I Hike, Therefor I Am

A long time ago, when I lived in North Carolina, the hiking/camping gene got triggered inside of me. I could feel the pull of nature calling me, the constant tug from an ancient, ancestral past luring me into the wild. Back then, though, it was mostly car camping with an occasional long distant overnight hike, but even then I wasn't too hardcore about it. A few miles in with a tent and a blanket strapped to my back, camp the night, a few miles back out the next day. That was a long time ago and I never did fully commit to exploring all that the Pisgah National Forest had to offer. I simply "had fun" a few times and that was it. Looking back, I would have to guess that being a crazy pet person had something to do with me not going deeper. At any given time I had at least half a dozen exotic pets in my care, and that's not a hobby you can just leave and disappear into the wilderness for more than a day/night. I had responsibilities, you see! Parrots, salt water aquariums, prairie dogs, snakes, sugar gliders, iguanas, etc. They all depended on me, you see! So mainly, I stayed close to home, only escaping for short spells here & there.

But now I live in Oregon and I no longer feel the urge to keep every animal under the sun. I have a cat, that is all. And if I leave enough water and food out, he'll be fine while I'm gone. Granted, he may hate me upon my return and sulk for awhile, but he'll live to meow another day. And that hiking/camping gene? Yeah, it's been triggered again big time. I've been scouring the Net studying all the gear that has been produced for avid hikers and backpackers and let me tell ya, technology sure has helped this area of interest out. Things that used to weigh a lot 15 years ago, now weigh nearly nothing. For example, the sleeping bag I purchased when I lived in NC is a North Face +20 bag which compresses down to the size of Thanksgiving turkey (and that's stuffing the hell out of it). It's big and it weighs about 5 pounds and it takes up half the space in my backpack. Now I'm looking at a Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag which weighs 1 pound and a few ounces and compresses down to the size of a cantaloupe. Ha! I will own this amazing bag... soon.

The two man tent I was using weighed 6 pounds and barely fit two people. My solo tent is the Eureka Backcountry 1 which weighs just under 4 pounds and has just enough room for me and my pack. But now I'll be using the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL3 for everything, which only weighs 3 pounds and can fit 3 people decently, but will fit two people plus all their gear, comfortably with no problem. The same goes for every other aspect of this hobby. Everything got lighter and improved upon in so many ways. I've been having a lot of fun exploring YouTube, watching peoples' gear list videos, taking notes and learning which products are awesome and why. I've also been exploring a website called portlandhikers.org and learning about all the remarkable hiking trails that exist everywhere around me. The members of that website have proven to be an invaluable resource and I have since been on several amazing hikes due to reading their trail reports. So, a quick shout-out to all you PH'ers... thank you!

Now that I've gotten the initials out of the way, I'll share some pics and videos of some hikes I've done and gear that I've acquired. First off, the boots:

I drove up to the Woodburn Outlets and visited the Merrell store there. I chose the perfect day to do it: they were having a store-wide BOGO 1/2 off sale. Win! I chose the Chameleon 5 waterproof hiking boots, based on price and customer reviews. Straight out of the box, these boots have been perfectly comfortable on every hike and never needed to go through a break-in period. I've already clocked many miles in these and can honestly say that my feet have never really been an issue during any hike. My back, shoulders, and knees on the other hand, now that's a different story.

Okay, next up is the backpack. I chose to go with an Osprey Atmos 65 for my overnight hiking trips:

As for the pack itself, it's pretty awesome, but I have a feeling my body needs to get accustomed to it. After about 3 miles of hiking with the above items, my hips and waist began to hurt, and once the entire 10 mile hike was completed my entire waist hurt. Needless to say, I was disappointed in it's performance. I went back to the shop where I bought it and they loaded me up, made some adjustments, gave me some pointers and told me to try it again (which I look forward to doing). I like the pack, I want it to work, but if it doesn't they said I can return it for an in-store exchange, which I'm okay with. So I'll keep you posted on that.

