Die Another Day

Before I begin the tale of this weekends adventure, I have to apologize for no pictures. We had the camera along, but believe it or not, I didn't have a chance to take any pictures. So I hope you enjoy reading a good, real-life thrilling, cliffhanger...literally.

What good is an adventure without a little risk involved, right? Well, usually I like to keep the risk factor to a minimum, but Saturday night we tip-toed on the edge - pun intended! After spending the morning and early afternoon hiking in the mountains we decided to see about getting to the top of a mountain and looking for a geocache. Around 6:00 we were on our way up and enjoying the ride in the Canubaru on the nice logging road. We made notes of a few places to hike every few miles, and a few places still had a few small patches of snow on the north facing sides. We crossed a few patches of slush around 9 miles and thought we might be having some fun getting to the cache through some snow. The Subaru is an all-wheel drive car, so it handles quite well on snow, ice, mud, sand and seldom gets stuck. It was around 65 degrees and earlier in the day we had been hiking with temps around 75, so we didn't mind getting our feet in the snow.

Around 10 miles into the mountains we DID get our feet in the snow. As we approached a corner, I noticed a drift stretching from the left bank into the middle of the road. The corner took a turn to the right and the road was concealed by trees, so I couldn't see the entire corner. As we started into the snow, I stayed to the right side to stay in the slush and keep the car from getting stuck - we rounded the corner and saw deeper snow patches up the road for several hundred feet and realized we would not be able to get through the snow or be able to turn round. So I stopped. I noticed the car slide to the right a little, but only a short slide and nothing to be concerned with. So, I asked Laura how much room we had to work with and she responded "Looks like about three feet before the edge."

I thought to myself "ok, three feet is plenty of room to get backed up and get out of this snow." So I put the car in reverse and looked over my shoulder. As I began backing up, I noticed the back of the car wasn't moving, but the front of the car was now sliding towards the right edge of the road.

If you don't drive mountain roads, then you might not know that when roads are built they are often slanted at corners to allow melting snow to drain off the road. Most roads are actually slanted to allow proper drainage, but more so in corners to keep water moving and the road dry.

Now that the car was slightly at an angle on the road and the car was backing slightly uphill in the snow, I realized things were getting a little hairy. I had Laura get out of the car to help me keep an eye on the edge of the road, which was now closer to two feet away. I told her to stand back about 20 feet and let me know if there was trouble. Once she was stationed, I gave the car a good shot of gas and let clutch go. I backed up about two inches before the front of the car really took a swing to the right and I slammed on the breaks! I turned around and notices the front passenger side of the car was quite low, much lower than it previously was. I looked back over my shoulder at Laura who was just starring at the front of the car and her jaw was hanging open. After a few moments of sitting in the car and waiting for her to give me a report, I leaned towards the passenger window and yelled out "How'my doin?" I really didn't need her to respond, I knew good and well that the car was not going the direction I wanted and things were getting real bad. As Laura walked up to the passenger window I asked "How much room do I have over there?" Laura looked down at the tire and responded, "Umm, not much!"

I jumped out of the car and ran around the front to see the tire now off the ice, but sitting on mud and rocks and slowly sinking into the mud. Now, up to this point I hadn't payed much attention to the ledge we were toying with, but I took a moment to look over the edge. I quickly guessed the initial drop to be around 25 feet, not straight down but darn near! From there, the trees might stop anything coming down the embankment, but a few breaks in the trees would allow for a car to pass through and likely keep going...I didn't care to think much past that so I didn't look any longer.

I looked up at Laura, who was standing with her arms crossed, in her t-shirt and shorts, she looked like she was getting cold. I agreed with her, I was in my shorts and t-shirt and wondering if we would be spending the night walking down the road and calling a tow truck. I mentioned the tow truck to Laura and I think that is when she realized we really might have ourselves a problem. She seemed to be a little more worried at that point, but I decided to give it one more try before throwing in the towel.

I went for the shovel in the back of the car and started clearing snow away from the tires. After I had a clearing around the car, I went to the edge and dug up some dirt and rocks and threw it around the tires in hopes of getting some traction. I created a run of several feet with the muddy rocks and then checked the passenger tire, which was still slowly sinking into the mud and sliding ever-so-slightly. I looked at Laura, trying to decide what to do. She was still standing with her arms crossed and had a slightly worried look on her face. I decided that the best route of action was going to require someone to pick the front of the car up and get it out of that muddy hole, and someone was going to have to drive the car forward... Seems like a simple plan right?

Let me explain my predicament to you. *Que flashback* When Laura and I were dating in the summer of 2004 we went for a drive in the mountains around Cody, Wyoming. As we went to the top of one of the mountains we encountered a very steep grade which really put us back in our seats, but clearly still drivable. Well, Laura was driving and began panicking, I told her to just back up and we will park the car and walk to the top. I was a little confused as to what the trouble was so I inquired to her worry. She explained to me she was afraid the car 'was going to tip over backwards.' I had to fight hard not to laugh, because she was clearly a little shaken and knew that laughing wasn't going to improve my status with her, but now that we are married I like to poke fun at her about that.

So, having that knowledge in my mind, I told Laura "You're going to have to drive the car and I am going to have to lift the car out of this hole." The look on her face was priceless, I wish I could have taken a picture because she was so horrified that it was almost funny. She looked at me with that look people people give you when you make some outrageous comment, as if to say "do you remember I am the one who was afraid of the car tipping over backwards, and now you think I am capable of driving this car out of this problem after you couldn't!!!! You are nuts!"

