Been A Long Time

It's been a while since I wrote anything and I wondered if anyone was still looking for new postings. Well I intend to continue adding to this blog for the time we are away from all of you fine folks on the East Coast.
The last few weeks have been spent working at the kayak shop and trying to get outside as much as possible. The weather here has been pretty shitty. The locals are actually becoming visibly depressed. The lady at the local market threw my receipt at me the other day after complaining about the weather. Kristen's patients have been in a bad way also. Guess they aren't used to this sort of weather. Nice Breeze...

Anyway I've been getting the shop up and running for the owner. Spring cleaning is what one would call what I've been doing since I started the 17th. The shop is brand new last year and all of the old construction materials were laying around the yard in multiple piles. The grass had been left over the winter and was over knee high all over the place. The boats hadn't been washed or gone over since the beginning of last season and the gear needed to be sorted and placed in storage areas.

I spent a full day and a half mowing and weed wacking. My forearms were so sore from that I could hardly lift my beer that night. Tom Murphy (6th year guide) and I spent most of last week building shelves, refurbishing the drying racks and repairing boats. The place is finally statrting to come together a little now. My boss is already aware of my cynical sarcasm, but I think he knows it's all meant to be good natured. He overheard me bitching about wood screws the other day and found it comical...

Garbage on the island is super weird. Of course all landfill items need to be shipped off island, which makes things really expensive. I've taken two trailers loads of wood and odd materials to the dump and each load was around $120. I can't imagine being a contractor, or having a house built and having to dump the demolition materials. Plus the guys at the dump are power douches. They think very highly of themselves and the positions they fill. I've never heard another human speak so highly of dump matters. And the other day some wannabe hippy lady got on my case for dumping random plastic boat wrappings in the landfill. The dump doesn't recycle that type of plastic but she was going off island and basically demanded I load the plastic in her vehicle so she could properly recycle it. If I hadn't been working I would have had some words for her. Damn greenys! Picked that word up from a client from Australia last week.

I co-ran my first two trips last weekend with Tom. Saturday we brough out nine folks from all over the US. We got to see a few harbor seals, an otter and a Minke Whale surfuced three times about forty feet off the boats. Sunday we were out with just two folks but Kristen came along for the day. The wind and current were up and it made me feel like I was back home in the Atlantic in May. Both good days and it's good to be back in the boats. This guy was on the trip of Saturday, I think he was enjoying that sandwich...

Kris and I are getting very used to island life. We haven't started the van more than twice since we got here. Kris walks to work everyday and I bike or walk depending on the weather. Since we started work we've been meeting a lot of new people. The seasonal folks here are mostly like us, jumping around between summer and winter. Went to a co-workers birthday celebration on Wednesday night and found the Mainers outnumbered everyone. Out of the 20 people 5 of us were from Maine, couldn't believe that. Ended up sitting around a campfire and passing around a bottle of whiskey...just like home.

Today I think Kris and I are going to run, head to the local farmers market and then over to the consignment shop so I can get some more work clothes. Weather is supposed to turn for tomorrow and we plan on taking a couple boats out to a little island just off the coast and having lunch there. Rough life eh?

If you're looking to get in touch with me feel free to call when I'm at work. I'm usually outside and usually near my phone. Clark (my boss) doesn't worry too much about what I'm doing since I've pretty much singlehandedly repaired every trailer, boat, van and most of the gear already. I don't know what he did before I came around.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Orcas Island

So we spent the first week here exploring all San Juan Island had to offer and by weekend number two we decided to head off island for a little variety. There are a number of nearby islands, accessible via the ferry. To walk on or take a bike is free from island to island so its a great way to get a change of scenery without actually having to go (and pay for fare) to the dreaded mainland! Orcas Island was the destination for our first weekend adventure. We decided to take the bikes over and just see what we could see within pedaling distance.

