Last Blast

The last month of my leave has passed and I'll be returning to work tomorrow. During the first half of the month I was getting my house back in order and dealing with some issues we ran into with the commercial site we were going to buy for the bakery.

I've pretty much finished moving in. I decided to take the approach of only moving stuff from the garage (where I stored everything during my absence) into the house when I needed it. Most of the furniture is in the house now. What's left in the garage seems to be mostly clothes and kitchen utensils. I've gotten more used to living in a house again, although I still often sleep outside in the back yard. I've noticed that some of the neighborhood cats like to hang out there in the evenings.

The renters took pretty good care of the house, especially considering that they were three male college students. They cleaned it really well. There was some damage, but it's mostly minor and mainly falls into the category of normal wear and tear. They left a few valuables. Three bottles of liquor, a lawn mower, and three truck wheels with tires mounted, amongst other things. I recently sold the truck wheels on Craig's list.

After I settled in I had some people over for dinner on a Sunday night. The main dish was chile verde with Spanish rice and fresh made tortillas. If you enjoy good Mexican food you should try the chile verde. It's really good, and cheap too. I fed about 16 people for maybe $15. The recipe I used can be found here.

During the first half of July we ran into some issues with the property we were buying for the bakery. We found out that the place used to be a gas station many years ago. Also, people who used to work there said that they sometimes smelled fumes. I became concerned about the potential for an environmental clean up liability. The roof wasn't in as good a shape as we were lead to believe. Enough inconsistencies between what the seller told us and what we were discovering came up that I decided to exercise an exit clause in the contract. Many thanks to Nina, Jesse, and Elmo for their due diligence on the property and looking out in my best interest. They helped convinced me to exercise the exit clause. There's still an issue with the deposit refund that the seller has not budged on. It's not a large amount of money but I've already talked to a lawyer about it and it could end up in small claims court.

The good news is that my sister quickly found another property, which is better in many ways than the one we were going to buy. It's located in a higher traffic area, the property is larger, it's substantially cheaper than the other location, the layout is more conducive to a bakery, it's closer to my sister's house, and it's being sold directly by the owner. I just signed the closing papers today. We'll be doing some facilities work and equipment installs during August. Then we'll need to get it permitted as a bakery. We're expecting it to become operational towards the end of August, so we're planning a grand opening for September. I'll be glad when it's all done and we can focus more on operations and growth.

During the latter half of July I took a week long excursion into the Mt Jefferson Wilderness Area. This was my last opportunity to get out for an extended period before I started working again. I was alone during the first half of my outing, backpacking and day hiking on the north and west sides of the wilderness. Amongst other places I visited Jefferson Park, a beautiful alpine meadow at the northern base of Mt Jefferson. I've often recognized photos and videos from Jefferson Park in various advertisements. It looked like the last day of winter was yesterday here. The lakes and trails were still mostly covered with snow. The views of the north side of Mt Jefferson were as impressive as I remember. It's still hard for me to believe that I'd gone up it years ago during a climb. The wildflowers were out in many of the places I walked through, adding to the beauty of the wilderness. I was reminded during the outing how easy it is to take water for granted if you spend a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest. It's all over the place here, to the point that the locals often complain about it. After various trips into the desert over the past year I keep thinking better to have too much water than too little. Of course, I may not feel that way after the wet season starts again.

