Life as the Fraurers

Wrapping up 2011

2011-12-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a while, and now the end of another year is fast approaching. As fall has turned to winter Lou keeps busy making wine to keep the stores around the state stocked with Bear Creek wines. This week is the last week of the semester for me, so I will have a bit more freedom come next Monday. We have continued to do yard work between snow storms and have made decent progress.
Over the weekend we got another good dump of snow on the hill tops.
Lou and I left our house while the winds were still blasting sleet against our windows in hopes of gliding across snow at higher elevations. After a mini-adventure with our car we decided it was better to ski the road to the trails then drive there. And what a blast we had skiing down the road. Turns out that the road was much better skiing than the trails as neither had been plowed or groomed. We took ourselves on a 2 hour tour getting back to the car just as it got dark and smiling ear to ear. We are looking forward to our next opportunity to ski commute.
From the more distant past here are some shots from picking apples from our orchard and making them into cider. The cider was ready for thanksgiving. We tried a different recipe from past ventures in cider making and are really happy with the end result.Here is Lou picking crab-apples off a tree in front of the house. This whole "garden" will be a focus for us next spring. Right now it is incredibly overgrown. In fact it is terraced but you can't see where one level ends and the next begins.Here is the harvest. We have three kinds of apple trees (as far as we can tell) and harvested 30 gallons this year.The winery purchased a new crusher to deal with the apples. It made short work of the fruit.The press. Fresh apple juice is amazing.
Graham and Greta came down from Anchorage to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. As always we had a blast, good food, good drinks (they helped us put a dent in the cider), a little work, and lots of game playing. Below you can see the winery's production building in action as Graham, Greta, and Lou bottle Christmas Berry wine for the holiday shoppers.
We managed to fit in a little trek up the hill behind Bear Greek. Yeah for a snowing Turkey weekend.
Lou did a good job of getting us all in the photo and not cutting off any one's head.
One of the outdoor projects we worked on this fall was putting a metal roof on the shed below and cleaning out the junk left under the lean-to. Hopefully it will stay clear of junk......

Snow on the Mts

2011-09-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Lou and I woke up to a cold house and a delightful change to our view, snow on top of Sadie's peak. Mid-September and the mornings are getting more chilly, the winds are more fierce, we have nights again, and now snow across the bay.
Other exciting changes, Lou and I now have a nephew! Baby Hank arrived Sept 16th. He is a healthy boy at 7lbs 6 oz, blue eyes and for now red curly hair.
The property continues to keep us busy. I have picked a gallon of cherries off our cherry tree and several gallons of raspberries, and black currants. We are waiting for the first frost to harvest the apples. Lou and George are making a wine barrel mail box for the winery, it is very spiffy. We also completed modifications on Louie's commuter path to the winery. It feels good to be get some projects finished. Best part is we haven't had to buy any materials, everything we need is already on the lot. That's right, old wine barrels just sitting under shed #2 waiting to be made into a mailbox. And we keep finding more, Lou wanted a glass lamp to put agates in......found one.
Last month we went to the Kenai Peninsula Borough fair. The pig races were a real hoot. Apparently oreo cookies are very inspirational to piglets. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Don't miss the pig races if you ever have a chance to watch them.
George, Louie, and I helped out on a salt-march monitoring project for Kachemak Bay. We spent a day hiking across China-poot's large salt marsh identifying the different plants within meter plots. Here George and Lou make their way across one of the side channels on the way to our groups plots. Identifying salt-marsh plants in the plot at a low low tide. Lou trying to find a plot location using the GPS without losing his boot in the mud.Another aspect of the project looks at fish biodiversity in the salt-marsh. The day before the plant plots I went across and did a few seines in side channels and set up this trap to catch fishes on the outgoing tide. It doesn't seem to matter what I am doing, where I am, or what the weather is, if I get to "work" with fishes I am a happy gal.

Picture update

2011-07-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture summary of some of what we've been up to in our spare time.
It is always nice to go for a paddle in the morning on a flat calm bay.
And when friends invite you to go halibut fishing everyone has a good time! But I think George enjoyed it the most. He was grinning ear to ear from the time the tractor towed the boat into the water through filleting his first halibut. We caught our limit and then enjoyed fresh caught fish and chips with friends and family in the endless summer light.

View of the halibut before Nikki pulled it into the boat.
Summer is still slamming up here. Lou's big race is this weekend, wine is flying out of the winery, and we are really close to owning a home. The grasses at the Fox River field sites has really grown up and everything is green. The slopes around Homer are covered in lupine as we hike to our headwater sampling sites.

An update

2011-06-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

As expected summer in Homer is crazy busy. Lou is busy making wine to keep up with demand and training for the Resurrection Pass 50 mile run next month. Every time he goes out for a long run he is running farther than he ever has before. Last Sunday he ran our CDT average daily mileage in 3ish hrs. Go Lou!
I am loving my job. I get to be outside hiking around or measuring fishes almost everyday. Everything is green now, and gorgeous. The snow is quickly disappearing off the mountain tops. I'll try to get up a few pictures of the changes soon.
Although memorial day was last month I thought I'd share a few pictures of one of the projects we worked on that weekend.
Yup, that is a dead moose Lou is untangling.
This young bull got caught up in a neighbors wire fence while they were away. Lou and I went over to help them take care it. The local authorities don't deal with dead moose, but they do hold you responsible if it is on your property and attracts bears. As you can see it died right next to a power pole which, among other reasons, made it impossible to use any machinery to haul it out or bury it. So we got out the shovels and dug down until we hit frozen ground. Rolling the moose into the hole wasn't too challenging, but it did let loose some rotten odors. We layered the poor guy with lime and dirt, said a few words and plopped metal air stripping on top for good measure. To our delight no bears came looking for an easy meal and I didn't have to cut it up in pieces to haul it out of bears reach.
Other more recent news; I have been doing a tid bit of work on a property that Lou and I expect to close on in late July. We are trying not to get too excited or invest too much time until we actually have the keys.
There are apple trees on the property! And raspberries too. The raspberries were in need of some serious TLC, so I have spent a few hours doing that. See the before and after pics below.

Before

AfterThis and another isle just like it created three piles up to my waist of dead raspberry sticks.
The raspberry stocks that are greening up are well over my head. With a little grooming we could have a healthy harvest of berries from year to year.
Here are some pics of the apple trees. For the most part the apple trees (and two plum trees) are in great shape. But the rabbit population has done damage to a few of the trees. I have a lot to learn about keeping plants happy and healthy so we can harvest fruit in the fall. Who knows, bee keeping might be in our future.....
Looking from the raspberries across the apple tree patch. Check out the harvesting ladder.From the other side of the apple tree patch, a couple of younger trees in front.There are other fruit producing plants in the orchard as well. But we'll wait until after closing to think about those.

