weak in the tweak

TASCHENRECHNER

2011-11-11T20:14:00.001-08:00

this morning i got pulled over in kalama, WA for swerving/crossing the fog line on I-5. the cop asked me what was up and i explained that i was putting new batteries in my Texas Instruments TI-82 graphing calculator. he got very excited and told me he has the same calculator. apparently we both had high school algebra in the early 90's. he ran my license and i was on my way.

p.s. got a limit of razor clams today at twin harbors. time to clean 'em.

SNOWONE STYLE

2011-11-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

CHICKEN

DEER

HIKE

SKATE

FOOTBALL

2011-09-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

for the first time in my life i have joined a gym. this is gonna be great.

the happy fella above is on the home Snow Boarder. it tricks you into exercising by making you have fun and it is only $800. jeepers.

REVENGE OF THE NERDS

2011-09-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

suck it in and try to look tough

BOOBY-TRAPS

2011-09-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

for years i tried to find one of these damn bugs in my parents yard. no luck, not even a walking stick. 3.33 decades into this life and BOOM, snuck up on one making a baby sack and there's even a ladybug on it!

HIATUS

2011-08-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

boat engine died and i lost my camera in the same day. that was a few weeks ago.

NO BAD DAYS

2011-07-10T19:54:00.001-07:00

i really hope this thing works. it might look simple but it took me a fair amount of time to find most of the pieces for free/cheap. it also took me some time to get the courage to drill 4 holes in the transom. the hardware (i.e. galvanized nuts, bolts, washers, pins) cost more than the rest of the junk (i.e. wheels, scrap metal, old skateboard bearings).

we'll see how long she lasts in the salt.

DIORAMA PARTY!

2011-07-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

celebrated independence weekend on an indian reservation. rdrr? early am leave on satuday, drink beer, eat food, watch people surf. WA surfers dress just like WA snowboarders, they pretty much just wear black. i've seen colored neoprene before, c'mon. there was one neat fellow that was surfing in blaze orange cap, i rooted for him. i don't know anything about surfing but the course at Hobuck this past weekend seemed like it was the surfing bunny hill. i would have tried but i'm sure some hardcore black neoprene surf thugs would have cut my achilles with a box cutter, taken out insurance or whatever. double rdrr.

geology practice

suckylents

mircocrabs

12 or 13 people and 2 dogs packed into an aerostar equipped with a karaoke machine. nobody would sing with me.

cape flattery

beach bocce

FML

2011-06-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

OFF, OFF, OFF-OFF

2011-06-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

it's been a while. recap: went to oregon for a week of snowboarding & snowmobiling, san diego for memorial weekend, found some morels, work has been sending to neat places like walla walla and winthrop, i like to pull weeds in the yard when it's not raining.

we got to see this piece of art while in encinitas. i heard the NPR spot about it a month before heading to california. it was fun to dodge cars trying to get photos.

boat art

rode bikes from ballard to bainbridge to skate yesterday. it was a going away party for winkleman. dj sets at public skateparks are rad!

ROTTEN TOMATOES

2011-04-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

anybody know the name of this grab?

p.s. i'm goofy-footed

MOMMA MIA

2011-03-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

went to baker last weekend. lifts one day, mini kicker sesh the next.

ABBA disco party at the swedish cultural center. we went for a friend celebrating her birthday. refreshingly fun. hellhound dancy party style: cheese eating gigalos from beyont the moon, etc.

splitfest. nobody in our crew demo'd any splitboard gear. zeekers demo'd a coat. TREW! nothing like splitting with zeekers, frankles, and outside lady to remind me that i could be in better shape. i won a shovel, pretty stoked. a 12 year old girl won a travis rice board. somebody should help me proform some nice splitboard bindings.

MY NAME IS MICHAEL, I HAVE A NICKEL

2011-03-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

gonna get 5 out of 7 days riding this week. that's 5/7ths for fraction lovers or 71.42857%. it feels nice to have sore legs. it is not nice that OPEC is killing my credit card.

put your hands in your pockets!

goggle tan

best hoodie

for scale

WA_NINA!

2011-02-24T20:44:00.000-08:00

it finally started snowing again. lotsa people are happy.

bro I

bro II

wheee

landslide shredding

bluebird

yahurd

so much potential

MAKE THAT CAKE, STACK THAT CHEESE

2011-02-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

what could go wrong?

leashes @ hyak, rdrr.

GATES OF STEEL

2011-02-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

my second attempt at wood carving. it's kinda fun.

etsy bound, rdrr. $$$$$$$$$$$$

"DUDE!"

2011-02-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

last sunday xteam, oneshot, and i went to salmon la sac for some snowmobile shredding. as i've typed before, snowmobiling is a pain in the ass. get up at 5am, get to oneshot's by 6:15 am, head to xteam's for the trailer dance, and get to the snowpark (i.e. trailhead) by 9 am. snowmobile in about 15 miles and hope that the snow is good. much of the sled in is on a groomed road but the last couple miles involved crossing several creeks on a single track trail. quite the effort and, with the season that we've been having, quite the gamble to get some good snow. this days gamble paid off well enough i suppose. we went to the lake ann area and found some pretty good snow for playing on the sleds. unfortunately about 7 other sledders were hanging out in the same bowl as us. the zone was sessioned for a few hours. most of the hot-shots played in the bigger section of the bowl and i spent my time away from the crowded area and worked on my sleddin' skills.

creek crossing, no stucks! new sled is pretty awesome.

additional troubles on the way in, electrical troubles. sled seemed to eventually fix itself or something. i like to think that my tinkering and looking over xteam's shoulder helped in a small way.

i've been watching some "how to be a badass sledder" instructional videos that xteam burned for me and decided this was a good spot to try and emulate the moves from the videos. low and behold on my first try i did a fancy little maneuver that nobody witnessed. i was pretty pumped and didn't stop boasting of my fancy sidehilling switchback for a good part of the day. i tried to do it about 4 more times while the dudes were watching but i never came close to being successful.

bear witness, keep in mind that sleds don't turn:

flat light destruction

in the afternoon we scooted over to the next bowl and got a few snowboard runs in. the windblown spots were pretty icy but the trees still held at least 6" of nice, light, fast snow. i accidentally was sent off a mini cliff when i rode into an icy section and luckily landed in some soft snow. scared the crap out of me. oneshot worked the trees and xteam hiked for the line of the day and got some nice turns.

hey oneshot, that's a smurfy line, smurfs up!

there is a line in this photo, it's tough to see but it's there. nice work dude. click on pic to embiggen, you'll see it.

didn't get home and unloaded till about 10pm. long day.

HOUSEWIVES, GRRR!!! (100th WEAK IN THE TWEAK POST!)

2011-01-25T18:42:00.000-08:00

about a month ago i rented a top secret super cabin deep in the redneck snowmobile bubba land of warshington. with all of the LA NINA hoopla being generated by the PNW meteorologists this fall i figured it would be a sure thing that we'd be nipple deep in powder by the end of january. hopes were high, friends were stoked, the firechicken was resurected, plans were made, the snow started stacking up, and then Ms. NINA pooped the bed. warm temps and rain deystroyed the nice base that had been building up. with every day the prospect of pow on our trip grew bleaker and bleaker. as more snow melted, more friends dropped out of the trip until finally we were left with a party of four. me, special lady, and the frenchie bros.

the crappy weather and lack of 'good' snow wasn't about to deter our quest for fun. so, this past sunday we packed up and rallied to the snowpark where we geared up the two sleds with all of the stuff that you need to spend the night in a cabin that doesn't have running water or electricity. from the parking lot to the cabin was about 7 miles in with around 2000' of elevation gain. the cabin itself is situated around 6000'. these elevations may not sound too impressive to you, but please remember that we live at sea level and 6000' is higher than the top of any western washington ski hill (exept for crystal maybe?).

i've been around sleds for a few years now but i do not consider myself very good on 'em. the other 3 in our group were about as green as they come. about 1/4 mile in we encountered our first hiccup. due to the icy conditions on the road the track melted/welded to the hyfax. the operators of this sled were not aware and toasted a clutch belt trying to get the darn thing moving. acceptable losses. after freeing the track we made our way to the cabin with a few stops here and there to avoid overheating the sleds. around 1pm we made it to the cabin and started to unpack. success!?

at this point neil couldn't wait to get loose on the firechicken. he took it out to burn some gas and get a better feel for how snowmobiles handle. the rest of us cracked beers and enjoyed the nice sunny day. after a while we realized that we hadn't heard the 'brap brap' of the sled and wondered how neil was doing. soon enough we saw someone in an orange jacket approaching the cabin on foot. crap. it turned out that the compromised clutch belt from our earlier mishap went to fully-blown belt. to make things even more effed up, somehow the speedometer cable managed to wrap itself around the clutch wheel about 4 or 5 times. dead in the water. some good samaritan sledders helped us get things running again, but after two mechanical problems in one day i was getting pretty stressed about whether or not the sleds would stay operational long enough for us to get back to the truck.

ok, that's been a lot of typing for me. time to hurry this up so we can get to some pictures.

the rest of sunday we spent on the bunny hills, aka easy zones to sled and snowboard. there was so little coverage that it'd be pretty stupid to try and get too rad on this trip. i'd say the highlight of the day was getting to the one spot where we got cell reception and all of the PACKERS ARE IN THE SUPER BOWL texts and voicemails came in. SHADRAPP was played in the team/states honor.

DAY 1 PICS!!

friendly snowmachiners from PA that helped us unravel the speedometer cable from the clutch. thx!

one of the best winter views i've seen in washington.

home

TINDY!

special lady on the new mo-chine.

silly bros.

cabin fashion! by reading the cabin journals we learned of the pooperini (aka the pooperpine) "if you're in the outhouse and feel a little brush on your bottom, that's the pooperini" -jackylyn, age 7.

a fair share of wine, beer, and whiskey were enjoyed at night. jams were bumped from the ipod and some entertaining stories were told by the brothers. every time i went out to pee i'd look up at the stars and would get a little overwhelmed. i'm not sure if it was the booze, the amazing stars, the icy porch, or the shitty footing that my slippers offered but i damn near fell on my ass every time i left the cabin.

the next day had a mellow start. the bros. were pretty enthusiastic and built a trash can jib next to the cabin. special lady and i went exploring and she got her first chance to rally one of the sleds solo. we had a little bit of snow and rain this day but we stayed stoked. the snow was much better for snowboarding today, a pretty good slush. we also found a great low-grade area for the rookie sledders to mess around on without too much fear of the tree magnets.

this photo was taken a little early, nose grab/tail bonk. area destroyed. thx for the rope mike!

special lady ain't skuurd of the firechicken!