On the fourth night of my Jefferson Wilderness trip I met El Chino, the NavUnit, and Frankie Five Angels (F5A) at the Pamelia Lake trailhead. Our plan was to climb Mt Jefferson, the centerpiece of the wilderness area. Mt Jefferson (or Jeff, as we often call it) is the second highest peak in Oregon. It's considered the most difficult of the major Oregon peaks. Relative to Oregon's other mountains, the approaches are long and start low. All of the routes to the summit also have some technical element to them. Despite multiple serious attempts none of us had ever made the summit. The NavUnit's planning and logistics module had put together a tight plan to maximize likelyhood of success, but there are always elements which are beyond human control. After spending the night at the trailhead we started up. The first day involved hiking, bushwhacking, and scrambling to a point above treeline. The goal was to get to at least 7800 ft. 7.5 hours and 4700 vertical feet later we were at a nice site on the southwest ridge of Jefferson. It had a great view south, right down the Pacific crest towards other major peaks. We set up stoves and began melting snow soon after our arrival. In keeping with the "slow and fat" tradition we had plenty of delicious food. The NavUnit's logistics module had wisely put El Chino in charge of the food. The seemingly endless Italian subs and homemade beef jerky kept us fed for most of the first day. For dinner we sampled shrimp jumblaya and beef stew with avocadoes and pita bread. We threw in some cheese just because we had so much of it. For dessert we had chocolate chip cookies. The crew discovered that an empty half avocado skin makes an excellent biodegrable bowl. I'm sure it's become a day of legend for the critters that scowered the area afterwards looking for flaunt (food we'd dropped). Compared to what's normally there to eat (rocks and ice, as far as I could tell) our flaunt must have been like manna from heaven. After eating dinner we went to bed.

We woke up at 2:00 AM the next morning to a clear sky and still air. It seemed warmer than it had been when we went to bed. Despite the warm air the snow was hard as concrete. The moon was bright enough that I often had my headlamp turned off. Conditions were ideal. After a few hours of scrambling up various forms of junk rock we reached the first technical section: a steep, exposed traverse under a rotten rock pinnacle. Conditions again fell in our favor, as the traverse was covered with frozen snow. The NavUnit found the best line higher up on the snowfield and we crossed with little incident (aside from El Chino's crampon coming off). A little more traversing and we were at the base of the final summit pinnacle. From there we climbed bare rock, mostly without active use of the rope. F5A, with the angels backing him up, lead a short belayed section on exposed technical rock. Two minutes later we were sunning ourselves on the summit. There was a wide grin on everyone's face. The climb had been something of a memorial for a coworker and friend of ours who's name also happened to be Jeff, but spelled Geoff. El Chino left Geoff's work badge on the summit, and added his name to ours on the summit register. After downclimbing and rappelling the summit pinnacle we crossed the still frozen snowfield. As soon as we finished crossing sunshine reached the snowfield. On a previous attempt I'd crossed the same snowfield later in the day after it had been softened by the sun. It much less intimidating this time around when it was frozen. We continued downwards. Upon reaching our camp we relaxed and ate for a while, then packed and headed back to the trailhead. It was about 6:30 PM when I got there. The NavUnit had to head back out and search for El Chino, who had made a wrong turn on a hiking trail. After saying goodbye I hopped into the Buffalo and sped off for home.

The Mt Jefferson climb seemed, in many ways, like the most appropriate way to spend the last weekend of my leave. I'm really happy that we all finally managed to get to the summit. Judging by the entries in the summit register visits are rare, in keeping with Jeff's reputation. Everything seemed to fall into place just right to enable our names to be added. Despite all the weight on my back (climbing gear is heavy) I felt pretty good during most of the climb. The bushwhacking section of the descent and the long boulder / scree field traverse we did as part of the descent were my least favorite parts. Still, I've felt much worse during other climbs, and considering what we'd done I felt pretty good. My feet weren't mangled at all (which is more than I can say for some of my climbing partners), and in a couple of days I'd mostly recovered. I also didn't wind up unable to walk or in a hospital, like Matt did after his 100 mile race (see Matt's Big Blog). I was pretty fat really.

The Water Buffalo's overheating problem seems to have been cured (or at least sufficiently mitigated to enable me to drive it long distances) by my tightening of a hose clamp. I have had to use the old trick of turning on the heater a few times when it was running hot. Luckily there's a heater both up front and in the back, so together they add substantial engine cooling capacity. I keep meaning to check the radiator fan. It seems like I used to be able to hear it when it was running, and I never hear it anymore. Since the heater trick works pretty well I may never get to it. On the way back from a bike ride with Ann the Buffalo died on the highway and refused to restart. It turns out to have run out of gas. The gas gauge doesn't work and I'd been driving it so little that I'd forgotten when I last refueled it.

Tomorrow's my first day back at work. I don't know what I'll be doing yet, as I'm returning in the middle of a reorganization. I showed up at the HP cafeteria a couple of weeks ago to have lunch with a coworker. Several other coworkers showed up at the table. I told them stories from my trip. Their reactions were pretty varied, but they all seemed entertained.

