Washington & Leon

Our final adventure in the northwest was to go visit Leon at Mt. Rainier.  Leon, a friend from Virginia Tech, has been working summers as a climbing guide (you can see his bio here).  Ever since an unfortunate failed climb multiple years ago, Ryan has been itching to get back for another summit attempt.  The first night we spent with Leon in Ashford involved some great Nepalize eats and our second growler.  It also involved crazy screeching and "yipping" outside of our tent in the woods... thus leading to us moving inside and crashing on the couches.  For the second night, we took Leon to Seattle and got another Priceline hotel, the Doubletree this time.  We had an amazing dinner and carafe of house red at an open-air Italian restaurant in the city, followed by flamboyant drinks at the nearby gay bar (really, what more could you ask for?).  

The next day, we packed up and headed back to Ashford so the guys could prepare for their Rainier adventure.  The plan was to leave at six, start climbing at seven pm.  As they were going up a particularly steep and difficult route that is proximal to ice falls and involves dangerous crevasse crossing, it was best to climb at night and summit at dawn.  I hovered around the house as they prepared their gear and Leon refreshed Ryan on crevasse rescue.  Finally, six-o-clock rolled around.  Although this is nothing new, I still get nervous when I send him out on these adventures.  I must add, I did feel better knowing he was with Leon as he is naturally very easy to trust.  This is contagious, and for those of you who know Leon, you are already aware of this.  I guess this is a really good thing when you guide complete strangers up mountains for a living.  

I decided to hike the first few miles in with them, until they dropped down to start crossing the glaciers.  As it was nearing sunset, everything was starting to turn rose and gold, and I now understand why Ryan swears Rainier is his favorite National Park.  We have been on quite the tour, and from what I have seen, Rainier wins, hands down.  The massive, glaciated mountains juxtaposed against the fragile, colorful meadows is absolutely stunning.  The melting snow keeps everything bright green and the marmots and deer reap the benefits.  From the trail we could see Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood while the low elevation clouds started to creep in.  

(Mt. Adams from Rainier)

Once we came to the point where they had to leave the trail, we said our good-byes and they started off towards the Nisqually glacier.  I stood there for quite awhile taking photos of their tiny silhouettes with the shadowed Rainier looming in the background.  Eventually, it got dark enough that I knew I better start hiking out and start the hour-long drive back to the house.  

(Snowboarder on the return)

Since I sent them with the SPOT, I had planned on getting dinner and beer and settling in for the show.  With my properly prepared lox bagel and sixer of Black Butte Porter I watched Ryan and Leon slowly gain elevation.  This continued for about two hours, an occasionally a house-mate would swing through and chat or explain a portion of the route.  A little after midnight I was satisfied with their progress and ready to go to bed.  All of a sudden, the SPOT page refreshed, placing them 500 meters left of their previous position.  I knew they couldn't cover this much ground in 10 minutes so I figured it was glitch and decided I would wait until it refreshed and put them back on route.  Twenty minutes passed and another update put them even further off route.  Ah hell, now I had to wait even longer before sleep.  Finally, after another 10 minutes, the SPOT put them back on route.  Relieved, I attributed this to poor satellite reception and started getting ready for bed.  Suddenly, the SPOT marker started to drop in elevation, and zig-zagging, and then traversing out across the icefall.  These weren't random SPOT movements, but clearly someone trying to navigate a myriad of crevasses.  This either meant that they couldn't continue on their route, or were coming down.  At this point it was after 1 am, and if they started hiking out, I needed to drive up to Paradise to fetch them.  

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

(Source: University of Wyoming)

In the end, I ended up staying up until after 4 am to make sure they were indeed hiking back out.  I drove up with my sleeping bag and snoozed for 20 or 30 minutes before a knock on the window brought me out of my exhaustion-coma.  As the sun was rising, we made our way back to the house.  Leon made a beeline for his room, but after the previous nights disturbances, Ryan and I decided we might as well just stay in the Buick and sleep.  Around 10 am, I managed to use my shoe to prop the door open so we could get some airflow.  By noon, it was just too hot, and we both peeled ourselves from the leather seats  with hallucinatory smells of coffee and pancakes.

Although Ryan and Leon didn't make the summit, they both seemed to have learned a lot about that particular route, and crevasse navigation at night.  I imagine that in glacier travel, ignorance really is bliss.  When it is dark, you can only see the ice canyons at hand, not the the thousands of gashes that really surround you.  This is also why navigation at night can be tricky.  Its like the difference between doing a maze on paper and being in an actual maze, you lose foresight of seeing beyond immediate steps.  However, Ryan does claim that the moonlight was quite bright, and they could see fairly well.  I wasn't there, so I do not know.  Nonetheless, I still have my suspicions.    

(Source: wilsenack.com)

More Random Portland Photos

With three cameras on the road, it is easy to skip some.  Just found these!

