Memory Lane.

Just got myself a scanner and scanned some old photos. Check 'em out...

Me rippin' it up at Sugarloaf in 1998. Never raced much after that one... YETI represent!

Droppin' behind the small mall. Oh yeah.

Riding trials on the Stumpjumper in Maine.

Some hippies on a beach near Bellingham. (Amy, Allison, Peter) Also note the crazy rock they're on. At the time I wondered what the heck was going on. I'm pretty sure that's a classic example of tafoni development in granite. My buddy Athena studied tafoni development in the Bahamas. Small world of sorts eh?

Two studs at Morse Mountain, Maine. 2001?

Me at my favorite campsite on Spectacle Island, 2003?

Atop some mountain in the Harz Mountains, Germany. April, 2000. Jay Spoon in the dark shirt, Josh Miller in the grey. Hannah Joule in the white vest behind them. Ford knows these folks...

Two studs warming up for a race in Mississippi. Near Jackson, I forget the name of the course. Dig the cotton socks (and cotton jersey for me, wool for Teal).

The house in Cathlamet. From 2001 when I took a trip there from Seattle.

Droppin' along the power lines in Boothbay. This scared the crap out of me at the time. Photo credit to Teal. Good timing! Note the totally sweet Vans Old School shoes. Word up. Yo.

Canoing the sloughs near the marina in Cathlamet. Ford up ahead in the kayak. 1993? Sharka Brah! Man that was a cool place to paddle.

Teal and Ford on the beach near Cape Alava, Washington. Looks like Cathlamet era, so 1993 or so... Ah, the grunge days... Looking at it now, some pretty sweet geology in the background too.

Oregon coast I think. Ford and I.

My dorm room in Utah. 4 bikes. Oh yeah. SS road bike (courtesy of Teal), Monty trials bike, Cove "freeride" bike (which I never really got to ride much), and the trusty Stumpjumper under the bed.

Sofi Hamrin paddling dad's boat (the Sealoution) in Boothbay, off Spruce Point. Summer 1998 I think. Sofi and I worked at the ice cream place together. She now lives in Santa Barbara. Ran into her this summer in Boothbay, we were both a bit drunk (her more than me) but we still recognized eachother after having not seen eachother after 9 years...

Fordo atop a mountain in Camden. This is from that time we all went snowshoeing. What a goon.

Me and the old man at Morse mountain another time. This time in 2000, still hadn't regained my weight lost from the AT. I can barely fit into that vest now.

Senior prom picture. Oh man. Sara Rosen (my date) is now married and living in NYC. Kara still likes women and lives somewhere in Boston. Josh Miller I think is still hanging around Boothbay. One of two times in my life when I've worn a tux (other was Ford's wedding). Don't playa hate.

Winter Fun.

Ford's been bugging me to put a picture of the Suby up. He wanted to see it with snow tires. So, it's not a very good pic, but you get the idea. By the way, of course I didn't do any donuts in the snow-covered parking lot...


So in with all my daydreaming about epic travels, I've been wanting to do something outside NOW. Until recently, the only sleeping bag I had was my 8 year old 40-degree bag. I had it with me for the whole A.T. and it's not very warm anymore. Not even 40, which isn't warm to begin with. So, I bought myself a winter bag. Got a really good deal I couldn't pass up. I imagine it'll probably last forever too. It's more of an investment than a toy. Justification aside, it's a North Face synthetic -20 degree bag. Yep, minus twenty. Tried it out indoors to see how I fit (bit snug of course, even though it's a long bag), and couldn't bear to be in it for a minute before getting too hot. Anywho, decided I'd try it out in the woods behind my house before I did any sort of real camping with it. However, had a bit of a quandry. My tent (which I absolutely love) is not free-standing, so it doesn't really work in the snow (not without a lot of work and/or special tent stakes anyway). So where to sleep? Well, I've got a tarp (from the A.T.), but that would only cover the top of me. What would keep me off the ground? Ah ha, that hammock of mine! Seemed like a pretty good combo...
I've tried sleeping in the hammock before, and I just couldn't really get comfortable. That was this summer on Spectacle Island. Granted, there was someone else in a hammock right next to me that I kept bumping into, and it was slung too low, so I was practically folded in half. But, I wanted to give it another try since it would keep me off the ground. Besides, a hammock + tarp would be a pretty sweet lightweight winter combo.
But enough babbling. To shorten the story, the sleeping bag was warm enough, but the hammock just didn't seem to be the solution. For one, had the same sagging problems even though it was set up really taught. Two, didn't pitch the tarp quite right, so my feet weren't covered (hence the garbage bag). Three, rocking back and forth in the wind isn't all the lullabies make it out to be. Rocking back and forth on a boat is alright, but this was quicker than that. Just kind of weird. Fourth, being elevated off the ground, the cold can get at you from all sides. So I think I was a bit chillier than I would have been in a tent. Anywho, slept through most of the night, but woke up before dawn just not feeling comfortable. It wasn't really very cold (20 or so), but my body was just telling me to get up. So I did. Guess I'll have to find a different solution to winter camping. At least I've got a sleeping bag that's up to the job now though...

Into the woods.

Freezing rain which later turned into snow. Reflective tent lines are sweet.

So close, yet so far away.

I feel like I'm preparing myself for some sort of expedition. Maybe I am. Who knows. I certainly would like to go off on an adventure. Just need to decide where, when, and how. The why doesn't need to be answered. "Because it's there." By the way, R.I.P. Sir Edmund Hillary.

Off to Rochester tomorrow. I'll be there for at least 4 weeks in a row (coming home weekends, a 7 hour drive, ugh). At least I got a decent rental car this time. Minivan last time, brand new Nissan Maxima this time. Oh yeah! Should fly on the highway.

