, the ranch manager's 16 year old daughter, who I actually have a lot of respect for. She reminds me a of a much cooler version of me when I was that age. And she got in a fight her freshman year of high school, which is something I would never have the balls to do.) I was rereading Kate's old post when she talked about how Ben cleaned windows only if they were on the 2nd story. Well, apparently, Mary, the office manager, had been trying to get the men on the ranch to do someth

ing about the second story windows, and finally they gave us a couple of the boys to help. Turns out that they weren't that much of a help, and Emily ended up climbing up the steep ladder to clean most of the high up windows. As Kate mentioned, despite the fact that I might have more experience than some of the boys or might be more qualified to do some of their jobs or simply just might be better at their doing their job, the fact that I have a second X chromosome means I'm relegated to watering flowers, sweeping floors, and ironing table clothes.

I'll see how it goes. I have faith that it might get better. This was just the first week when everything needed to get organized. Charles (the owner, Charles Nearburg... heard stories? I've gotten to see some of his toys including his plane, his supped up Jeep with "Cowboy Thunder" painted on the side, and the outline of his Ferrari through its fitted cover) arrived the other day. There are number of old ranch hands that will be arriving in the next couple of days for a reunion. And guests will start arriving in the next week or so. I've heard that Charles generally has projects for the students (something about making a fence), which I hope means that I can work along side the boys. To be honest, the work isn't that great, but it is sort of what I was expecting. It really isn't bad. You do your work, you get paid, and you go have fun.

And speaking of fun. I had a great time this past weekend. Realizing that it was the only time I was guaranteed to have a full weekend off, I hopped in my car Saturday morning and headed to Crested Butte, where both Laura and Erin Larson are working. After a beautiful drive I arrived in CB around noon, found Laura, and shortly thereafter we met up with Erin. We tried mountain biking on Saturday, but to due to time constraints we didn't get that far, but did bike up the huge hill in CB. Saturday night Laura and I met up with Erin and some of her friends to head out for a night hike. The plan was to summit Red Rock. The path started going up hill, then traversed for awhile, and then up a little more, and then turned and started going down in the complete opposite direction of the mountain. So we eventually turned around with summitting, which was fine by me because it meant we got back to our car before midnight and I was pooped by then. Sunday we got out mountain biking for real. After completing one trail we headed down a dirt road in search of the classic class V creek, Oh Be Joyful, with only a vague idea of where it was supposed to be. We found it eventually and it was increadible. Laura and I thought about running it but we only had playboats (kidding). We were about three hours early to watch the race on the creek, which would have been really cool to see but instead we headed back to town on a different trail and had well-deserved burritos for lunch at around 3 o'clock.

Thats more or less all for now. I'm bartending/serving tonight at the lodge for the reunion. I'm also desperate for some kayaking friends so today I went into the only rafting company in town to see if any of the guides happened to be kayakers. The answer was yes, all five of them are, but there isn't really any whitewater in the area. (The single run close by is already too low.) The guy working there gave me his contact info, however, and a trip to Durango or Salida or BV might work out. And I guess I have to be honest and say... I still don't think its fair that I don't get to do the same work as boys at the ranch, but sexism does work both ways and I wouldn't be surprised if the guide was more willing to work out a kayaking trip because I was a lady boater.

Mmmmmooooose!

Hey all!

Reporting in from Anchorage, Alaska. I have a few more days of "prep" before my participants arrive. I'm super excited and its been fun cruising around the Anchorage area. We've been staying in Eagle River, which is 10 miles or so outside of Anchorage. Alex K's family was super kind and offered us much needed showers and an AMAZING feast of Alaskan Salmon, Alaskan King Crab, and turtle bars! Thank you! Mmmmmmm....Alex also joined us on a short little hike near Lake Eklutna and watched the US lose to Ghana. BOOOOO. Carlos Bocanegra, you should be ashamed...

Last night we were chilling at our campsite when an adolescent female moose walked by. Mmmmoooooose! They really do make that noise. First of many wildlife sightings I'm sure. I've been playing phone-tag w/ the Gnar-girl to try to do some kayaking up here, but I'm worried that we will run out of time. Boooo.

I won't have real interwebs-phone service until August, but I will try to update you all w/ photos, etc asap.

-elar

ps.
August 10-16 Park City, UT
August 28-? New York, NY; Boston, MA; to a free couch near you?! I am working on some plans to be on the East Coast for a little bit and would love to visit. Just need floor space/couch to crash on.

Mark and Julie got an apartment!

It was a hard fought race, and for awhile we weren't really sure which we would finish first: the apartment hunt in New Haven, or the Lord of the Rings films.
Today, friends, I am happy to report that Julie and I have finished both. I'll spare you my thoughts on hobbits, but I will give you the key details about our new digs.

- We've got a big, two bedroom apartment in Westville, about a ten minute walk from my job at Hopkins and about a five minute ride from West Rock State Park, which has 32 miles of mountain bike trails.