(Ryan molting after his Mt. Adams sunburn)

(hanging out with Justin and the growlers)

Portland Life

After zooming through the majority of our US and Canada route, we were looking forward to staying put.  Portland provided an excellent destination for an extended stay.  It is by far my favorite city, and although he cringes at the high hipster-per-capita, even Ryan appreciates the awesome beer, food, and public transportation.  We spent the majority of our time in hotels near the airport, where Ryan enjoys watching the planes on final approach.  I just like it because the hotels tend to be less expensive.  It was easy to take the MAX into the city to grab eats and drinks and sightsee.  Two items were on my Portland-To-Do list that I never accomplished when I lived here.  


1.  Japanese Gardens.
I have wanted to visit the gardens for a while, and while they were really pretty, the overwhelming amount of rhododendron almost kind of ruined it for us... but we still had fun running around, regardless of the lack of tiny trees.  

(squishing trees...)

2.  Voo-doo Doughnuts.
After seeing this establishment on numerous Food Network and Travel Channel specials, I had to try it out!  We waited in line for 20 minutes or so, in the tiny building, sans air conditioning (or air flow at all, for that matter).  Finally, we made it to the counter and had to choose a half dozen among a variety of flavors that ranged from the "Triple Chocolate Orgasm" to "Cock and Balls".  Decisions, decisions.  We picked a few each, and ran like hell with our pink box to the nearest safe sitting locale (I say safe, because there are herds of homeless in the area... and not the helpless vet type, but the crazy meth type).  Anyways, the doughnuts were delicious!  Of course, Ryan had one of the more colorful ones offered, with crazy blue and pink sprinkles.  I opted for the aforementioned TCO, which was a devils food cake doughnut with fudge frosting and topped with Cocoa Puffs.  YES.

(the classic VooDoo, with a pretzel through the heart and raspberry filling)

There were also a couple of staples that need to be mentioned.  Mostly, beer related.  We always go to the Rogue restaurant.  The food is pretty good, but it's the beer that brings us back.  The variety is excellent.  I couldn't decide if I wanted a Chocolate Stout or a Hazelnut Brown (I love them both), so the server suggested a Snickers, which is half and half!  It was awesome and we even left with two growlers (the Nut Brown and Double Mocha Porter).  Also, the nearby Deschutes Brewery produces Black Butte Porter, and you can get it at pretty much any bar in Portland... yet another reason to fall in love with this city!  

We stumbled upon a couple new spots worth mentioning.  Mother's Bistro downtown was a great find.  The beers weren't overpriced and the food was way good.  They have a Mac-n-Cheese of the day, which I admit I opted for twice.  The first time it had artichokes, gruyere, and pancetta.  The second visit it was Southwest Mac, with chicken, jalapenos, and monterey.  Ryan's Salmon Cobb salad was pretty awesome looking, with so many toppings you literally couldn't see the lettuce below.  Cassidy's is right near the Crystal Ballroom and has a stellar happy hour.  We waited until 10pm and then they have an extensive gourmet menu where every option is full size and only $5.75!  The mussels and clams were perfect, as were the battered calamari and japs, but the highlight was the pork belly with mashed potatoes drowned in a wild mushroom gravy (chanterelles and morels if you were wondering).  Totally worth the trip across town!  Finally, the Tin Shed in northeast Portland.  The food was great, but the atmosphere is what is worth returning for.  Every Wednesday night is movie night, so they set up a projector in the garden and feature such classics as "Revenge of the Nerds" and  "Grandma's Boy".  Check it out!

(the interior of Mother's is one of the best parts, lot's of gold and black and crystal!)

We ventured outside of Portland to visit Mt. Hood and use a spa gift certificate in Silverton.  Unfortunately, our spa visit fell the day right after our Mt. Adams adventure.  Ryan was extremely sunburned on his face and neck, while my arms caught the brunt of the sun (I remembered to put sunblock on my face though).  We had booked him for a creek side deep tissue massage, but the burn guaranteed no relief for his neck muscles.  I opted for an exfoliation, because I knew I would probably scream if someone tried to massage my calves.

(the site of Ryan's creekside massage)

Another great thing about this trip is the opportunity to catch up with old friends.  On Friday morning we drove to Multnomah Village to meet up with Jamie, my coworker from my ODOT days.  When it comes to great conversation, Jamie is definitely at the top of my list.  To say I got super lucky with the ODOT job is an understatement.  As we spent hundreds of hours driving to sites across Oregon, it could have been miserable if I was stuck with someone who wasn't enjoyable to talk to!  I also think Ryan really enjoys meeting up with Jamie because he is a down-to-earth geologist who worked in industry (albeit mining) before he started with ODOT.  He is a lot like us in that sense, where we prefer sustainable living and generally try to keep a small carbon footprint (for lack of a better word), but yet we are honest with ourselves about our resource needs as a society.  That evening, we were able to meet up with another friend, Justin.  We know him from Virginia Tech, another geologist, and as he has been working on geomorphology issues around Mt. Rainier, it was really cool to catch up!  


So, that's pretty much what we've been up to this past week... and thus I seem to find myself scouring job ads in northwest Oregon....