YA BLEWITT

2011-01-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

still waiting to get the rest of the pics from the new years splitboard trip i went on. 9 skiers, 1 splitboarder, FGP, about an hour north of keslo british colombia. KOOTENAY, EH! i may post a legit report someday.

special lady slayed some pow in the alpy bc last week. atta girl! "putchahandsup!"

TEMARITY & DIESEL

2011-01-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

did some snowboarding last week. more later.

WHOOHAH,GOTTATROPHYBUCKANDIT'SALLTIEDUPONTHEBACKOFMYTRUCK

2010-11-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

here's a brief recap of some recent goings-on.

halloween happened, i don't think i did anything.

did a lonely solo clammin run two weekends ago. got my limit of razors friday night but didn't stick around long enough for low tide on saturday. cleaned 'em by truck light that night. it's gonna be CHOWDAH time this xmas. found a handful of chanterelles in the capitol forest on my way home. neat.

been doing the dehydrator thing again lately. lotsa cinamon apple chips.

so i'm a late bloomer to the hunting scene. when i took hunters education a few years ago i sat in back with all the Dads. they would ask me which kid in the class was mine and they would look at me funny when they realized i was actually taking the class.

the last few years i'd make it into the woods a couple days a year trying to get a deer. when you're pretty much teaching yourself/learning as you go/etc., and you don't have any 'beginners luck' it can get pretty discouraging and it's easy to get frustrated, deterred, pissed, etc. especially when you spend all damn day in the woods and never even see a friggin deer.

but after 3 seasons of deer hunting, i got my first deer last weekend. it was a 1x2 white tail buck. not too big, but i'm very proud/excited about it. i had a lot of help from a nice spokane resident that showed me around his home hunting turf. if i ever get around to it, there are several nice stories to type about that experience. until then, here's a few pics:

ground blind

ground blind again. the blind helped keep us dry during the sleet and rain, but the buck was not taken while in the blind.

about 6 bowls of venison were aged in my fridge. had to buy a chest freezer this week. some of the meat was made into potato sausage and chorizo last week thanks to help from CZ. gonna work on jerky soon.

earlier this season snowman, wiltron, and i hunted some other areas. here's some memories!

wiltron with mega porcini

just goats, no deer

purdy

after several hours of hunting in cold rain it's pretty easy to get grumpy. stoked to be eating warm food in back of damp truck. these are happy faces!

THIS MEANS SOMETHING

2010-11-11T22:39:00.000-08:00

fatty.

CRAP

2010-11-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Damn rigged lottos.

"Hello,

Thank you so much for entering the 2011 Legendary Banked Slalom Lottery. We had 528 people apply for 110 spots, and unfortunately you were not chosen during our lottery selection.

Thanks again for applying for the lottery and we hope to see you at the 2011 Legendary Banked Slalom on February 11, 12, & 13 at Mt. Baker!

-Laura Bruhns
Registration Coordinator
Legendary Banked Slalom
Mt. Baker Ski Area"

HIPPIE TIME

2010-10-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

it's fall. haven't gone fishing since labor day. first deer hunt was fun but not successful. went huckleberry picking last weekend. the berries aren't too plentiful this year but i brought a few home. baked some huckleberry muffins tonight. found a few chanterelles in the woods earlier this week. gonna try for more tomorrow. rumor is the matsutake and porcinis are still to be found this side of the pass. we'll see.

there might be a razor clam dig next weekend. hoping to make it.

CRABBIN RECAP

2010-09-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

crabbing ended on labor day weekend. we crabbed hard and got 4 keepers that weekend. the bounty was shared. here's a few more crabbing pics. can't wait for next season. gonna save up all kinds of stinky stuff in the freezer to bring those little fellas to our traps next year.

p.s. if you have anything that glows in the dark that you don't need, please send it my way. crabs love to rave dance.

PACKLERS

2010-08-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

i went to my first packers game yesterday. this was the first NFL game that i have been to, it was just a pre-season game though. ZEEKERS picked up about 8 tickets for $20 a piece and it was time to reunite with the wicso football crew. the bus ride down to the stadium was a little painful because there was a little thing called hempfest happening in seattle today. traffic was messed and there were ripping high teenagers running in and out of traffic. ugghhh, hippies and ravers, my two favorite scenes. the bus driver honked a lot and almost lost it a few times. at one point he disembarked the bus near pike place to go to a tully's coffee shop. i got off early, wished the driver luck with the rest of his route, and footed it to the bar our posse was gonna meet at.

there was a pretty good mix of packer and hawks fans wandering around downtown. some of the hawks fans were kinda d-bags, but overall there seemed to be a pretty good 'my team is superior to your team but we don't need to fight about it' vibe going on. preseason, c'mon. the bar we met at had free peanuts! ZEEKERS had a backpack of green n gold stuff to wear, so we geared up. after a few beers i filled my hat with peanuts and we hiked to the stadium.

on the way to the stadium, GMOZ (aka Donald Driver) scalped some extra tickets. RDRR! after that i put my peanut filled hat on and we proceeded through security. security man made me take off my hat and several peanuts fell to the ground. security man thought it was funny. apparently you are allowed to bring your own food into the stadium. i guess i didn't know.

wheelin & dealin

peanut hat

i left a mess of peanut dust on this dudes fancy hawks jacket. "HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?"

beers in the stadium cost $8.50. they stopped serving after halftime. wtf? saved me some money i suppose.

go pack!

nice view

there was a large group of japanese kids sitting behind us and at one point one of the ladies asked to wear GMOZ's cheese hat for a photo shoot. one of the japanese dudes got a little bent out of shape about it because they were rooting for the hawks. rdrr.

peace!

the packers won! i'm pretty sure if you're good in the pre-season you're gonna suck come regular season but whatever.

got a little bit of crabbin in this week. a total of seven crabs and one starfish in the pots. only one legal dungeness though.

purdy

purdier

MELTING CHEESE

2010-08-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

went on the first backpacking trip of the summer this weekend. one nighter in the alpine lakes wilderness. super tuff guy posse consisted of me, snowman, and duke (aka: a-man). target destination was thompson lake. snowman and i tried to get to thompson lake twice last year, both trips were busts. hit the trail at about 4:20 pm and got to the lake around 8:15 p.m. i think the trail was somewhere between 7 or 8 miles with pretty steep ups and downs. not super gnar i guess but i don't think i could have done much more, wuss.

snowman is fast. a-man broke his wrist 3 months ago and hasn't been exercising much, he is still pretty fast. i'm a little less fast than them. not too many people on the trail and we had the whole lake to ourselves, pretty sweet and very rare. had a nice dinner, drank some whiskey, swatted at bugs, and jammed out to some johnny cash played on snowman's cellphone. brought fishin poles but never bothered fishin.

hike out today was hot and there were lots of hosers on the trail. it was hot, 95 degrees in seattle today. there were definitely times during this trip that i was hurting with chest pains, blisters, mega sweat, etc. but now that i'm back home i wish i was back in the mountains. uber nice having this stuff so close to the city!

oh, i found another mylar balloon. on every backpacking trip i've been on in the last few years i have found a mylar balloon. balloons go to heaven in the mountains.

PICS!

shortly after the 1985 ASTRO got us to the trailhead

motorin'

snowman. his fising pole died on this trip. RIP.

mason lake. rumor is they 'treated' this lake to kill the fish. wtf? greenie hippies boil the blood.

sick

trail, don't go left

hoodlum or artist?

awwww

rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, bourbon too

TRON was smart enough to bring flip flops, i was not.

view from camp. thompson lake is pretty big for a mtn. lake. pic doesn't do justice.

camp. no tent sharing here.

THIS IS MY NATURE VALLEY. OH MAN, RDRR!

where the trees at?

"yeah i've been cooking a bit too. i've been experimenting with melting cheese on different shit."

p.s. found one boletus mirabilis when i was pooping this morning. (it's a mushroom.)

DURN DURN DURN

2010-08-07T20:54:00.001-07:00

crapboobfartisthdurngalldamneffitall. truck got sick thursday on the way to do some crabbin. doctor bills were just shy of 1K. JOOSE easing the pain. sad face.

I'M IN UR TENT, DRINKIN ALL UR BEERZ

I GOT CRABS BRAH

2010-07-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

mega long time since last post. since the last post a gripo stuff happened. went on two toobin party boozy floats, flew to the midwest for a wedding, ali picked roberto, went crabbing a few times, became a landlord, moved yet another friend to ballard, drank smuggled whiskey at an M's game, did some wyldestyle wakeskating, skated a 6' mini, and proabably some more crap. no time for word stories, so here are the picture stories! no order.

webslinger

frozirra

good pals

jims gettin rad. dropping in is my best trick so far.

dream rig

midwest

dance champs!

this dog is old enough to buy smokes. seriously 18 people years

show off

crabs

seabass

future guides!

so good

bday party time!

still haven't backpacked yet this summer. not good.

LA NINA

2010-07-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

this is a pretty good puzzle.

supposed to hit 90 degrees in seattle tomorrow. the first time this 'summer'. i'm already over it. i watched snowboard videos on the 4th of july, rdrr.

PUT THE BOAHT IN THE LAYEK

2010-06-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

back in april i bought a boat thanks to a chance meeting with a seemingly crazy lady. i was picking up a free truck bedliner from a dude a few blocks down the road so i could chop it up and use it for ski guides on my snowmobile ramp when a slurring lady that was walking her dog approached me and said "i got a boat that would look good on that ladder rack". long story short: she broke up with her boyfriend, boyfriend still had boat, she'd be damned if he got to keep the boat, she called me about once every 2 hours for two days to talk about the boat, she talked herself down about 35% from her original asking price, i got an old boat.

1965 Miro Craft powered by a 1970 Johnson 4HP engine. the lady turned out to be much less crazy than first thought. she even threw in a few trout poles with the boat and was nice enough to help iron things out at the DOL when i finally got around to transferring the title.

i'm excited to use the boat to get to some better fishing spots and to try some crabbing in Puget Sound! crabbing season in the sound opens tomorrow, so t-doh and i got the boat wet for the first time today. the engine isn't that fast and it died unexpectedly twice, but fired right back up. we trolled from fremont brigde to the ballard bridge. there are some neat boats on that stretch.

transport

capt.

ballard bridge letting in pirates

four horse wake

FRUGALITY FATIGUE

2010-06-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

been doing some off-season lurking on craigslist for snowmobiles. came across a pretty good deal, debated in my mind about whether i should be spending the money and decided to go for it. 2007 arctic cat M8. planning on keeping the fire chicken (i.e. my old sled) so be nice to me and maybe i'll take ya BRAPPIN sometime. rdrr.

my garage is full now.

SMAN!!!

2010-06-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

i forgot i could put vids up here. here's a rad one the 2008/2009 season!

big black ghost ride on the way home from stevens.

MORELS!

2010-05-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

been busy the last week. found some food in the woods, more later.

