tvashtarkatena

Goat Rocks Wilderness is full of the critters, and somewhat closer to Portland. If you want a really sure bet, hike to the base of Snow Creek Wall in Icicle Creek out of Leavenworth. You will see them at point blank range.

If your spent, weak end should flow rouge, but scabs next, don't pick it.

Abstain from all ethics! Not to preach or anything....

Good shop, especially for paddling the shining big sea waters. I was scheduled for cragging on some limestone Sun morning, but the beer and brats were on at 1:00 that day so we took a rain check for lack of time. That's why I went to MWM: to return my rock shoes unused. Waaa.

I was in MWM yesterday around noon.

Not to mention the lack of good ice fishing No good ice fishing there either, anymore. Global warming, baby!

OMG, that's funny, because here's the sequence of photos I cropped for the train closeup: Van in foreground violates police line and drives towards collapsed bridge 3 cop cars chasing van after he rounds the corner

Hey, I know that sucker runs right past Midwest Mountaineering, cuz I took it there. First Ave, too (well, within a few blocks, anyway). Too bad it doesn't go to the Black Forest, though.

So ya want more light rail, then. Think of how we feel out here, with no light rail and practically no useful bike trails! What about OUR feelings? Still, 2009 isn't too far away. On time and on budget. The Seatac line's foundation is almost done....

Boy, I snap a coupla pichers of lawn bears an all heck breaks loose!

Guess they coulda run it across the I35E bridge instead of to the Mall! What were they thinkin? Or maybe right to Carolyn's house. That sure woulda been more useful for the locals!

Light rail goes from dt to the airport and the mall of america. Its most convenient for visitors. Pretty much worthless for the average resident. The few miles it runs within the city I could already walk, bike, or bus. It sure seemed useful ta all those Twins fans. Man, they packed the darn thing when we were on it! Glad that Safeco traffic ain't a problem here! Plus, howdja like all those Mall of America outtatowners flyin in n cloggin up yer roads. Jeez!

Speakin' of an irony-free zone, we sure gotta few pockets a that right around here, ya know? Funny thing about that Jessie Ventura...he's the main reason why Minneapolis now has a light rail system to help with its new traffic troubles. We took it from the airport inta town; one car was decorated like a corn cob and the other like a stick a butter. The irony, I tell ya!

I thought when I went to Minnesota to visit my relatives by marriage that I’d be taking a few days off from the indeterminate complexities of coastal life to commingle with simple flatlanders, free from irony and paradox. Gosh, was I ever wrong! When I first landed, the first thing I noticed was that the entire airport janitorial staff was white. White people doing jobs meant for blacks and Mexicans? Man, oh man, I sure wasn’t in Kansas anymore! Then I got to my siblings-in-laws. Even the squirrels were white! Great White Snaffle But then, it all started to unravel. What does the squirrel have in its mouth? A BLACK walnut! Yo, whassup, squirrel-friend?! Even the cats are kinna different lookin’. Most people in Minneapolis get around on these weird two wheeled machines that seem to get great gas mileage. Even weirder; no cars are allowed on these special roads. Johnny Quest bikes Minneapolis From what I could tell, quite of few of these special roads pass through downtown Mogadishu. An’ I’ll tell ‘ya, I didn’t even know that was anywhere near Minneapolis! Uptown women One place you can’t bike anymore is across the I35E bridge. Collapsed Bridge Governor Pawlenty, a Republican who got elected because he vowed never to raise taxes, is now leading the fight to pass an emergency tax bill to fix Minnesota’s bridges. It seems that the I35E bridge has been known to be structurally deficient for quite some time, but gosh and golly, are those things ever expensive! Come on state legislature, get with the governor's program! Have some VISION, will ya, for cryin’ out loud? Don’t even think about taking the train to get out of town. The Mississippi barge operators are none too happy, either. Crushed train So my brother in law asks this FOX reporter, on camera no less, if this could be the result of so many tax cuts that we’re no longer taking care of our infrastructure, and you know what the guy says? He says YEAH, we’ve forgotten to take care of our infrastructure! Oh boy, THAT was some surprise! Lemme tell ya, that bridge was too much, especially when President Bush showed up with a five million dollar security detail to spend a few minutes talkin’ ta ona the survivors. Talk about excitement! We needed a break from all the action, so we headed downtown to the Loring Park art fair. This was more like it. Hey, don’t throw away that old toaster! Toaster Trailer: $95 Here’s some irony for ya: Bug sprayer dragonfly: $75 Then we took a drive outta town to my sister-law’s place for supper. When we got inta town, we started to notice all these white bears…. First sighting Pretty soon they were everywhere! Stoned bears Gay bears White trash plywood bears Tweaker bears Woah! This bear thing was really gettin’ official! Don’t think for a minute that there weren’t any individualists in town, however Then I found out the town's name is White Bear Lake. Well, why didncha tell me in the first place? I wonder what'd happen if towns in other places, like Cock n Balls, PA, for example, decided ta display their town's theme so proudly? So I came away from Minnesota thinkin’, by golly, the place is just as complicated as out here, only a whole lot flatter! An’ there bratwursts sure taste better. 'specially those organic, grass fed one's with the wild rice in em. How they feed grass to a sausage is anybody's guess. Inneresting experience, that’s for sure!