- The landlord is a mountain biker, so I'm getting trails beta from him. He is a big fan of the West Rock trails, and claims you can do xc loops or psycho-technical stuff, depending on your inclination. Time will tell if CT biking is up to snuff.

- Okay, on an indoors note: the apartment is nicer than 3D. Sorry. Though it lacks a pong room (for now...?)

- Due to the nice layout, affordability, good natural light, big living room, swank kitchen, and proximity to MTB'ing, I was pretty sold on this place. Julie, however, had her heart set on an apartment in this retrofitted underwear factory ("Smoothie"... only in Connecticut):



Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
Well, that's where we'll be starting September 1st. Til then, I'll see you around, and may call upon Team Hanover's couches a few times this summer.

Cheers,
Mark

I'm home!

Hooray America!

anyhoo I'll be back in hanover on saturday and I thought that I would post a few pics for your enjoyment.

Almost back, but not yet

So, we are back in Dar es Sallam - which is actually really nice because we can finally sort of blend in again.

Meru was amazing. The hiking was sick. First day you walk up through essentially a rain forest. We saw a troop of at least 100 baboons, black and white colobus monkeys, and tons of antelope. Not to mention we got charged by a cape buffalo just before we reached camp - and our ranger had to scare it away with his rifle. Anyways the rest of the hike was incredible. No views from the summit - it was stuck in a cloud the entire time we were on the mountain, but the views from the ridge and of kili were amazing.

then we went to the Usambaras where they actually have water and grow everything and camped on the edge of the rift escarpment.

Tomorrow Zanzibar, then the beach for a few days and then home! We are very ready to be done with this country. We've had some amazing experiences, but we are a little done looking like giant, neon flashing, fat walking wallets to everyone.

O you are wazungu - you have lots of money - you can pay 3x as much for the same ferry as a local person. The other thing that pisses me off is that all the touristy things you have to pay in American dollars, which we don't have and they screw you on the exchange rate.

Anywhoo - we are a bit jaded, but I can't wait to show you guys pictures.

Scottie doesn't know

that besides making climbing movies he also makes very informative instructional videos on how to tie a tie! Let me explain:

It's Monday night. Wednesday is the first day of school. Tomorrow is parent's "back-to-school day" (yeah, before school actually even starts. pretty weird). I figure it's probably important that I look professional and do everything in my power not to look like a 13-year-old. It's time to pull out one of the ties I brought down and put it to use. Unfortunately, as most you know, I don't know how to tie a tie, never having had to wear one on a regular basis. So, praying the internet will save me, I do a quick google search and come up with this: http://www.tie-a-tie.net/windsor.html.

Yeah, not only is it a website completely devoted to ties, but the dude in the instructional video looks a lot like a less-strong and more-toolish Scottie Alexander. Somebody (palmy?) please show this to Scottie. He even sounds sort of like Scottie. Scottie, can you please own up to your humble videography beginnings in the instructional formalware genre?

That's the latest news from Quito. Oh, and I hiked a 15,000 ft. volcano the other day, and got dominated at the rock climbing gym by 16 year-olds. 11d my ass, that shit was like 12e...

"Hey Mister Giveame mymoney"

Hey guys,

So now Dermo and I are traveling across the country, which has been incredibly fun, although doing anything here is incredibly expensive. We are essentially getting screwed by all of the rich european tourists who are willing to lay down huge sums of money for everything and the corrupt Tanzanian government who charge fees upon fees for anything in the parks. So what we have done so far.

We left Kigoma and the rest of the group and took an incredibly painful 4 hour bus ride to the last town before wilderness. If you know Tz at all, it was essentially a huge Dala-dala and the seats were about 8in wide. Dermo had people sitting on his face, punching him in the face, and leaning on him the entire ride, while sit ting on about 4in of seat. fun fun. The cool thing is that Hotels (guesti) cost around 5-10,000tsh a night ($4-8) a room. The next day we hitched a ride in the back of a truck carrying Bananas and pineapples to mpanda, which is 8 hours through the bush. From there we went to Katavi national park. We stayed at this place called the Hippo Garden Hotel, which is aptly named because there were about 50 hippos hanging out in the river 40ft. from our tent. A little exciting because you would walk around at night and have to be on the look out for hippos walking around - and they are incredibly dangerous.

There were two cool european couples there as well, and on day we shared a game drive with an austrian couple and saw amazing animals, including 5 lion cubs and the rest of the pride and a group of 19 giraffes. The next two days we went on Walking Safari, which was wicked cool. Highlights include Catching poachers (I have one of their hats now and our ranger shot at them), seeing hyenas up real close, and camping on the shores of lake Katavi and seeing tons of animals from our tent.