I explained to her that she wasn't going to be able to pick up the front of the car, and she would be just fine, which I believed she would do just fine, we were gonna get outta this one way or another! I was concerned that the car might roll over me if she didn't go forward and slid sideways so I took a moment to clear my mind and think about what was happening. I could tell that my concern had crossed her mind as well, but told her this was gonna work. As I rocked the car up and down, I was standing on about six inches of soil, and a lot of air below me. The rocking was working though, Laura began moving forward and the front wheel rolled out of the hole and up onto the road! Laura drove the car forward a few more feet and I put my hands out to push the back of the car farther up the road - like it was going to help. We did it! We had the car away from the edge and safely sitting on the road again! Sweet relief.

The problem now, was we had to back up past the area we had just slid into, but at least we had another chance. As I started clearing snow with the shovel I heard a car coming up the road. I continued to clear the snow from around the car, and the guy mentioned he didn't have any chains, towrope, or a shovel to help but he would push if needed. Just then another truck came up the road. He said he had some chains we could try, so he returned to his truck to get them. Laura talked to his wife while we lined up our options, as he returned with the chains he looked at our tracks along the edge of the road and said "Are those your tracks!!? Whoa, that was an ass pucker'er!" He got that right, that was the closest I have ever been to taking a short hike off a tall cliff!

The chains were too big for the car, but we decided to lay them on the ice and back over them. I kept putting mud and rocks behind the tires as well. I backed up a few feet and we moved the chains, then backed up again and moved the chains. The third time we passed the ice and I backed the car out onto the gravel on the logging road! FREEDOM! After a round of 'thank-yous' we were headed back down the logging road and making a b-line for home. That was enough excitement for the weekend.

Sunday, I sat in front of the tv and watched the NASCAR race at Talladega. Then I did some gardening outside, followed by more sitting on the couch and watching King of the Hill and The Simpsons to round out my weekend. I think we will both be ready for another adventure by next weekend, once the excitement of our mountain travels wears off. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Something For Friday Afternoon

Monday, I posted some pictures of our hike that we took last weekend. Although they are nice pictures, I didn't really find them too appealing...and so I began working on a panorama of the hike. I took 23 pictures and put them together. It wasn't exactly an easy task, but I finally completed it! I have been working on it for several hours each day since Monday and I probably have a good 10-12 hours worth of work on the picture. I put a few different versions together to see what I would get...

The first one is the basic view when I put all the photos together - you can see the way the camera swings from low to high and then low again - this is about 130 degrees of view.With a little cropping I get the rectangular look of the picture and what a typical panoramic picture would look like. After I cropped the photo I brightened it a little and added some saturation to make the foreground stand out a little more - it was dark from taking the photo into the sun on the right side. If you look very closely you can see the small variations throughout the photo from the previous one, but basically just enough to add some more color without overdoing it.My final rendition is an over exaggerated color scheme, but oddly I find it to be my favorite one. The bright vibrant colors stand out and really catch my eye.I have to shrink the pictures down to 1/3 of the real size they are to post on the internet to allow for them to load at a decent speed - but if I were to leave them are regular size they would be 100"x35" - that's basically 8 feet long by 3 feet high! That would be a fun picture to have hanging on the wall.

Laura and I are hoping to get out for a hike this weekend so I will likely be taking more pictures and if the view is good enough I am sure I will have another panorama to work on. Tonight, I'm making my way to ultimate frisbee pickup to enjoy the 70 evening. Tomorrow the prediction is 78! I've been waiting for these days all winter. It's time to break out the shorts and see how much more weight I need to lose so I can wear them! ha ha! Have a great weekend, I know I will. Until again

-=Nolan=-

The Art Of Running

Laura and I have really gotten some motivation to start running again now that we have a goal. Monday I went out for a run, just to get my legs back into a 'running mode.' After a few weeks of not even jogging it didn't take long for my legs to start hurting and really feel that burn. Wow, I remember why I said "I never want to be out of shape." The pain of getting my legs back under me and running isn't exactly fun, but I know it's gotta be done to get where I am going. It makes it easy to understand why the majority of people don't enjoy running; it's simply too painful and hard to do.

My run on Monday was a simple 2 mile route on the mountain. The first mile was like taking a sledge hammer to my shins! OUCH! I clearly have conditioned my legs for hiking because I immediately could feel a relief when I started running up hill, but any time I was running downhill or on the flats it wasn't good. That right there is enough to make anyone stop. I decided that I am going to have to do some stretching and conditioning to get my legs accustom to running again. The best thing for shinsplints, I have found, is a simple exercise called 'toe raises.' We did them in high school all the time for cross country. It's as simple as standing next to a wall for support and pointing your feet straight ahead. You then raise up on your toes and then back down to the heels. Repeat that 10 times and then point the feet outward or in a V position as you look down. Do 10 raises and then point the toes together like an A, once again 10 raises. Now, the key is to be able to do 10 of them for each one and then one they become easy then do 15 or 20. By my senior year of high school I was doing about 50 for each position.

