klenke

Matt, don't worry about Doolittle. He's just generalizing again.

Say, that is pretty funny. I'm surprised the Seattle Times would even choose to print it.

This morning I was shuffling about with my shirt off when I decided to scratch my right waist for no particular reason. My fingers touched what felt like a clump of crusty dirt. But it didn't fall away upon tactile impact, so I looked to see what it was. It was one of these young ladies (the one on the left; the male is the one on the right): Fortunately, she only had the very tips of her mandibles in my skin, so I was able to remove her (with her legs flailing in disagreement) with a pair of scissors used in tweezer mode. I was at Icicle Creek yesterday, so she obviously glommed on to my sexy body then. Strange that she didn't burrow into me any farther than she did over the course of 12+ hours. Maybe the jelly-roll fat on my waist didn't taste too sweet. At any rate, it's a sobering thought when you consider how they can expand during engorgement: For more info: http://www.tickinfo.com/americandogtick.htm

Israeli rocket fired from U.S. made helicopter? Yeah, well, I bet Hamas terrorists where U.S. made Calvin Klein underwear.

It was 4th down and 34 so we punted. Yep, Sergio and I punted on Cashmere today. I got to 5,200 feet. Sergio got to maybe 6,000 ft. The snow was crap down low. Unconsolidated crap! Crap! Crappy unconsolidated crap! Crappy crap crap! Creamed crap with a side order of mashed potatoes. Other reasons for punting: A. My new (used) AT boots gave me blisters right off the bat B. The weather was rolling in anyway. On the return, a few very light sprinkles hit us (but not strong enough to dampen us) Specific information: 1. The gate is open for the road up to the Stuart Lake Trailhead 2. Snow patches on the road for the first 1.5 miles or so (to 2,900 ft) can be driven through with a high-clearance vehicle. Beyond 2,900 feet the snow is still fairly deep and consistent on the road. I expect a few more weeks until the road is drivable all the way to the Eightmile Trailhead. Maybe a week longer for all the way to the Lake Stuart Trailhead. 3. The logging spur that leads up to Eightmile Creek is mostly snowcovered but several bare patches do exist. At Pioneer Creek, the snow is still all over the place. However, much of the steep slopes above leading to the upper Pioneer Creek basin are now snowfree. Unlike Forrest & Andreas, there is no longer a way to ski all the way from the basin to the road. If the rocks don't a get you then the bramble-like bushes will 4. Dragontail's Triple Couloirs ice runnels look thin this year (more dark rock showing compared to last year). The Colchuck Glacier looks good though 5. Henry Weinhard's Northwest Trail is a better post-climb beer than Budweiser.

That second picture of me was just beyond my crux for the day: hoisting myself over that log as it hung over a 10-ft drop on mossy cliff/gully/slab. Mattp's ice tool came in handy (used as a dirt tool here). Thanks, Matt! Your ice tool has now been to the top of Static Peak. A nice climb that included some new experiences for me. Try bushwhacking BW3 up a 55-degree timbered slope with hard, crusty snow under foot. It was so fun I purposely had a tree above it snag the 30m rope out of the top of my pack just so I could do it again. "Blobby peak": (I thought it looked kind of neat, even if it was blobby.) Other notables: 1.On the way up we ventured too far south through forest and wound up in craggy terrain. You can actually see these crags at about two-thirds up the triangular forest slope left of center here (note also "some blobby peak" on the left): Near the bottom of this line of crags, we came upon a rappel sling (complete with rappel ring). It seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere and it was. Just above that, we had to solo a short Class 4 BW3 pitch (evergreen shrubs are great for green belays but harder than hell to squeeze past on a cliff). In hindsight, looking at the picture above, I now realize all we had to do was traverse back left to avoid the crags. But noooo. Well, at least they turned an otherwise uninspiring forest slog into a crag negotiation problem. 2. We chose not to descend off the top using the North Ridge (read: chickened out on the knife-edge snow) to get over to Greider Peak, aka "some blobby peak." Instead, we descended back down the West Ridge a ways before crossing north across the base of the avalanched north slope seen in ChucK's first picture. We scampered across the mouth of the avy slope while big blocks of precariously perched snow looked like they were ready to bowl us over. Of course, shortly after crossing the avy gully, I noticed my rope was gone. So we went back...across the avy gully. And of course my crampon decides to pop off right in the middle of the bowling lane. I've never restrapped a crampon so fast! 3. We managed to find a non-cliffy way down through the forest by descending about halfway between the aforementioned crags and the creek to their north. We kept crampons on as long as we could in the steep forest but we eventually tired of whacking them with our axes to knock the balling snow and duff off. A good idea in theory; impractical in reality. 4. Budweisers are better post-climb beers than MGDs.

Could be But what if it really turned out to be ?

Oh, give me a break. No way she's real with an avatar image like that!