Bootyfull.

"Yo no recuerdo nada, Senor Senator. Aye theen I wuz oat seek dat day or suntheen."

Dammit! Gwanite! I love you!

Amazing photos. Glad you guys came back in one piece.

Post deleted by tvashtarkatena

Jesus, you guys are fast responders.

Trip: Ragged Ridge - Ragged, Cosho, Kimtah, Katsuk, Mesahchie Date: 7/27-30/2007 Trip Report: So have you named your car rat yet? James (jhamaker) asked as I sat down in the driver’s seat. During our four day traverse of Ragged Ridge someone had been busily chewing their way through an apple, a bag of Maltomeal, a bag of chips, a Dicks Deluxe wrapper, and numerous other bits of detritus that had accumulated in my car over the past six months. It didn’t touch the Cliff Bar. Most people who even know where Ragged Ridge is think of it as a desolate, snaggletoothed ridge of geo-shrapnel that towers over Fisher Creek’s north side; a baked, waterless hell fit only for black flies, tough little alpine weeds, and Bulgero-masochists. The latter tend to dispense with it as rapidly and, given their preference for south side traversing, painfully as possible; kind of like getting four impacted wisdom teeth extracted, sans nitrous. In fact, Ragged Ridge is one of the most scenic, varied, and unsung alpine traverses in the Cascades. The peaks themselves; Cosho, Kimtah, Katsuk, and Mesahchie, aren’t as nearly as rotten as their impacted wisdom teeth reputation would imply. They are so much worse. We only traversed the dreaded south side to get around Cosho; the rest of the time we stayed on the ridge itself or on its more beautiful northern slopes. In summary, we ascended the Panther Creek trail from Hwy 20 to Fourth of July Pass, turned east and headed up easy forested slopes to gain the ridge itself, camping at the first tarn on its north side. The following morning we carried over Ragged Peak, dropped from its summit for a north side traverse to the col between Red and Cosho, traversed to the col just east of Cosho via the south side of the ridge, climbed the east ridge of same, and camped on a bench just below the col’s N side. There are bivvy sites at the col itself (great views, but no water). One day three we climbed Kimtah’s W ridge, packed up and traversed around Kimtah’s north side to a gravel flat at 6000’, put in a camp, then climbed Katsuk Glacier to the Mesahchie Katsuk col, where we made ascents of both peaks that afternoon. A little deadline pressure works wonders for us procrastinators. On our final day we traversed, descending northeast (getting through the cliff band near the Katsuk Glacier’s main outflow), followed creek beds to Panther Pass, and schwacked out the creek to the northeast directly to Hwy 20. One is advised to stay on skier’s left of the creek and in the old growth during this descent. Ephemeral fog gave the trip an ethereal feel. It spiritually smoothed the edges from the billions of tons of loose rock we were pretending could not possibly rain down on us. As we began our final descent back to the world of Dodge Rams hauling their drunken coed cargos to Chelan, half eaten earplugs, Taco Bell, and 24 oz Tecates, our companion spirit totem finally dissipated in silent farewell into, well, the ether I guess. There is no significant brush to get onto the Ridge from the west. Our happy surprise