Alaska Day 6-7

Miles: 2,715.7

Average MPG: 19.3
Gallons: 140.71
Bears and Wolves: 12
Alaska Beards: 6
Miles Hiked: 8.6

Wow Community Group was epic tonight.  First off, the Menashe Family saw me down at the Morgan Junction and gave me a ride down to Brandon Street.  They are an amazing couple; in fact I would "do a back flip off my roof" if I mature into half the man Jack is when I hit his season in life. David (pronounced Dei-vid 'cause he's a Brit, hmm I am too, but I don't call myself Jaw-shua, I respond to Josh, or occasionally "Hey Penguin!", or even "Hey Bone!"), our community group leader, left a note on the front door telling everyone to enter in silence and take a seat.  We sat down and waited.  At 7:30PM, Cole suddenly read Luke 21:29-38 and David invited each of us to set aside all the crap from our thoughts, all the worries and weight of what we are so easily distracted by and take 30 minutes to pray to our Father in quiet reverence. I sat on the floor and prayed to my Dad.  He reminded me how good he is and convicted me that I need to cut out KassemG from my 1 hour a week media time. I love that my God is so specific and takes the time to open my eyes to my blindness. We then transitions to small clusters to talk about what we had heard from God and prayed specifically for each other. After we closed in prayer, I got some time with David and Jack one on one and got some amazing advice from godly married men about how to honor one of God's daughters.
Oh and one more thing before I transition to Alaska, I worked at a Golf Tournament this last weekend.  It was the Boing Classic over 50 PGA event. You know how golf is really really really...not that exciting on TV?  Well it's just as "enthralling" in person.  Still I got to volunteer and help raise money for a hospital and enjoy a really big manicured garden and all the free soda and granola bars I could eat.  I also went to the volunteer appreciation dinner afterwards and I won a prize from Tiffany & Co.!!  You know the really fancy stores  with the vault doors in the malls that sells jewelry? Yeah I won a pair of Tiffany beer glasses!? Yeah they make those, and I now have some.

Alaska:
So I believe I got my days mixed up so I really don't remember what went down on day 6....So on to day 7 I guess.  Maybe what I thought was day 5 was actually day 6.  We might have taken day 5 off and just relaxed all day, I can't really remember. Sorry.
Day 7 was awesome because the day before I picked up our bus tickets so we awoke early and were on the very first bus at 5:15AM. It went from our campground out to Wonder Lake 90 miles down the road. We piled into the big green bus in row 4 and 5, that way were were near enough to the front to hear from the driver but not too far forward as to be uncool.

Funny aside...or maybe just lame you be the judge:  I had no formal education before 6th grade (except for one 5th grade math class at Highland Park Elementary).  So on the first day of 6th grade, I got on the school but for the 40 minute ride to Washington Middle School.  I took one look at the bus after boarding and took the seat closest to the driver because everyone on the bus was huge and very angry looking (I was the smallest and shortest kid in he whole middle school 6th-8th grade).  I huddled close to the driver for 6 months before I worked up the courage to more to row 3. In 7th grade, I made a few acquaintances and moved to row 5. By eight grade I hit my maximum coolness by sitting in row 6.  Through the next three years, before I dropped out of high school, I never developed sufficient coolness to moved father back than row 6. i don't know how that related, but whatever.
So we set out from Reilly Creek and our soft spoken but eagle-eyed bus driver spotted and stopped for these beautiful animals:

So we stopped briefly at about mile 50 on the bus ride, and Josue got to experience life as a Caribou:

So we continued out to Wonder Lake which is 90 miles from the park's entrance. On a clear day, this place has the best views of Mount McKinley, unfortunately there were too many clouds. We actually left the park without ever seeing the peak.  No big deal, we found other ways to entertain ourselves.  We walked down to Wonder lake and we practiced out walking on water skills. Notice the lack of ripples, these pics took real skill to give the illusion of the miraculous:

Man I love to skip rocks and I think I imparted a little knowledge to Josue.

We then went for a short hike into the endless blueberry fields.  I had my bear mace and kept my head on a swivel because we have seen no less that 5 grizzlies on the way out.  We only ran across a chipmunk city, but there was plenty of fresh bear poor broadcasting the big guys' presence.  The berries were tasty and were everywhere.  We came to a peaceful creek and we stopped for some food.  I challenged every one to make their own boat for a little boat race. The Rule was that you had to make it only from what you could find naturally occuring and your boat has to have an occupant. Some builders employed grass and used a little daisy as the occupant.  My strategy was the aerodynamically stable stick with a blueberry passenger.  I came in second, and I think  Tina won the big race.  We ate ravioli out of a steel can cooked on Nick's MSR stove. it was awesome.