Photos from the Mt Jefferson excursion (including the climb) are here. The photo at the top is from Jefferson Park looking south across a lake towards the north side of Mt Jefferson.

By the way, I added a "Favorite Quotes & Sayings" and "Links" section off to the right of the El Viaje's main text. I don't know who most of the quotes or sayings are attributed to.

Enjoying the Northwest

It's been a bit over a month since I returned to Corvallis. The weather, especially lately, is the kind of weather that reminds the natives of why they live here.

I've mostly stayed in Corvallis since I returned. In fact, the Buffalo's still on the same tank of gas that I originally arrived on. I've been running and biking a lot, pretty much every day. I've also been doing a lot of cooking. Ann and I have had home cooked dinners every day. Other than that I've been putting time into the bakery.

I decided to move ahead with the purchase of a commercial property for the bakery. I waffled a bit on whether to go ahead and purchase the property or wait and see how the sales went. What finally convinced me was a quote request we got from a corporate customer in early June. We didn't get the order in the end, but had we gotten it it would have been worth a couple tens of thousands of dollars. I don't know how we could have actually filled it baking out of my sister's house. We bid on it anyway, thinking we'd figure it out later. In any case, I took it as a sign to get ready for larger orders. The contract for the property has been signed and we're scheduled to take possession on August 1. Preliminary sales figures for June look like they dropped relative to May, but we got a lot of orders during June for July and August delivery.

My other big project has been an upgrade to the bakery's web site. I've been trying to do all of it myself. It's required a lot of learning, especially since I decided to use Flash technology for the product image gallery. It's been a real challenge, but the programming part is mostly done. I'm slowly realizing that the most challenging part (graphic design) may still be ahead of me. I've never been much of an artist, and it seems like this phase could use some artistic skills. I'll see how it goes. I'd like to have it all up and running by the end of July.

I guess the other big news is that I decided to return to HP when my leave ends at the end of July. I really didn't think I was going to return. A big part of the reason I am returning is that HP is allowing me to return as a part time employee. I was surprised that HP would allow me to return part time, given that head count at the Corvallis site is being reduced. I think it was agreed to in part because it involves a reduction in my pay scale. I'll be dropping down to the pay scale that I was on seven years ago, when I was a specialist engineer. It doesn't really matter to me. I was prepared to live on very little income prior to deciding to return, so it all seems like a boon. What I mainly wanted out of the deal was more free time than a full time position would give me. Admittedly, I'd prefer not being tied down to a geographic location, but there are some nice side benefits to being in Corvallis.

I have taken a couple of excursions with my climbing buddies since I returned. Earlier in June the Nav Unit (Chris), El Chino (Al), and I took a two day trip to Smith Rock. Smith is the best known rock climbing area in the Northwest. I've been there many times, but my last trip was probably a few years ago. It's a beautiful place that's popular with both climbers and hikers. The first day we top roped a couple of routes that were at or above our abilities. The Nav Unit managed to get up both of them. El Chino and I spent a lot of time working the crux moves. I eventually wore myself out trying to figure out how to get up a rock rib. Climbing such routes really exposes the puzzle-like aspects of climbing. The route is a jigsaw puzzle that you have to put together. Attempting a certain move onto a certain spot is the equivalent of seeing if two pieces will fit. Falling off means the pieces didn't fit. On easier routes you can afford to be sloppy. There are many pieces that fit with each other, so you don't have to think too hard. On these routes, at least for me, the pieces had to go together just right.