Exactly! Such is the probability of this that, if Gore had won the last election and 9/11 happened in his term, and had he decided to go to war (AND been backed by Congress to do so) against Iraq, the discussions being played out on this site would be: A) The liberal democrats would be for the war in Iraq and for the President who set it in motion B) The conservative republicans would be against the war and the President who set it in motion. So it's not really about the war itself, but who started the war.

Coming soon to a bulletin board theater near you, it's Amber IV -- The Resurrection

The Downey Creek Trailhead is only a few hundred yards past the bridge, so the issue is not one of distance but one of being able to ford Downey Creek. I think it won't be that bad (assumption).

Dude, you're not going to like what you find, and that is a large set of downed trees across the approach road about 2.5 miles (1,400 ft) from the highway. If you have a large truck or can create some sort of ramp, you might be able to drive over it (there were indications that someone had tried this; don't know if they succeeded). Of course, it is entirely possible the windfall has been removed (and, of course, it's too late to call the ranger station in Marblemount to find out). Their road conditions page (last updated on March 8) doesn't say that they HAVE fixed the windfall, so I don't know if they really have or have forgotten to mention it. The road is about five miles to where it is closed to further driving at 2,700 ft. However, when Toast and I were on the road on 3/1, the road was continually snowed over by 3.0 miles (0.5 miles beyond the windfall) and about 1,900 ft. There was still quite a bit of snow on the road. It may have melted by now. The aforementioned webpage also mentions the last mile of road is severely damaged. Don't know if they're talking about the drivable part or the hikable part. At any rate, from the windfall, you'll have 2.5 miles of walking just to get to road's end. From there, it is about 2 miles of walking to where the old walkable logging road ends (c. 3000 ft). At that point the trail leaves the road and winds its way up the hillside. It's never too steep but it's also not really skiable. The view from the Thornton Lakes overlook (c. 5000 ft) or higher up at Trappers Peak would be superlative right now. All told, my guess is that with a newbie you won't even make the overlook at this time of year if you have to walk 2.5 extra miles. An easier trip would be to do Damnation Peak. From the windfall, hike about 1.0 mile up the road to the last major switchback where the road starts going east permanently. The elevation at this switchback is 2,245 ft. Look for a road leaving westward from the switchback. It is slightly overgrown but totally manageable (only one big windfall to negotiate about halfway) for 2 miles to the base of Damnation. Hike up Damnation via its timbered South Ridge or the gully on the right. A newbie wouldn't like the gully but the trees on the left may be manageable. A pic of it: The views from Damnation are primo. Otherwise, I don't know what to say.

What about those that are both commies and mounties (Gary Y, catbirdseat, [a-hmm hmm hm], [a-hmm hmm hm],...)? Which side do they have to fight on? Would they be like spies?

What about Nader in 2004, I mean 2008, I mean 2012, I mean 2016, I mean...

I like. A funny thread finally amongst all these loser political ones. Keep 'em coming. Great link Muffy.

For me, it was how fast the beer gets refilled in this icon: Way! K'na!

You always get funny looks, Eddie. Ha ha.

FYI (not that it matters): May 4 is a full moon. April 5 is also a full moon.

Why thank you, catdorkseat.

"Eternal" light would be a misnomer since total lunar eclipses will temporarily block out the sun. This will happen millions more times in the moon's life...unless, of course, we humans destroy Earth before then.

No No No, Off White! There isn't more to life than climbing. Where did you hear that drivel?

The cool thing about this car is that you can choose to never remove it from the box, thereby increasing its collector value:

Answer: the Vice-President, i.e. Dick Cheney. That is why not to impeach Bush. Ever. Ah yes, makes sense to me now. This is definitely not the age of the politician. I can't think of one that is without some sort of fault or doesn't have at least one skeleton (or an alleged skeleton) in his/her closet.

Okay, so I watched the video. The lie exposed in the video has to do with word usage (Rumsfeld did indeed use the words "immediate threat" in prior dialogue even though he was saying such words had never been spoken by him or the President). I agree the lie was exposed. I also don't agree that it was bad journalism at least in the format that the video has been edited. I don't know if something was altered. It doesn't matter. Is that the Jack Krugman fellow on the left? Now, I would like to raise this issue: The video textual display calls out "This deception must stop." It also calls for censure of the President. Why not impeach the President? Why not go all the way with it? Isn't this lie much bigger than Clinton's lie (to a grand jury, I remind you, which is a big no-no [perjury]) where Clinton did have to endure the impeachment proceedings? What will censure do? Guarantee a Kerry victory in November? Why not impeach Bush now to get Kerry in there now (I forget who takes over in an impeachment)? Censuring the President will not necessarily get him (read: his Administration) to stop lying. Impeaching him removes him from office, whereupon his lies won't matter anymore in the context of using them to make decisions. I'm just wondering why the liberal democrats chose the lesser of the two (censure over impeachment) in this case. I know they badly want Bush out of office. Could it be they want him to only be censured because they know that removal of the President now (by June because impeachments don't happen overnight) would do the Iraqi military/democracy building process a disservice? I'm asking you liberal democrats why? I want to know why you're only going with censure?