Little did we know that Orcas happens to be the hilliest of all the islands! Immediately off the ferry we were hit with a few solid miles of uphill climbing. A fairly large island itself, we decided to head about 8 miles out one of the most scenic roadways to Deer Harbor. We both agreed that we could have been along any coastal route in Maine. Small winding roads along secluded harbors made for the perfect ride and we definitely earned our lunch as we approached the destination harbor. On the way back we took a break, scrambling down toward the water to read a bit and just relax in the sun. Relax we did until the sudden sound of gushing air brought us both to our feet. Sure enough, the back tire of my bicycle was suddenly flatter than flat. With 5 miles still between us and the 430 ferry it was gong to be a long walk. Ten minutes in and realizing there was absolutely no way of making it in time, I flagged down a passing sherriff and asked very nicely for a ride back to town. Will was unfortunately stuck to negotiate the hills on the way back while I rode back seat with the friendly sherriff threatening to hand cuff me "just for fun" the whole way back! Needless to say...next time we will bring our car to Orcas. We hear Lopez Island is much flatter!

Will started work this Monday, spending most of the week opening up shop, spring cleaning boats, vans, etc. I thought the summer just may have come to an abrupt end when day one he spent 7 hours weedwacking a yard that had not been touched since last winter. The week has progressively gotten better for him and today was his first day out on the water. His boss is a good guy, also very laid back and easy to work for. As the trend around here seems to be, producitivity expectations are minimal and once you get used to "island time" things just seem to move a little slower and easier. The other guide back early for the season is a veteran guide of 6 years who has been spending his winters in Alaska. He's been good about showing Will the ropes and is out on the water showing him how its done today. Things really start picking up for them the beginning of June, but so far its sounding like our days off with be the same! =)

Island Life

So, it has been way too long since an update I know! We arrived on the island about two and half weeks ago. From Anacortes, WA it is a beautiful hour and a half ferry ride out to San Juan Island. There are a number of islands off the coast of Washington, so despite being quite far offshore there are pretty much views of other land for most of the trip. The ferry docks in Friday Harabor which will be our home base for the summer. Awaiting our arrival were our new landlords, frantically waving from the dock and nearly getting hit by a number of cars while trying to chase our van down in the street. A sweet elderly couple, they instantly made us feel welcome as they showed us to our new place. A small one bedroom, furnished apt just a few minutes walk from downtown. Perhaps not the most upscale establishment in the neighborhood, but certainly adequate for what we need and a short walk to town and work makes it the perfect location!

Dowtown Friday Harbor is similar to Bar Harbor, a bustling mile or so block of shops, restaurants and kayak/whale watch excursion companies. The town fills up around ferry time and then calms down as people rent bikes or mopeds and head off to do their thing. Its about nine miles to the far end of the island. The few main road takes you quickly out of town and into rolling hills and farmland. Along the East side of the island, you stay mostly inland as you head past the local vineyard and out to Roche Harbor on the far end. Roche Harbor is a bustling little marina, boasting some of the biggest and most expensive looking boats I have ever seen!

The West side of the island is home to Lime Kiln State Park and San Juan County Park. Lime Kiln is known for being able to see Orca whales right from shore. One of my coworkers is a naturalist who keeps me posted on when the whales are in town. We got to bust out there and see some last Friday night, pretty spectacular! San Juan County Park is where Will's kayak company launches their tours. There are also a few really neat beaches, actually quite similar to those in Maine. Rocky coast lines and freezing cold water is pretty much the norm! There is less surf here though as we are blocked by the Olympic peninsula, so most of the time its pretty darn flat. Not going to be much short boat action this summer for Will! The other major difference is the huge amount of massive driftwood that lines every shoreline. Not really sure why that is, but it is pretty unbelievable.