Jaz's summer job

2011-05-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

This summer I am a tech for Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. KBRR is part of the national estuary system. I will mostly be working on a project at the head of the bay at Fox River Flats. The pictures below show some of the sampling procedure. We seine in several side channels and then ID and measure all the fishes we catch.The plastic totes are insect fallout traps to look at prey availability.
The overall focus of the project is looking at habitat use of salmon smolt before they make the transition to the ocean. In the picture above Tammy is measuring the temperature, salinity, & conductivity of the channel water. Almost all of the fish caught are released after being measured and weighed. There also is a diet component, so a few salmon smolt (shown above) come back to the lab with us. We have had one week of field work so far with many more to come. It has been fabulous to be out in the field again. The group of people I work with are a lot of fun. The site is just starting to green up, but the surrounding mountains are still covered in snow. I look forward to watching summer take over at the flats.
Besides all the fishes we catch there is a lot more wildlife happenings, gobs of birds, and even the occasional wolf track. I hope to see more than just wolf tracks this summer.

Meet the Fraurer Kitten

2011-03-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

We got a kitten a week ago. Lots of fun and entertainment. We were told that it was a girl, but yesterday the vet informed us that this little fuzz bucket is actually a boy. So as much as we liked the name Alta, we decided it was a more girl name than boy name. Which means that Thor is an option again, although we are leaning towards Zin. He is a winery kitty after all.

The Traditional Archery Journey Continues

2011-03-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

I have been attempting to get a rabbit this winter with my traditional bow and recently...I succeeded! The Homer area has experienced a rabbit boom this year so they are plentiful. I have been going on walks around the neighborhood getting attuned to the habits of the rabbits. I have certainly had some failed attempts and flung arrows that did not meet their mark over the past few weeks but fewer than I would have thought. This particular rabbit did not make it easy. I had to perch in a tree to get elevated enough to have a shot over a hump and initially only the rear 3/4's of the rabbit presented a shot. I ended up shooting wide and spooked the rabbit. Lucky for me he only moved five feet or so and presented a similar shot but this time it was its head 3/4's that was exposed. I shot my second arrow and it found its mark. Rabbit stew for dinner! This is the first animal that I have taken with my traditional bow and it was very satisfying. I kept the skin so that I can try to tan it and maybe make some slippers. The fur has tons of soft down in it seeing how it is winter time.

Happy trails to everyone.

Winery new building

2011-03-11T17:19:00.001-08:00

Here are just a few pictures of the new production building for Bear Creek Winery. It is a beautiful timber frame shop, just up the road from the original building. The tasting room isn't moving, just the production side of the business. There isn't enough room to make and store all the wine they need to meet demand at the original site. So far, they have only moved in cases of wine that were made in the original building, but in the very near future they will start making wine almost exclusively in this new building.
As you can see the building gets lots of natural light. Our days are now about 11 hours long, equinox is just a week away. They have a forklift to move around pallets of wine, which is a lot better than moving them by hand.
The wall behind the forklift in this photo opens to the space that will have a walk in freezer for all the berries. Right now there are many pallets of wine being stored back there.

The forklift has been jazzed up with this spiffy Bear Creek Winery decal.
Here is a picture of most of the Bear Creek Winery crew, missing are two of the winter employees and my Grandma who makes lunches for everyone. They are standing in front of even more cases of wine along the opposite wall of the shop from the last pic. The building has a lofted office space too. It is going to be a different summer with the new building up and running. Between people coming in the door for tastings and the distributors orders they keep busy around here. It is awesome to go into Fred Meyers and see Bear Creek Winery bottles on the top shelf of their liquor store!

Out my window

2011-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

This photo was literally taken out the window by my desk 5 min ago.

Life in Homer has been moving right along. Lou is busy working in the winery and just this morning I taught my first lecture of the semester. After lecture I got in a ski under blue bird sky's. It has been so sunny around here my face is starting to tan. Back at my desk for the afternoon and life keeps making me smile. Two young bull moose are helping themselves to the frozen grass on the lawn. They are mostly getting along, but I have seen them push each other, just a little, with their antlers to get a better angle at the grass.
Before these bulls showed up we've seen two sets of cow and calf every day.
I went outside to get a few nicer shots. The moose in the front isn't just closer to me, he really is bigger than the other guy. FYI Jake - neither of them are legal....yet.

North to Alaska

2010-12-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

After a year of playing around in various parts of the world we have settled in Homer, AK. We arrived here on Dec. 2nd after driving the Alcan/Cassiar highway. As it turns out it is hard to drive that highway without experiencing some adventure. Here is how it broke down.
Day 1: Mostly uneventful. Highlight = unreal scenery on the Sea to Summit Hwy.
Day 2: Roads covered in snow and ice all day. Highlight = glare ice corner that put the car in the ditch
Day 3: 18" snow storm, chains, and slow going. The next morning Lou had to shovel us out of the hotel room. Then we had to uncover the car and shovel a path to the gas pump. Day 4: Temperatures bottoming out at -30 F. The car started in the morning, wahoo! It was a battle to keep the windows clear of ice, even with the heater on high. We found an abandoned set of golf clubs on the road. Seemed a perfect time to hit a few. Notice the long shadows, this was about three in the afternoon near the town of Tok, AK. The sun isn't getting very high here this time of year.
Day 5: Arrive in Homer! Our new home.

For the time being we are living the Jasmine's parents. True to form Lou enjoys the short commute to work each morning. We will be getting our own place eventually and everyone has an open invitation to come and visit. It would be great to see you. The first week home was a good kind of busy. Lou is making wine and learning all aspects of the business. Jasmine got certified as a xc-ski coach and is practicing with the Women's Nordic team as well as prepping for classes.
It is shaping up to be another wonderful winter.
It is unlikely that we'll get around to posting about our trip on the Grand Canyon, but check out Josh's Blog (Dec. 2 post) for great photos and narrative on that trip.