GETTIN' THERE

2010-05-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

stupid bathroom is almost done. took me about a month, woulda took a lot longer if a certain someone hadn't picked the colors for me and wasn't regularly prodding me to follow through. so... thanks! it took 1 gallon of KILZ to cover that crappy metallic-aqua paint. first coat of primer wouldn't even stick, just slid down that garbage.

AFTER!

so i've had 'send thank-you notes' to a few people on my list of stuff to do for about six months now. it doesn't look like i'll be getting to that so, BIG THANKS to mom & dad and the MILLERS for getting me home depot gift cards back when i bought this place. your nice gifts helped fund this project. (stay tuned AUNT W and UNCLE L to see what happens with the nice b-day check y'all recently sent. THANKS!)

four day weekend coming up for me, hopefully i can post about something a little sexier than painting my bathroom come next tuesday.

BAMBAMS!

2010-05-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

i went to my first WNBA game on wednesday thanks to an invite from T-DOH and M. the SEATTLE STORM versus the MINNESOTA LYNX!!! it was free BAMBAM night! bambams are inflatable noisemakers. lady basketball players have awesome names like HAMCHETOU MAIGA-BA, SVETLANA ABROSIMOVA, SEMINOLE AUGUSTUS, and SWIN CASH. SPECIAL LADY'S favorite player is definitely SWIN CASH. Ms. CASH did very well in this game scoring around 26 points! i didn't pay too much attention to the first half because there was a lot of good people watching to be had. the storm were losing most of the game until the final few minutes when everyone put their BAMBAMS to work and the storm came from behind to win!

hi!

i think i had hair like this in 4th grade

M generating enough noise to save the day/game!

thanks for the tickets dudes!

JAM OUT WITH YOUR...

2010-05-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

this weekend i checked off something that's been on my 'to-do' list for a couple years now...i went clamming! more specifically, i went on a razor clam dig near westport/grayland WA. rolled down solo and met up with a pal named PEELERS and his nice lady Z. Z's parents have a pretty sweet lot up on a hill with a view of the ocean and they let mr PEELERS put his shasta trailer up there. they let me camp out on the lawn!

got down there friday night and we all met up and had some beers. woke up early the next day geared up and set out to slay them clams. the beach was buzzing with lots of funny rednecks. peelers gave me a quick tutorial and we set out on the hunt.

clamming is a feel-good 'sport', you're pretty much guaranteed to bring some food home. i like that. cleaning the clams is a bit involved and takes some time. i don't like that so much.

here's the pics!

camp

beach party!

diggin

success!

my first limit, a few got smashed by the clam tube. sorry little fellas.

cleaned clams

cook 'em up

saturday night dinner

moonlighting

jackson

MT. LICHTENSTEIN

2010-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

this 'river' proved tough to cross times2.

squeezed one more day out of the shred season last saturday. me, zeekers, special lady, and birthday boy went to a special zone that zeekers and frankles found splitboarding earlier this season. a 'glorious natural halfpipe with stump jibs and hits galore' we were promised by tour guide zeekers. zeekers just got done riding a bike from san diego to austin which i'm told is pretty far to ride a bike. needless to say, he can hike a little faster than the rest of us. the planning of this trip was a mess, but we managed to start hiking out around noon. the weather changed every 5 to 10 minutes but was generally good. we'd have sun, high clouds, graupel (google it if ya don't know), and mixes of those. we were near stevens pass, where about a foot of new snow fell earlier in the week. today that new snow was pretty thick, wet, and slushy, which made for some good exercise while hiking. blah, pics, pics, pics...

i like this sign!

"there's good stuff up here" -chronic belly sweater

snack time!

at one point today i hugged a tree. yup, i gave it a full-on hippy tree hug. only problem is my hug done KILT that tree. the forest found out and tried to kill the birthday boy.

UFF-DA!

hi!

OH CRAP, TOUGH COMPETITION FOR SWITCH POSER OF THE MONTH! LOOKIT THAT SNOW SPRAY!!

GLURG

jump over the sticks!

things i learned today:

-birthday boy thinks bothell is full of hot chicks. birthday boy is nuts.

-special lady is not a huge dairy queen fan

-the monroe fred meyer is great for people watching

-my boots are not waterproof

-i am scared of jumps and not very good at them

FORE!

2010-05-02T21:39:00.001-07:00

snowboarding can be a pain in the ass and snowmobiling can be an even bigger pain in the ass. you have to get all your crap ready the night before; food, avy gear, maps, mountain money (aka shit tickets), gas, oil, etc., not to mention extra hats, goggles, gloves, and so on. then you wake up between 5 and 6 am, load up the trailer, drive to friends house, unload sled, reload sled on his trailer, drive 1 to 2 hours ($$gas$$) to get to the snowpark and cross your fingers that it's not icy, foggy, raining, flat light, snowing too hard, pray sled won't break down, etc. with all this crap to deal with each time it gets pretty easy for me to wake up in my warm bed and decide to BAG IT.

well, this past sunday was one of those days that i woke up and was pretty tempted to bag on the stevens pass sled trip that oneshot and swappy had planned. when you're going out to ride in the beginning of may you hope for sunny, slushy conditions. unfortunately today the sky was overcast, it was cold in the city, and i was afraid snow conditions would be similar to those that we had last year when i cracked a rib and bruised my kidney. showed up to oneshots around 8, did the trailer dance and headed to the mountain. the whole way up was wet, gray, and cold. when we made it to the parking lot it was kinda late (10 am'ish) and we were the only car in the lot. 'crap' we thought, are we the only ones in the state stupid enough to go ride in these conditions. we slowly got ready in the lot and a few more bubbas rolled in and swappy arrived. iron man even showed up for a bit!

we eventually started off on the sleds and the snow was pretty soft on the road at the lower elevations. then we got into the fog. flat light with very little depth perception. stoke was low. oneshot stayed motivated and found an area above the fog, which started to lift our spirits.

we set up base camp and oneshot strapped in for the first run of the day. point, point, slash....slash. holy shit, was that a pooh spray? wait, it's not icy? RAD!!

anyways, i got more sled accessed runs that day than ever before and the snow was really good and untracked. not blower pow good, but deep pooh good. and damn friggin good for may 2nd yahurd?

the usual bubba activies were enjoyed: shreddin, beers, smokes, muff-pot delicacies (i.e. hot weiners), gun shootin, sled roopin, and even a little golfing!

here are some pictures!

"hi sman, i'm iron man. you like golf?"

my snowboard has a pretty kitty!

sman getting tubed! he's taking slashin to the next level.

somebody in the no-go zone

hiking is for suckers

slashin the fairway

i got par on this hole. sman double bogey'd it. i lost my ball on the next hole. calling the match a tie.

this is a sweet ride. these skiers were pretty damn good.

sick drop bro!

nice slash too!

what the hell is all that damn rattling?! oh, oops.

here's another version of what went down: http://oneshotproduction.net/reports/050210.html

DOPPLEGANGERS!

2010-04-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

VS.

LIKE, WHOA

PROOF I'M OLD

2010-04-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

this is a really crappy color to paint over. really, really crappy. not too stoked with the previous owners of this domicile, yahurd. 1 gallon of KILZ so far. DAMN ARTIST HIPPIES!

i took a composting class with T-DOH. worms poop in here. worm poops are the best!

i guess this is what i do now instead of snowboarding.

THE HOOD STORE

2010-04-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

oh man, oh man, oh man! that's a pretty sweet astro.

if you think this van is awesome you have to check their website.

http://www.toureapparel.com/

also, should i buy this?

MEMORY BANKS

2010-04-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

back in early march i went on the only shred road trip of the season with a bud. we rode mt. hood meadows and mt. bachelor. no pow, mostly park riding. we both got injured at bachelor. it's been a while so i don't remember all the stories too well. these pics are to remind me of a fun trip when i scroll through old postings next year...

detroit lakes nature zone, beer break

hip jump to ankle tweak. what you can't see is the kid that snaked me on this hit and almost got taken out when i ate isht.

backward goggle bachelor bar pretty boy

poseur of the month? poseur of the year? nah, SWITCH POSEUR OF THE YEAR!

shopping tax free in OR!

one of 3 stunt ditches ridden on this trip. what is wrong with this u-tube?

HO HO HO

grasser/cranker/method/not bad for a nethod/RDRR

rock'n'roll volcano

INTERNETS!

2010-04-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

i got the internets at my house today!

here are some picutures of my yard! there are lots of bees in my yard, it is dangerous! today i caught a cat trespassing.

more yard

purple thing with lots of bees

japanese maple

yard

yup

more flowers

i'm pretty sure i don't get any credit for the yard since all i did was buy it, but i think it's pretty neat.

OK, I GET IT NOW. HELMET TIME.

2010-03-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

see that happy guy down there? i don't think he knows where he is. he also doesn't remember what happened.

he still thinks he's funny though, check out the sweet ice-pack bonnet!

head smacker snowboarding on saturday. full-on concussion with memory loss/amnesia, again. it's been two days and my memory is still pretty foggy. i'd like to think i was throwing some rad trick in the park but i bet i just caught an edge or something. no, my dumbass wasn't wearing a helmet. big thanks to swappy & rev for getting me home safe. thanks to blood bro and special lady for helping me through the ER. special lady was also nice enough to babysit me yesterday and deal with my repetetive questions and general spaciness. i guess CAT scan says my noodle is OK. i'm sure some other people helped me out that night too, but i can't really remember so, THANK YOU!

GALDURN SHIRT-TUCKERS!!!!!

