in the mail...

to whomever wanted to bless the socks off my husband... you succeeded. just joining us? here's the story...

for many months now bryan's been very vocal about the gear he wants:

a hardshell. goretex. taped seams. "general awesomeness." in other words... the arcteryx theta ar.

great honey. when i have 350 spare bucks, i'll totally do that for you.

oh and a wool base layer. to keep away the stink under the theta ar while scaling the heights of... rainer, shasta, adams, whichever i choose.

so in an anonymous package (someone has a very sick sense of humor. which we adore.) is the aforementioned items. oh the joy. we were smiling for an hour straight. the gift i wanted to give him but couldn't. thank you, Jesus. (and whoever let Him move through them.) happy birthday.

the only improvement would be a wintery mix background. we'll see about that in a few weeks. sierra nevadas hoooooooooo!

ka-boom

aside from the religious powder-keg surrounding the art that is yoga... ( i know, i know, it's the worship of a snake from the underworld or something? that's the richest one i've heard. it's pretty harmless when the tv is muted...)
it is heralded for its relaxing and stress-relieving powers. (so is barbiturate abuse but let's stay on this side of the law.) it's one of the most popular and culty exercise methods ever, right?
the reason it's relaxing, my friends, is not a great mystery. have you ever done yoga for a good 45 minutes? it's absolutely exhausting. it's all this isometric sickness. that means yr body is in a static position in which the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction. thanks wikipedia.
i'll just call it crazy hard. or "moments of shaking taxing weakness-revealing exercise". but working on the core is a good thing. helps yr back and stuff. which'll be good if we ever get to backpacking (now that i have a sick pack w/ cushion pads of glory. thank you arc'teryx.) maybe the isometrics will pay off on the next mountain...
but i'd rather be hiking freezing my tookus (how does one spell that?) like here on mt. adams.

weather trumps

i think it's so neat that after thousands of years of scientific and technical exploration and advancement that people still freeze to death.
just try and track with me here a minute...
people every year die out there in the cold of the pacific northwest mountains (or even hills) within sight of warm fires and cocoa on a snuggly couch. seems odd that in an age of instant electronic communication and space travel that the primitive and basic threat of weather still holds the best cards. and i'm not talking about the grossly ignorant dudes who embark upon journeys best left to those who properly research, prepare and suit up. i'm talking about cats with mountaineering experience and burly weather know-how.
here, in our 21st century existence of high performing synthetic fibers, very clean fluffy down and superior weaves of woolen fabrics, folks can go out of doors and still be totally unprepared, ill-equipped and, might i say, beckoning for the wiles of exposure.
it's like God saying, sure, you've got your polypropylene base layer and you may even have a sick windstopper fleece with articulated sleeves and pit zips for chance overheating. it may even breathe well before you don your 800 fill down parka with fleece lined pockets, water-resistant zips and micro-chamois lined chin. if you're real ambitious you may have incorporated the superior waterproofing ability of gore-tex. you can even add a merino wool beanie fully lined with polartec in the way of the sherpas. perhaps you're smart enough to bring a negative degree mummy bag for inclement weather at an inconvenient time.
perfect. we could sum up all proceeding goodies as gear.
great plan. gotta have the right gear.
but as to rephrase, God's like, you have your gear. watch this.
i give you... cold.
enter unrelenting bitter winds, maybe wicked gales, pelting rain, maybe even some blizzard-type snows or sleet.
and what do you with your gear do?
pray.

we meet her majesty

if you click and look very closely... on the walls of this lovely glacial moraine, you will find us picking our way along the trail to the bottom where we get our feet cold and wet in the ice. just another thing one can do in july in the pac nw. tromp around on mt hood. she's quite amazing. and finicky... tank top and 80s to soft shell and beanie in 3 minutes.

anatidae mergus merganser

notice i'm wearing a soft shell. a black one at that. in august. while the sun is up. clearly, i am not in redding.
we went w/ fam to the hamilton brach of lake almanor. i'm seen here with a super-secret rigging of lures of a clandestine nature. we were the only ones getting any hits so it must have been a ingenius combo.
the only action i got was watching a small trout nibble at my lure and swim away laughing at his brilliant avoidance of my hook.
dad, however, nailed a 18.5 inch rainbow. very nice. i got to hike up the trail back to the car with it. we sang songs. (the fish and i).

speaking of cars... ever try to fit three adults over the 5'11' mark in the back of a 4-runner? it's a hoot.
while there, we also saw two hungry osprey catching what we were after, a belted kingfisher zooming by, and a common merganser mama and her young.

forget gore-tex

monday, we went to the Seattle zoo. forget the space needle. this was the best zoo i've ever visited. it was raining and cold. we saw maybe fifty other visitors. it was a perfect day.
the whole place is laid out like a system of trails cutting through the wilderness. each trail head indicates entrance to another area of the world. southeast asian, african sahara...
my favorite was the pacific northwest trail. there was a pair of brown bears sleeping on their sides, their front paws propped against each other like a dreamy dance. streams bubble over rocks and pools of water teeming with salmon. a beautiful herd of elk roamed the expansive enclosure. eery white-grey wolves stood silent following us with their eyes. it was the most pristine and authentic representation of an environment i've seen.
here's perfect weather-proofing: the incessant rain rolling off one of the two bald eagles' feathered backs.