After the toe raises, turn your back to the wall and lean against it. Place the heel of one foot against the wall and place the other foot at the toes of your foot against the wall. This will place your feet about 9-13 inches off the wall, but proportional to your height. Instead of raising up on your toes, rock back on your heels to raise you toes into the air. This works to strengthen the muscles in the front of the shin and keep shinsplints from occurring.

So I have been doing those exercises and this morning my run went smoothly. I just ran for 25 minutes and cruised along around 8 minute mile pace. Around 20 minutes I could feel my legs starting to tire and become heavy, that's when 'survivor mode' kicks in - just finish and keep going at a pace that isn't quite a jog. You know what I am talking about if you have ever been in a race and went out too fast, you lose your legs but you still can keep a good enough pace to finish a decent time, however you could have done better.

I'm getting my training schedule figured out and I am planning to officially start training in May. I am also going to keep track of my weight so I can see the progress of that as well. So far I have dropped about 5 pounds!

We won our ultimate frisbee game last night, we are now 3-0 for the spring league and we are starting to look pretty good. Everyone is learning to play new positions and word of our ability is spreading around, we are definitely one of the teams to beat now. I have been playing pickup at the park with everyone on Monday and Friday, that is a good way to stay in shape and have a good time as well. Not only do I get a few extra miles of running in, but I get to play ultimate while I am at it!

Well, that about does it for now. I've got a list of things to do again today, you would think I would be out of stuff to do by now, but somehow I keep adding more and more stuff to my list. I don't know how it happens, but there is always something to be done. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Let's Run!

Laura and I had a great weekend. Friday night, we went to the University movie theater and caught a double feature. We payed $6 for both of us to see the double feature, you can't beat that price for 5 hours of movies! Happy Feet was the first showing, Laura wanted to see the movie, I was indifferent as to whether I saw it or not, but I thought it was a great movie for kids. Robin Williams always does great work with animated movies, his voice is just hilarious!

After Happy feet we had an hour until the second movie played. We went and did a geocache just as it was getting dark and then returned for the second movie. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King showed at 9:30, the movie is over three hours long and we made it home just about 1:00 a.m. The Lord of the Rings is really just one big movie, but split into three movies for the sake of time. The trilogy is around 10 hours long, so it can take a long time to watch the entire thing. However, it still remains one of our favorite movies to watch.

Saturday, we decided to just relax and enjoy the day. It was a nice day in the 60's and sunny. We did leave the house to find another geocache or two, but then we came straight home. Laura did some work on her bike and I watched the NASCAR race in Phoenix. We felt like we needed some exercise though and decided on Saturday night that we needed to take a hike on Sunday. The weather for Sunday didn't look to good, but rain wasn't predicted to start until the afternoon so we decided to take a hike early in the morning.

Sunday, we were at the trailhead at 9:30 to start our hike. We realized we had a geocache on a mountain near Missoula so we decided it was time to go find it. It was sunny and we had a cool wind, so we were quite comfortable for our hike. We decided that we didn't have any hurry to get to the cache so we took logging roads for most of the way. When we made it to the top of the mountain we realized we had hiked 5 miles, but the truck was only 1.9 miles away! We took a picture at the geocache - it's hard to see, but that's Squaw Peak in the background - we plan to hike to the top of it sometime this summer as well.

There is still just too much snow on most of the mountain to hike and get the geocaches we want to get. As we were hiking we had some great views looking north. We could see the Mission Mountains - they are the mountains on the east side of Flathead Lake - and they were still covered in LOTS of snow. So, we are slowly getting around to hiking and getting some geocaches, but the mountains are reluctant to let us start hiking. That's alright though, we've got some new plans to get in shape again.Saturday night, I got to thinking about how I could get back into running and training again and I decided I needed to get a goal set. I had to do some thinking about what I wanted to train for, but while I was thinking I went to the scale and found out that losing some weight is going to be a goal in itself. I'm weighing it at the heaviest yet, 203 pounds! So, goal number one is to lose the weight and goal number two is get in shape to run the Spokane Marathon or Half Marathon.

I had been thinking about training for the Missoula Marathon in July, but the $60 entry fee was enough to deter me from running. I remember about the Spokane Marathon and the entry fee is only $22 if you run and don't buy a shirt...

So here's the plan: The Spokane Marathon is October 14, 2007 - 25 weeks away basically. That's plenty of time to get in shape. I plan on training for the half marathon right now. Not only will that get me running again, but I should be able to lose weight as well. So the first goal is to lose 25 pounds and be at 175 pounds and goal number two is to be able to run 7 minute miles for the half marathon. That's one hour and thirty one minutes, which would likely place me in the top 20 for the half marathon, as well as place in my age division. I think losing the weight will be harder to do than run the 7 minute miles, it will take awhile to get back into shape, but once I get there I know it won't take much to get a pace set and stick with it. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Laura thought I had a pretty good idea and she is going to train to run as well. Although, I am going to benefit the most by getting back in shape, she would like to lose a few pounds as well and we might as well do it together.

On that note, as soon as my talk radio program is over I am headed out the door for a short run. Then I have a list of things to do today. The lawn is in need of a mowing, I've got a few dishes to clean, and then Laura left me a list on the refrigerator of things I could do if I 'get bored.' So I am going to stay busy today and I have a feeling by the end of the day I will be thinking about how marvelous that landscaping is going to be this summer! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Spring Snow

We didn't play Ultimate on Wednesday night, the fields were too wet to play on. I wasn't too enthused about playing in the rain/snow when temperatures were around 35, add to that a few layers of mud on my shirt and I would have been a miserable mess.