Wild Turkey Dinner

2010-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

Lou went out turkey hunting between our summer of hiking and rafting the Grand Canyon. This year he decided not to use his bow since he didn't have any time to practice with it. Day two hunting in Southern Oregon with Jake he got one, a nice sized hen. Woohoo, wild turkey for Thanksgiving! When the boys returned to Jake's house we gathered round to weigh it, 6 pounds. It is impressive how much of their size is just their feathers.Putting the bird into the oven. Joan also got a Foster Farm turkey breast to be sure we had enough meat for the feast. The two birds were very different in their relative proportions and taste. Looking at the raised bird it was difficult to image how it was able to move with its over-sized breast muscles.
Lou's wild bird was oh so yummy! All in attendance decided they preferred the wild turkey over the Foster Farm turkey. After the day of feasting we packed up the car, again, for our last adventure in a year of adventuring.
For those of you that noticed Lou's very full beard he has been growing since June, about three weeks into our hike. It is so long I can grab two full hands of beard. It is his longest beard to date.

Colorado

2010-07-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

2010-06-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

First steps on the CDT. We started at Crazy Cook, the border is just a few feet behind us. We were so excited to get started the heat didn't bother us too much the first day. This was a 15 mile day..
Lou hiking through a "forest" of blooming desert plants one of the first days on the trail. There really wasn't a trail, just a combination of CDT blazes, cairns, and large posts to mark the way.

We have seen a great many horny toads on this trek, and they are just as cute now as this first one we saw in southern NM.

Although we were in the desert, hot, dry and without shade for many days there were still a lot of flowers to look at. The southern desert of NM was actually more enjoyable and interesting than the middle of the state. In part because of the blooming cactus in the south and in part because we weren't walking on roads in the south. Road walking is no fun at all!YEAH, a functioning windmill! Windmills have taken on a whole new meaning for us, they mean water and in most of NM water is a very valuable resource. Our whole hiking day was based on where water was, how many miles to the next water, and how much water we could carry.The temperatures would reach over 90 degrees during our first two weeks on the trail. To stay healthy and sane we took long afternoon breaks in the best shade we could find between 1 and 5pm. The photo above is of one of the not so shady spots we stopped at. Jaz is hiding from the sun under our silk sleeping bag liner.This is one of several types of snakes we have seen hiking through NM. We got pretty familiar with the reptilian daily cycle. We didn't see any in the morning when we started but by 11am they were charged up and moving around. By 1pm the reptiles were all super charged and racing to and fro across the trail/roads.Our first break from the desert was Gila National Forest. We had been told about homemade ice cream at this little store along the trail by Rawlings and Mickey (incredibly kind & fun folks we stayed with in Silver City). The last 10 trail miles coming getting to the store were filled with much talk of ice cream and imagining what flavors there might be. To our very big disappointment we arrived at the store 30 minutes after it closed. No ice cream! our hearts sank. Lou looked longingly in the window and to our surprise a man came to the door. He asked what we wanted and Lou told him ice cream. He responded with a stern "We are closed". Bummer. Two minutes later he opened the door again "Has to be cash" he said, we nodded "OK, what flavor?" We picked three, all very yummy. We reached the Gila river two hours before the sun set. Here Lou is crossing the Gila for the first time. By the time we left the Gila River we had crossed it nearly 100 times.

The Gila is in a deep canyon with beautiful rocky spires on both sides. It was a wonderful place to hike.

Lots of cool pilars along the Gila.

Sometimes getting back and forth across the river was a little less than straight forward. Here Lou is scaling some low rocks between river crossings.

For this trip Lou made our tarp tent, and Joan sewed the bug net (THANKS JOAN!) Here it is set up at one of our camp sites along the Gila. It is very versatile, and spacious AND it only weighs two pounds. We really love this new shelter.

Found some very large tadpoles in the slow moving side streams and eddies all along the Gila.

Jaz is making a face here because the river water is not so warm at 8 in the morning. In the afternoons crossing the river was a wonderful relief from the heat.

This is a banded lizard we saw during our walk across the Malpais on the Zuni-Acoma trail. The trail we walked on was used by natives hundreds of years ago. Some of the cairns that mark the trail are the same ones they used way back when.

In New Mexico we often had to scatter cattle along the trail or when we arrived at a water source. This time they were really pushy and gathered around as we turned on the water to fill up our bottles.
There are many many more stories and photos to share from New Mexico. I wasn't able to get up any photos of all the wonderful people we stayed with along the trail, and they were a large part of our New Mexico memories, so those will come another time.
We are almost 1,000 miles into this trek of ours and still having a wonderful time. It was really exciting to walk across the border of New Mexico into Colorado. At that point we felt like we had completed the beginning of the adventure, we are really doing this thing.
We love Colorado so far, and we have had visitors too. Alison and Trinity spent 4th of July weekend with us. They showered us with incredible trail gifts, a watermelon and wine! Marie and Christopher left us today after 6 days on in the San Juan over the 4th of July as well. It was great to share our summer home with all of them, photos later. I know I keep saying that, but I really mean it. Keith met up with us yesterday and will spend the weekend on the trail. Emily joined us 6 days ago as well and has another three weeks with us. Colorado is full of trail guests so there will be a lot more stories to share as we trek north from here. I hope to be able to share some of them on the blog in the near future.

Animals of Patagonia

2010-05-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

We are now back from our travels in Chile and Argentina, but there are still a few more stories to tell about that trip. I am not sure if we will get to it before we get on the trail mid-month, but we do have some animal pics to share. Lou and I love seeing animals and spend a great deal of time looking for them whenever we are out and about. This trip was great for animal viewing. We didn't get pics of all of them, you all know wildlife encounters are unpredictable, but we do have a few good ones.
Starting off in Torres. We saw condors here and guanaco's and Nandu (or Rhea) which are all awesome but hard to photograph. We did capture some parrots hanging out just below a windy pass. We did not expect to see these colorful birds this far south. They were very chatty and loud about it.
This bumble bee was not in the best shape. We did see loads of healthy ones buzzing around flowers. The orange color was brilliant.
Lou was always finding new catepillars on him or his backpack. He found several of this kind. Hard to tell it is an insect and not a stick until it moves.

Now to Parque nacional los glaciares. The bird in the tree is called a Cara cara. They have red faces and really flat heads. They were all over the place.
Our last day of hiking in the park was a little drizzly but it brought out the amphibians. This sapo was hoping across the trail as we passed a set of lakes, real cute.
I adore frogs and toads. If this whole marine biology thing doesnt work out maybe I'll open up a store and call it EL SAPO MAS GUAPO. It is a fun phrase to say.
This catepillar had a lot of attitude, and was very curious about the camera. Every time I got close to take his picture he lifted up his front half to investigate.
In Torres we saw female Magellanic wood peckers in some nasty weather. In Glacier we got to see a lot more of them. They are pretty big and the males are easy to pick out because of their bright red heads. They have a distictive call that allowed us to distinguish them from other birds even when we couldn't see them. The yellow eye is also diagnostic.