2010-02-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

last weekend was the TENTH ANNUAL annual baker trip for our crew. for the last ten seasons we have rented a cabin in glacier and packed it with friendly snowboarders that mostly hail from the midwest. HAMBLON started the tradition, i carried the torch for about 6 years, and ZEEKERS has taken care of bizznazz the last two seasons (even though he keeps getting a dog un-friendly cabin without a hot tub, rdrr)

in the past i think we have had up to 6 people fly in from out of state for the trip. this year we had two pals PETERKINS and HOBO-KAR from way back in our college years fly out from NY. it was a great surprise when i heard they were gonna be coming.

got to the cabin friday night around 9:30 and things were mellow until our new pal GRODY introduced us to a baseball/pingpong/flipcup drinking game. i'm not usually a fan of drinking games, mostly because i can never remember any of the friggin rules. this game was pretty fun though and the rowdiness lasted till around 1:30 am.

saturday we rode lifts so our group of 14 dispersed quickly. bluebird but chilly in the morn, warmed up in the afternoon. stuff in the sun was good, beers and grilled cheese in the parking lot were good too! some dudes hiked the arm and found good snow, the rest of us stuck to the chairs.

sunday was the traditional get up, clean cabin, and find a free place to shred day. even though baker is one of the cheapest mountains in the country (~$45 for a weekend lift ticket), paying that two days in a row hurts the wallet. once again it was bluebird and the stuff in the sun was getting soft by the time we found our zone. in about 10 minuntes the shovel crew had a hip-yump cut out of a wind lip.

i think it was ZEEKERS that found the new keekor zone this time and it was a beauty. no gap to clear so all ability levels could session the jump. i'm pretty sure e'rybody in the posse hit it at least once (POSSE = GRISKET, ZEEKERS, HEISSMAN, SWEENDO, GRITCH, SMILES, PEETERKINS, HOBO-KAR, PINKY, STEEFONI)

everybody was charging that keekor. GRITCH busted some fs3 melons and she damn near got a fs5, STEEFONI kilt it on a splitty, PEETERKINS paid homage to BUNGEEE with a japan and had some bakside hammers, PINKY got one in, SWEENDO did the biggest 1/4 backflip i've seen in a long time, HOBO-KAR got the biggest rooster sprays off that thing: SLASH!, SMILES got spinny and upside downy, HEISSMAN was hittin mega tricks;f-flip, grasser, bs3 tail snagglers, etc., but m-effin ZEEKERS was killin all day with MEGA: crankers, bs3's, corky/misty 5's (HUGE), and some other stuff. here's some stolen pics:

SMILES!

NEATO!

ZEEKERS! (p.s. tuck in that shirt and jam the back leg, rdrr)

P.S. no names cuz a-man sez 'the net is real'.

EDIT: HOLY CRAP, FORGOT TO MENTION THAT WE ATE A LOT OF POPCORN BOTH NIGHTS!

CATHERINE 1 : HIPPIES 0

2010-02-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

NOTE: i wrote this like 3 weeks ago and forgot to post it. oops.

went splitboarding with a-man and his squad yesterday. i was kinda just along for the ride and didn't know what the plan for the day was. after arriving at the hyak parking lot it became apparent that we were gonna try to skin up mt. catherine. i 've trail hiked mt. catherine several times before but had no idea where you go to splitboard it. turns out nobody in our group knew where to go either. we spent about 6 hours out there and damn near circumnavigated the mountain. we never made it to the top. i don't think we even came close. even though there wasn't any epic pow riding, there were a lot of laughs and, thankfully, no injuries besides some sore toes.

quad-ski!

hyak

more orange hats!

raging river crossing

backcountry saussage party

even though we didn't get super-rad on the boards today everybody had a great attitude, we had tons-o-fun, and it was cheaper than going to bro-brah at the LBS.

SNOWBIKES!

2010-02-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

spent the last couple days up at the pass ridin, drinkin, teachin, and sleddin. here's what i remember:

stayed at a cabin at hyak that didn't have running water on wednesday night. while trying to enter the cabin i walked right into an ewok style ambush snowball fight. luckily the attackers were the pansy non-jock snowboarder types and not many of their icy missiles landed hits. i almost hurled my 24oz can of grape JOOSE at one of 'em, but thatda been silly. had some salsa verde doritos for dinner and around midnight somebody found the snowbikes in the garage. we quickly hoofed it part way up hyak and let loose on her. tandemed with megs for the first run and she made me sit 'bitch'. i tried real hard to not spill beer on her back. i don't think anybody got hurt. zeke might have some pics.

the next day i met up with oneshot to ride the stink machines. it was good and now my arms are sore. we even rode our snowboards!

skittles

umm.

thursday night was the last day of teaching the kiddos to ride stand-up sleds. we had pizza for graduation!

BING-BONG!!!

2010-01-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

Holy-moly, weeks and weeks without a post, eh? Sorry y’alls, I bought a house so now I’m broke and saving my pennies just to pay the regular utility bills and haven’t gotten the internets at home. I don’t even have any wi-fi connections that I can poach, so I have to rely on work, the library, and friend’s houses to get on-line. I’ve been pretty busy though here’s some stuff that’s gone on in the last month and a half:

Sometimes I get water in my basement and I now own a crazy bleeding tree!

Parents were out for the holidays. Mom helped me cook dinner on xmas eve, we totally killed it. We did lots of family stuff in the week they were out here like eating and drinking, and we all attended the annual white elephant xmas party at zeke’s place.

I went running on xmas day to help work off some of the jolly roger’s and overheard the following cell phone conversation; ‘yeah, she said she’d give me a hand job, but she expected me to pay for it!’. RDRR. p.s. dude wasn’t too pretty.

I completed a Level I Avalanche class at Baker with some friends from the k2crew. One day of class work and two days in the field. Apparently statistics show that I am MORE likely to be caught in an avalanche now that I have taken this class. WTF? Gimmie my money back. One of the instructors didn’t seem to keen on snowboarding and was trying to tell us that ‘powder is a commodity’ and that after you hike for hours to get to the top of your line to remember to do those tight little squiggle turns so you save some pow for everybody and so you don’t ever have to cross somebody else’s track. BULLSHIT, I’M GONNA GO POW HOGGIN’ NOT POW FARMIN’. During our classroom day two dudes in our group managed to disturb operations at the bank that shared a wall with our classroom, WHOOOOOO WHOOOOOOO. Pretty rad. I also learned that heissman is afraid of bears. RIP frankle’s beacon. His beacon’s screen was stabbed with an avalanche probe during a mock rescue.

Went night shredding with bye-bye.

Started volunteering with a different organization that helps teach at-risk/underprivileged kids how to shred. The volunteers with this group drink more beer than the volunteers in the last group I worked with. I like the new group.

Rode Baker and Steven’s on new years weekend.

Some friends from the land of snow and purple rain were in town last week. We met up last Monday to ride at Snoqualmie after I promised them half-price tickets. We get to the ticket office and find out my coupon isn’t good until March. Oh yeah, it was cold and raining hard. Riding the park in the rain is one of my favorite types of shredding as long as you have dry clothes waiting in the car, no crowds, snow is soft, etc. I had a blast riding that night, did some jumping and jibbing and I hurt my face from laughing too much. I tried to make up for the fact that the MN friends paid full price to ride in the rain by buying them nachos, but I don’t think it worked. Never heard from ‘em the rest of the week. SAWEE DUDES.

Snow got pretty shitty at Snoqualmie this weekend so on Saturday I went on a snowshoe recon trip to find new zones and kicker spots. There was nearly a ½ inch thick ice layer in the backcountry. I think I found some stuff with potential.

Went snowshoeing again on Sunday.

Umm, ok, no more.

SOMERSAULTS

2009-12-01T17:16:00.000-08:00

???

rolled four times and ran away. i'm so not good at snowmachinin'.

WORKED

2009-11-28T12:26:00.001-08:00

sleddin' is scary but sometimes it's worth it. salmon la sac, galagher head yesterday with 1shot adn S2S. this is one of the few areas in the state that escaped the recent rains. snowboard stayed home this time. i got stuck a few times. dear santa, i need a new sled.

some dudes hillclimbed up to the top of the shaded bowl. nuts, friggin nuts.

brought 6 camo hi-life tallboys with but was too freaked out to drink any until we got back to the truck.

THANK GOD COWS MOVE SLOW...

2009-11-17T21:49:00.000-08:00

it gives us more time to rock.

two weekends ago: went duck hunting but hunted no ducks.

real hunters.

fake ducks.

next day: first day of the season! sorta. sick pillows were dropped.

last weekend: went sleddin' & shreddin'

this'll get shredded after a few more feet of snow.

yesterday: bought a house and there's water in the basement, wtf?

FACTS IS BACKWARDS

2009-11-06T22:14:00.000-08:00

recent purchases. they're snowboards. they're kinda old, especially in 'snowboarding years'. i think they're neat, but most people don't.

last weekend was halloween. i bobbed for apples at one party. in second grade i kicked m-effin' ass at bobbin' fer apples. i've lost the touch. done took me 5 bobs before i got an apple. got water in my nose. my halloween makeup ruined the apple bobbin' water. woke up the next day with water in my left ear. damn i'm gettin' old.

tomorrow i'm gonna live out a classic nintendo game.

thanks google

WEAK

2009-10-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

didja know that the crash section from gnarbage is on the tubes? it is.

we're all 5 years older now and much worse.

JOSTENS

2009-10-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

leavenworth excursion this weekend to hang out with my favorite farmers. got some woods time in and came home with some organic as hell apples, tomatillos, garlic, pears, and some dehydrated cherries. thanks, yo!

dayglo highlights (click on pic to embiggen)

heckyamean snow load?

"this is mommies gun!"

what could go wrong?

FORESTED

2009-10-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

went running/jogging today and just kept going. wound up running 7 miles. not bad for me. feelin' good, feelin' strong.

RETRO POST:
on april 25th, a day after the magical union of lori&genyk, i went snowmobiling at stevens pass. april friggin 25th and is was cold, icy, and snowing. out of the 10 people in our posse i think i was the only one stupid enough to hit the jump. i grew up riding in wisconsin, ice don't scare me. yup, i'm stupid. despite the crap weather the session was pretty fun. we had a few fires, shot some guns, drank some brews, and crashed some sleds. i'd hit jump, drink beer, hit jump, drink beer, etc. until about 20 minutes after this pic was taken i crashed bad. it took 45 minutes before i could even stand up. wound up cracking a rib and my kidney leaked some blood into my tinkle. rad. you see the blue hat guy on the sled in the right side of the pic? after i broke myself off, that idiot was rooping around on one of the icy ski hill runs without his helmet, ghost rid the whip, and wrecked his brand new sled in some trees. they hotwired it and got it out, but holy sh*t what a day. after we got back to the trucks we all breathed a sigh of relief and went to Bubba's to celebrate!

alley-oop stick bonker

jacked brand new 4-stroke sled

wiltron told me it snowed in leavenworth yesterday!

hmm, these pics are a little big. click on 'em to get the full view.

COOKIE SNATCHERS

2009-10-12T23:29:00.000-07:00

same ol', same ol'. spent a little bit of time in the mtns. this weekend. no tough guy trail hiking, just moseying around looking for shred lines and mushrooms. babysat nollie this weekend, she sheds a lot.

can't find my book, but i'm pretty sure these are in the chantrelle family but ain't edible. too bad, they were pretty big.

crybaby

this is an old pic but i like it.

spent an hour going through my hucks tonight. left 'em in the fridge too long and quite a few went bad. crap. if you get jam from me for xmas this year, be wary. rdrr.

remember when conan o'brien used to do them fake interviews with celebrities/politicians? ya know, when the tv would lower down and there was a picture of some famous person but with the mouth cut out and they'd bluescreen that sh*t and some writer or comedian would impersonate said celeb? that stuff was funny. anybody know if he still does that now that he's all big time? what about that puppet dog that pooped on stuff, he still around?

hopefully this will be one of the last non-shred posts for a while...

