Summer in the Mountains

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delayed sequel to May’s blog update! As usual, things are BUSY here. I'm going to shake things up a bit and break from the usual gab in the beginning. We have been having a ton of fun and taking full advantage of our surroundings. I'll let the pics do the talking. Enjoy.

 

One of the few shots from the Chilliwack River Festival. We ventured to British Columbia to raft the Chilliwack river during a Kayak Festival. They said we were the first raft ever to show up! We were graciously accepted by the kayakers. Had a great time with some great people.

This spring we entered a multisport adventure relay race that went from Mount Baker all the way down to Puget Sound. You can see the course map and how far each event was for a total of 93 miles!

Jenny and I signed up for the Canoe leg, which was 18 miles of HARD paddling.

 

The race is HUGE- here is the station where all the canoes are staged.

 

And here we are in action. All business. 

 

Here's Team: "Hot Chips and the Hobo Spirit" enjoying a post race beer

At the time of the last blog entry paddling season was just starting. Here's a compilation of shots during the season.

 

My friends signed up for the wild ride, and as promised, I delivered. This happened in "ass hole" in Rock and Roll Rapid on the Wenatchee.

 

A full dumptruck! Everyone was fine and got back in the boat quickly.

There was a photographer on the side of the river and snapped a bunch during this "snafu"
Link: http://riverbooty.photoreflect.com/store/ThumbPage.aspx?e=9307035&g=0XPF00QW1S

Post dump in THE CAVE- all smiles

This next series of shots is from "the hit of the season". This was "Safeway Hole" in Snowblind rapid at about 14,000 CFS (read: big and fast)

 

Good times. Thanks for all the hard paddle strokes, folks.

 

The victory shot after a great day on the river.

 

 

 
I love this little red car.

 
Me and Jenny at a beerfest in Leavenworth.



It had been about 3 years since Jenny and I had been back to Buena Vista, CO.
We ventured back to our old stomping grounds and spent some quality time catching up with old friends and having fun.

Free camping riverside! Can't beat it!

Our chariot throughout vacation. Compact indeed. We destroyed that poor little car over 6 days. haha.

AAE's finest!

Jenny has a bus named after her. She's a pretty big deal.

 

Liz made the trek from Moab! Here we are trudging up Mount Harvard

Trudging continues....

Made it to the top! 14,420 feet above sea level!

Celebration up high!

 

Post hike pic. We are showing how many 14'ers we have all done. Congrats on #1, Liz!

 At the end of our CO visit, we drove down to Alliance, Nebraska to help celebrate Chris and Amber's wedding.

 

Us with the happy couple

 

  

The Main Event! I was the video guy.

 

And party time.

 

A weekend after our CO trip/wedding in Nebraska, we went on a 3 day backpacking trip to Horseshoe Lake in the "Enchantments" near Leavenworth.

The start.

On the trail.

Getting there....

Mt Stuart in the background.

The ladies of the trip.

 

Look up!

 

 We had guests (or rather we were guests) at our camp.

  

View of Mt Stuart from camp.

Camp.

OK, now onto sewing projects!!!

I decided to take the plunge and start working with goosedown.

I made Jenny a cold weather 850fill ultralight goosedown sleeping quilt.

Step one.

 

I skipped a million steps, but here I am filling the bag with down. Goosedown gets EVERYWHERE so I had to fill the bag in a tent, outside, with a respirator, and shopvac. I'm sure the neighbors thought I looked crazy.

Once it was filled, I had to sew it outside because of the loose feathers.

Finished bag! This is a "karo step" style bag, which means the baffles (the mesh that keeps the goosedown in place) are in a square shape. With this style of bag the goosedown is in one big chamber so you can move the down around if there are cold spots. This design is nice because I just took all the down I had and shoved it in. No weighing or anything like that was necessary.

 

Another shot of the underside. It doesn't have an zippers or a hood in an effort to keep it ultralight.

 

 

I think she liked it.

I also made Liz a sleeping quilt, but with a slightly different design.

 

Step one is cutting out the fabric- my least favorite step.

 
The dark pieces are the baffles that keep the goosedown in place.

 

At this point I sew each baffle from the green piece onto the other side. 

 

  

An easy, but tedious step.

 

The battle station.

 

 

With this bag, each down chamber is separate, so I had to weigh the down and put the correct amount in each chamber. If you have never weighed goosedown, I'll tell you it's a huge pain in the ass. Here I am in the tent again, looking crazy.

 

I must say, the bag turned out great. The individual chambers give a very clean, crisp, professional look.

 

I made the stuff sack as well. Final weigh in: 2 pound 5.7 Ounces. Not too bad for a VERY warm sleepingbag.

 

I don't want to cause alarm, but we have been dealing with really bad forest fires out here this year. The closest one is about 6 miles away from Leavenworth, and is only partially contained at this point. Everything was normal, until one day in July I walked outside, smelled campfire and saw ash raining down from the sky. I looked over the ridge to see this.....
It's been a surreal experience dealing with these forest fires. Depending on the wind, the valley can be clear and sunny, or completely clogged with smoke.

A large fire fighter based has sprouted up in Leavenworth, and we have fire fighting helicopters buzzing our house everyday. It's been a learning experience dealing with the fires. Many thanks to the hardworking firefighters working to put out the fire and keep us safe.