Loco Parque Tantauco. Sorry to say we did not photograph the leeches for those of you that were hoping for that one. First the most famous critter we caught on film is the Rana de Darwin. We looked for many days for this one and were shoked when we saw our first and discovered it was about 1/5 the size we had been looking for. In the many swamps we crossed we started to notice gazzilions of small tadpoles too. The plants in the photo below with red fringes are carnivorous. There is one in the top right of the photo and a few jsut to the left of the frogs front leg. Also check out the nose on this rana, very pointy.

We saw every major animal group in Tantauco, fish, mammals, loads of birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles! This lizard was quite colorful. We also saw the pudu in Tantauco, no photos due to their flighty nature. The trail was covered in their footprints as well as sign from both the fox and wild cat that live in Souther Chiloe. Before we could get any good photos of the many birds we saw in the park the camera battery died, which was unfortunate because one of the species was curious to a falt and more than once hopped up on our shoes.
Last, and the biggest, the Andean Condor. We saw our fair share of these birds at pretty close range during our last hike in Aconcagua park (more on that trip later). When you hike up to altitude in the Andeas the Condors are right there to greet you. I tried to get a better photo, we definately saw many much closer than this, but somehow they managed to sneak up on us over and over again. Carried by the thermals they are constantly moving. We were continually impressed with how long we could watch them and never see them flap their wings. In fact, I don't remember seeing any of the many condors we saw flap their wings once.
We went by the coast while we were visiting my Chilean family. We made a stop to buy some shellfish empanadas and sitting in front of the store was this line of pelicans. Pelicans might be my most favorite bird. They are goofy and awkward, but when they take flight over the water incredible elegant, I love that.
So, now we are back in the states and in the Portland until mid-monthish. We are going over maps and fine tuning a few gear items after our experiences in Patagonia. I will do my best to keep the blog updated as we hike across the divide. We are excited to get on the trail and looking forward to having some of our friends join us during the journey.

Loco Parque Tantauco

2010-04-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well jasmine and I finally have a crazy travel story of our own. Most of our trip so far has been predictable. I don´t want to down play it. It has been awesome with great people, great hikes, and fun traveling but there has not been to much that took major mental adjusting. We just got back from an 8 day adventure in the woods of isla chiloe. The trip started by gathering information on the park we intended to enter and realizing that it was going to be an extended trip and cost some mula. To solve the mula problem we decided to tack another day and a half on the trip and hike to the park from a cross roads that we could catch a taxi to instead of pay for 4x4 transportation. Let me tell you what, 8 days of food is no insignificant thing and once again we gained a lot of good experience for the upcoming summer on the cdt. Our packs were plenty heavy and certainly did not have too much food.

After an entire day of planning, buying food, and packing we were off. The taxi had to stop 4 kilometers short of our intended drop off point because of the quality of the road. We were not impressed with the taxi guy because we felt sure that a taxi driver in some of the other countries we have traveled in would have certainly tried to navigate the large ditch that stopped us and we certainly felt as though the Jetta in its hay day would have rallied right through. Regardless being left in the middle of a road made us excited because the remoteness was obvious but not so excited since it was already 5pm and we had 6 km to go to camp. Owell, off we go. We found camp just as the sun was setting the jasmine managed to get rather freaked because of a spooky cow call as the last rays of sunlight slipped away coupled with the discovery of a gargantuan cricket on her arm. Seriously, I have never heard a cow make the noise we heard and the cricket was the size of a mouse.

Here is a picture of the first vaca salvaje that I have ever witnessed. Jasmine was skeptical but I felt aboslutley sure that this was in fact truely a wild cow. The ominous call heard later that night only strengthened these feelings.

This was one of the main reasons that we went on this trek. To spot the shy and endangered pudu. The worlds smallest deer. This is one of the bigger tracks that we found next to jasmine´s shoe for scale. We did have the luck of running across one later in the day which was very exciting. They weigh around 35 pounds, the size of a miniature australian shepard.

The next day we hiked the remaining 18km to the park and were lucky enough to spot a pudu, the worlds smallest deer. We had great weather, made good time, enjoyed phenomenol camp facilities and did an extra 5k loop. We expected the 5k loop to take about an hour but it actually took 2. Little did we know what it was forshadowing the days to come. The next 6 days of hiking were filled with the most demanding trails we have ever done that did not inlude a summit of any kind. We were repeatedly shocked when confronted with slippery log bridges over 20 ft drainages, mud walls with ropes to aid in climbing or sometimes just roots to grab onto, flooded bogs that left no choice but to trudge through them, and jungle gym type root and tree walking over rivers. Some days it poored rain and others were full of brilliant blue skies.

This is a picture from our first day of hiking on single track in the park and was nothing compared to what was to come although we did not know that and marvalled at the craziness of the trail.

The trail did indeed get crazier as you can see here and in the following pictures. We could not figure out if this was the old trail that had flooded or if it was the intention of the trail builders that you scamble through trees and roots on the side while hanging over the water.

This was one of the easier obstacles that we came across. It is a natural bridge across a large creek and had surprisingly firm footing with solid holds for the hands.

On one of the more sunny days of our trip we came across one of our most challenging puddles. There was no way around and very limited solid ground on either side which forced me to adopt this splits technique. Good thing I have been working on my flexibility.

We came across this wild combo of slick log followed by unclimbable wall without the aid of a rope on our wettest day of hiking. The picture does not do it justice unfortunatley but from our experience the trails generally provided the absolute minimum to aid backpack laiden people in passage and the rope was definatley a necessity.

This was another close to verticle section of trail that we had to navigate. We were thankful for the trees and roots.

Can you see the trail. Be assured that there is a trail marker in this picture on the far side of the bog and I am standing on the trail on the other side as I take this picture. This was the worst obstacle we were presented with. After many minutes of searching for reasonable passage through this bog we realized there was none. I opted for the "run as fast as you can through it" approach and made it with out falling but was not pleased to discover that I sank nearly up to my knees. Jasmine can be seen to the far right of the picture sensibly staying out of the mud but not the water. We concluded that this was where we contracted the majority of the leaches we got making the return trip through the bog less fun.

Everywhere we went it was wet, wet, wet. Water came from the sky. water came from the plants. water came from the ground. Tent style camping in such conditions would have been uncomfortable to say the least. The saving grace of the park are the lavish wood refugios stationed throughout the park that are stocked with wood. The highlights of the week included lots of bird species, a rare frog sighting, Lou got 4 leaches (it was not a fun thing to realize that leaches were living in the mud that we were slogging through every day), extra food left behind by other hikers, and cozy nights by the fire.
The awesome rufugios built by the park that allowed us to dry everything in the evening and enjoy a warm fire and comfortable, dry sleeping.