We awoke Thursday morning to several inches of snow on the mountains around Missoula. Here's the mountain above our house, covered in snow. You can see the snow line on the left side of the picture, there's no hill blocking the view, the snow just ends and the rain began at that elevation. The news reported that Glacier National Park received 15 inches of snow and northeast of Missoula received 5 inches! Glacier was just starting to plow roads to attempt to repair the mountain roads that were washed away, looks like they will be plowing snow awhile longer. The weekend weather looks to improve though, we are looking towards the 60's for the next few days and possibly 70's early next week. They plants and trees would sure enjoy some warmer weather.

Yesterday, Laura and I did some shopping. We needed to make a trip to Costco to stock up on our food supply and made a trip past JCPenney to check out the sales we've been hearing about. The sales weren't very good, but the clearance racks had some excellent deals! I picked up two shirts for $6 and Laura bought two pairs of jeans and a shirt for $12. Don't believe me? Check out the receipt - no wait, check out the 'Total Savings!' $142.13! I guess that's a pretty good way to save some money.

Tonight we are thinking of heading to the movies. The University has a movie theater and they play movies at reduced prices for students. The shows tonight are Happy Feet and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. So we have that option if we feel like sitting around and watching movies. As far as the weekend goes, I don't know what the plans are. We had thought about doing some more geocaching and trying a few hikes at lower elevation, but the snow that hit on Wednesday might be a real big problem anywhere we go. Then again, if temperatures can reach into the 60's then we might have a chance to melt some snow and still get a hike in.

Have a great weekend! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Fred Phelps Is An Evil Thing

I try to keep political banter as far from my blog as possible, but sometimes it's hard to keep a tight lip. Although the Virginia Tech shootings are tragic and it's terrible to hear such bad news, some things taking place and being said in the aftermath are absolutely ridiculous.

Obviously a lot of people are jumping on the issue of gun control, video game violence, poor decision making, just to get the list started. The real problem is that people are fearful that there is a simple answer to this. People want a complex problem to blame someone or something for a simple answer. In other words, most people find it hard to believe that the simple answer is some people are just plain crazy.

I play violent video games, I own guns, but the factor that keeps me from going out on a rampage is the fact that I have a logical thought process and I am not insane.

Ok, so enough of talk about blame, it's time to get into some topics that have lit my fuse!

You'll notice I titled Fred Phelps as an 'Evil Thing' and not a human, because it's important to make an accurate statement. Fred Phelps is the leader of the cult (yes, it's a cult) known as the Westboro Baptist Church - you know, the cult that goes around protesting at soldiers funerals. According to www.godhatesamerica.com, they are planning to protest at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students. I'm not a person who uses the 'hate' word lightly when it comes to other humans, but since Fred Phelps isn't a human I can honestly say that I hate him and what he stands for. There, I said it. That feels better.

A lighter topic, but one that still makes me very unhappy is the ruling made on Monday to increase royalties for internet radio. The real problem is the costs are not slightly increasing, they are increasing as much as 1200%. Yes, you saw that right. The problem is deep rooted and there is a lot to this, specifically the DRM & DMCA (Digital Rights Management & Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Groups such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), and others, sue 13 year old girls, 80 year old ladies, college students, and more, to try to hold on to old practices which are no longer logical. Instead of updating to new practices the music and movie industry would rather keep consumers in the dark ages and use scare tactics to influence people. A popular saying is 'Don't bite the hand that feeds you.'

Enough with the ugly politics, I want the sunshine. No, literally, I want the sunshine, where is it? The high today is 45 and rain/snow mix. That will make a cold evening for Ultimate! The good news is Laura and I have recovered from our weekend bike ride and we are starting to resume normal sitting positions!

For the coming weekend there has been talk of going camping. I'm not sure how appealing that sounds with the highs only reaching the mid 50's and the overnight lows around 30. I think I would rather wait a few more weeks and camp when I can sleep comfortably and enjoy some hiking as well.

I am ready for some camping though. After our trip into Yellowstone last summer I spotted camping gear that I thought might come in handy. We used my brother's tent in Yellowstone - that tent weighed about 8-10 pounds and was designed for car camping. The new tent I picked up at Wal-Mart on clearance last fall. It's designed for hiking and should fit on my pack much better than the large dome tent did - not to mention the new tent weighs in just over 5 pounds. The difference of 3-5 pounds doesn't seem like much, but when you have to lug that along for 50 or more miles you would be amazed. Just some quick math: If you take a 5 foot stride during a hike on flat ground then you take about 1000 steps per mile. Lets figure I save 3 pounds of weight with the lighter tent - that's 3 pounds per step or 3,000 pounds less weight to support for every mile. Therefore, over 50 miles I save 50,000 pounds, or 25 tons. Yeah, it adds up doesn't it!

The pictures of the flowers are from our flower bed in front of the house. I am surprised the overnight freezes haven't killed any of them. They all seem to rebound quickly and look good by the afternoon. We have quite the mix of flowers, but they all look nice and they are a great way to practice taking some photos. I especially like getting in close and taking pictures of the details on the flowers that I would usually ignore. Just like the picture of the maple tree in front of the house. The buds are opening up and soon we will have some nice trees to shade the yard during the hot afternoons. It won't be long and I will be mowing and enjoying the shade each time I pass underneath the trees with the mower. With the rains this week, I suspect the grass will get a boost and be ready for the mower by next weekend.