I started work last Monday at a PT clinic called Islanders Physical Therapy. It is a private, outpatient clinic. Those of you who are familiar with my resume know that this is a big change for me! Outpatient is something that I have always wanted to try, but have never felt quite comfortable or found the right clinic for me. So far, this place has just been great. A small clinic, with one other fulltime PT who is also the owner. There are few part time folks that wander in and out as well as a full time rehab aide and office manager. It is a beautiful space with 5 private treatment rooms and well equipped with plenty of modalities, cardio equipment, etc. She is very laid back and easy to work for. My productivity expectations have been very reasonable allowing me lots of time to actually think things through and learn some new things. The perfect intro to outpatient so far! And I can walk there in less than 10 minutes =)

Everything since

We dropped into Portland, Oregon for the day on Sunday to see the city for ourselves. It was actually not too much of a pain in the ass to park the van and trailer and soon we were on foot. Portland has an artisan fair every Sunday in the waterfront park. Artists, sculptors, hippies and other vagabonds set up their wares under the tents in the park and try to get people to bite on them. I have to admit that isn't my scene but Kris wanted to see what was going on and so we did. There was some neat things there, like the belts made from used bicycle tires, but a lot of the stuff was the kind you would find at a fair. Kristen did end up with a cool little bracelet that some guy made from pennies. We had lunch at the local brewery which wasn't bad. The fish and chips, made with salmon instead of haddock, was great. Kristen couldn't get over the smell of stale beer behind the bar. I don't think I even noticed it, but if she says it's there then it probably is.

We headed across the river to Battleground, Washington to stay the night at the local state park. When we finally found the place we were amazed to find forty or so people milling around a tiny "lake" in the middle of the park. They were all fishing in this tiny lake and there was even a boat out in the middle of the water. I walked through the parking lot, which was completely full, and noticed a full size boat trailer. It was funny to us that people would drive a 18' boat down to a lake that I could throw a rock across to fish. We had a nice little fire that night (no batteries exploding) and hit the hay. *I later talked to Dad and realized that Batteground was where we had lived in Washington when I was little and that I had actually at one point been one of those kids running around the small Battteground Lake with bobber in tow!

Oh I forgot to mention, we never caught the mouse. It just went away. One night it was there, the next it was gone. The traps were not set off, and the bait was still there, but the mouse is gone. Kristen thinks we scared it away, I honestly don't know what to think.

The next morning we got Kris to her dental appointment. Everything turned out great there, her gums are back to normal. We hit the local starbucks and headed north towards the Olympic Peninsula. We expected to spend a couple of days up that way before heading to the ferry and catching the boat over to the island.

We drove I5 to Olympia and then jumped onto 101 which takes you up the eastern side of the olympics. We got 30 or so miles up and found a cool little state park to talk a walk and burn some energy at. The forest there was really sweet. The trees were all huge and covered in old man's beard of some kind. Every square inch of ground was covered in green plants and trees. The wind was up and the trees that towered above us were swaying back and forth until we thought they would come down. After walking we sat at the picnic tables to read for a few hours and then it was time to decide where to go for the night. As we were sitting in the van talking a loud "yoohoo" was heard. We looked out the passenger window and an old crone was standing beside the van with what appeared to be a forced smile. Kris rolled down the window. The old witch was the acting campground caretaker. I should explain what this means. These people go from campground to campground (or they stay at one all the time) and they get free sights just because they watch over the area. It doesn't usually entail them collecting fees, or bothering anyone, they are supposed to keep an eye on things. She wanted to know wether we were staying there for the night. Kris explained that we were thinking of perhaps moving on because the wind was picking up. "Well you're supposed to pay if you've been here a half and hour," the wicked old hag said. Kristen glared at her and said, "then do you want me to pay you $24 for just sitting here." You could tell that made sense to the old lady but she just replied that she would "be back" and walked off. Kris and I just looked at eachother. What the hell was that all about? We made a point of finding somewhere to go for the night that wasn't anywhere near the old lady and left without hesitation.

Unforunately there was no place to go. The ferry from the northern part of the peninsula was closed for an indefinite amount of time due to the wind condtions and that would mean a LONG drive back down around Seattle and north to the ferry that would take us to San Juan. We were getting a little tired of waking up cold, sometimes in the pouring rain, so we decided to drive beyond Seattle and hit the ferry the next day.