The race track...the finish line was the little island in the creek.

We made it back to the bus pickup location and took some silly pictures near the sign:

We rode the bus back toward Reilly Creek and saw some more sweet animals, but this time much closer in:

It was amazing. We got back to the campground and enjoyed some hot dogs and canned corn.  We ended the night playing a Epi game of UNO. We let Tina make up the rule to the game and it was awesome.  She totally messed with us and we all ended up laughing all over ourselves.  I actually cried I was laughing so hard. 

So, Day 7 was another stretch of beautiful blacktop on my life's road trip.  I had the honor,  no the high honor, of sharing it with Josue, who taught me so much about what it might look like to be a dad, Yulia, who encouraged me and showed me what it looks like to just live the Christian life in a state of quiet expectant joy, Tina, who challenged me on my endemic self-deprecation in a gently mocking way, Nick, who helps me to see every situation in a new light and whose sarcasm jarred me to laughter again and again, and Mirella, who excellently modeled motherhood and kindly encouraged this childe Roland on his lofty quest to ride this life until the wheels fall off and reach the end to see Jesus.

Sickness = Reading

Miles Run:122.9

Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:208.89
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:108
Summit Team:8
Aspirin Tablets:42

Woke feeling like crap today, called in sick to work. So I read all of Steinbeck's The Pearl and 1/3 of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America while trying not to think of throwing up. After recovering, I ran 7.07 miles.

Blog Outline:

I. Preparing to Build

II. Wedding

III. Night Hike

IV. Steven's Pass

V. The Pearl

VI. Democracy in America

VII. Super Awesome Good News

I. Week before last I was assigned the fun task of reading a book and summarizing it as part of my internship. The title was Preparing to Build. So I got to learn about how a church can first perform a successful feasibility study, set specific building goals, identify a specific vision, communicate this vision to the church body, raise funds, and then search for the land, designer, and builder for the new building. The non-disclosure forms I happily signed before beginning my internship deny me the pride-inducing revelation of why this book needed to be "cliff-noted" for the elders, but it's pretty sweet. I really appreciated learning and being honored to prepare this doc.

II. Two of my friends got married week before last, so I shaved off my beard and threw on my tux and shades. When I showed up to the wedding, only those who have spent a lot of time with me knew me (mainly just my community group). The rest who had just seen me around or briefly conversed with me didn't recognize me. I introduced myself to everyone as "Tony." I was amazed how many people bought the jesting false identity.

III. Two weeks ago I held my first group hike of 2011. I took 10 people up to the top of Tiger Mountain #2 and then on to #3. We gained and lost 2272 feet on our 4.56 mile round-trip. One of our hikers had some problems with her calf cramping up. But other than that we has great weather and even enjoyed 6 inches of wet snow on top of Tiger #2. The night started in dense fog, but we hiked above the clouds and saw out to a 25 mile horizon across the Kent valley to Federal Way from Tiger #2 and across Issaquah to Bellevue from Tiger #3. Check out the elevation profile:

(Kinda looks like a face...)

IV. Ronda in my community group invited the entire group up to her ex-husband's cabin in the mountains off highway 2. I got to meet him. You know how when you hear someone's story about how much a jerk someone else is, you think, "yeah, yeah everyone seems right until the other side is heard." We'll Ronda's side of the story was right. The cabin was amazing with a sweet pool table and being placed right on a river was blessed with a smooth continuous stream of conscious interrogatives from acqua pura punctuated rarely by the roar and whistle of a passing Northern Pacific train. I even got to ski! I really enjoy skiing; it is my favorite winter activity. The top of Steven's Pass Ski Resort is 5584ft. By weak-minded, stubborn, milquetoast blindness, I followed Lisa, Mackenzie, and David up to the peak which has only diamond and double diamond ski-runs to allow escape from such an alpine penitentiary. I crashed, slipped, and careened all morning until lunch with the CG, after which I gained more confidence and started cutting a decent rug on the snow-laced dance runs. A great weekend.

