On the road again!

Since I have arrived in Colorado I stopped using my car. I have been biking everywhere I go. It is a blast. Ft. Collins has some of the best roads to bike on in the Nation and some of the best scenery. I have been able to get in about 30 miles a day. I forgot how much I love bustin it on the road.

I don't know how much longer I will stay in Colorado but with storms like this it makes it hard to leave. there was lightning on both sides of me probably a quarter mile away and there was magnificent blue skies just straight ahead.

I have been able to get good meals at my grandparents house so that is a plus. But the job hunt is a little slow. Keep me in your prayers becuase it is not the most uplifting process.

Go West Young Man

So I decided the other day to get up am move, which required me sitting down in my car and turning it on. I decided that I would head in the direction of colorado. Although I have applied for quite a few jobs in Oregon. So I am playing it by ear.

Someone ask me the other day "so what are your future plans" I stood there and thought well... in 2010 I am going to watch the winter olympics as far as tomorrow through the next few years I got nothing. So a few days later I am going to Colorado.

Wish me luck.

Bivouac

Bivying is spending the night under the sky, no tent or shelter. It was my favorite thing I did the whole trip. I spent almost 60 days in a row without a shelter and only a few days the whole trip under any type of tarp. The stars, sunsets, and sunrises were some of the most breathtaking things I have ever or could ever imagine seeing. I'll take you through some views I fell asleep to.

Sweet Dreams

I enjoyed, to the dislike of the instructors, sleeping on the edge of a cliff. There are few things better than waking up and peeing off of a thousand foot cliff.

A good Bivvy spot were usually looking at something incredible. We weren't happy unless we slept at a spot that was a sick point sick on the sickter scale.

Preparing for bed.

For 2 weeks straight on the river we slept on beaches.


Although waking up and realizing your eyes were frozen shut, bivying in the snow is a great experience.

River Travel

Green/Desolation and San Juan River.

2+ weeks

White Water Canoeing

Travel on San Juan

Rolling in Desolation Canyon the most remote Place in the lower 48

Instructors were very creative in class, this is hydraulics class on the bottom of a canoe.

We did a lot of white water each day. Most were class 2 and some class 3. It is a different story going through "The Bubbly" in a canoe.

I was able to spend a lot of time in the solo boat. It was a very fun challenge working in this thing.

This is part of a swift water rescue class. Don't worry the big hydraulics and holes or not in the picture. We are not that big of panzies.

My favorite place. In the middle of a desert, the most incredible and unique oasis. I am not even going to try to explain how amazing it was.

I love throwing rocks. One evening lots of people joined me and we skeet shot rocks. One person through a huge rock up and we all tried to hit it. 3 hours not wasted.

Yeah there is quick sand. Hilarious but suprisingly scary. 3 hours wasted.

At the end of 200+ mile venture on the river.

Canyoneering

Grand Gulch, Utah

3 Weeks.

Backpacking

We were with a new crew for canyons. This was my incredible family of a group at the end of our 3 weeks. That is what I look like when a person that has hardly any body fat and is underweight going into an activity loses over 15 pounds. They had me eating bacon fat, butter and the "ultimate hotty" which was 3 times the amount of hot chocolate, a cup of chocolate chips, a snickers bar, and 2 scoops of peanut butter. They made me drink that because they were worried about my weight, and enjoyed seeing me bounce of the walls.

Incredibly Unique landscape and weather 90 during the day snowing at night it doesn't get much better. By that night we made it into that canyon.

We were able to go on solos. Where most people fasted or just ate cactus. I took this picture because for some reason I thought it could be my last. This was the most uplifting and eye opening experience I have ever had. I highly recommend solitude and hunger. It puts life in perspective.


This is a re-ration. Yes that is a lot of food. No it didn't last the whole time. Yes I always was hungry.



Setting out the maps we would cover in 3 weeks of hard traveling everyday. Kind of overwhelming but very cool.

An infamous scorpion. scary delicious.

Bow and Drill class. It is not as easy as Man Vs. Wild Bear Grillz makes it out to be.

For months at a time every cup of water I had was filled with; mud, bugs, worms, or even poo.

Pictures and words will never come close to explaining the beauty of this place I fell in love with.

Climbing

Red Rocks, Nevada

3 Weeks

Trad and Sport Climbing

One of many towering cliffs to be dominated in our 3 weeks stage in the climbing mecca of the nation. To put that in perspective that is over 2000 ft. tall.


We Multi-pitched which means that the climb was longer than one rope length 70 meter or 210 ft. this picture is about 600 ft off the deck.


Single pitches averaged about 70-90 ft. These put your skills to the test. This is me on a 5-11a climb (Spicy climb)

We had the opportunity to ascend some pretty unique landmarks.

Hiking to the Crag for a day of vertical medicine.

In our free time people enjoyed hearing me preach. This was a sermon on washing your hands so you didn't get fecal oral contamination, or the soupy poopy as I like to call it.





Good luck finding me on this pic but this was on my way up a 2000 ft+ cliff.

Looking down on a bird's eye view will put all your life in perspective. This gave a whole new meaning to mountain top experience. If you want to get a clearer vision of God it just takes some upward movement.





Ceiling like this with 800+ feet of air under you will make you bring an extra pair of underwear.

14 hrs of climbing. 18 pitches. 2000 plus ft. of vert. bloody fingers, stomach churning ceilings, 5-10 move after 5-10 move, sketchy protection. Life is good! Now how do i get down?





The instructors kept on saying "put D-Luxx on Ying-Yang" "Put BJ on Ying-Yang we'll see what he really has"
A simple 5-11d flash and there was no more talk.

My favorite climbing moment.

WFR

Wyoming Range, Wyoming

2 weeks

Cert. Wilderness First Responder

Wilderness First Responder is kind of like an EMT but in the wilderness. There are different more primitive techniques that we learned and used. They put us through 8 hours of medical classes a day and scenarios on top of that.

We had to take care of all sorts of injuries. Here there was a victim with a broken femur. They used make up and different contraptions to make all the injuries look incredibly life like.

Some Scenarios carried on through the night in sub zero temps and cold wet victims who suffered from a range of broken bones, allergic reaction, heart attacks, and even amputations.

To spice things up the instructors through in Multiple casualty scenarios in plane crashes or ski lift accidents.