The winds on that drive were terrible. 60+ gust were hitting the van and trees around us. There was a tree down on 101 that day that crused a car. The bridge over to Seattle was being hit by gale force winds and there was a warning up. By the time we were in Seattle all we wanted to do was find a place to eat that was outside the city. We pulled out our trusty brew pub guide and found a little pub at the very end of the land in Mukilteo called the Black Diamond. Thank god I don't have peanut allergies, it was one of those places they shell nuts on the floor. The steaks and sandwiches were all brought out on stones that were heated up enough that you could cook on them. The meat would be brought out sort of half cooked and then you could cook it to your liking on the stones. It was neat, but if I'm paying for my food to be cooked then I don't want to have to do any of the work. They should have given me a discount.

Since we had no clear idea of where to stay at this point we decided to try the RV park in town. We drove around in circles trying to find the place only to discover that it was behind the RV sales building. When we got back there we both laughed until I thought we would cry. The RV park was nothing but a parking lot where hundred of RVs sat at all angles with no rhyme of reason. Some were parked the long way, some sideways, no two seemed to match together. It made for some interesting driving lanes but we eventually wove our way out of that place and pulled into the Best Western parking lot behind the big rigs to sleep for the night. If you can believe it that was actually much less sketchy than the RV park.

In the morning we woke up, had coffee and went about getting supplies for the island.

Oregon and the last 4 days

After Craters we headed down the road towards Oregon. We connected back onto I84 and after a short while we had crossed the state line. Eastern Oregon is amazing. We had finally come across trees again for the first time in a while. Large pines dominated the forest, which was open and accessible. The first day we were in Oregon we didn't get much done but driving. We decided to stay in a little town called La Grande where we found a decent campground. It was too windy to enjoy being outside, and we didn't want to stand out there to cook so we headed into town for dinner. We Happened upon a little brewpub called Mt. Emily Alehouse that looked good and settled down for some food and a beer. The place was great. Run by good people, good food and great beers. Their porter was one of the best I've had in a while. I also discovered that the entire town is right into disc golf. In fact our bartender runs the league and they set up their course in a different area each tourny. They have 18 movable disc buckets that they bring in before the match starts and he makes the courses. He also runs his own pro shop where he sells discs and beers! What a place. During the night I spoke with at least a dozen or so locals that were playing in the tourny Saturday. They really made us feel at home and it was nice to sit down with folks with like interest and have some beers and some conversation. Made me want to be back home with all our friends...

The next day we headed into the Umatilla National Forest. It was just out of town but we were quickly in the middle of nowhere. The forest was beautiful and just driving through was amazing. We tried to find places to hike but the entire area was dedicated to ATV access, which I thought was incredibly stupid. I can't stand the noise those things make and the fact that they are tearing up a national forest bothers me. On the other side of the forest we hit a small town called Ukiah. There was a ranger station there dedicated to the national forest so we stopped in to ask about hiking options. A man, who I will call "mumbles" for obvious reasons, came to the front desk. This guy was about as worthless as any government employee I've ever met. He mumbled about there being too much snow in the forest to hike, and he didn't have any information for us on the topic. I hadn't seen any snow... He did offer to get us an ATV trail map and said we could hike the roads if we wanted. What a dipshit. I don't have to tell you that both Kris and I were annoyed at the very least when we walked away. We headed south from there and back into another national forest where we found a little campsite for the night. Kris and I hiked up off the road to the highest hill we could find and spent some time looking over the area. After we scoured the area for enough dry wood to build a fire. We ate, had a fire and then something terrible happened. I vaugely remember Kristen telling me that there were batteries in the fire pit as she built the fire. I was sawing wood and wasn't really paying attention to her. After the fire had been burning for a while Kris sat down to read her book and I was just standing next to the fire watching "caveman TV". That is what a friend of mine calls watching the fire. The next thing I know the fire explodes with a thundering boom. I stagger back to safety, my ears ringing and my eyes bleary. Kristen runs up to me asking me if I'm ok but I can hardly hear her. I can see her mouth moving but the words aren't coming out, or maybe I just can't hear them. Finally my hearing returns and I discover that the batteries that were in the fire pit exploded. To this minute I don't understand why neither of us had the wherewithal to pull those batteries out. We know better. Anyway that pretty much ended our night. We didn't want to go near the fire in case another battery exploded, so we just went to bed.