V. The Pearl by John Steinbeck is a masterpiece of a parable with apparent subtle hints of Marxian economics. However when you look deeper, Steinbeck's heart is dreadfully wounded by the plight of the poor in all times and in all places. He spent months in Baja California and made numerous friends with the poor locals of Mexico whose families had lived under subjugation for generations. For those who have read The Jungle, a fictional narrative starring Jurgis Rudkus, (blatantly false yet powerfully moving) written by Upton Sinclair, we all resonate with the passion to rise up and defend those who are taken advantage of and oppressed economically. I would argue that this sense of objective justice come from Jesus, God, who set THE knowledge of righteousness in every man's heart (though many intentionally pervert it). The Story of Kino, his wife Juana, and their infant Coyotito revolves around a poor family stricken by circumstance who are blessed with the gift of a singularly amazing pearl. They dream of all the innocent improvements that the money from the sale of the pearl will bring, little Coyotito can be the first one in the family to be educated; he can find out what is really in those books that the wealthy men speak of. They are plagued by thieves and cruel men intent on cheating them of this gift. Kino kills four men and looses his son all due to the greed the pearl inspires, the ending is very anti-climactic and left me facing my own greedy, wanton, fleshly desires to yearn for the precious. During the same time, J.R.R. Tolkien was writing his Lord of the Rings saga. These two stories show the all-too-twisted human nature that will go to any length to acquire the promise of a changed life...changed not on God's terms but rather on the self's terms. I guess I am confessing that I am a bit like the pearl dealers, Smeagol, and even Kino. Buy what is my great Pearl? Maybe it's my self-sufficiency or my desire for control over my life or my pursuit of comfort.

VI. I just brushed the surface of A. de Tocquville's political treatise on America in the 1830s, so I can't really comment on it, but I like his pursuit of objectivity in addressing the topic of what makes America tick.

VII. Oh what is the Great Super Awesome News? Well I am finally a master!!!!

No, I can't move objects using the mythical Force, shoot blue lightening from my fingertips, and fight impossible enemies with a light sabre, but I can crunch numbers faster than an African Swallow can carry a coconut to England so Monty Python can make weird little jokes about it.

In short I have just graduated from the University of Washington with a Master's Degree in Economics.

yeah!

Costco

Miles Run:12
Miles Biked:45.49
Total Miles:57.49
Days to Rainier:199
Summit Team:4.5
Aspirin Tablets:6

Today was a good day. It is my one day of total relaxation and rest each week. I volunteer my time from Sunday-Thursday at Mars Hill Church in a variety of ways. Saturday is my project day to catch-up and prep for the next week. In obvious contradiction to my previously defined day of rest, I installed 20 feet of 12-2 Romex and a new receptical (Romex, if you don't know what Romex is you are not a DIY type of person, tisk tisk). So without being electrucuted I updated and rewired the power to my bedroom to ensure that my new shiny computer monitor would be well grounded. I then knocked out 25.25 miles on my mountain bike in the driving wind, with only one minor injury (Biking Map). Finally, I cooked some amazing shrimp Linguine and watched Swordfish with Travolta and Berry. I know God said:

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. Deut 32:35

But something in me is stirred when Gabriel (played by Travolta) says:

Someone must bring [the terrorists'] war to them. They bomb a church, we bomb 10. They hijack a plane, we take out an airport. They execute American tourists, we tactically nuke an entire city. Our job is to make terrorism so horrific that is becomes unthinkable to attack Americans.

I guess I am just a jacked up guy, but vengeance...
This sympathy with Gabriel or Clyde Alexander Shelton (played by Butler in Law Abiding Citizen) and their causes of justice and liberty leads to a fear in my gut. Should I ever be blessed with a wife or a precious daughter. I know there is no power on Earth that would stop me from repaying anyone who hurt them fully.

Wow, man I got off topic. Like James Harleman says, "there are few experience specifically as compelling or challenging as being pulled into a film's story for a few hours."

So what was I going to write about? Oh yeah Costco!
"Costco?", you ask. Yes, Costco. Every year my mom and I go to the Costco shareholders meeting in Bellevue (except last year when I was on my Epic Road Trip). "Are you a RICH GREEDY CAPITALIST who is ruining America and the World by promoting the corporate executive system where men make outrageous amounts of money yet have no incentive to manage risk, instead they live only for the short-term thereby ensuring we will all be subject to frequent and volatile financial crises?!"
No, no, no. I support that system of intentional instability when I pay my taxes.
Anyway, I hold a modest amount of Costco shares in my retirement account, so I get to go. My mom and I enjoy the event each year because it reminds us that Capitalism is lovely and saves the lives of hundreds of thousands each year. It also allows me to buy the hundred pack of socks. Jeffrey Brotman led the meeting, the video presentation of all the cool depictions of Costco in the media (Jimmy Kimmel at Costco was the best), and the Q&A. The best part is the free stuff. Don't get me wrong stealing made the top ten not cool list, but it's not stealing when they say, "Here take it we don't want to take it back to the office." So I got 2 gallons of laundry detergent, 4 containers of chocolate covered Almonds and Raisins, 50 pounds (!) of sealed trail mix, 6 2.2lb boxes of Natural French Truffles (one of my personal favorites), 5 cool self-sealing storage containers, 3 boxes of Flex Free Glucosamine and Chondroitin tablets, three pounds of shrimp, a dozen bottles of Kirkland Signature Vita-Rain, and a sweet portrait of myself,. My mom got about the same amount of swag plus a full-sized dog bed for Fritz.
Thursday's Costco outing was a total win. I even ran into my buddy from Ballard Campus Security. So now I am fully stocked with training food (50lbs of trail mix!) and am even well rested or will be after I publish this post and snooze.