Tonight will be another cold game of Ultimate and I suspect it to be a muddy mess too. I'll be sure to get some pictures and show off my mess! Until again

-=Nolan=-

28 Miles Without A Car

I think for once, I am happy that the weekend is over. I can actually rest for a few days and recover from the weekend. We had a great weekend, but I did a lot of work and I am feeling it this morning. Here's the story:

Saturday morning was our CITO event. That is Cache In/ Trash Out. Geocachers get together and pick up trash somewhere, we happen to be in the Lolo National Forest this year. We picked up a makeshift shooting range and an area which has been a popular high school party location. You can imagine the trash, but if you can't then take a look at the picture! That's my truck and the Forest Service truck, both full! It took about three hours for the group (about a dozen of us) to pick up all that trash. Oscar the Grouch would be loving this!

I hauled a recliner chair out of the trees and then had to pull it to the top of the road, before dragging it down the road to the truck about a hundred yards. For my efforts and obtaining the most random large trash object I received a 2007 CITO Geocoin. What's all that about, you ask? Well, a Geocoin is like our Johnny Cache Travel Bug that can travel around and visit caches and the miles can be logged. The picture to the right is the Geocoin. It's a yellow trash bag with Signal (the Geocaching mascot) driving a pickup full of trash. The saying is "Let's clean up our playing field!"

We are going to keep the coin and just take it along with us to geocaches and events. When we travel we will log it into caches, that way we don't lose the coin, but it still travels and goes places. Here's some pictures I stole from the geocaching website of our CITO event.

Before

After

Two full trucks!

After the CITO we all went out to eat at the China Buffet and pigged out. It's always nice to have some good food after such a messy event. Laura didn't make it to the trash pick up because she was presenting her research at the University. She joined us for the buffet though.

All that Geocaching talk gets us excited to go find some caches, so we decided to go find a few new caches around town. We found the two we went after and went home to relax. Saturday evening we started talking of where we wanted to cache on Sunday and decided to try to get to a cache that is north of Missoula in the mountains. We had quite an adventure to the cache, it involved a 14 mile ON WAY trip to the cache! Believe it or not, after 14 miles we didn't find the cache!! NO! Sometimes when we don't find a geocache we still log the geocache as a "Did Not Find" (DNF) so everyone can read about our adventure. Here's the log I posted for the cache, just for reference, XC is Laura and I am Tracker:

Where to start... We were hoping to get lucky and get this cache early in the season and get it out of the way, but as detailed in the log we were not thinking clearly, we might need to seek help instead of caches...

Well, we have been chomping at the bit to get to this cache and with the recent CITO event we were overwhelmed with caching. After a much needed slumber from the CITO we awoke this morning around 9 and thought "what cache would offer some good exercise today?" Without putting much thought into it, we loaded up the bikes into the truck and went off to the trailhead - rain and all. We left at 11:20 and it wasn't too long before Tracker realized his Santa Fe Huffy from the early 1990's wasn't gonna be as easy as it was in Nebraska, but that's another story. He ended up doing a lot of pushing and after encountering several snow drifts up to two feet deep we decided to ditch the bikes in the open meadow and make the last two miles on foot. The snow was sparse and wasn't much of a problem so we kept on going. When we reached the bridge after the meadow we encountered more snow than we had anticipated. There was close to three feet of snow on the bridge but did that stop us...? NOPE, keep going, we've come this far, why stop now? By the time we reached the bridge at 13 miles we were 'post holing' and making slow progress from the two feet of snow on the trail... However, there were a lot of open patches along the trail and we remained optimistic that the cache location might just have the same look, KEEP GOING! The rain was turning to snow at this point and the shorts and long sleeve shirt that Tracker was wearing were less than ideal for the conditions. We made it to the area of the cache just under four hours and then crossed the deep snow to what we figured was a large boulder, we couldn't tell the exact size because of the snow around it, but upon arriving discovered the snow around it had melted and there was an opening to possibly retrieve it!!! Hopes were high was we hung upside down from the snow to look under the rock, but the angles offered were just not good enough to spot anything resembling a cache. Tracker backed up and found a hole in the snow, he sank to his waist and decided the snow and cold was just about enough to qualify for a DNF. BRR! Even though we didn't find the cache, we were sufficiently happy to say we had been some of the first humans to the wilderness boundary for the 2007 season. We were soaked, muddy, cold, and VERY hungry! We made it back to our bikes and though our rears were raw from the ride in, we made excellent time getting out, just over 2 hours! We were past exhaustion when we made it to the truck at the trailhead and on the return ride the clouds broke and we had a nice ride with the sun and cool breeze - perfect. We stopped and got some pizza before getting home and cleaning up and chowing down!!! We've decided the next time we attempt to get to the cache we will be packing in and maybe bring some friends to share the fun - now to find some friends who are as crazy as we are!

On another note, the area around the cache was beautiful covered in snow. We took a lot of enjoyment knowing we were the only humans in the immediate area (last contact was at the 8 mile bridge) and the seclusion was much appreciated. We had to clear some trees off the trail and that was a nice break from the bikes. After ditching the bikes we encountered a lot of trees across the trail and they will be brutes to remove, so we detoured and let them be.