From there we took the train up north to katavi. Basically everything you do in Tanzania, you get owned hardcore. The train was 8 hours late. So we sat in the train station for about 10 hours, but the ride was pretty cool even though there were cockroaches and a rat in one of the compartments. And then we had the exhaust from the aging diesel engine wafting right into our room... Ha fun.

from there we went and climbed Mt. Hanang, the 4th tallest mountain in Tz. It was a gorgeous hike. 11,000 ft stand alone volcano (not active) starting from about 3,000 ft. with an awesome ridge line and incredible views above the clouds. Again though, it was about $50 a person just to be allowed to walk.

We are now in Arusha, and tomorrow we start the main attraction - Mt. Meru. It is a fucking gorgeous mountain just under 15,000 ft. Then to walking from village to village in the jungled Usambara mountains and then a few days in zanzibar.

Times are good, we are always on the move and it is unfortunate that most everyone who you talks to starts off real nice, and then tries to get money from you. Its pretty ridiculous in Arusha. I don't know how many times I have heard, "hello my friend, do you need a safari" in the past 2 hours. Unfortunately Dermno and I have a pretty grim view of the Tanzanian people because of all the people who try to screw us constantly. Fortunately people don't seem to understand words like, Douchebag, asshole, shithead, etc. So we spend a lot of time talking shit about people in their faces in pleasant (or not so pleasant) tones of voice. A habit I am definitely going to have to break before life in america again. We got off the bus here and about 20 people immediately surround us when we were trying to get our bags - pushing and shoving us and I almost punched a guy who repeatedly tried to pick my pockets (he was incredibly horrible at it)

that being said, once in a long time you meet a tanzanian who is legitimately cool and we have had many really fun conversations with people in swahili. Everyone else really brings down the experience a lot. and the fact that we are dropping $100 or more for all of the cool things that we are doing.

word gotta go. Can't wait to see you guys again (and america for that matter)

Jake - In Ecuador

Hey everyone! I have been in Ecuador for nearly 2 weeks now, and all is good. Here's the scoop:

The first week consisted of staying in a pretty nice hotel with all the other new hires, going apartment hunting and appliance shopping, and hanging out. They had veteran Ecuadorian teachers take us around to see apartments, and after a few days I sealed the deal on a 1 bedroom place in an area called El Batan. It's pretty nice - the neighborhood is quiet-ish and residential, mostly 2-3 story houses, and it is up a hill out of the downtown area. It's a 15 min. walk to the mall and restaurants and supermarket, it's right next to a huge wooded park (biggest in Quito, really nice trails), and since its up on a hill its got a pretty sweet view of the city and the 14,000 ft. volcano on the other side. I'm living by myself, but there are nearly a dozen teachers within a couple blocks, which is really nice. At 9,500 ft., its a pretty comfy home.

Monday we went into school for the first time, and all week we have been having meetings, orientations, workshops, and planning time. My classroom is pretty sweet - lab tables, desks, big sliding whiteboard, projector, windows with a view, computer, not too shabby. The school is pretty nice - all the hallways are outside, so all the classrooms are open to the outside. Nothing is really enclosed in a building. The school bus picks me up right outside my house, and its about a half hour to school. I've been working a lot this week with planning and curriculum and setting up my classroom, but the starting date of school just got moved back! It was supposed to start on Tuesday, but got pushed back to Monday, 9/7. So now I've got lots of time to get settled and plan and be ready, which is pretty sweet. I have 3 different classes to prep for, which is a lot, but those are the only classes I have, so my schedule is actually a lot lighter than most. I think I have about the same amount of free time as class time on most days, which is really nice.

The other teachers all seem really cool. I'm definitely the youngest teacher, and the oldest new hire is probably around 60. There is a good-sized group of teachers in their mid 20's though, and everyone is really nice. We've gone out to La Mariscal, the main nightlife area in Quito, a few times. There are some fun bars, and there is even a microbrew in town, which we went to for the first time yesterday. Their porter isn't exactly Stovepipe quality, but its better than the shitty cheap bottled beer they sell here. A few of the teachers are climbers/hikers or interested in climbing, which is also really cool. I've been to the climbing gym a couple times, its huge! Really long bouldering wall that is steeply overhung, and a tall (75 ft ish) lead wall with fixed draws and big overhangs. I haven't roped up yet, but the bouldering is pretty powerful and there are a lot of surprisingly good Ecuadorian climbers there. And, at $1.50 its not too bad a price. Hopefully I'll get out and try some of the smaller volcanoes soon - most are like 15,000-16,000 ft and scrambles, although the big ones are glaciated. I can see Cotopaxi, one of the more famous glaciated mtns, on the bus ride to school, which is sweet.

This weekend I'll probably just hang around here and get settled, although I might try a volcano or travel to a little town called Mindo that is warmer and has rafting. So yeah, all is good. So far I haven't gotten mugged, sick, or married, so I'd call that a success. Keep me updated on how yall are doing, and I've got floor space for when you wanna come visit! December break is prime climbing season for the big mountains.