Places I want to go...

So I've been thinking a lot about places I'd like to go. Here's some of them, with photos included. Now I just need to find a way to make it happen. Photos from the internet...
In no particular order.

New Zealand:


Guilin, China:


Switzerland:


The Appalachian Trail (again):


The Pacific Crest Trail:


The Continental Divide Trail:


The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route:


Norway:


Palau:


French Polynesia:


Iceland:


Mongolia:


Montana:


Patagonia:


Siberia:


Kentucky:


Maine:


Alaska:


...etc...

Winter ride.

Went out for a "road" ride yesterday. 15 or so mile loop on snow and ice covered gravel roads mostly. 25 degrees and snowing a bit. Toes got a bit cold, but otherwise not bad at all. Slippery though, studded tires would have been nice.

The surly in winter mode.

The road ahead, the ONLY flat stretch.

Stupid glasses kept fogging up going up the hills. Had to have them on the downhills to keep the snow out of my eyes though...

Back home on the porch.

Photos via Facebook.

So, I just realized I can allow access to the photos I have on facebook to people who aren't on there. So here ya go. You've seen lots of them on here, but some of them you haven't. Enjoy.
In sort of chronological order:
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Seventeen.
Eighteen.
Nineteen.
Twenty.
Hope it works...

Francis Joyon. Wow.

New Solo round-the-world sailing record. 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes, 6 seconds. Can you imagine that? Sailing alone around the world. In a 92 foot trimaran. 92 feet! Alone! The previous record was set a year or two ago by Ellen MacArthur on her 75 foot trimaran. Francis Joyon beat her record by over 2 weeks!
I haven't been daydreaming about boats like I used to, and I sure wouldn't want to sail around the world in a big hurry. But wow, that's just amazing.
Assume his route was 24,000 miles (actually it's longer). That works out to about 421 miles per day, or an average speed of 17.5 miles per hour! That's over twice as fast as I've ever been on a sailboat. And that's the average... Props.

Hippity Hop.

So, way back in 2003, I was at UMaine. I spent most of my spare time riding trials. My buddies Ryan, Stu, and Ben also rode. Ryan got a camera at some point and put together this video. Keep in mind this is pretty old, but I still think it's awesome. I'm obviously the enormous guy on the pink bike. Ryan is on a black bike, Stu is on a silver bike, and Ben is on a white bike. Good times. Let me know what you think.

or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LDobu3XZjs
By the way, that pink bike was awesome. A prototype steel Planet X zebdi. It eventually broke of course, but it was awesome while it lasted.
The riding that's on rocks by water is down at Ocean Point.
Ryan is doing carpentry work and traveling a lot, Stu some big shot engineer living in Boulder, and Ben is supposedly a bank robber. No joke.
PS - Also note the totally awesome Honda Civic WRC cameo at 3:24. Ghetto wagon represent!

Kentucky Photos... (and a couple others)

Sorry it took a bit to get these up... They're out of order too...

A view of the farm where Ford/Amanda currently reside. Pretty awesome place.

Ford taking out the compost.

New Year's fireworks from my front porch in Vermont.

Aparently they don't make skis/bindings strong enough for manly men (or people who crash all the time like me).

Ford riding the 4-wheeler back to get more gas for the chainsaw.

Day 1 of work that I helped with. The walls and braces were already up. We braced the corners and added all the horizontal poles across the roofline.

Day 2, started putting up the siding. We eventually got it up about 3/4 around the barn, but ran out of the 100-year old siding...

Ford insisted on taking my picture...

Attempting to burn some brush down in the field. Way too wet and tons of dirt. Didn't get going any more than this.

The last day we worked, we cut down a ton of small trees to use as the diagonal rafter thingys to support the roof. We also put up some vertical posts to temporarily hold the ridgepole. We attempted to use 2 16' sections of really old heavy wood for the ridgepole, but it was way too heavy and awkward to actually lift up there. Ford tells me that they've now got most of the roof up. Pretty fun doing that sort of work, though it was pretty tiring and rather muddy.

Back here in Vermont, it's still cold and snowy (and probably will be for 3 or 4 more months). Since I've been back, it snowed another foot or so. I really ought to take some pictures to show you just how much snow is piled up in places, and it's only going to get better (or worse, if you don't like snow). There's a worrying amount of snow/ice on the roof now. Basically a bunch of little glaciers. It's going to be kind of scary in the spring when it all melts and slides off the roof. The river that runs through town is also frozen now. However, it's quite warm out at the moment (probably 25!), and getting warmer, so it'll probably melt again before too long.
In other news, I finally got myself a bed! After sleeping on a thermarest (that leaked and was flat by morning) for the first month and a half, I bought a queen size air mattress. That thing worked well for a while, but I've had to repair leaks 3 times now. Got fed up and bought a real mattress/box springs/frame thingy. I was rather giddy about it last night, and even when I woke up this morning. Somehow, my place feels more like home now that I'm not sleeping on the floor.
As far as work goes, still pretty slow. I was going to get sent down to Long Island again on Monday (the 7th), but that's been pushed back a week, if not more. This seems to happen a lot. Something gets scheduled and then rescheduled again and again. Oh well. In the meantime, I'm getting experience repairing things I never thought I'd have to, like diesel heaters, peristaltic pumps, and all sorts of other gadgets. Honestly, I feel more like a mechanic or a janitor than I do a geologist. Whatever, it'll pay the bills for now...
Oh, almost forgot, Mom/Dad and Teal, your christmas packages are finally on the way! Sorry about the delay on that...