It will be a few days, but we will soon be making plans for our return trip. It's going to take a lot more than 4 feet of snow to keep us from returning. Our next log entry will be a big yellow smiling face!

Oh, and one last thing. XC found a dime on the trail about 3.5 miles from the cache, so we didn't go in vain!

I wish I would have taken my camera along, but we decided to travel lightly and try to get the 28 miles covered quickly. All we took was the GPS, extra batteries, and a few small snacks that fit in our pockets. No water, backpacks, cameras, or anything like that, we were trying to do it fast! A lot of people might think that 28 miles without water was a bad idea, but after so many years running track and cross country we became accustom to not having water during workouts or our long runs - as far as 15 miles.

Despite the fact we didn't find the cache, we had pretty high spirits. The four feet of snow at the cache was pretty awesome to see, and we are hoping to get back up to the cache this summer. Hopefully I can take the camera next time and get some pictures. In the mean time I think we will stick to caches under 5,000 feet elevation and let the snow melt before venturing back into the mountains. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Friday The 13th

Beware, it's Friday the 13th! My sister broke her arm on Friday the 13th when she was in grade school. Coincidence? You can be the judge.

I saw this a few days ago. If you haven't seen this funny trick yet, then prepare to have a short lesson in Geography. If you have Google Earth, or know how to use Google Maps then use the Directions option. For the starting point us New York, New York. For the destination use London, England. I see my mom (mum for you English chaps) sent me an e-mail that says use Paris, but I have a phobia of the French so London works as well. You will get a long list of steps and if you read closely around line 20-25 you will see an interesting method for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean - 3,462 miles!" I don't know about you, but the last time I tried swimming across the ocean I got really tired. At least Google has a sense of humor, but I am sure someone will sue them for not making a disclaimer and warning them that it is nearly impossible to swim across the ocean.

Ultimate Frisbee is going good. Our team won on Wednesday night and we are 2-0 now. The word is we are early favorites to be 'the team to beat' so we will have our work cut out for us.

Yesterday, Laura called me from school and said she would be coming home around 2:00 and we should go geocaching. So I looked up a few geocaches to go find and we left around 3:00 for a geocaching adventure. We had a great trip around the areas I like to duck hunt, and there were a lot of ponds and ducks nesting. Towards sunset we climbed up on a mountain and found a geocache. The sunset was great, but the cool wind hurried us back to the truck. When we made it to the top the first thing I noticed was the ponds all over in the valley. We knew we were going a fair distance from Missoula, but when we turned onto the highway and headed back for Missoula the sign read: Missoula 85 miles. Huh?! Holy smokes, we were a lot farther away than we though. The fact that it was already 9:00 added to our surprise as well. We might have believed 65 miles, but looking at the map now, I see we were less than 30 miles from Helena! We pulled into the driveway around 10:15 and Laura quickly threw together some supper so we could eat, shower and get to bed!After our climb up the mountain, I think Laura and I are ready to have a weekend on the flat ground and stay away from anything resembling an incline. Our legs were on fire from our climbing excursion last weekend, and yesterday they were on fire again. Good thing this weekend is a geocaching event called a CITO. That stands for Cache In - Trash Out. Once a year the geocachers get together and pick up trash somewhere. This year we are going to clean up a shooting range in the national forest. It's not really a shooting range, but it's where a lot of people go to shoot and they leave a lot of trash behind. You might spot a trash group this weekend or next weekend, odds are they might be a geocaching group.

Laura has a conference at the University on Saturday afternoon and then our weekend is open for anything. I have a feeling we will be more interested in resting than we will be to go hiking, but you never know. Have a great weekend, until again

-=Nolan=-

**Extra** I forgot to mention we encountered a VERY BIG footprint yesterday while we were geocaching. It was a grizzly bear print and was MUCH bigger than the bear print we saw in Yellowstone (that was a big bear). This is a monster though! Here I am climbing the tree to get the cache and see if I could spot any bears! He he he.

Chick Days

I'm combining our last two days of our trip to put all the fun into one blog! Try to control the excitement and read on...

As I mentioned yesterday, when we left Coos Bay things were soaked! We had intentions to go see the shipwreck on the coast, but it was a mile hike over sand dunes to the beach and we really didn't feel like being soaked and covered in sand for the entire day. We spent some time checking out the Sand Dunes National Recreation Area and then continued our trip on down the highway. I would have taken pictures of the sand dunes, but we were experiencing a thick thick fog and it was tough to see one hundred feet down the road. That was another reason for skipping the walk to the ship, since we suspected we wouldn't see it from shore. While we were searching for a cache at the sand dunes I spotted a snail on a metal gate rail. You can see the water on the rail, and what a funny snail! The snail let me take it's picture and then it was on it's way again. Where it was going, I don't know. Why it was on top of the rail is unknown to me as well, it doesn't seem like a very good way to get anywhere, more like a detour.

We drove Highway 101 north to Lincoln City, Oregon and then we turned right and headed inland. We had been driving next to the ocean for the past 700 miles and then it was gone. Now we have driven the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco all the way around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and basically to Seattle. However, there is an exception in Oregon, a stretch of Highway 101 that stretches from Lincoln City to Cannon Beach (about 75 miles) that was have not driven.