Here's another item I purchased that has great potential, but I haven't had the chance to use yet:

This is the Therm-a-Rest Ultralite cot. It weighs only 2 lbs 12 oz and packs down to 6x15. Truly a remarkable design, to be this lightweight and still manage to support 350 pounds. In the above pic I only have four of the six support rods in place because I only weigh 180, but you can add in the others accordingly. If getting off the ground is your thing, then this might be a great purchase, especially for those of you who choose tarps over tents. I've slept on this several times here at home, and while it really is very comfortable when lying on my back and sides, I must say it isn't suited for stomach sleeping unless you keep your arms directly by your side. I have the tendency to position mine in a triangle by my head and that doesn't work very well. The two side poles (lengthwise) are only 24 inches apart and will press into your arms, so I found myself having to dangle one arm off and under the cot to achieve stomach sleep.

Here's my basic backpacking cook set:

And here's an even better way of cooking or boiling water that doesn't require a fuel canister (but is too heavy for hiking):

Okay, enough about gear! Now I'll leave you with some pics and videos of recent hikes. Maybe next time I update my blog I will have a new short story for you guys, lord knows I'm ready to jot one down (how many times have I said that in the past, ha). Anyway, here ya go, enjoy:

There ya go, my far away friends, a quick look through my eyes on a few Oregon hiking trips. And instead of adding videos to this blog entry, instead I'll create a new entry and add them there. This one is already quite long. So, check back again to see those video links! Bye for now.

The Last Song

     "I used to write poetry," Bill said as he leaned over Laura's leg and grabbed the bottle of oil. The old sofa they were sitting on had some sort of plastic lining in the cushions and made a crunching sound as he fell back into it. He twisted the lid off the bottle and poured a little oil onto a small piece of felt cloth, replaced the lid and placed it into Laura's outstretched hand. He picked up an eight inch length of metal tubing from a pile of other metal parts in his lap and began wiping it with the oiled cloth. "I also wrote short stories. Mostly cute fluffy stuff, you know, fun little snippets of life. Little paragraph boosts that would make you feel good after reading them. Sometimes they had no purpose other than to make people smile. No plot, no characters, just.. I dunno.. just quaint ideas with a mild revelation at the end." He paused before adding, "I miss that."

    Bill finished cleaning the rest of his metal parts in silence. Every once in awhile he would steal a glance at her, but she never let on whether she knew or not, or showed any indication that she cared either way. She simply worked on her own pile of parts in diligent duty, obliged by the openness of the dead air between them. He allowed himself to remember back to when they first met, it seemed like years ago, but in reality was only about seven months. It was karaoke night. He noticed her early on. Her tiny little body, pinned between two other men, all three squished onto a cushioned bench designed for two. To the right of them, a table where he sat. The song being sung was Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out", only it wasn't being sung by her, but instead by an enormous (and obviously gay) man wearing olive white Docker pants rolled up past the ankles and a baby blue Ralph Lauren polo shirt that hugged his obese frame:

"I'm coming out, I'm coming

I'm coming out, I'm coming out

I want the world to know,

Got to let it show, I'm coming out"

The entire room was laughing to the point of convulsion, bottles of beer and glasses of three dollar well drinks were being raised and clanked in celebration as this fat, gay man belted the lyrics and gyrated erotically on a flimsy stage made out of two wooden pallets and a piece of cheap carpet. The expectation of it collapsing at any moment only added to the hilarity of it all. Bill looked over at her again, they made eye contact, shared a smile that lasted through a chorus, and before the night was over they were singing inebriated duets on a stage that never collapsed. Her name was Laura and they fell in love before the bird songs of spring were sung. They were the best days of his life. Each outlasting the prior, exceeding all expectations and seemingly creating immeasurable pleasure that just kept piling and piling until they were both in a continuous state of maddening bliss. Love blossomed, made summer beautiful. Inseparable moments spent exploring every aspect of life, every nook and cranny of their small humble city. Their passion created an emanation of energy that enveloped anyone within ear shot. They lived their days as one. It wasn't long into their relationship, though, that they stumbled upon a flyer that read: "With PANDA gone, is there hope for AMERICA?" Below the headline, a picture of a panda bear chewing on a missile, below that, an internet address (which they visited together later that night). And that's when everything changed for them.