was to find that there isn’t much bushwacking on the Panther Pass exit route, either. Well, speaking for myself, at least. James and I became separated early in that descent, and while I was jogging through open old growth (photo) to a little Helen Reddy melody (Del-ta-a Dawn, why am I singing this stupit fuckin song?), I could hear James’ ‘Hay-oh!’ calls for his companion grow fainter and fainter as they became muted by the slide alder and willow on the opposite side of the creek. Sure, I felt bad…kind of like a bomber pilot watching his wingman go down in flames. It sucks, but it sucks worse if you’re the other guy. Dapper Dan strolling the west end of Ragged Ridge. Ascending the col between Red and Cosho. Looking back on the north side traverse from the Red Cosho col. Ragged Peak is on the far end. South side suck. The traverse to the Cosho Kimtah col. Cosho cheese. Kimtah in backround. Phlox. East ridge of Cosho. Kimtah from our 2nd camp. Approaching Kimtah. West ridge of Kimtah. Light cone. West ridge of Kimtah. Groundsel. South face of Kimtah. Meadow aster. South face of Kimtah. The summit of Kimtah. Mesahchie (left) and Katsuk from the summit of Kimtah. The north face of Kimtah. Kimtah summit cheese. Logan in the distance. Lichen. Kimtah summit. My own personal halo – wholly unearned. Sundog during the descent of Kimtah. Lets shoot each other. Kimtah Glacier. Mesahchie (left) and Katsuk. The Shooting Gallery. Lower Katsuk Glacier. Sun over Katsuk. Over the edge. Rapping on two ice axes into the moat below the Mesahchie Katsuk col. Black Peak from the Katsuk descent. Glacial prusik attempt to get back out of the moat. We didn't have an extra day to kill, so I abandoned this method and free climbed out about 30 feet to the right of this point. Prusiks don't like to move upwards on two 7mm ropes. Smokin crack. Katsuk Glacier bergschrund enroute to the Mesahchie Katsuk col. Katsuk Glacier. Annual layers. Katsuk Glacier. Falls below the Katsuk Glacier. "What?" Below the Katsuk Glacier. Elephant's Head. Panther Pass. Paintbrush. Panther Pass. Parting shot. The four impacted wisdom teeth, left to right: Mesahchie, Katsuk, Kimtah, and Cosho. From Panther Pass. ‘Bushwacking’ out through old growth. East side of Panther Pass. Gear Notes: Lite axe, crampons, glacier rope. No rope needed on the peaks themselves. Moat at Mesahchie Kimtah col is an obstacle. Approach Notes: Go to Fourth of July Pass from either Panther or Thunder Cr trails, head up through forest to ridge top.

Willi never did figure out switchbacks. Annie got the idea the first time around.

We used crampons on the traverse to the col just before getting on the Jerry Glacier. If you've got a decent pair of stiffy boots, you may be able to get by without them, but personally I'd pack them in case it hard freezes at night. There were many fish rising, begging to be caught, when we were there.

"a sock and batteries with intent to darn"

Who said anything about leaving? Just pointing out the hypocrisy of white Americans that want to keep others out of 'our' land. What's your point then other than making a blindingly brilliant statement of the obvious? If the illegal aliens take over the country and take my home, will I at least get to run a casino and sell firecrackers? The Tusukinlips Tribe is born.