We drove to Salem and then jumped on Interstate 5 and went to Portland to enjoy an hour of bumper to bumper traffic jams! Hurray! We were hoping to get through Portland quickly and cross into Washington, but our hour of sitting in traffic really slowed our progress, we didn't think we would take rush hour, but apparently that's the case anytime of the day. When we did finally make it through town we found our selves on Highway 14 in Washington, snaking our way along the Columbia River. We drove the Columbia River last year on our way to Portland, but we took the interstate which is on the south side of the river in Oregon. I thought Highway 14 was better than the interstate. The speed limit was 70, the same as the interstate in Oregon, and the road was nice asphalt and there wasn't much traffic.

We spent the morning and late afternoon visiting Laura's uncle and aunt in Richland. We spent the night at their house last year on our way to the coast. Since it was the week before Easter we joined them for Chick Days at a country feed & seed store. Chick days is when all the kids come to get a chick or duckling and there are also animals at the petting zoo. Laura had a big smile on her face as she came walking over to me and said "There's a rabbit named after you!" I had to take a picture of that!

The bonus of Chick Days is the free hot dogs and pop! Free lunch is a blessing on vacation, so we took full advantage of that! I joked that we didn't know we were being taken out for lunch, but we sure appreciated it! Here's everyone gathered around for a picture. From left to right we've got: Me, Daniel (hiding behind Laura's shoulder), Laura, Tim, Kyle (friend), Hasan (Jacquelyn's husband from Kosovo), Jacquelyn, and baby Adelina in the stroller (6 weeks old). We left Richland around 2:00 p.m. and we geocached to Spokane. By the time we reached Spokane the sun was going down and we were ready to be home. Thankfully, it is less than three hours drive to Missoula and we were home around 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night.

Our eight day trip took us 3047 miles and to a bunch of new places. Now the Canubaru is in need of another oil change and it is running a little rough. I blame that on the San Francisco driving and the hills there! We have let the car sit quite a lot the past week in hopes it will get over the ailment without the need of a mechanic. We rolled the car odometer over to 200,000 miles on the trip, and the GPS odometer went well over 50,000 miles since I started using it 2.5 years ago.

Tonight it's pub quiz night and I am ready to do some thinking. Last week we scored 51 out of 80 possible, and we were doing well until the music round which was all Beatles' covers by obscure bands. Hopefully thing will be better tonight! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Easter Weekend

Hopefully everyone had a great weekend and found all the Easter Eggs in the lawn. Otherwise you might discover a stinky surprise when you bring out the mower in a few weeks! Laura and I spent Friday evening with friends, grilling and dying Easter Eggs. We spent Saturday around the house for the most part. Laura did have some work at the lab for several hours after dinner, but otherwise we were doing things around the house. Easter was probably the highlight of our weekend, we spent five hours of it hiking in the mountains. Temperatures reached close to 70 and I was regretting wearing my jeans by the second mile of the trek. We ended up hiking to a cache and we were hurting from the hike! We hiked ten miles and luckily for us, six of those miles were in the valley, but to get to the cache we had to really climb! We hiked up to an elevation around 6,000 feet, and our valley trail was around 4,000 feet - that means we gained 1,000 feet every mile! That's hard work!

Oh! I forgot to mention the snow we encountered at the top of the mountain! You can see there were still several feet of snow on the ground and we had to cross it to get to the cache, but that wasn't so bad. We were actually a little warm from the hike and cooling our feet in the snow was a nice way to cool off. There were places where the drifts were still as high as us, but we found the low areas to cross and get through the snow without incident. You can see, in the picture, the tree Laura is crossing is covered in snow to the left, and the snow just keeps going! This was a fun first for us, we had our t-shirts on and hiked through snow drifts...

We returned home and cooked up an Easter supper before collapsing from exhaustion. It's been awhile since I was in bed by 10:00 p.m. but my eyes were heavy by 9:30 and I wasn't gonna make it much longer. This morning, Laura and I are feeling the workout, but we are glad to be back and hiking around. We have some major hikes planned for this summer so we best be in shape by the time we start those!Our trip from Fort Bragg, California to Coos Bay, Oregon was a nice drive along the coast. We stayed the night in Fort Bragg at a small local motel. The motel owner also owned the market across the street and when we checked out of the motel (at the market) we received a cup of hot cocoa and we were on our way again. Highway 1 was nice along the coast, but once it leaves the coastline and heads inland to Highway 101 it becomes a winding road! Don't get me wrong, the road along the coast is winding as well, but at least there is some ocean to look at. Once you head inland there's a lot of trees! Well, that sixty miles of winding road was starting to take a toll on my health. I haven't been car sick since I was about ten years old, but I was getting there in a quick hurry. I suspect part of the trouble was that Laura was driving the car and I had trouble anticipating the movement of the car. We pulled over for a few minutes to stretch and get some air, and take a picture.I'm smiling in the picture, but the world was spinning! I decided to drive the car the rest of the way to the highway, and that seemed to help a lot. It's been awhile since I felt that bad from riding in the car, but that was a harsh reminder that it's still possible!