Sometime in the night Kris shook me awake. I could tell I had been asleep for a long time by the way my eyes felt. "Do you hear that", she said. I stopped moving around and listened. The scuttling had returned. We had another mouse. I can't tell you how many times I cursed that night, but you can imagine my mood at hearing the news.

It was obvious that we were going to have to hit a hotel for the night to get rid of the mouse. We got up and got going towards I84. After a few hours we had hit the Columbia River Gorge. The gorge was pretty cool and we got to see a lot of people out windsurfing and kite boarding on the river. The wind was up as usual and it was a pleasant respite to pull into Hood River, Oregon and stop for the day. We looked up one of the hotels that partners with Mount Hood Meadows ski resort so we could get cheap tickets for the next day. The place was called Pragers Motel and it was a shit hole. Not only was it a shit hole, the people that were in the other rooms where low lifes. I noticed our next door neighbor smoke at least a pack of butts in the hour or so we were there getting things ready to go our for the night. Once the trailer was off the van and things were settled for the night we set the mouse traps yet again and locked up the rig. We headed into town on foot looking for some food and a badly needed brew. Once in town we found a great little brewery called Big Horse. The building was right next to a neat town park with a waterfall and sculptured salmon swimming up it. We went in and had some of the most unique beers we've ever had the pleasure of tasting. One of my favorites was the Saison of the Witch, a french farmhouse ale. It was like a belgian wheat beer but with so much flavor and an ABV of 7.5%. Needless to say Kris and I left there on foot stumbling home. It was a good night.

In the morning we woke early to get a start up towards the mountain. We would be ripping it up on skis today! We packed everytihng up and checked the mouse traps. Every one of them had been licked clean, but none had gone off. Sh*t! Oh well, we had skiing to do. We left the trailer in the parking lot due to the severity of the climb up the mountain. In just under an hour we were sitting in the parking lot of Mount Hood Meadows. The wind was blowing, it was snowing and the mountain looked like it was in full on winter. I happened to chat with the guy booting up next to us in the parking lot and he offered to show us around the mountain. I told him that we didn't want to slow him down but he insisted that he would wait for us at the bottom of the lift until we got ready and we could meet him. After getting our boots on we met him at the scheduled place and boarded the lift. We learned his name was JD and he had spent many years on the east coast working as ski patrol before coming to Oregon. He skied this mountain all the time and told us about the many nuances it held. Once off the lift we took a warm up run and then proceeded to hit some of the most varied terrain I've ever seen from one lift. Each run was unique in its own way. Double fall lines, steep variable pitches and trees were the menu of the day. At one point JD asked me how I felt about side slipping steep, narrow chutes. I replied that I never had, but worst case scenario I would just fall. That seemed to satisfy him and he brought me down off the trail into some trees and then we began side slipping down a six foot wide path with cliffs on either side of it. Towards the bottom he yelled up to me, "what do you think about rocks?" I replied that I had hit them before... It turns out that we narrowly avoided the rocks by dropping straight down a steep line into an amazing bowl choked with snow. I planted my pole to see what kind of snow there was still remaining. The pole sank up to my hand. The mountain claims a base of 120" at this very moment...heaven? We skied hard until around 11:30 when JD had to head home to start on some DIY projects around the house. Kris and I skied a few more runs before the weather turned really bad and then went in.