PISS

2009-10-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

i made an offer on a house on august 14th, so like 7.5 weeks ago. it was a short sale. my offer got rejected by the bank today. fart.

"dear mr. obamamama,

plz extend housing tax credit.

thx."

in good news, my pal crispy had a baby today! maybe now she'll update her blog for the first time in 5 months. rdrr. 7 lbs 5 oz and 21" long, just like a good fish! girl = Arabella.

WHAT FOOTBALL GAME?

2009-10-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

if you haven't figured out by now, one of my newer hobbies is picking fungus in the woods and trying to figure out if i can eat it. i gotta admit, it's been pretty fun tromping around in the woods picking stuff and trying to figure out what it is. i haven't eaten much yet, but that's mostly because the learing curve is pretty steep and also because i got enough problems with my guts already. here are just a few pics of some stuff i picked this weekend. i'll probably add the sciency-nerdy names later, if i can figure 'em out. ultimately, i'd like to get a stash of free* food out of this and it'd be pretty neat to make a few bucks off of this sometime soon. selling shrooms and hucks in the fall to support my snowboarding habit would be pretty neat. until then, it's just fun being in the mountains and away from people.

i'm told to not eat this one. it will make you sweat. not 'oh, it's hot out today' sweating, but like freaky clothes soaked, what the hell is going on type of sweating. sounds like a good one to keep around for some pranks...

according to the lady that helped me id this stuff, this one is edible for most people. wtf, does that mean? hmm, might roll the dice tomorrow. more pics later. it's pretty crazy, has velvety skin that is peeling off the cap and stalk.

tiny little orange ones. really tiny, those green things are individual pieces of moss.

some type of rusula, not sure what kind. it's got a neat red cap though.

and finally, the hummdinger of mushrooms. a very recognizable mushroom that many people probably don't realize actually exists. we're talking about the mushroom that every allman brothers, greatful dead, and (insert other hippie band name) fan has seen on album art, tie-dyed t-shirts, or black light posters. we're talking trippy alice in wonderland and super mario brothers stuff. that one mushroom that them ceramic garden gnomes are always chillin' by in some nice old lady's garden. well, at least until some fully kraeusened hippy comes and lifts it. this is the amanita muscaria and this one is still pretty young and small.

*free my ass, probably spent at least $60 in gas this weekend. meh.

TRUCKTOBER!

2009-10-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

caught some flack for the slack on bloggings, so heeeweego past blast:

-1shot jonny chimpo slayed a 15lb coho, he semi-butchered it and brought some chunks over to be smoked. oh yeah, i bought the most un-politically correct smoker i could find AKA the "BIG CHIEF". it hasn't burned the deck down yet. stolen I-5 north sign has helped a lot with that.

(pic is pinks in the brine, not the legendary 15lb. coho)

-been gun-toting in the woods, not much in the way of freezer filling though. there was one grouse that made it to the table, well it was part of a grouse. you gots to axe snowman for the details... here some mt. raditude huntin' pics:

"cry for mommy canyon" on the way to mt. raditude.

pretty rad, even though being cold and wet sucks

cold and wet: A-1!

-hiked up to rachel lake last saturday, was totally hunter man incognito. shotgun was broken down into a mtn. bike fork bag and all blaze orange was in pack as to not freak out of the families and other people on the trail. on my way back down from the lake there was one punk grouse seriously flippin me the bird (getit?, rdrr) on the side of the trail. was so tempted to duck off assemble that MOSSBERG, don the orange and git that din din, but then that galldurn jimminy cricket conscience kicked in and i just watched it hop around on the ground eating berries and crap while a family of Russians hiked up behind it. no shooty. rachel lake, btw, is a real pretty lake and the trail will toughen ya up. i recommend it. oh, PS made some RAD huckeberry muffins that night to bring to the 5TH ANNUAL JACKEE & ANDY OCTOBERFEST PARTY that night. well it was a muffin recipe but i just put all that crap into one pan. it worked. so i guess it was muffin/cake, whatever. party was rad, top-notch dudes!

favorite lake!

dinner that got away

UGMO aka the bauwss

MT. PRETTY??

-it's shred video premiere season! i used to get pretty excited for shred vid premiere season, but it seems that the douche-baggery at the premieres has been growing exponentially in the last 5 or so seasons. maybe i'm just a 30+ surly guy now or it's all the turkeys that come out of the woodwork. anyways, let's just say that i pick my video premiere battles carefully. neverland is the best vid i've seen so far. black winter SUCKS, videograss is fun to watch but not worth my $$, airblaster is way fun but still not $$ worthy, and um well uh, yup. still hoping to put some crap together for "WEAK IN THE TWEAK" the movie yahurd? stack that cheese, buhleedat. rdrrrrrrrrrrrr.

ok, so today me and T-DOH got rad on dickerman mtn. whoa, that don't sound right. srsly, that's the name of the stupid mtn., dickerman mtn. weenus jokes abound. whatever, here's the stats: 4.6 miles each way, start at 1800' el. end at 5723 el. it's not the steepest trail in the world but it's a pretty good one. actually, no, it's a WAY RAD ONE. i've been so stuck hiking the stuff off of the I-90 corridor due to it's proximity to seattle but holy crap that stuff off of the mtn loop hwy is friggin pretty!!! i've done some hiking & backpacking up here before, but it's deff on the radar for future stuff.

snow!

don't eat this

mt. ding ding

found on today's hike: russulas, chantrelles, and a bunch o' other crap.

MO SHOES

2009-09-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

i jogged my liver pretty hard this weekend AKA shut tha club down x2 and a packer game, yahurd? today was payback tuffguy megaman exercise day. 4.8 miles in 40 minutes! (yes, i drove the route afterwards to get the stats) pretty sure it's a new moon record. mid-route i heard some drunk dude exclaim "holy shit, was that the KARATE KID?!" Ralph Maccio-Yo! my bandana tonight was orange though.

i got some identification help with my mushrooms today. i'm pretty stoked that i nailed the genus of both specimens. turns out one is a Boletus mirabilis (aka admirable bolete) and the other might be a Russula xerampelina (aka shrip russula). both are considered choice edibles! the Boletus mirabilis is supposed to have a distinct lemony flavor and the Russula xerampelina is supposed to have a nutty flavor. might try the Boletus mirabilis tonight. gonna do some more reading on the Russula and set up a spore print tonight.

-Boletus mirabilis (growing on a dead chunk of hemlock)-

-Russula xerampelina??-

even after you correctly identify a mushroom as a safe one to eat you have eat a small amount and wait a few days to see if you have any alergic reactions. some people have negative reactions to the common wild mushrooms such as chantrelles. hopefully my tummy agrees with the Boletus i picked.

UPDATE: well i sliced up the Bolete mirabilis and it turns out the worms had already eaten some of my mushroom. i sauteed it up anyways and chewed on a few of the less worm holed pieces and spit 'em out. it tasted pretty damn good and there was a pretty distinct lemon taste! guess i'll have to find some more.

DON'T DOUBT THE CLOUT

2009-09-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

switched up the routine this week. spent some time foraging instead of fishing. 3 trips to the mountains produced about 3 gallons of huckleberries and blueberries. picked some mushrooms too, one bolete and a few russelas (i think). might bring 'em in for some id'ing by a master tomorrow. if the species of russela i found are a a go (i.e. edible), i'll probably do some more hippie trips to the mountains this week. there's a lot of free food out thar and i'ma gonna find it.

rad b-day party for hurricane marge last night. not usually a fan of belltown, but when you fill shorty's with a bunch of friends that 'hood is a lot more tolerable. gonna stay away from unlicensed cabbies for a while.

didja know that if you leave 3 fish carcasses in the yardwaste bin during a week of 80 degree temps it turns into a gooey pile of maggots? it does. the smell isn't exactly pleasant. neigbors and roomates ain't too stoked with me right now. rdrr.

XMAS

2009-09-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

it rained this morning. real monsoon-like rain, not the typicall light drizzle 'ooh ooh, it rains everday in seattle' sissy rain. given the crappy conditions, i figured this would thin out the fishing crowds. it did, just me and one other dude at lincoln park. too bad it was low tide and no schools were coming through. fished for an hour and a half and got skunked. got back to the truck and realized that some jacka$$ got an early christmas. that POS broke into my truck and made off with my ipod & radio transmitter and my snowboarding backpack. backpack was full of good stuff like: dutch harbor rain jacket, headlamp, xtools floating pliers, filet knife, compass, gloves, flashing red bike light, stringer, sunglasses, beef jerky, TP, licorice, and MY FAVORITE ORANGE HAT, etc. grrr. normally i bring my backpack with me, but it was raining so damn hard that i didn't want everything getting wet. never again.

LUCKILY, i recently took a bunch of stuff out of my backpack so that turkey DIDN'T get my camera, binoculars, first ait kit, 'survival' kit.

$500 deductible on renters insurance, so it may not even be worthwhile claiming this. dammit.

screwdriver key (sick pinstripes still intact)

in better news, after getting skunked 3 times in a row i finally got a food dehydrator off of craig's list. it's not a very good one. acutally, it's pretty much just a hair dryer that sits on some plastic racks. no temp settings, no timer, and it's kinda loud. it even came with one semi-dehydrated earwig in it. crap, at $10 i think i may have been ripped of. meh. looking forward to dehydrating some huckleberries. 'tis the season hippies.

here are some pictures that weren't stolen today:

ele-oh-ele. c'mon frumpy, don't be bummy cuz you got no chest mane.

soon 'nuf

LOCALS ONLY

nuts to this, off to the sloop.

OMG, HAT TRICK

2009-09-02T23:34:00.000-07:00

I AM SUPERHERO

P.S. please find me that kid's shirt in my size. thx.

CARZ & BURGLARZ

2009-09-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

yesterday a friend got his car stolen. today i found it. I AM AWESOME.