Our metabolizms really got roaring durring this week and we did not have a crumb of food left when we rolled into the small fishing village of 100 people on the other side of the park. The only access to the village is by boat and it exists with no tethers to the national utility grid of water, electricity, or phone. We soon discovered upon arrival that our ferry was delayed by at least one day which sent us into a worried search for food. The local store (barely a shack) did not really having anything to offer. The people were very nice though and a plendid local couple provided us with a hearty dinner and upon touring the parks horticultural buildings we recieved two heads of lettuce and two tomotoes. Fresh produce, talk about a treat!

We were pleased to see the ferry arrive the next afternoon and even more pleased to hear that it would be leaving at 3 for the 6 hour trip back to Quellon instead of waiting until morning. The ferry ride passed quickly as Lou played cards and was soon noticed by some enthusiastic locals who wanted to learn how to play pocker. I had serious difficulty even figuring out that the excited fellow wanted to learn pocker let alone teach him how but, as usual, jasmine was able to facilitate and we taught them both 5 card stud and texas holdem. Once we arrived in quellon we b-lined it for a pizzeria. When the pizza arrived jasmine and I agreed that it was smaller than advertised and after finishing it proceeded to the next dinner for a second dinner. Our bellies full, we enjoyed a good nights rest and the next day continued to restore our fat supplies by splitting a liter of ice cream, a bag of doritos, crab dinner, and lots and lots of bread.

We are off for our final two weeks in chile and who knows what is in store. Wine country is still to come.

Coyhaique & the Best Hostel Ever

2010-04-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

We spent Easter weekend in Coyhaique, Chile. We hadn´t planned on it, but the country comes to a crawl on this holiday weekend and there were no buses going a ny where. None the less we had a great time. We arrived very late and were very hungry when we got off the bus Friday. First priority, get food. We were on our way to eat when a lady approached us offering a place to stay. She was very persistent, but our stomachs demanded we mind them before sorting out where to stay for the night. We got directions to her hostel and after eating went to find it. The directions were easy enough to follow and we found ourselves under a sign that read "The best hostel ever. Will make you feel li ke home only better" It was written in english and hebrew. The sign was there, the house was white as she had said, but the walk way was dark and we weren´t sure any one was home. When we reached the door no one anwsered, but it was open and I passed into an entry way. I knocked on the second door. At this point I was really hoping the sign was indeed for this house. To my relief the women we had met on the street came to the door and showed us our room. It was run down, but comfortable. The next morning we met Yolanda, the owner. A lovely lady and she set about making us breakfast. This turned out to be the best breakfast either of us have had since we left the states. She made eggs! There was homemade jams of several flavors, all fabulous, and homemade Aji. Yolanda told us her life story, kept the food coming and was tickled pink watching Lou eat. She had m e take this picture, he has one breakfast sandwich with Aji, cheese, avocado and egg, and another of opposite gusto covered in sweet jams. Since we had the whole weekend we decided to explore the local park. Yolanda let us leave our extra gear at her place and we walk out the door towards the park to hike the loop and camp Saturday night. We got a little turned around trying t o find the park entrance but made it into camp just before sunset. The next morning we hiked up to the summit within the park. Nothing grand, but nice views. The tree line ended abruptly before the final slope to the summit where there was even a little snow to hike in. Coyhaique is visible below, with snowcapped Andean peaks surrounding. The ridge was sunny and windless we took advantage and had a healthy lunch break. On the way down Lou tried to take a short cut around a false summit. Since I am not as sure footed as Lou I opted to go the designate route despite having to climb again. Turns out Lou´s shortcut wasn´t short after all, I easily got up and down before he reconnected with the trail to get this pic. No matter Lou still felt a winner, this Mountain goat does enjoy challenges from time to time. .We returned to The Best Hostel Ever that night and enjoyed another fabulous breakfast before getting on the bus Monday morning. We are very excited to try to make Yolanda´s Aji ourselves, she happily offered us the recipe. Without a doubt this is the place to stay if you are even in this corner of the world. We even bought some of Yolanda´s jam to have with our morning bread for the remainder of our travels. It is just as good today as it was the first time we had it. Below I am standing with Yolanda in front of the wood stove she uses to make all her jams (she also has two gas stoves for guests to cook meals on as they please). The jars we are holding are Aji, one of which she gifted to us before leaving. Very Yummy stuff with just about anything.

El Chalten

2010-04-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

El Chalten is a very small town that provides access to the Argentina side of southern patagonia. It sits between the confluence of two rivers and a dramatic line of granite peaks. You can´t see the peaks in this photo because of the typical cloud cover on the left of the photo. This picture was taken on our last day in town. You can walk from your hostel onto the trails of Argentinas Glacier national park and we did just that.

We arrived in town late in the evening and stumbled into the only open camping we could find. The next morning it was clear and calm.
Lou and I both think their are many advantages to traveling during the shoulder seasons one of the big ones is there are less people to deal with. Our first day in Chalten we realized one of the pitfalls of traveling in the shoulder season, with less people the transportion can be spotty. We had planned to explore the park from Chalten for a few days and then hike\ferry our way back into Chile. To our disappointment the ferry would not be running again until April 10th and although we much liked the feel of Chalten two weeks was a bit much to spend there. So we reformulated a plan, packed our back packs and headed into the park for a few days. As I mentioned the first day was an incredible day, clear skies and great views of Fitz Roy and the surrounding ridgeline.

Here we are, all smiles, at our first good lookout. It was a great place for lunch. Did I mention there was no wind?! We hiked up to the glacial lake near the base of Fitz Roy and pondered how one would approach this granite spire to make an atempt for the summit. We were both stumped, it would be one hell of an approach.

Louie´s mom has a rock collection from all the places she has visited, and some from the adventures of others too. Lou found a rock for her at the glacial lake at Fitz Roys base. Since you aren´t allowed to take things from the park we took this picture for you Joan. Here is a rock memory from Argentinan Patagonia.

Second day in the park was again a fabulous sunny day without wind. We were really enjoying the calm weather after all the wind of Torres del Paine. We hiked all morning without seeing another person. The trail followed a river as it meandered to a wide valley surrounded by ice capped ridges.

In the afternoon we took a side hike\scramble up to another glacial lake. The boulders we crawled over and under were incredibly large. It was great fun. On the way up we were buzzed by an Andean Condor. They are second in wingspan only to the Wandering Albatross. Having seen them high in the sky so many times it was fabulous to get an upclose view of one.

