A Word From Beardog

Me at Upper Little Lake in Rock Creek Canyon

Me and my mom at Upper Little Lake

As this is partially my blog too, I thought I'd weigh in. So this last week, my mom left me. She left me with the other two dogs. And that day started off so well! I got a walk at like 6 in the morning, it was still cool and pleasant. I saw bags going into the red car, but I figured I was outside, so I must be going. I should have known something was up though when they were putting bags in the red car. I can't fit in that damn car. Not with those other animals. Well, I was promptly put in the back yard and watched the car drive away without me. Stupid. But then things got better.

Clay and Aimee didn't go. And Aimee is a sucker! I got to sleep in their room (YES!) and woodwork with Clay. My favorite part is rolling in the wood shavings. And hanging out with the other dogs was okay too. Tiksha tries to play bite face a lot which is super annoying, but I'm over it.

When they got back from this trip they said it was super hot. I hate being hot. And they went to some place that doesn't allow dogs on the trails. Something about big trees. I don't know, but it sounds like I was better off rolling in wood shavings. But then we went for the sweetest hike ever the next day. Oh man, so many lakes! I swam in every one of them! I chased some squirrels, and while that black dog was lost chasing a bear, I got to lay down in the river. I hopped 4.8 miles that day. I was super tired when I got home, but my mom gave me lots of chicken treats and let me sleep for two days straight. I'm feeling better now and ready for my next adventure!

On Reverting back to old habits

Honestly, there have been very few good things that have come out of this stupid broken foot. Most of this process has been a lesson in tolerance. Particularly since moving back to the Eastern Sierra. I skied my first day of the season on May 17. It was exceedingly painful, but totally worth it. Beautiful corn snow at 8:30 a.m. I skied 2 hours, and went immediately back to the couch to ice. Hiking usually ends the same way. 2 hours, ice.

Yesterday marked 1 year since I forgot my shoes and decided to play ultimate barefoot anyways. Obviously, in hindsight, that decision was sub-par to say the least. I do feel, however, that I have gotten a taste of what life would be like if I wasn't the type of person that inevitably I am. For one, you get way more laundry done in a much more timely manner. Your bathroom stays cleaner. Your dog gets walked more. You take up hobbies you would have never thought of. For example, there is now a garden on my roof. Spinach, tomatoes, rosemary, bell peppers, and squash. I voluntarily did lawn work. We raked our entire yard clean of pine needles, cones, and winter debris from the snowplows.

I have not gotten lost in any canyons, swam in any alpine lakes, stood on top of any peaks, or camped in a rocky spot far from screaming children and the roar of diesel generators.
I like that my bathroom is clean. My dog likes that he is walked more. I will enjoy the veggies later this summer. But all the cookie baking and clean carpets in the world are poor substitutes for watching the sunrise over an alpine lake. Thursday I go in to try to figure out what to do next. Hopefully this will be better by the time the first snow flake falls in the high country. My 2009-2010 ski pass is hanging on the key rack like a bikini on a hanger for a compulsive dieter.

Until then, I'm enjoying watching a red breasted sapsucker near my bird feeder and I'll probably go buy more potting soil today, coming to terms with the fact that although alpine lakes may not be in the cards for this summer, winter is still far away and I have plenty of time to get better. Hopefully this year, that logic will prove true and I will revert back to my old habits... skiing till the burning in your legs is too bad to bear, your nose is peeling from the sunburn you can't get rid of no matter how much sunscreen you put on, and the only think you can think about doing when you get home is eating dinner, drinking a beer, and going to bed. No bathroom cleaning, laundry, or planting. My apologies to house guests when that happens. Better come out this summer while I'm still motivated to vacuum daily.

The moral of this story? If your feet will take you there, you should go and enjoy every minute you're there.

Misadventures on a Smaller Scale

The start of the June Lake Loop.

Jon and Aimee in the snow at the Vista en route to work.