HERE FISHY, FISHY

2009-08-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

for those of you who haven't already heard, i caught my first 'sallymon' last thursday!

let's go back: it was thursday morning and we were finishing up a pin pile project at work. while on-site i phoned in to check the lotto numbers from the night before. i got 3 out of 6, which means $3 fer me, BITCHIN'! work got done around noon and i took the rest of the day off to fish and run errands. after eating a pretty good burrito from one of the taco trucks in white center, i went to lincoln park in west seattle and hoofed it down the hill to get to the beach. i spent a few minutes taking off some beat up line and re-tying my buzzbomb and started fishin'. after a few casts at this pretty busy beach i got a good hit, set the hook, and holy shit, FISH ON! it was a pretty good fight, probably took a few minutes. there were several times that i was concerned that the 8 lb. test was gonna snap and the line was screaming pretty good when the fish would run. landed her (yup, it was a lady fish), bonked her on the head, and gutted her. that night i grilled it up and mike, tony, and jeff came over and hung out. neat. oh yeah, it was a pink salmon (aka a humpy), 21" and probably 3 or 4 pounds.

semi-crowed beach on a weekday at 1:00pm

feesh!

this gives you slimy smelly hands

last sunday jonny, jeff and i fished a beach up by the ferry terminal at mukilteo. we got 5 more pinks. jonny 1, me 1, and jeff 3. it was pretty funny because none of us are really 'seasoned' fishermen, but we showed up and started slaying 'em. some other dudes at the beach moved a little closer to spy on our rigs 'n such cuz they weren't so lucky. pretty funny. my salmon had a giant gash in the side, probably from a boat prop or a sea lion, i let it go. jeff gave me his fish and i smoked them on monday. damn they taste good. it's pretty rad fishing with 2 people that don't like to eat fish! fills the freezer a little faster, eh?

ain't eating that crap

see them smiling? apparently catching fish cures hangovers!

ghetto smoker. works dandy.

POPS CAME THROUGH

2009-08-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

three walls of brick and a plywood entryway. don't know how old i was then, but that fort is better than the one i built when i was thirty-fun. is mike wearing moon boots? is my shirt purple???

JANK FORT

2009-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

i haven't built a fort in forever. it's probably been since like mid grade school. however, i do remember having some pretty kick-ass forts back then. we're talking 'bout: kids got the whole summer off, let's do work, mini-construction site, team effort type forts. one time we built a single story brick hut with a plywood roof in the woods across the street from my parents house. i don't know why all them bricks were in them woods but we utilized 'em good. holy shit, we must have pioneered green building back in the mid 80's by recycling all that crap! i smoked my first smoke by that fort. DORAL's man, but that's a whole 'nuther story, yo. anyways pops might have some pics to share of that fort, he was pretty impressed by our amateur masonry skills. btw, HAPPY B-DAY POPS, QUIT FIGHTING IT, MOUSTACHE REVIVAL.

there was one kid in the neigborhood that had crazy carpentry skills. david t. i think he's like some pro water skiier or something now, like traveling europe and doing tommy bartlett style shows. anyways, he had a 3 or 4 story tree fort that he built. i'm pretty sure i helped a little bit, but my woodworking skills were as sucky back then as they are now. i remember being on the 'top floor' of that fort and getting pretty spooked cuz you were at least like 20 feet off the ground. keep in mind that this was like 5th/6th grade and i was like 3 feet tall or something. all i remeber is david t. was the shortest kid in class and i had like a mean 1/2 inch on him. well, one day david t. must have been adding another floor to the fort and got a little too close to heaven, cuz somebody struck him down to the ground and blursteded his spleen.

here we are now, some 15 to 20 years later and i'm still terrible at building stuff. proof. me and xteam trucked a lot of wood to one of our favorite snowmobile/snowboard zones and attempted to build a fort rivaling those of our yesteryear. we failed. after trying to vizualize the super-rad fort that could be, we decided to shut-up our brains that were overthinking the whole fort-building mission by chuggin some rah-yeahs and screwing some shit to the trees. no floor, no roof, most of the wood was rotten from the get-go. i think we'll be lucky if it lasts this season, but who cares, it's still better than nothing and we had a good time building it.

glorified snow fence

i don't see nuthin'. nope, nothing to see here.

detailing the truck.

PINSTRIPES!

snow, dammit, snow. grr.

'hi there!'

2009-08-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

i followed this car home today. the doggie was pretty stoked on the nice day we were having and was taking adavantage of the downed drop-top by air chomping at every car, mortorcycle, pedestrian that came within 10 feet of it. it jumped halfway out of the car trying to attack a crotch-rocket that passed by. it just kept pacing back and forth in the backseat praying something would come within slobbering distance.

-drive by action shot. 'damn you papparazzo!' dog flipped me the bird just after i got the shot. driver gave me a funny look.

i suck at salmon fishing about as much as i suck at hunting. skunked again on sunday. caught nuthin but salad. dudes next to us landed 2 humpy's and gave me some tips though. maybe it's time for an after work session this week. ain't givin' up yo!

GNAR GNAR

2009-08-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

i went mountain biking for the first time ever today. i mean ever ever. i've never even ridden a mountain bike around the city, never owned one. hell, i've only owned 2 bikes that had gears and those were just bar bikes. anyways, got a call from a bro this afternoon wondering if i'd be down to go mountain biking, like real deal mountain biking. i was pretty stoked to try it out so i agreed even though i knew i'd be in over my head. there was a 3 man posse that included two vets (matt & snowman) and a rookie (me). started our 3 mile ascend at around 7:20 and got to the top around 8:00. pedaling up hill was hard, my butt was instantly sore and my legs are apparently useless. got a rad cramp in my calf and almost puked up the pulled pork sandwich i had for lunch. the sun was nearly setting by the time we got to the top and we were in some pretty thick woods so visibility wasn't that great which added to my stress about what i had got myself into. the vets gave me some tips on braking and body positioning, which probably went in one ear and out the other because about 200 yards into the descend i endo'd and body checked a tree with the collar bone that i broke 3 years ago. i got a little spooked but hopped back on the bike, charged, and then ate shit again probably a few 100 feet down the trail. in all, i probably wrecked like 4.5 times. some crashes involved getting bucked off the trail by roots & rocks or just flying down trail face first. i'm told that this wasn't a very tough trail but the lack of light, my inexperience, and trying to impress the vets with pathetic attempts at mobbing are probably why i beat the hell out of myself and the bike. after safely returning to the truck i was informed that the bike i had been running into trees or flipping over costs something shy of $5K. jeebus. high fives, burgers, and beers were had in fall city. rad time dudes, thanks! here's some pics:

getting ready to drop-in

halfway down. pic w/no flash (rueffnkiddinme?). note glow-in-the-dark legs.

same shot as above but with a flash

the only reason i look kinda tough in this pic is because i spent 10 minutes drying my tears with my shirt.

in other news: got a summer jamzzzz cd from T&H the other day and i finally gave it a listen today. purdy durn good dudes. THANKS!!!! #'s 9 to 12 (i think) are my favorites so far.

time for bed, got to get up in 4 hours to go hit the rivers for opening day of SALLYMON SEASON!!! man the Pacific NW is pretty damn mega.

skunked by sallymons

2009-08-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

got out of town this weekend. this time oneshot and i headed up to the deception pass area of whidbey island to try some salmon fishin' in the saltwater. logged several hours fishing at 4 different spots. caught some stuff but not what we were targeting. i guess the humpys haven't come in too thick yet. we witnessed 5 silvers get landed. some of the beaches were pretty mellow and some were approaching shoulder to shoulder battle fishing. battle fishing sucks. apparently if you have a beard and wear flannel people think you know what you're doing when it comes to fishing. i fooled a lot of people this weekend.

i netted this crab and it was pissed! started hissing at me.

it cooled out though and we bro'd down

onshot caught this bullhead. apparently there area fresh and saltwater bullheads.

rock sole, i think. kinda like a flounder. i caught 3 of these.

don't touch.

neat

secret fishin spot. pretty peaceful, except for the T-pain the rich people aross the water were blasting.

i better catch a dang sallymon soon!

gone

2009-08-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

i'm down to one truck. this one got donated today. it was in the same parking spot for 18 months without getting a ticket, until last thursday. 14 of those months i lived at the house it was parked by so i got to keep an eye on it daily. i guess the people who now live in that house didn't like it sitting there for the last 4 months. turkeys called it in to the cops.

it ran, just didn't drive. i think the main thing it needed was a new clutch. already had 223k miles though, didn't seem worth it. drove that thing from and to wisco twice, plus countless mountain adventures. it got in 4 accidents (only one my fault). the latest accident got me $1600.

umm, a post about a truck, eh? yeah, things must be slow.

test

HAAATTTTT

2009-07-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

it's pretty hot here. way hot by seattle standards and surrounding areas have been hitting temps of 105++degreezz. i ain't complaining, it reminds me of home. so that means time for a retro shred post!

APRIL 10th to 12th:

Put some miles on my splitboard that weekend. skinned out to a yurt SW of rainier (south of ashford) on the mt. tahoma xc trail/hut system. trip was 5 dudes and a lady: fwankie, gretch, sweeney, zeke, heis-man, und me. most of us had splitboards but one dude had to use gaper skis. getting to the yurt was tough cuz our packs were heavy with booze and it's mostly uphill to get to the yurt. took about 4.5 hours to cover the 6 miles to get to the yurt and it took 1.5 hours to get back to the car. we killed 4 bottles of whiskey, 1 tequila, 8 bottles of wine, and some busch. i am slow and the other people were superhumans, before this trip i thought i was in ok shape. darn friends are too young or just too mega. daytimes were spent trying to shred on some melting snow in the clouds. actually we had on/off flurries for most of the weekend, but no accumulation worth noting. on the last night we made a fire using snowmans roadflare technique. it was wet on our way out, pouring cold rain wet. i am very slow at splitboarding. here are the pics.

muddy trailhead

i will be back

das yurt

mega cliff

MT GRIFFIN (went up and down that turkey a few times)

natures most perfect kiddie park!! this log was sessioned by gretch & heis-man. they kilt it!

gear upon gear. note cute gaper skis on left

lunch time!

fk yeah!

MOMMAZ BOI!

i really look forward to checking out the other hut in this system. it's so fun to shred for a whole weekend and not see another soul. it was such a good time with some good friends. i just hope i'm better at scrabble by next winter...

HOT TOOBIN' ON THE LATE NIGHT

2009-07-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

hola amigos! just got back from the annual toobin' trip in leavenworth. tubing trip has been a yearly thing for about 6 or 7 years now and has morphed into a b-day xtravoganza for Miss Lindsay in the last few years. this year we were rollin' the river deep with a posse that was bout 26 people and one dog. there was a mega-sht-ton o' beer and rad was definitely had. weather ranged from 100 degrees to overcast and high 70's to raining to thunder and back to sunny and hot, so the group morale was on a rollercoaster.

random highlights:

-we saw a momma bear and her cub 2 times througout the day. neat

-i have a new favorite drink. JOOSE! it has replaced sparks since they took out the caffiene and taurine. JOOSE is made in LaCrosse, WI and tastes like bugspray mixed with pez. 9.9% tho.

-trying to explain to people about Toobin' the old video game

-sand bar parties

-my cooler smells bad

-FROZIRRA!

-hmm, i can't remember too much right now. maybe i'll edit this later.

not too many pics this year.

DAMIMT DAMMIT DAMMIT

2009-07-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

it has been brought to my attention that i haven't posted for almost 2 months. big surprise. well, stuff has been happening, here's some examples:

Saturday, June 6th: went fishing on beaver lake in issaquah with oneshot and snowman. one fish was caught. exciting! this was a good trip for the canoe though, we made an anchor using a milk jug and gravel. another milk jug is now used for the men's room. you ever try to pee out of a canoe? that milk jug is a life saver.

