Turkey Day

Thursday was a busy day spent at the hospital then followed by a great evening with friends/family. Work never closes so some of us unfortunately have to work the holidays. Fortunately with my new schedule (4am-4pm), work doesn't get in the way too often.

Mike and Nya

Pam

After work I raced over to the Shapiro's for a nice dinner with Jeff, Kara, Nya, Dave, Mike, and Pam. The food was wonderful second only to the company. It was an early night since Jeff had to work the next day, so I was off to meet up with more friends.

Travis, Jen, Shanon, and Josh

Jen

Bonny and Jen

Bonny and Steph

Bonny was hosting Thanksgiving, so I headed there next and met up with her, Jen, Travis, Steph, and others. At this point I tried to stick to a liquid diet, but found myself with a second dinner. After wine, two dinners, and being on my feet for 20 hours, my body told me this day had come to an end.

Escape to the Cascades

I spent the last few days with my Uncle Bob at his cabin in the Cascade mountains. The cabin is above the town of Leavenworth and is a wonderful place to disappear to. Winter has begun to grasp the area dropping snowline to around 4,000 ft. Cloudy winter skies and cool temps made the cabin and the fire stove inside all that more welcoming. We did however go for a nice hike up to Colchuck lake which boarders the Enchantments. The snow was about shin deep, but the air was calm making for a nice day.

Bob and the cabin

The trail to Colchuck

Sunday greeted us with clear skies and cold temps. Frost covered the ground, but the day was too beautiful to not enjoy. The day would be short since we both had to head home, so it was decided we would go for a short walk amongst some boulders.

Colchuck Lake

A few years ago, a new bouldering area was developed and as it turned out, was just down the road from the cabin. I had climbed there a few years ago, so I thought I would show Bob. Everything was still frosted over so no bouldering, but we enjoyed the short walk before leaving for home.

Icicle Creek in the background

Sunrise

Update

Let me apologize for the lack of recent postings. I recently had a minor mishap with my camera so I haven't been taking any pictures.

About a week ago Linsey and I though we would spend an afternoon floating down the Blackfoot River. Since it is October and the water is so low, our biggest concern was how often we would be scraping the bottom. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Within minutes of "putting in", we flipped the canoe and swam through class 2 rapids. No life vests and nothing in dry bags - very stupid! We salvaged everything, but my camera equipment was toast.

When I purchased the camera, I was very resistant to the idea of buying insurance for it. As apprehensive as I was, I decided to purchase it anyways. Good call. Now the camera is in the mail to be fixed free of charge or better yet "scrapped" and I can then upgrade for a small price.

Since I don't have my nice camera, I dug up and old point-and-shoot. This shoots video so I have been messing around with it. Linsey and I went bouldering in Lost Horse canyon the other day and here is a brief video of it:

Glacier National Park

Oct. 2nd and 3rd I helped my buddy Justin teach a EMT refresher class to the park rangers. It turned out to be a good class, but wasn't without some tension. As we found out, there seems to be an overwhelming disapproval of climbers in the park. Being that Justin and I are both climbers, we had to put up with the occasional jab from rangers. It was all in good fun though.

After class on the first day, Justin and I headed up to Logan pass to get some exercise and take some photos. As usual, the park didn't let us down and we got to see sheep, goats, and some amazing scenery. I tried using a new photo technique; HDR formatting. I'm still learning it, but here are some examples.

Mt. Clemens

Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain

Logan Pass and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain

Logan Pass

Sept. 27th

Jen and Travis got married. It was a beautiful ceremony on a spectacular day. The party that followed was as expected...awesome. Here are some pics of Jen and Travis.

Another Great Day

Yesterday was another one of those great days that once again made me recognize how wonderful my life is. It may sound arrogant, but how many people can say they woke to a bull moose grazing 50 yards from them and finished the day flying like an eagle!

Trail head

Rock Creek Lake

Thursday I headed into the mountains to climb a few peaks, one of which was rumored to hold snow/ice year round. It was about 6 mile approach, but when I got to the lake 4 miles in, I could see that the snow/ice couloir was melted out. Uninterested in scrambling the rock, I decided it would be nice to camp at the lake. I found a nice level spot on some bedrock perched 30 feet above the lake and called it camp.

Back of the Lake

The afternoon was nice and quite. Some nice alone time to relax and think about things. As night crept in, temps dropped quickly and I found refuge in my sleeping bag. The night was spectacular. There was a near full moon and when it disappeared behind peaks, the stars were brilliant. I laid awake watching shooting stars and listening to a moose walk around my camp.

Camp

I awoke to spectacular lighting and quickly grabbed my camera. Took a few shoots then spotted the silhouette of my host. The moose was grazing about 50 yards from me and occasionally took notice of me when I snapped a shot. After about an hour I got up to make breakfast, pushing the moose out of it's comfort zone where it quickly ran off to the woods.

Sunrise

The Wildlife

I headed home shortly after breakfast and got a call during my drive that people were meeting at the LZ to fly. Perfect. I'd be just on time.

Karl, Josh, Nick, John and I headed up the hill for what we thought would be a great flight. As it turned out, the winds didn't come that were forecasted leaving us with sled rides. Not as great as a soaring flight, but fun enough. I mounted a camera on my wing and snapped some pics on the way down. Tried to get some wing-over shots, but there are still some kinks I need to work out of my camera system before that will work.

Flying over Mount Sentinel

Everyone landed safely and then headed over to beer fest to do what we love the most after flying, kick a few back!

Como Lake

Spent Labor Day weekend at Como Lake with friends from work. Ann rented a cabin for two nights while Linsey and I brought a keg. About 15 people showed up and we had a great time barbecuing/partying. The skies opened up and we lucked out with nice weather to enjoy.