I am still calling any manly man or womenly woman to join me on Rainier. July is just far enough away to prepare physically and mentally. Join me. Beat Rainier.

Wolves, small children, and insanity

I guess I'll post the trip stats even though this road trip is concluded.
Miles: 14704.8
Gallons Burned: 484.1
Caffeinated Drinks: 88
Gigabytes of Pictures: 33.5

I also feel compelled to admit one thing before I continue, I have been reading "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac for the first time so I may exhibit a certain violence/exuberance in my writing; you all have my apologies.
After catching up with my aunt and uncle and eating an amazing squash dish that kept getting better as I had it for leftovers, I slept poorly waking often to odd and unpleasant dreams.
I was determined to catch a little skiing on my road trip as it had been 20 months since my last alpine adventure involving rapid descent (rather different from my long and grueling hikes up Mt. Rainier to Camp Muir at 9,550 ft).
Zoom out to see just how awesome it really is:

View Larger Map
Anyhow I set out back up I-26 toward the Appalachian "Mountains" (Honestly these hills are often given far too much credit. They are nice for a Sunday drive but surely do not bear the one critical element that makes a mountain a mountain, namely the tendency to create widows). I await Jen or Alicia's rebutal, you see they have done something like 1,500 miles of the long Appalachian trail and they can tell of the extreme exertion required to defeat such terrain. Check out their cool story, it's the last link in my "Websites!" section.
Oh right! So I drove north but due to my lack of intel, I didn't know exactly where to go, so despite "the" stereotype I stopped and asked for directions to Sugarloaf Mountain. The oldtimer at the gas station looked at me confused. He asked if I wanted directions to skiing. I answered in the affermative, he relaxed as said why not go up to the Wolf? "It's only 15 minutes away."
Excited to be so close to powder I thanked the man and left with after purchasing a sandwich for later.
Much later I realized that Sugarloaf is actually the best skiing in Maine, not North Carolina.
So I valiantly drove north up to the Wolf. I drove a slow road into the mountains that dead ended in a resort community, back tracking I found my error and returned to the correct path. I skidded into the parking lot of a ski rental shop my parking was as follows (Notice the precision of my diagram):

The whole lot was covered in about 6 inches of snow, so I just rammed the car into the lot and let her be where she stopped. I grabbed some shorter skis (its been a little while so cut me some slack).
I managed to push my Jolly Green out of the lot with only 15 minutes work.
Once at the lifts, I paid for the really cheap lift tickets and hopped up the mountain on their one working chair lift. On my second lift ride I met a middle aged man on the lift who was an executive for some southeastern grocery store; then I met a pair of giggling stoners. The next ride was taken alone as were the next three rides.
After getting my snow legs back, I felt like a break was called for. I pulled over here and unpacked the back pack that Uncle Steve let me borrow:

I ate a fine roast beef sandwich, two Hershey bars, two wheat and cheese cracker packs, a quart of water, and some raisins all while enjoying the view.
After the next run, I joined a solo skier who was in line for the lift. His name was Tristan. He came out to ski with his mom, but she didn't want to ski so this 10 year old kid was braving the slopes alone even though this was only his second time skiing. I felt a kinship with this kid; we in our own unique ways were loners experiencing the purest form of solitude: being alone in a crowd (okay second purest form of solitude, the purest being locked away in your car for 12,404 miles to wrestle with your true self, equivalent to two weeks of solitary confinement in prison). So I hung out with Tristan. He was a great kid. I would be proud of my son if he was half the young man Tristan is at the same age. He held himself well and was fearless, he took on the steepest slopes with a thirst for speed paralleled only by my own. He wanted to push the envelope on his ability on skis and he visibly improved with each run. I never had a little brother (that I grew up with), but Tristan would be awesome as a little bro. With his mother's permission here is Tristan:

After I had sharpened my ski skills, I filmed a long clip of me skiing down from the top of Wolf Mountain to the bottom. It is the last clip in this little video project I made from my time on Wolf Mountain. Feel free to leave feedback(much love to the Go! Team who provided the music):

Next time I'll share more from Asheville...