Friday, June 19th: i was working in ridgefield, wa on and off. ridgefield is about 30 miles north of portland and not too far from mt. st. helens. one day after work i checked out some of the lava tube caves and other stuff around helens. on friday the 19th we got rained out for work so i hiked solo to the crater of the volcano. it sucked. raining, windy, snowing at the top, visibility sucked, my hands went numb, etc., blah. anyways, i made it to the crater, which really isn't that impressive but given the shitty conditions, i'm gonna pat myself on the back. they only issue 100 permits a day. i talked to about 50 people that were on their way down as i was ascending and only about 4 people said they made it to the crater. see, i'm tough. visibility was so crappy that i nearly fell into the crater because i didn't realize i was at the top. EPIC. here's me at the crater, i forgot my jacket so i had to wear my work raingear.

June 20/21 Fathers Day at Black Lake:

NVD got me, oneshot, and snowman access to the uber elite Hancock logging land where we fished at Black Lake. NVD caught a 21" rainbow here earlier in the week, but we weren't so lucky. overall i caught 4 rainbow trout with the biggest one being about 12", so not too mega. i ate it anyways. the other dudes had a little less luck than me. fathers day morn we got rained on, fished, and barely avoided getting in a fight at a fall city bar.

the 'pier'

triple feeshing threat in the canoe

i eated a feesh!

ok, that's enough for one night. plenty more crap to blog about though, maybe next month. RDRRRRR

Don't Eff With The S.S. Snakehead

2009-06-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

last sunday i got to ride on the s.s. snakehead with tighty, snowman, and swappy. the s.s. snakehead is a ski boat that belongs to mr. swappy. riding on the s.s. snakehead is serious buisness, you can't just get on and ride around lake washington with the other boating sissys. nah, this crew is tough, you gots to get jumped in, and by getting jumped in i mean ya need to do your time in the sumo suit.

the sumo suit is a death-trap inflatable that you wear while the boat driver whips you around the lake. except for the brief moments that you're airborne, you're getting water pushed down every orifice in your face (mouth, nostrils, tearducts, ears, etc.) and sometimes orifices not on your face. unpleasant. i lost both contact lenses while getting jumped-in, my last pair too. fart.

up-skirt shot

SHHHHH**************************TTTTT. rdrr

after that crap was done we went wakeskating (i.e. binderless wakeboarding), drank ran-yeahs, and shot off bottle rockets! killer slash brah.

Off The Grid

2009-06-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

2.5 months without a post, what the hell? ok, i've been off the grid for a while. SAWEE. still doin' rad stuff, just not bragging about it on the nets. got a backlog of old pics and stories for the summer. it'll be just like a magazine, reading about stuff that happened months ago! highlights include: snowboard crash that resulted in blood in my tinkle and possible a cracked rib, splitboarding 6 miles in the rain and to get to a yurt, loosing my contacts in lake washington while in the 'sumo suit', snowmobiling and shootin' guns on memorial day, etc., blah, blah.

above is a cell pic of a fawn i found on a hike this weekend. i didn't pet it, but i could have! little guy's legs fell out from under him twice when he finally decided to run away. cute.

Hyak 03.08.09

2009-03-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

Tony and I went snowboarding last Sunday. Met up with Nat & Cody and rode the Silver Fir lift for 2 hours and got some real good runs in. Apparently all the people who know how to ride went to Alpental and the rest of the goons were at S.F. Suckers, no lift lines and untracked lines in the trees for 2 hours. Once again the lift lines got retarded, intellectually challenged, or whatever they're calling it these days so Tony and I switched to plan B. Well it wasn't really a plan, but we knew the lines would get terror-ble so once again it was up to the snowshoes to get us to some good stuff. To avoid parking nightmares, we wound up at Hyak which is where they had a landslide/avalanche that took out the main lift back when I was in Utah in January. The hike was challenging to say the least, all the snow we've gotten in the last few days made things light and deep. Splitboard would have been a much better way to go, maybe next time.

killer butt check, man i suck.

slash to stop, shoulda kept goin'. doh.

03.05.09 to 03.06.09

2009-03-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday night I went up to Snoqualmie for the last day of the season for the Burton CHILL program. This is my third season volunteering with Chill and I love it. These kids are so stoked/excited/etc. to go snowboarding and their excitement rubs off on you. Last season was tough because the few days I volunteered (before my guts decided to act up for 6 weeks) I was working with a real young dude didn't know too much English. Kid wasn't interested in turning, just mobbing down the magic carpet run with only one foot strapped in. This year I shredded with some 5th graders that liked the A-Team and a girl from Uganda.

Anyways, during the day on Thursday a sort of surprise storm pooped all over Snoqualmie Pass. Something like 11 inches fell in a few hours. The kids liked the softer snow but when you're still a beginner and the pow is deep it can get a little frustrating. After the volunteering was done I met up with Nels and Zach over at Alpental for some faster-paced night shredding. The snow was awesome, light and fluffy, total opposite of the typical NW pooh. We took a few runs, split a pitcher, and the night was over by about 10:30. This is when I was faced with a tough decision, lemme break it down: 1)There was at least 18"of new in the Alpental BC and the gates didn't open all day 2) I had the day off of work 3) It was supposed to be bluebird 4) I would spend about 2.5 to 3 hours driving if I went home and drove back up at the butt crack of dawn 5) Zach had a sleeping bag I could borrow.

So..........I spent the night in my truck. Only problem was all my avy gear was at home. Quick phone call and Hoen agreed to bring it up first thing Friday morn. It was cold that night, something like zero degrees. I woke up several times througout the night and got pissed cuz I couldn't feel my toes. In the morning I went to put my contacts in (glasses were in Seattle) and the saline solution friggin' froze soild! I'm blind so this kinda freaked me out but 20 minutes on the defroster fixed the situation. After getting some coffee around 8am friends started rolling into the parking lot. By 8:20 we were on the lift (advertised start time is 9am) and by about 8:30 we were out the backcountry gates. This is unheard of, the upper chair typically doesn't even start loading till well after the lower one has been spinning, and to have the BC gates open on first run is like hitting the lotto. Did I mention it was bluebird (!), another NW rarity. Rode a bunch, it was deep & rad, blah, blah, blah.

The lifts got PACKED after about 3 runs so Hoen and I put our contingency plan to work. The previous Sunday I went on a little snowshoe recon mission to scout some stuff I've had my eye on for a while. We grabed the snowshoes & poles and headed out for some adventure. Right away I effed things up by trying to guide by my memory & instincts. I wouldn't say we got lost but we did take the long way. It was cool though, my guiding error helped us find 2 new zones that hopefully we'll get a chance to film at this year. We got some REAL GOOD turns in and had to billy goat a few spots. The hike out went ok, but i'm sure we can find an easier way back next time.

OK NOVEL OVER, PICTURE TIME

>This slash sent pooh all the way down to I-90 below.

>My squiggles, Hoen waiting to 1-up

> Neat

SORRY WILMOT YOU GOTS NUTHIN ON THIS

>

PS: HAPPY BIRFDAY BRUDDAH!

b-day party in the woods

2009-02-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

took the day off for my b-day and headed up to alpental with al & hoen. i was on my splitboard, hoen on snowshoes, and al was ski touring. initial plan was to skin up chair peak in the alpental back country cuz reports from the day before said the snow was still damn good. by the time we got out there chair peak was in the clouds. the sunny forecast for the day was bs so we came up with a new plan and skinned to pinapple pass with the intent of riding back down our ascent route. once we got to the pass we were teased with all the untracked stuff on the denny creek side. we had to make the decision to take the easy way back to the base of alpental or go deeper into the backcountry and hike about 6 miles back to get to the car. up at that elevation there was prob 6 to 9 in of pretty light snow in the good spots. i know 6 to 9 inches of snow probably doesn't sound too impressive, but we've been very snow starved in the pacific NW this year so any pooh is good pooh right now. we studied the map and figured we had enough supplies between the 3 of us that if the sh*t hit the fan we could spend the night (if need be), geared up and dropped in. holy crap! the upper 1/4 of our descent was RAD! clouds even broke a bit as were heading down. below the pow level we got into some pooh that was just as fun to ride. found some mini cliffs to stunt on on the hike out. all in all, we took about 8 hours for one run. traverse out got kinda rough and frustrating, we even got split up for a bit. didn't get back to the car till 6pm. the hike out was LONG. it didn't help that we didn't know exactly where we were going so we played things pretty conservative to avoid cliffs 'n such. we've been debating if it would have been faster to just skin (i.e. hike) back up to where we dropped in.

there was added pressure to get back to the car because i'd scheduled a b-day burrito party in ballard at 7pm. pushed the dinner party back to 8pm and we made it back just in time for a quick shower and dash to the mexican joint. food & margaritas were great, sorry i was so sleepy.

I.O.U: banked slalom photos, hoen b-day photos (from a different burrito joint), random snowmobile and snowboard park pics. snow season has been kinda weak this year but we've been staying positive and having tons of fun.

shout out to cousin dea! keep it real in rochester!! rdrr.

board collection

2009-01-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

sometimes people ask me how many snowboards i have. the answer is 22, for now. some are 'collectors items' (at least to me), some are crap that i haven't gotten rid of, and the rest are part of the current quiver.

FIRE CHICKEN

2009-01-26T23:05:00.000-08:00

ok, so the sled's back in one piece and has been BRAP'IN around the mountains the last 2 sundays. here's a few pics. i'm so stoked on how it looks now, so RAD. THANKS HOEN!! snowmobiling is kind of an obnoxious/loud/smelly way to access the backcountry for snowboarding, but as much as i like to play it down in my head, it's pretty damn fun. i got mine up to 75mph on the way out yesterday and i didn't hit top speed. mountain sledding is WAY different than the midwest snowmobiling i was slightly exposed to in WI. it's scary being in spots where your $$$$ investment can easily roll down the hill and be gone till spring (don't worry Ma, im super careful).

the backcountry has been pretty crappy out here for the last few weeks, but it has been pretty good as far as snow stability (i.e. bomber). that means it has been great for exploring on sleds, so we've been riding around and studying our maps/gps/google erfs. it's funny, the only reason i've got some map and compass skills (even though said skills are kinda weak) are because i wound up with a geology degree and now it's helping my snowboarding. neat.

anyways, it's gonna snow/dump/puke/pooh in the NW this week, so beacons on and let's shred!

ooootahh part 2

2009-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

ok, so i've been back in washington for 2.5 weeks but here are a few more photos from my utah trip. was there from jan 1 to jan 7 and we rode every single day. logged 5 days at brighton and 2 days at snowbird, and at least 4 days were pow days (memory's getting foggy). brighton is now a sister resort of my 'home' mountain, the summit at snoqualmie, so i get 10 free days at brighton.

sunny, light snow, and everything is cheap; utah's got me hooked. $3.99 for an arby's beef and cheddar combo, c'mon, that'd cost like $6.50 here. plus, gas was like $1.35. big thanks, again, to ben and tony for letting me crash on the couch. see y'all at baker. and big thanks to BB for giving me the opportunity to do some UT shredding. still got 5 free days left at brighton...

oootahh pt. 1

2009-01-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

i've been in utah since the 1st. we've ridden everyday so far. saturday we got a foot of fresh and it was bluebird, RAD WAS HAD! it dumped all day today and it's still snowing, time 4 bed.

harpy new yarrrr

2009-01-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

hi er'ybody! happy new yarr. my resolution is to pay better attention to this blog and put up hella purrrrdy pictures. my other resolutions are: swear less, get tough, be awesomer, and land my first seven. updates to follow.......................? crap, boob, fart.

