Stanley Tools

I met up with section hiker, Red, today for a briefing on tent erection. Within a couple of minutes he had his standing and it looked like an exact replicate of the one on the cover of my directions, those of which left out the minor detail that the front door flap is not supposed to be staked right to the ground, it is supposed to be about a foot off the floor. Red also informed me that I can cinch the corners to make the walls more taught. Genius! He suggested seam sealing it myself and adding nylon cord for additional tension. 

After Red’s demonstration I gave my set-up a go and had loads more success. I entered my dwelling. This is home! I thought.

I also showed Red all of the gear that I packed in my bag including: sleeping bag, tent, sleeping pad, stuff sack of clothes, my kitchen setup, and pack cover.“Even with all of this gear, my pack feels pretty light,” I explained. “let’s check!” he said with a wink. He pulled out a hanging scale and hooked my pack on. Without my water bladder(4lbs) it weighed 14lbs. Food is going to be the heaviest stuff sack in my pack. The most food Red ever carried was 20lbs worth.

From there I took Butter to Citataw. I found these two hiking sticks at the trail head and brought them with me. We made it up in time for the gloaming.

The night ended with some sushi and a few drinks on a rooftop were the city lights polluted the stars.  

Farley

First "on site" lead climb. John owes me a beer. First outdoor lead climb. One beautiful day. There were falcons. We were climbing. Thanks to Gino. Want to lead? John says yes...so sure! 

My two new favorite sounds, clanging of gear and the click of a quickdraw. 

Notice the bare feet. 

I Have the Munchies

Lately I have been indulging in all the pleasures of life: food, drink and communion, all while motoring through entire seasons of Sex in the City in one sitting with a heaping bowl of grub. I have less then two months to go so I am drinking up all of the pleasures of civilization and technology before I will be deprived of them.

The other night I attended a dinner party. It was an evening of bountiful sweets and decedent savories for the pallet to squelch. I felt like Bill Murray in the Movie “What About Bob” when he is oogiling over how tasty the chicken is that Dr. Leo Marvin’s wife made,” as I said “Linda, I love the caramelized onions” and “Oh wow…these toasted almonds are delicious!” and “mmmmm! How did you make this sauce?”

Let’s put it this way, for these next two months I will be on a highly respected diet of See Food and Eat It. 

I have actually been obsessing about food. I've had these dreams of having stacks of pancakes saturated with maple syrup and just before I am about to load the heaping forkful into my mouth...I wake up. In another dream I was eating plateful after plateful of food while sitting on the bed of a hotel room. My dad looked at me, with disgust and asked if I was full yet. I have noticed that lately I have been asking friends, family and coworkers what they had for lunch or what they brought for snacks or whats in their "pound it" shake. I must admit that I have been late to class do to food preparation for an 8-4 day at school. I have breakfast, I munch in class and I seem to always dive into my lunch at 10:30am. Just the other day one of my friends was telling another that it is important to always have snacks whenever we are going to hang out for an extended period of time. My manager, Boulder, looked at me while I was mid chew and said, "You are always eating, boss is going to say something." I guess my biggest concern while on the trail is going to be food.

I have also been experiencing an extreme case of supersenioritis which I have been curing with twizlers, popcorn and movies. I haven’t made an appointment yet but I can pretty much guarantee my doctor would advised me not to look at text books for a week or mention any words that are synonymous with school, studying, and assignments.

I have been working a ton, and filling in for my fellow employees which will help to cover the cost of food and  for the gas needed to power my scooter.