Arriving at the lake Lou had to get a hold of some ice. We had seen so much that was out of reach over the last two weeks he was determined to get some this time.

Although this piece was to big to pick up he did break off a smaller one.

On our way down we ran into a group of Aussies that seemed to need assistance finding their way through the boulder field. A few moments later it became clear that they were fine, but a women who didn´t speak any english was just behind them and very distraught. Lou and I knew just who they were talking about. We had met here on the trail an hour earlier and had had a short conversation. Turns out she had gotten lost in the boulders and walked in a circle. This had made her very scared. We reassured her that she could walk with us and we´d show her the way out. She also was very upset that she could not physically make the scramble over the boulders to see the lake. We assured her she had already seen very similar lakes on her other hikes in the park.

All in all another great day. Enjoyed a trail all to ourselves, great wildlife sightings more on the later, and a rescue.

The next day we woke up to rain and wind. Time to go. We started the hike out. It was sunny by lunch and we took the time to dry out the tent before making the final decent into town.

Torres del Paine

2010-03-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

We spent 8 days in Torres del Paine and each of them was different than the one before. We hiked in all sorts of weather from calm and sunny to rain and rainbows to wind that knocks you over. There was even snow and ice. The scenery was incredible. The first 4 days we hiked the ´W´ with Amy. Amy and I met last year on the boat, she works full time for AMLR which it the NOAA branch that awards the contracts I have gotten the past two years. Day one was an incredible sunny day with no wind. We hiked up to the towers in shorts and tshirts.

Sorry this picture is sideways, but you get the gist. Here we are at the lookout for the towers on the first day. The tower on the far left is the tallest of the three although it does not appear that way from this angle. Over the rest of the trip we realized how rare a windless day in Torres is.. This is an example of the trail maps they had along the way. We really enjoyed them for two reasons, they are nice to look at and they also were surprisingly accurate in their representation of the topography. On day two the winds were so strong in places that Amy and I were both stopped from moving forward on several occasions and knocked over once too. We spent most of the day along a lake. THe wind was whipping up lake water into such a thick mist that there was a rainbow over it for most of the day. The portion of the rainbow on the lake would grow and shrink with the wind gusts.

On the third day we hiked up another valley in hopes of more spectacular views. Half way up I had lost hope that we would be able to see much since the fog and rain only seemed to be building. We did see some hanging glaciers and shadows of high granite peaks. After 2 hours of climbing we reached the view point. At first the ridge tops were covered in thick mist, but slowly the sun broke through and the wind moved the mist over the peaks. We got really lucky with our timing and enjoyed another glorious vantage of the peaks of Torres del Paine. On the way down we had another bit of luck. Lou spotted two wood peckers working away at the trees. They were quite interesting and fairly large. Once we were back in town we found a bird guide and id the birds as Magellanic wood peckers which are apparently a bird that many people travel down here to see. Amy had to return to San Diego after completing the W so Lou and I finished the circuit on our own. This was a great trip to try out our new gear for the CDT. We are both really happy with our new back packs and sleeping system we have. This is the first back packing experience either of us has had the didn´t leave us with bruised hip bones and sore shoulders. Even at the begining of the trip when we had 8 days of food we were able to hike comfortably. One last photo of the trip. As I mentioned we hiked in all kinds of weather and all types of terrain, but only once did we have to surrender the trail to the wild. I just couldn´t get myself to walk over this large spider, so we walked around. I am so very glad I never saw one on my backpack, in my shoe, or crawling on the tent. We did see two others on the trail over the last two days of the hike. We are heading to El Chalten in Argentina tomorrow for more backpacking.

Dog Mushing

2010-03-02T22:38:00.000-08:00

The awesome opportunities continue to land in my lap here in Homer, AK. I got the chance to run a dog team last week and I took it. I did not know what to expect in the least and found out that there is a lot more to it than I thought. Aside from all of the logistics of harnesses, lines, brakes, etc. there is also all of the dog training and upkeep which is extremely extensive. The pic below gives a small glimpse into the logistical side of it all. This dog kennel houses 19 dogs, each with its own house. Our hosts, Jillian and Rich, own the dogs and live in a cabin that is 15x10 ft. They chop through ice to access a stream that runs a few yards from their cabin in order to provide water for themselves and their dogs. Simply stated, they live a unique life style.
Their business name is Spitfire Kennels and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a good sled dog experience.

As you can see it was a blustery day. The yard was extremely loud as we readied the team and headed out of the yard but once the dogs had settled into there steady lope it was amazingly quiet and blissful. The only noise was the panting of the dogs and the whistle of the sled rails. Dog mushing as a means of travel is extremely relaxing and therapeutic compared to its cousin, the snow machine. The two most fun parts was the acceleration as we started from a stop and the excitement emanating from the dogs. They unmistakably loved the snow and to run.

I ran a five dog team and we covered about 10 miles an hour which I was told was a speed the dogs could carry for hours depending on snow conditions and terrain. I had a great time and would recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity to try it.

Wind and Rain

2010-02-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

Some of the other things that I have been up to is nurturing the green hippy in me. To be fair, I suppose that I am helping to nurture the green hippy in Bill since it was his idea and his house. The picture below shows the rain catchment system that I put in. The winery is too far out of town to be connecting to the city water and sewer so they have a cistern. This means they pay to have all of their water trucked in and costs some serious cash. Way more than the measly 20 dollar payments jasmine and I made in california.

So here is how this works. The most polluted water that comes off of your roof is in the first few gallons. Once the first shot of water has washed off all of the sand, bacteria, and organic matter the water is reasonably clean. The gutters for the entire house are designed to funnel all of the roof water to the down spout shown in the picture. From there the water drops through a 1/8 in. screen and then through a mosquito screen. After that it drops into the first of the two large 4 in. horizontal pipes which has a float valve in it (plastic balls that are buoyant and are pushed to the top of the pipe where the seat into a fitting and seal the flow of water off). Next the second diverter fills up and then the rest of the water overflows into the tank. There is a small hole in the bottom of the horizontal tubes to allow the water to drain over time. But fear not, nothing is left to waste. The water that drains from the diverters as well as any overflow from the cistern is channeled into the creek and koi pond setting that is in the back yard. That is what the plastic tubing and 3" piping that can be seen in the bottom of the picture is for. Once I got done plumbing up the rain collector assembly the wind picked up and I turned around to notice this...