The next day we lead some rock routes. I got to practice my trad leading again. Trad leading has some game-like aspects as well. First place is the equivalent of getting to the top without falling or hanging on the rope. If you win, the gear and rope were actually a useless, expensive hindrance. The rock has, in a sense, played a joke on you. It fooled you into thinking that you needed a bunch of gear when you actually needed none of it. You think you've won, but were you actually suckered? This realization is, to me, part of the appeal of solo climbing (climbing with no gear at all). Last place is, of course, falling and getting killed. Like all games, there are a variety of strategies that you can follow. At one end of the spectrum is "fast and lazy." The premise behind this strategy is that hauling and placing gear is hard work and takes time. All of the energy you spend messing with the gear is energy that doesn't go into the climbing itself. Better to place minimal gear so you can put all your effort into actual climbing. Soloing is just fast and lazy taken to it's logical conclusion. At the other of the spectrum is "slow and secure." Here, the premise is that you can easily kill or severely injure yourself while climbing. Best to haul and place a lot of gear. Yes, it takes time, but isn't your life worth it? As I progress with my trad leading I'm finding out where I fall on this spectrum. It won't surprise many of you that, relative to the Nav Unit, I'm on the lazy end of things. It's also worth mentioning that the Nav Unit has never had a broken bone and I've had several.

Besides Smith, my other, more recent excursion was a trip I took with Matt to climb Mt Baker. Mt Baker is situated in the northwestern corner of the continental US. It's 30 miles from the Pacific coast and 15 miles from the Canadian border. Baker has the distinction of being the "snowiest" (known) place on Earth. It holds the world record for cumulative snowfall in a single season. 95 ft in the 1998-1999 season. Certainly, there is a lot of snow on Mt Baker. To me, Mt Baker looked like a head of rock struggling to keep above a sheet of glacier ice. The ice extended over the top of Mt Baker in the form of an ice cap. Only on the front part of the head, where the face is located, could you see some rock. Nature was busy here, turning the ice into rivers which fed the valleys below. The sketchiest part of the whole trip was the approach hike, which involved crossing raging torrents of ice water. Matt found a wonderful camp site at 7200 ft on a high ridge. It had spectacular views in all directions and we had it to ourselves. The nicest places are found in spots that no road leads to. While mining ice for subsequent processing into water Matt discovered a patch of ice worms. These critters spend their entire lives (3-5 years) in glaciers. After a big dinner we tried to sleep. At 1:30 AM we started preparing for our summit bid.

We had originally hoped to climb the North Ridge of Baker, but decided against it due to the warm temperatures and possibility of thunderstorms. Instead we climbed the Coleman - Deming route. This route mostly runs on glaciers. It's pretty straight forward and never too steep. Snow conditions were sloshy, but improved a bit halfway up. We saw some mean looking thunder clouds once it got light, and it rained a bit higher up, but the weather held out and got better later in the day. Matt's training for his 100 mile run paid off and we made fast progress up. We reached the summit around 6:30 AM, apparently the first party to summit that day. Shortly after our arrival we saw the sun for the first time. After taking photos we headed back down. We passed about a dozen climbers heading up as we descended. Judging by all the tracks we saw this route is quite popular. On the way down we saw crevasses and hanging glaciers we'd missed during the night. The hanging glaciers were pretty impressive. They looked to be 400 or 500 ft thick. Below them were house sized chunks of ice which had calved off from the glacier higher up. Yep, it snows a lot here.

After resting at our camp for a bit we decided to head back down. We had considered tooling around inside of a crevasse, but there was still a lot of snow and we figured we'd have better opportunities in August. I was back at my house by 9:00 PM. Technically I wasn't supposed to take possession of my house for another three hours but I decided to sleep there anyway. The renters had clearly left.

That's where things are for the moment. I expect it will take another few days to get fully situated in my house. After that I'll be back to work on the web site. Ann and I will probably take a weekend trip somewhere and another Cascades climb is in the works. Sometime in August I'll likely go ice climbing as well. The Buffalo's been getting a nice long rest. On the way out from Matt's house it overheated. Yesterday I found a cooling system leak up front. I tightened a clamp ring and the leak stopped. Hopefully that was the cause.

It's a little odd being back in the house. My first thought on seeing the inside is that it's a waste of space. When I removed the false wall in the garage where my stuff is stored I wondered why I had so many things. Clearly I didn't need them all. The only thing I wished I hadn't left were my snowshoes. I'll probably end up getting rid of some more things.

Photos from Baker are here. I didn't have a camera for the Smith trip. The photo at the top is from the summit of Mt Baker. The thunderclouds were moving north (left in the photo). Matt and I sat back and admired the view while we waited for the sun to come out from behind the clouds and warm us up.