So normally we'd be getting into trouble on some snowfield somewhere in the Sierra by now. However, barefoot ultimate has proven to be more of a life changing event than I initially thought possible almost a year ago. This week? Adventures with a bone scan. Something about bone spurs and cartilage damage... But when life gives you lemons...

You ride your bike.

An uneventful, but pleasant ride, the June Lake Loop was 22 miles of up and down and up and down and surely up again. But more eventful was when Jon and Aimee and I decided to ride our bikes to work in the snow. It wasn't snowing when we started, but 1000 vertical feet later (not to mention we were up at 530am for this scheme) it started snowing. The best quote of the trip was Aimee, "Crap, that's ice!" as her back tire went into a skid heading up the hill. I won't go into the details of the trip down, but lets just say 1500 vertical of icy wind from a 35mph bike leads to frozen parts. Brrrrrrr!

Yesterdays ride was almost as cold, but sunny -- no snow.... The sweet part was when at 430pm, we decided to ride back up the steep winding road 13 miles back home. Normally, we ride down and get a ride home. Ah, ambition. Out of food, already ridden 13 miles in the morning, such a good idea. About half way up, my stomach started eating itself, I'm pretty sure. Jon ate all my emergency snacks. You know, the granola bar that now looks like a tootsie roll from having sat in some obscure pocket of your pack for 4 months? The flavor you don't really like, but will only eat in an emergency? Yep. Eaten. So after about 1000 feet of climbing we both stopped at a pull out to assess our decision making skills. This, of course, did us no good, as we were now in it to win it. We only had 500 feet to go. Just ignored the lactic acid buildup in our quads.

Shortly thereafter, we made it to the summit and started the chilly decent to the house, hoping that dinner was at least started when we got home. Sweet. Chicken Chili, Chips and Salsa, and best yet, an ice cold pint of Black Butte Porter. I forgave Jon immediately for eating all my emergency snacks, despite the cursing on the way up.

The moral of this story? There really isn't a good one. Just hide your snacks, plan ahead, and make sure there's beer in your fridge.

A Home and a Job

Having not had a place to live or a job for quite some time now, to have both all the sudden has been a bit of a transition. It has been overwhelming really. We have to set alarm clocks and can buy food that requires refrigeration. For the past several months Clay and I have lived out of duffel bags, suitcases, and backpacks. We have slept in backyards, back porches, and dorm rooms. Most of these provided by many of you. We cannot thank you all enough. Really the working part has been the biggest transition. Luckily though we are easing into it all slowly with staff meetings at the coffee shop and what not. But all good things must come to an end I suppose. At least that is what they tell me. But really I feel like my good times are just changing venue. That new venue being Devil's Postpile National Monument in the Eastern Sierra. Leaving the Tetons was no easy task but knowing that we were going to such an amazing place made it an easier move. We are stoked for new adventures and for all the crazy shenanigans that are sure to occur with the reunion tour of MAC and Beardog and company. If you need a summer vacation we love visitors :)Said home. It's round. New work place. Rainbow Falls. I haven't actually seen this personally yet. But very soon.
A snowy bike ride.

Family photo at Mono Lake.

A Stunning Achievement

This will be brief as I have no photos to prove it... Y'all know how I'm always amazed by my dog (taking joy in simple things is healthy, I swear). He seems to learn new things every day, like what the sound of the chicken jerkey bag means, or how to actually have two objects occupy the same space. This weekend, Bear learned how to jump up and catch a disc in the air. Yep, that's right... three legged frisbee dog. This would not be so entertaining if he was, say, a border collie or an australian shepherd. But because he is a furry yeti of a golden chow mutt with very little grace or ability to land on anything but his face, it is both funny and amazing. Don't call SPCA yet... we only play on the grass and he only landed on his head once or twice. But man, the joy and satisfaction when he catches it... sweet. I'm sure he feels good about it too.