     Bill looked over at her and said, "I never got to show you that side of me. Writing was the biggest part of my life before I met you, and I never got to show you. Everything has happened so quickly, Laura." At the mention of her name she looked up, but not at him. She had finished cleaning her last piece, paused momentarily while rotating it in her hand, then leaned forward and set it on the coffee table in front of her. It clanked loudly against the other metal parts. She withdrew her leg from underneath his, arose and stretched, her fingertips nearly touching the ceiling of his apartment's shallow living room. 

     "I know, honey. There is so much exploring we've yet to do, and if we get through today I promise you, we will learn everything about each other. For example, I used to paint. I would love nothing more than for us to sit down and browse each others' work, with nothing else on our minds except that. But," she turned and looked him directly in the eyes, "we have to get through this, okay?" Laura walked to the kitchen and pulled a coconut water from the fridge. "You want a C2O?" He answered no and she closed the door. She stared at the kitchen window and allowed herself to got lost in the falling drops of rain that created random art morphs on the foggy glass while she sipped. She watched faces appear and disappear, messages form and dissipate. Her thoughts moved like the windowed water: she recalled her favorite sun dress she wore as a child... her 9th grade history teacher... her first car... her first kiss... her first...  

CHA-CHINK!

     Her trance was broken by the sound of an automatic weapon being slid and cocked to the ready. She walked back into the living room just as Bill was standing up, brandishing his reassembled Springfield Armory 9mm pistol. He held it out with his right hand, casually flipping it back & forth a few times, catching the light in its newly polished shine. She watched as he slid the weapon into the holster that hung just beneath his left armpit. He then bent down and pulled a black tactical shotgun from beneath the couch, grabbed a handful of shells from a nearby box of ammo and began loading them into the chamber one by one. When finished, he set the loaded shotgun down and began loading bullets into yet another pistol that lay nearby. Laura watched all of this and thought about what they were about to do. She ran through the details of their plan in her head, repeated all the necessary steps leading up to their moment of entry, and recounted their predetermined alternate plans of escape. "It can be done, " she thought to herself, "we can pull this off."

     She walked back to the couch, sat down, and began assembling her Glock. She had never loved a man as much as she loved Bill. And she had never loved her country more than she did at this very moment. This commingling of love was moving powerfully inside her as she considered everything she had learned over the past several months. All of the clandestine meetings held with other members of the SCDC and all of the important topics they discussed (i.e. loss of freedom, deterioration of liberty and the Constitution, government corruption, America's founding fathers, revolution against tyranny, etc). She was moved to reason, and that move had a logical end, a final step of action instead of reaction. This was her moment in history, her time to be something bigger than a painter or a lover or a little girl in a sun dress. Her country had fallen and it needed help getting back up. Their plan was a good plan, Jefferson would approve. The tree of liberty would be refreshed soon, regardless the outcome.      CHA-CHINK!    She stood up and holstered her own weapon, walked over to Bill and hugged him tightly. They looked at each other lovingly, nodded, grabbed their gear, walked out of the apartment and into the pouring rain of the day. It was a good rain, it smelled wonderfully clean, and the droplets seemed to make important shapes as they fell at their feet. They stepped over puddles that resembled freedom, honor, and death.

Post Script: The other day I noticed signs posted around my neighborhood that read: Salem Civil Defense Corps. Not knowing what it was, I googled it and read up on what they were all about. The short story you just read was inspired by my thoughts surrounding it.

Latourell Falls Hike

I hiked Latourell Falls trail yesterday. To get there, take 84 East to Bridal Veil exit, hang a right on Historic Highway and drive 2.8 miles to trailhead. If you are looking for a quick, easy hike that isn't too far away (from Portland), this is a good spot. The entire loop is only 2.4 miles with an elevation gain of something like 550 feet. You are rewarded with two waterfalls and a small glimpse of the Columbia River Gorge through a patch of trees, that's about it. Here are a few pictures and video clips: