Ireneo_Funes

OK, anyone make it up to Mt Washington this week? Or 3 Fingered Jack?

I'd leave the ascenders at home and bring a set of prussiks each. Also, being able to climb 5.whatever isn't really going to help you on a volcano slog like South Side of Hood. It's basically several hours of trudging uphill, so you'll want to be generally fit. Know how to self-arrest with your ice axe, too.

Minnesotan humor is so subtle as to be almost unrecognizable as such. Yet it's light-years ahead of Iowan humor, as everyone knows.

Like the above post points out, not all ticks carry Lyme disease. I've only picked up dog ticks out here in the NW and I haven't seen the deer or black-legged ticks that carry the disease. The problem with Lyme is that the symptoms aren't always obvious, and yet it's important to treat it early. I got it when I was 19, but I was lucky because my symptoms were obvious (Bell's Palsy). A friend of mine went over a year before he was correctly diagnosed. His symptoms were less obvious (joint pain principally). Anyway, because he wasn't diagnosed early, it's hard for the doctors to treat him, and he lives with a lot of pain that probably won't go away anytime soon.

At least when Ralph bent his wookie, REI took it back no-questions-asked.

First time I've seen the adverb "wirelessly." I hope I never see it again.

The funniest thing about the REI in downtown Portland is how the sales clerks manage to be both supremely soliticious & helpful, yet supremely ignorant at the same time.

This certainly seems relevant on June 7, 2005. Thanks for sharing with the group!!!

Top 5 singles from this week (none are "new"), not in any particular rank. Complete with notes since I know you all care. 1. Panic, by the Smiths. Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ! Why is it that the Smiths had 4 or 5 really incredibly good songs amid so very much boring dreck? 2. Ghetto Defendant, by the Clash. I think teaming up with Allan Ginsberg was an inspired idea, even though it doesn't really work. It's kind of like there's two songs going on at once. But nevertheless it does rock. 3. Always True to You in my Fashion, by Peggy Lee with George Shearing. George Shearing's latin-inflected piano accompaniment makes this the best version of this Cole Porter tune I've heard. 4. Goodbye to You, by Scandal. I can't believe I never heard this 80s top-40 song until I was driving back from Eastern OR last Monday. Made me nostalgic for tough girl singers like Debbie Harry and Pat Benatar. 5. Smoking Cigarettes and Drinking Coffee Blues, by Lefty Frizzell. I heard Sleepy LaBeef do this song in concert about 10 years ago, and it's always stuck with me, even though I'd never heard Lefty Frizzell's original. Finally got it last week and it's almost as good as my memory of Sleepy doing it live.

Exactly.

Right, that's what I was thinking too. I guess some people just like camping & hanging out more than others; some folks want to go for the "we did it car-to-car in XX hours" thing. I'm also slow, so that's part of it.

mec beat me to it!

How many folks do the West Ridge of Stuart planning on bivvying? I'm not a fan of the long push, so I think when I do it I'm going to figure a bivy into the equation. Most folks I know hate bivvying, but I prefer it over the marathon day.

Bang, bang, shoot, shoot.

That's a monster!

Let's get this back on track: what's the gear selection like at the Naches hardware store, CBS?

I'm sure there's something out there that eats dead tossed baby birds. Circle of life, like they say in the Lion King.

With regard to fheimerd's mention of poison oak & ticks: I think one of the advantages of staying high above the river is that there's a lot less poison oak (I didn't see any). And I only pulled off one wood tick. And I didn't run into any rattlesnakes either up there, which I was OK with.

where were you hiking? have any spots in particular you'd recommend? it is so huge and we have so little time we're still not sure what to do. I hiked from the Freezeout TH (south of the town of Imnaha) up to the saddle, then north along the high trail (not the highest, rim trail) to around Hat Point, then explored around there a bit and headed back the way I came. I'd certainly recommend this area for its scenic beauty. The view from Hat Point is pretty incredible. But like you say, the Hell's Canyon NRA is huge, and I'm sure there's a lot of great spots to check out. I was originally going to start around Dug Bar, but heard that the road to that TH was a little rough. The road up to Freezeout is fine. Have a great time; you won't be disappointed.

If you spell it "beaner" it becomes a rude racial epithet. I never heard of it before I moved out to the west coast, though. Hmmm. I didn't know that one. I guess I should hang out with more rednecks. Are you suggesting I... oh, whatever. Sometimes people use a slur without hardly realizing it. One time a guy I was in grad school with came up to me in a bar and said "dude, that Dig Dug machine just hebrewed me out of a quarter!" Of course he was from Alabama so that makes him an honorary redneck. "Gyp" has lost most of its original racist association, but I think that's just because there aren't many Gypsies in the US.

If you spell it "beaner" it becomes a rude racial epithet. I never heard of it before I moved out to the west coast, though.

So are you buying your climbing gear at the hardware store in Naches these days?

Comparing numbers of innocents killed isn't very useful. The real question at stake is one of principle: is it OK for the US military to be murdering and torturing civilians and POWs in the name of some greater good? Are the armed forces going to have to become terrorists to fight terrorism? I find it depressing that these questions are part of our national discourse, that they aren't just dismissed out of hand on account of being obviously ridiculous.

I just got back from a 3-day backpacking trip on the Oregon side of Hell's Canyon. It's fantastic country, very rugged, and not too crowded (that's an understatement). The rock I saw all looked super chossy, but I was mostly on the high trails, well above the river. If you just want to do some hiking and get away from it all, you couldn't pick a better spot. Though it is pretty warm out there right now. I didn't see any backward ass yahoos where I was, but maybe there's more of them on the Idaho side.