FIRST DAY OF THE SEASON!

2008-12-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

well, it's been pretty darn cold in seattle recently and we even got some snow in the city (rare) but 2 sunday's ago (12/07/08), before there was much more that a hint of snow in the mountains a group of friends tested out luck and a promising forecast up at chinook pass. chinook is on the east side of rainier and the pass is somewhere around 5000 ft. which is probably about as high as you can get on a paved road in the central cascades. this pass is typically closed between nov. and june/july depending on the snowpack. since winter has been slow to come out here it was still open. anyways, we lucked out and found some pretty good snow (i.e. pow, pooh, etc.). even though cover was kinda thin we built a couple of real small jumps & jibs and had a blast.

it feels real good to know that something that brought me so much joy when i was 10 years old and riding in the front yard in wisconsin on a plastic mogul monster snowboard that my parents (aka Santa) got at Farm & Fleet still brings me the same amount of happiness now that i'm 30.

the first 5 pics (green jacket) are me, the rest are friends. the last one with the giant pooh slash is my favorite.

ok, 1 more

2008-11-25T22:50:00.001-08:00

hoen's been helping me get the snowmobile to look pretty bitchin'. PROOF.

hood's not done yet but the chicken's lookin' good.

grrr

2008-11-25T22:42:00.000-08:00

ok, so it's been a long time. here are some pretty pics from when i went hunting. didn't kill nothing (damn crafty deers) but tried to kill two things (chukars aka big partridges(sp?)). hmm, that didn't come out right. here's some pics, i don't feel like typing. bye bye.

Whoo?

2008-11-25T22:34:00.000-08:00

blast from the not so distant blog past

Berry Picking

2008-09-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

On Saturday (Aug. 30) I borrowed Nollie and went up near Snoqualmie Pass to go huckleberry picking and to start scouting snowboard lines for the upcoming season. It was pretty cold up there and we had on/off rain. The huckleberry bushes hold a lot of moisture so my hands got pretty wet and cold and Nollie managed to get pretty wet. We'd pick for a little while, head back to the truck to warm up, and drive to a new spot and start over. There are a few hunting seasons open right now (archery for elk & modern firearm for bear) so we were pretty decked out in blaze orange and Nollie got to wear a bear bell. I tried to fit her with a vest but it didn't last to long when she walked through the dense brush.

Last year I went to this spot for my first day of hunting ever. I was looking for grouse but all I saw was a black bear and a flock of ducks (widgeons, i think). I think the bears love this zone due to the abundance of food (berries). Anyway, we picked until we were cold/bored and headed home. Some of the berries were still rather small and super tart, so I think the picking will still be good for a few weeks as these berries ripen. This area gets awesome in the fall when the huckleberry bush leaves turn red. I'll probably go back next weekend to try and get some more. Hopefully it'll be warmer.

This was the highlight of my holiday weekend as yesterday I cleaned and today I worked. Lame.

Soon....

2008-08-23T19:21:00.001-07:00

it's not even september and i'm already watching at least one snowboard video a day. plus, i got 2 new shred magazines in the mail this week. i hear parts of colorado even got up to 1 foot of snow this week. stoked!

ZOOM

2008-08-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

ok, here's some stuff that i've done in the last month or so. i caught a fish in greenlake! to date, it is the only fish that i've caught after buying my rod/reel/license. a good ol' worm & bobber helped me land this lunker.

i rode the YARR bike in the dead baby bike race. YARR bike is a bicycle that topher put together a few years back using parts from a pink little girls bike and some womans 10 speed. that's right it's a hybrid pink & silver girls bike with pink grips and pedals, 16" wheels, and best of all a COASTER BRAKE. according to sarah, the dead baby bike race was featured in an episode of gray's anatomy. i went to the start of the race at el chupacabra on phinney ridge to see what all the fuss was about and to see all the mutant bikes. when they fired off the starting gun i got stoked and decided to ride along. the race went down 65th st which is steep as hell.

SIDENOTE: a few years ago topher let me borrow his van to shuttle some WI friends that were in town for the annual baker snowboard trip and we all got stuffed at gorditos (probably my favorite burrito joint). anyways, after eating a ton we crammed about 7 people into a minivan that was missing a backseat and jetted down 65th. a few people almost lost their burritos when caught a little air when flying through one of the intersections. they weren't supposed to tell topher about the 'jumping of the van', but i guess they ratted me out 2 days later, jerks.

well, riding YARR bike down the hill was fun! skidding out sideways all the way down the hill while trying not to hit some lady on a unicycle. did i mention that this race isn't truly organized (i.e. this isn't some roped off parade course). the race starts and it's pretty much BIKE vs. CAR. this years race took place a week or so after some critical mass unpleasantness. most cars just sat idle and waited for all the weirdo bikers to ride by this time. however, i did see one dude run into a car and then fall down. i helped slow down an ice cream truck (see pic). went to the after-race party, drank some beer, saw some stuff, and went home.

other stuff: i'm now totally legit to volunteer at the seattle animal shelter! i had to go through a general orientation (sat morning), animal shelter 101 (sun morn), and dog handling 101 (another sun morn). technically i haven't volunteered yet, although the orientation hours count towards the 8hr a month volunteer quota. i hope to do the get fit with fido program where you take the shelter dogs on 4 mile jogs. the shelter can be kind of a sad place but so far all of the dogs seem awesome and just want to play. oh, get this, the preferred treat for the dogs is string cheese! i love string cheese.

ok, more crap later.

INTERNET WAR

2008-08-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

at least i gave him lazer eyes

camping pic from last weekend

2008-08-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

a bazillion of these photos were taken at the campsite on saturday night, here's one of me. photo courtesy of nels and claire.

story still to come, maybe.

2008-07-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

just look at that owl, it's awesome! it's got googly eyes, nerd glasses (from mike's bachelor party), and a friggin' sombrero. you don't need a backstory, just enjoy the googly eyes that follow you across the room.

other stuff; camped all last weekend, good ol car camping style. no exercise necessary. drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of food, slept in the back of my truck, and played with an airsoft gun, wrist rocket, and 12 gauge. no nacho's but one corn dog. whoot.

Story to come...

2008-07-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

2008-07-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

here's some pics to go along with the last post. 1. new 'canoe' rack, topper fits underneath, neat. started sanding and painting some rusty spots yesterday. that rustoleum 'paint over rust' stuff is nasty. had to wash my hands with brake cleaner. 2. bike now has baskets. the baskets have already gotten a lot of comments from homeless types such as, "man you can fit a lot of beer in those" and "hey nice baskets, can i have one of those beers?". back off bums. 3. trailer/snowmobile mess taking over garage.

new crap

2008-07-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

here's another picture-less post to bring y'all up to speed:

-been working on the snowmobile trailer. needs a new sheet of plywood, could use some painting, and working brakelights/turnsignals would be nice.

- the snowmobile is slowly transforming into a bitchin' firebird ala smokey & the bandit. to be continued...

-i finally put the baskets on my bike. topher and i 'borry'd' these baskets about a year ago so i'm probably the rightful owner now. bike is a late 60's (i think) schwinn collegitate, so it's fun to ride downhill, but sucks for the rest of seattle.

-hikded annette lake afterwork last wed. fun hike, it was good to finally get back out of the City. i still love how 'far away' you can get from Seattle by just driving about 45 minutes. i really love the Cascades.

-backpacked to island lake with lindsay & nels this weekend. super fun. tried to fish, still haven't caught nuttin'. stupid fish won't eat trout powerbait, raisins, cherries, or m&m's; stupid fish. there was still a lot of snow on the upper part of the trail and most of the lake was still frozen in the middle of july, nuts. fun overnight trip & got nachos in NB! sh*t yeah.

-bought a ladder rack for the new truck. craigslist special. bolted 'er in to the truck bed today, so FISH ON it's canoe time!

umm. ok, bye.

Ingalls Creek 6.20 to 6.21

2008-07-07T22:49:00.000-07:00

Went backpacking on the east side of the Cascades a couple weeks ago. Started at the Ingalls Creek trailhead (sorta near Leavenworth) around 5pm Friday evening. Met some other people on the trail and we all camped near Falls Creek. One dude worked for the Seahawks but he didn't offer me any tickets for the up-coming Packers game. What a turkey. Left the tent and sleeping bag at camp on Saturday and headed a little further out on the trail. Made it to Hardscrabble Creek but Ingalls Creek was a litte to swift and cold for me try and cross it by myself. Turned around, got the tent, and hauled ass back to the truck so I could make it back for the cheese party at Topher and Heathers. The end.

Neat stuff I saw this time: trees that got shredded by a bear, mushrooms, burnt trees, caterpillars, lots of flowers.

EDIT: Apparently blogger don't like me or my camera. Pics won't upload. Fart them.

NOTE: The pics were very pretty.

06.15.08 McClellan Butte

2008-06-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

started out the day by stopping by REI to swap-out the poles that broke a couple weeks ago. turned out to be a good thing since poles were pretty crucial for this hike. there weren't too many cars at the trail head so that was good. made it a few miles but snow hid the trail near the top. i'd never been on this trail before so it was slow going after the trail disppeared. after a few stops to verify that i was heading in the right direction (using map/compass/gps) i made it to the top. the snow caused a few impromptu glissades (i.e. falling on your ass and sliding down hill), but poles and quick feet kept it from getting too dangerous. found a mylar balloon at about 4500 feet. there isn't much that pisses me off more than trash in the mountains. this has damn near gotten me into fights at ski 'hills' before when yahoos are chuckin beer bottles and cans off of lifts or on the side of trails. grrr. anyways, here are some more purrdy photos of mountains and a pic of the balloon that i dragged back to seattle. oh, yeah McClellan Butte is just off I-90 so you can see that in a few of the pics.