There and Back Again

Annnd we're back! It only took a 2.5 hour flight from Auckland to Nadi, Fiji, an extremely hot and humid 7 hour layover in Fiji, a 10 hour flight from Fiji to Los Angeles, a 45 minute shuttle to the downtown LA Greyhound Station, a 2 hour wait in the bus station, and a 2.5 hour bus ride from Los Angeles to Palm Springs where our friend Tom picked us up and drove us back to Joshua Tree. We got into LA at the same time we had left Auckland. Something about crossing the International Date Line. It felt like March 30th would never end. It all went pretty well until we retrieved our packs. Clay's pack looked like it had gotten in a fight with a wolverine and the wolverine won. Total bust. It was so busted up that he couldn't even wear it. The airline company initially refused to do anything about it. Awesome, great to be back. But apparantly there are still some angels in the City of Angels. Or maybe we just looked really pathetic sitting on the floor trying to figure out how we could get the pack to a point where Clay could wear it for a bit. But the guy who had just denied us came over and said he felt really bad about it and would put a claim in with the airline company. I am pretty sure there will still be a lot of paperwork in our future but hopefully we will get reimbursed for some of Clay's pack. But that being the worst thing that has happened to us in in three months of backpacking gives you an idea how great of a trip this was. New Zealand is an amazing country that we only barely touched the surface of. But we are stoked to be back in the States. Putting on a new (new as in the sense that I haven't worn them everyday for the last three months) pair of pants this morning was emotional. Well we are excited to see everyone and can't wait hear about all your winter adventures :) Cheers!

*Special prize to anyone who knows the original work of literature that I plagurazied for the title of this blog entry.

Going Out With A Bang

At the end of our last trip with Mt. Ngauruhoe in the background. You might recognize it as Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings.


With lighter packs, busted boots, and a full (4G) memory card, we walked out of the New Zealand Hills for the last time on Sunday. And what a finale of a trip is was. We were in New Zealands first and the world's fourth National Park, Tongariro National Park. It was the most diverse trail we have hiked here, and possibly ever. We hiked through alpine tussock, lush beech forests, desert, and 3 kilometers of paved road. We hiked around and on three separate volcanoes. One of which last erupted in 2007. Neat. Our second day of the trip was really just a treat. It started out with me braking a boot lace. This was merely just a minor inconvenience. It wasn't even a challenge for Clay's MacGyver skills, and he had me hiking ready in no time. But even his Eagle Scout skills couldn't help a couple days later when the side of my boot (same boot) ripped completely away from the sole. This is the same boot that has already been to the cobbler once on this trip. A couple hours after the boot mishap Clay had a spontaneous nosebleed. We eventually got that under control but not before creating a Haz Mat scene all over the trail. After another hour of hiking we found ourselves walking through the most hanus weather we have experienced in New Zealand. It pretty much just came out of nowhere. We had started off that morning with blue skies. But it was now sleeting sideways and the wind was making it impossible to walk straight. The wind was blowing so hard it was blowing snot out my nose completely unprovoked by myself. Just wanted to give you all a reference. Visibility deteriorated down to a couple meters. We just put our heads down and walked as fast as we could through a section of track that is regarded to be one of the most scenic in New Zealand. We couldn't see each other let alone the scenery. The weather did not let up and eventually we got to a very full hut. Although it was a pretty miserable day it was the only day of bad weather for the seven days we were out. Sweetness. So thankfully the next day we were able to do a bit of backtracking to see what we had missed. It was totally worth the extra hiking. We are now working are way back to Auckland to fly to LA on the 30th.* Then we will start retracing our steps and trying to gather back all our worldly belongings scattered throughout the Western United States.
Should be fun ;) Sunset behind Mt. Taranaki. Mt. Taranaki is another volcano on the west coast of the North Island. About 250 kilometers away from us in this pic. Mt. Ruapehu. Last erupted in 2007.
Mt. Ruapehu. Some pretty awesome weather.
That's just good advice.

*Just going to throw this out there any case anyone has any great ideas. Clay and I will be flying into LA on March 30th. And getting to and from our car in Joshua Tree National Park has proven to be the most difficult part of this trip. Anyone with any great ideas shoot them our way :)