The windmill was installed this past summer and was whipping around. It produced about 10 kW that day which is respectable but not enough to run the house, winery, and sweets. Pretty cool stuff huh? Bill and Dorothy are getting the home and business pretty dialed in. Regrettably the wind mill does not receive enough wind to make a large difference in their power bill but they sure are doing a great job of leading by example. Maybe this summer they will go solar?

Now even when it is windy or rainy we have a good reason to be happy around here. Isn't that a great thing.

Blueberries Anyone, How about some wine

2010-02-13T23:38:00.001-08:00

So what have I been up to while jasmine is off being spoiled by her grandparents and vacationing in south america...working?! The other day I made 200 gallons of wine. It feels great to batch up a ton of wine and then walk away, eat dinner, and go to bed knowing that all of those yeasties are still working. To me it feels like having a million employees, its great. Maybe elves would be a better description because I do not have to pay them; in fact they make money for me.

So here is one of the wines that I made, blueberry. These happen to be blueberries from canada and we processed about 600 lbs which made 100 gals. of wine. This picture shows half of them in buckets being thawed, sugared and scalded.

Here is the motley crew that Bill employs to make his wine. Can you believe they let us around this stuff and without beard hair nets? It is a rough gig for sure. So the process is, after thawing and scalding, we move the berries into a crusher that is hand cranked. That is what rich is operating. Once they are crushed we scoop them out of the barrel and place them into the press which is what is in front of me.

The press is pretty cool. It is a bladder press which means that once you have it loaded with crushed berries you simple hook a garden hose up to the bottom and turn on the water. The water fills the bladder, which is the black you can see in the following pictures, and squeezes the berries against the walls forcing all of the juice out.

Here is me hard at work. As you can tell I think that I have a really tough job. It is a rough deal getting up at the crack of noon and getting my game face on to say, ok...lets taste some wine and then make some wine and then taste that wine too.

2010-02-13T07:14:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we visited the Florida Oceanographic Society. They have cownose rays in a touch tank, a trail walk through the mangroves, and a large pond with 60 fish species. My grandma arrange through a friend to get a behind the scenes tour. We learned a lot from our tour guide about the local marine happenings. He also told us he plans to increase the fish population in the pond from 100 to 1000 by June. I will be sure to check that out next time I am in town. Here is a picture of my grandma next to one of the quarantine tanks in the back and below is a pic of the fish in that tank.

The condo community my grandparents are in is awesome! Everyone I have met has incredible life stories and continuing adventures, they are very social, fun, nice folks to be around.
After our visit to the Oceanographic Marylyn, another neighbor, invited me to join her for a kayak. It was great fun to paddle a boat for bit. Along the way I watched big fish chasing little fish, always a thrill to see.

Using the fancy features on the new camera for the first time I got this underwater close up of a cow-nose ray. Kinda cute wouldn't you say.

My grandparents live on Hutchingston Island which is one of the barrier islands. Their condo is right on the inland waterway. Every evening around 5pm the neighborhood heron comes in front of their porch for cocktail hour. His name is Hank and he does not get any cocktails. Instead he gets fish fillets caught by Bob from the adjoining condo. It is a lovely way to wrap up the day, sipping wine (or scotch) watching the sunset, and Hank. After the sun has set Hank squaks goodbye and heads to his roost until the next evening.

I get on the plane late this evening to Santiago. I will be on the boat headed even further south on the 16th if all goes smoothly. They have had a few technical troubles this field season that have put them a little off schedule. So keep your fingers crossed for smooth sailing and ocean sampling.

2010-02-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

It was incredible! Totally different than the show we saw in Vegas but equally as awesome. It was circus themed and very entertaining.

Florida

2010-02-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

I have been hanging out with my grandparents in Florida before heading to South America. There is no shortage of things to do here, 4.5 days has gone by quickly. The trip started off a little hectic, United informed me my flight had been canceled and they were unable to get me to my destination in a timely manner. A few frantic phone calls, stressed internet searching, and technical failures later got me a flight on American 30 minutes before it departed.
My grandparents met me in Orlando and we headed to Disney downtown for lunch. We enjoyed a wild meal at the rainforest cafe. This time the trumpeting, moving elephants didn't surprise me. During our lunch there were three thunderstorms, wouldn't be a visit to Florida without a thunderstorm.
Wandering through the disney shops I was impressed by the variety of disney items you could purchase. My favorite shop was the toy store where you could assemble your own lightsaber!
That evening we went to a Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba. It was incredible! Totally different than the show we saw in Vegas but equally as awesome. It was circus themed and very entertaining.
My grandparents live on Hutchingston Island which is one of the barrier islands. Their condo is right on the inland waterway. Every evening around 5pm the neighborhood heron comes in front of their porch for cocktail hour. His name is Hank and he does not get any cocktails, but fish fillets caught by Bob from the adjoing condo. It is a lovely way to wrap up the day, sipping wine (or scotch) watching the sunset and Hank.
Yesterday we visited the Florida Oceanographic Society. They have cownose rays in a touch tank, a trail walk through the mangroves, and a large pond with 60 fish species. My grandma arrange through a friend to get a behine the scenes tour. We learned a lot from our tour guide about the local marine happenings. He also told us he plans to increase the fish population in the pond from 100 to 1000 by June. I will be sure to check that out next time I am in town.
The condo community my grandparents are in is awesome! Everyone I have met has incredible life stories and continuing adventures, they are very social, fun, nice folks to be around.
After our visit to the Oceanographic Marylyn, another neighbor, invited me to join her for a kayak. It was great fun to paddle a boat for bit. Along the way I watched big fish chasing little fish, always a thrill to see.
Tomorrow I fly to Chile and in two days I will be on a boat. So I have been making sure to enjoy the new scenery and mobility while I am able.

2010 so far

2010-01-24T18:44:00.001-08:00

We have been in AK since just before the new year. Last week it finally snowed! Which was great because it was getting pretty close to bare ground and where it wasn't it was just icy. We have spent a great deal of time reading up on the CDT, looking into our grea options, and deciding what we want to take on our South America adventure. There have been a lot of decisions made.
We also have been getting in some outdoor fun.
Lou and I did a snowshoe trip with Josiah, Bo and Leah. The snow was really well packed in most places. On the hike out the weather was wonderful, no wind, nice views, and a porcupine. Bo was really enjoying his first snowshoe trek, look at him run.
Below Lou is post holing through the partially covered alders, he put his snow shoes on shortly after this photo.

We started a little later in the day than we had planned, but we made pretty good time albeit in the dark. When we got to the cabin Ben and Rachel had a fire going and snacks ready, we feasted on burritos and cookies. Before heading out the next morning Lia and Bo made some belly feeling flapjacks. There were some incredible views on the hike out clear skies all the way around the peninsula. Unfortunately our camera battery froze. It was a cold day for trekking.