As we dropped back into town the landscape melted back into spring and it was soon 50 degrees and partly sunny. We grabbed the trailer, changed our clothes and hit up the local wally world to get some more mouse traps. Once we were done with that we hit I84 again and ran over to Troutdale where we were supposed to find the greateast brewery in Oregon. McMenemins Edgefield is a brewery, pub, banquet center, golf course, hotel, hostel, etc. It was recommended by at least ten locals that we hit it on the way across. We had to stay at the nearest hotel to it because they were booked solid but we headed over for dinner anyway. Once on the compound we noticed the amount of drunk people wandering around the parking lots, roadways and walkways. They were everywhere, people were everywhere. Laughing, shouting, being idiots, everywhere. We found a parking spot and after 15 minutes of fumbling through the idiots we found the pub. It was a mob scene. Children running through adults, adults being drunken idiots, noise in every direction. We got seats at the bar and waited for the bartender. We waited, and waited and waited. After 15 minutes the guy finally came to offer us a drink and clean the bar in front of us. He left with our drink order and we waited, and waited and waited. After another ten minutes he hadn't even poured our drinks and we decided this place was not worth the headache. We got up to leave and I told the guy to forget about it, he made a gesture like he really didn't care if we stayed or not, there were enough drunken idiots to make his tips today.

After we got out of that hell hole we headed back the other way and hit a little bar and grill called Bumpers. The bar was known for there specialty martinis. The two guys behind the bar must have been by far the best bartenders in the area. We watched them for hours as they made flaming spanish coffees, epic bloody marys and hundreds of martinis in all different flavors. Kris and I had a few. She tried the cucumber tini which she enjoyed, many times. I had one called the sweet and heat. It was mango puree, tequila and jalepenos. It was delicious. The bartenders must have enjoyed having someone to talk to because they started tossing us free drinks of which they had made too many. We enjoyed everything from homemade kahlua to strawberry dacquries. All in all I'm glad we made if out of the drunken disneyland and enjoyed the folks over at Bumpers. They were polite, funny and courteous professionals!

And there you have it, all caught up. Kris and I are heading into Portland today for the day. Kris has a dental appointment in Vancouver, Washington tomorrow and then we will be heading north along the coast for a few days...I think.

Craters of the Moon

After we left Jackson, Wyoming we headed south around the mountains and followed the river for a while. That road was excellent with views of the Snake River and the lower mountains to the south of us. We came through some towns in that area where the junk cars outnumbered the people three to one. Basically didn't see any signs of life until we hit Idaho Falls. One thing we did notice was that the wind hadn't subsided. People out here tell me that April is a windy month, I wonder about May.

Banging a right somewhere in Idaho Falls we traveled up through the scrub plains and towards Craters of the Moon National Monument. For over an hour and a half we pushed the van into winds that topped 50mph. As the largest semi trucks went by I expected the wind would blow the roof box right off the van. It was the worst wind we have hit since Illinois. We finally reached Craters of the Moon, which is in the middle of nowhere, around five pm. After speaking with the rangers we decided to stay the night there. As soon as we drove down to the campsite it started to pour. Kris and I stayed in the car for about an hour reading before it subsided and then we cooked up some dinner and went exploring.

Craters is very small, but a really cool place to visit. Everything there is volcanic formations that were created thousands of years ago. The park consists of a small loop road and a few small trails that access the formations. Some of the highlights were Snow Cone, a valcanic formation that is deep enough that it holds snow year round, the actually crater from the volcanic blast and Indian Tunnel, an 800 foot long lava tube.

Indian Tunnel was by far the best area in the park. The ceilings are about thirty feet overhead and the tunnel is sixty or so feet wide. You can pick your way through the entrance into the tunnel and back out the other side, which we did. In the past Shoshone indians used the tunnel to shelter from storms. It seemed like a good idea given the fact that the rest of the area was as flat as a pancake.

After the tunnel we got to bed so we could get an early start the next day, although we didn't really have an agenda.