It's wasn't long before we were at our first tourist trap of the day, the Chandelier Tree. We payed our $5 and drove through the middle of a tree! There wasn't anyone around so we hand plenty of time to take some pictures, but when we were leaving the lines were starting to form. We spent most of the day driving so we could spend a few hours at Klamath Overlook in Redwood National Park. We thought it might be a good place to watch for whales and spend some time relaxing. Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales but we did enjoy the cool breeze and the warm sun. The view wasn't bad either! We remembered to bring the binoculars on the trip, so we spent a lot of time watching boats on the ocean and watching the seals play in the water down below us.Our last tourist trap before reaching Coos Bay was the Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox figures. You might have seen them on tv advertising another over-sized truck with all the features imaginable. That's Laura sitting on the fence. We made it to Coos Bay, Oregon just before sundown and then headed out to see if we could find a campsite. When we showed up at the camp site there was a lake where the tent camping was supposed to be, so we went back to Coos Bay and stayed at a small motel for the night. Good thing we did - it didn't rain overnight but the humidity was 97% and everything was soaked.

Today we've already had some rain and wind, it doesn't look to improve much today either so it looks like a day spent indoors staying warm. Cool temperatures have returned and are here to stay for a few days. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Hop Hop Happy Easter!

The repairman showed up yesterday and spent a few hours working on the furnace, we finally have some heat in the house! It's nice to wake up in the morning and not be harshly awoken with the cool house when I climb out of bed.

Yesterday I blogged our San Francisco experience, but we didn't finish all the sightseeing we had, so we spent an hour of our day in San Francisco finishing up a few places we wanted to go. We went to Alamo Square, which is a popular location for filming television and movies. "Full House" is the first tv show I think of.

From Alamo Square we ventured down the road to the corner of Haight & Ashbury. If you don't know about "The Haight" then that's ok. I thought it was a much more widely known place than it is. Here's an excerpt from Widipedia:

The Haight Ashbury's elaborately detailed 19th-century multi-story wooden houses became a haven for hippies during the 1960s, due to the availability of cheap rooms and vacant properties for housing in the district. The bohemian subculture that subsequently flourished there took root, and to a great extent, has remained to this day. San Francisco and the Haight gained a reputation as the center of illegal drug culture and rock and roll lifestyles soon after, especially with the use of marijuana and LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. By 1967, the neighborhood's fame chiefly rested on the fact that it became the haven for a number of important psychedelic rock performers and groups of the mid-1960s. Acts like Jefferson Airplane, the Greatfull Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short distance from the famous intersection. They not only immortalized the scene in song, but also knew many within the community as friends and family.

When Laura and I climbed out of the Canubaru I was wearing by Nebraska Cornhuskers t-shirt and jeans. I clearly was not dressed for the atmosphere. I didn't realize that the hippie culture was still in such force! We received several stares as we snapped a few pictures and high-tailed it out of there! In fact, we were getting out of town.

We jumped on Highway 101 and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and then did some driving around the Golden Gate Recreation Area, which is on the north side of the bridge. That was a neat area to visit because it is actually part of the old fort and the gun turrets are still on the tops of the hills.

From there we jumped on Highway 1 and began our long drive north to Fort Bragg. It actually wasn't a long drive - only 180 miles - but we had a lot to see. Our first stop was at Muir Woods National Park (another use for our National Parks Pass). Muir Woods is one of the places where you can see the giant Redwoods, and it is just a short drive from San Francisco.

We spent the remainder of the morning walking around the woods and reading all the information given on the signs. We are now giant Redwood experts!

From Muir Woods we continued north on Highway 1 to Point Reyes. You can see from the map on the right that Point Reyes extends out into the Pacific Ocean quite a distance. It is about a 20 mile drive off of Highway 1 to the end of the point. Another interesting fact about the point is that the San Andreas Fault runs between the point and Highway 1. If you look at the map closer you can see the fault line - on the north side where the water flows into the point.

We took a short hike to find a geocache that was on the San Andreas Fault line. The fault line is marked out by blue posts, showing where the fault runs - the plates actually slide past each other here, they don't collide. I got a heavy dose of plate tectonics when I was in college so it was great to actually see something I had studied so much about. Here I am standing on the fault line with one foot on each plate. To give you an idea of what the fault is doing, I am standing next to a fence - from where Laura took the picture she is standing next to a fence as well. The two actually used to be connected, but the earthquake moved them apart 16 feet! I was kind of hoping for a small quake while we were on the fault, it would be amazing to see the ground move a few feet while standing on it.

We drove out to the point and then walked out to the viewing platform above the light house.We stayed out on the point for several hours and finally spotted a Gray Whale. The whale isn't in the picture, but when we spotted it, the whale was just to the right of the lighthouse. The view from the viewing platform was excellent, even though the temperatures were a little cool and the wind didn't help either!After spending a few hours at Point Reyes we had to boogie up to Goat Rock State Park. If you are familiar with the 1980's movie The Goonies then you might recognize the place. It's where the final scenes were shot when the ship sails out of the caves and everyone sees it.As you can see, the sun was getting low on the horizon and we still had about 80 miles to get to Fort Bragg. We drove awhile and then took a few pictures of the sunset before continuing on.We had another full day and by the time we reached the hotel we were ready for some rest. We made it just before 10:00 p.m. and hit the hay to get ready for the next day.

...and finally, everyone have a happy Easter! Laura and I are talking of dying some eggs this evening with friends. We don't have any real plans for the weekend, but I am sure we will stay busy. We are slowly putting the house back together after getting the furnace taken care of. Have a great weekend and a happy Easter! Until again

-=Nolan=-