This picture was taken at 2pm on top of a ~1,000 ft hill. The is on the right just above Lou's head. But we gain light quickly, so the days are already noticeably longer.
Just after new years Bear Creek Winery sent out their first shipment to their distributor. There are 240 cases of wine in this picture!
It is incredible how much my parents have accomplished in the last 6 years.

More recently we have had a visitor from CA. Shaara and I presented at a conference in Anchorage last week. She flew up a few days early to check out Homer. Although she was only here for a few days we managed to fit a lot in. Her first day we spent exploring the shops and looking at eagles on the spit. We fit in a mid-day hottub while it was snowing. Dad made bacon wrapped scallops and BBQ copper river reds for dinner.
Sunday we got the day started with a few hours on the ski trails. Shaara had never xc-skied before.

Once she got the feel for having sticks attached to her feet she was cruising right along. I was very impressed. Look'in good Shaara!
The trail we were on passes by the dump, there are loads of eagles that hang out here. All the birds in the tree behind Shaara are eagles, some mature and some immature. Of course no visit is complete without a wind tasting. Shaara was able to pick put several wines that suited her taste. I did a little wine tasting too, there is always something new at the winery. Dinner Sunday was quite a show, we decided to make tempura and sushi rolls. The whole Fry/Arseneau/Geragotelis/Maurer Homer family unit was present. The tempura was easier than I thought it would be, yummy too. Keeping up with demand was a challenge.
Everyone got involved in filling and rolling the sushi. The platter of rolls was nearly emptied by the group. Grant scooped up the last 10 pieces to take for lunch the next day.
Happy 2010 everyone!

Hunting the great Meleagris gallopavo

2009-12-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

The elusive and cunning meleagris gallopavo.

For those of you who do not know I took up hunting this fall. I decided to make it as hard as I could on myself and hunt using a traditional bow, a Fred Bear long bow to be exact. I decided that turkeys would be a good animal to start with since they are more plentiful and hopefully easier to figure out than deer or elk. I will save everyone the suspense by telling you now that I was not able to bag one of these wild birds. I spent about 10 days total over two months trying to get one and had a ton of fun.

Here I am on the hunt. This is a good pic of the type of terrain I was in.

I pretty much did everything short of bringing one home. I was able to find a good spot to hunt them on public land, was eventually able to find them every day I went out, stalked them, ambushed them, was able to get numerous shots off at them, and eventually found where they roost at night. Here is one of the more exciting days that I had out.

My quarry, in early morning light, at about 80 yards. These guys got away, damn!

The day previous I was unable to locate a single turkey so I was discouraged heading out this day but by 11:30 I was in a group of them. I hunted this group until about 3:30. I stalked them, tried pushing them in a direction and then running around them and waiting in ambush, and was eventually able to split them into two groups which they really do not like. They prefer to stay in a flock and will run a louie-with-bow-and-arrow gauntlet to be able to get back together. I was able to get three shots off during all of the running around and stalking. I finally spooked them enough to fly to a different area. I immediately followed in pursuit. As I came over a rise I spotted my quarry and…a three point black talk deer. The buck did not hear me approaching because the turkeys had already spotted me and were causing a ruckus in the leaves as they walked off. I was already within 40 yards of the buck but in the complete open. I moved slowly and quietly towards a bush for cover aa the buck moved towards me. We got to within 35 yards of each other. My effective bow range is within 25 yards so I was not able to take a shot but it was very exciting none the less.

Jasmine and I saw lots of wildlife while out looking for turkeys and the experience was something entirely new and full of unsuspecting realizations. I had a great time and am looking forward to heading back out in the spring although maybe this time I will head out with a compound bow.

Here is a pic of Mt. Mcloughlin which Jaz and I had a view of during clear days while out hiking. It was very striking once it was covered in snow.

Wyoming

2009-12-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

Sydney and Brandon have been living in Lander for several years now and we had not been to visit them. Now that Jasmine has finished graduate school and we are free to roam a visit to Lander was high on the list of desired places to go this fall. So once again we headed east on I-80, that makes three I-80 transits since September.
I was incredibly excited to get to Lander. Syd and I have been best-buds since we were 5 years old, and they had just moved into their new house. We arrived in time for dinner on Wednesday. Syd make scrumptious enchiladas to kick off four days of good times with good friends. Friday, Syd and Brandon hosted a holiday party. There also was a group celebrating the completion of a 6 week biggest loser competition. The top four in the competition had all lost over 10 lbs, they all really got after it. It was a great party, Sydney and Brandon have a great friend circle in Lander. Syd and Brandon looking good and ready for their guests to arrive Friday.

Saturday we took our time getting going, but made it out in time for hike in Sinks canyon. We followed the river up the canyon admiring the ice forming over the flowing water. The trail ended at large frozen waterfalls.

Sunday, we made the most of our last day and headed to Tioga Pass for some skinning and to get in the our first turns of the season.
We love the winter.
Skinning in we heard several good whoomphs. One was big enough that I felt the shift underneath me. Brandon dug a snow pit to check the stability of the snow pack. It didn’t take much for the upper crust ~30cm to slide off the base at a 26 degree slope. There was also a rain crust on top which made skiing down a challenge for some of us.
And when I say challenge I mean a lot of face falls, one in particular where I discovered face slamming rain crust will leave a mark. See my forehead. It was a beautiful day to be out. Lou and I particularly enjoyed seeing portions of the divide we will be hiking in 6 to 7 months. Quite possibly we will be hiking on the same snow base we were skiing yesterday. Returning to Lander that evening Syd cooked up some chicken rice-good for the soul- soup. Before dinner we got suited up and walked the half block to the public pool and hot tub. Arriving at the door our hearts sank at the sight of the sign “HOT TUB CLOSED TONIGHT”. Drat. Thankfully the hot yummy soup warmed us up from the inside out.

It's official

2009-12-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

On December 14 at 10am Jasmine turned 28! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, I felt very loved. This year my birthday had additional significance. I printed and turned in my finished thesis for binding. There is nothing more for me to do to complete my graduate degree. I am officially a marine biologist. Woohoo! Any trips to California in the future will be all play no business.

Merry Moose

2009-12-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

Lou and I have been spending a lot of time with Jake this fall, playing cards, hunting, going on jogs, all sorts of fun. As we got closer to the holidays I noticed Jake’s moose rack could use a little holiday cheer. Jake, as many of you are aware, is big on holiday hats. So I found a pattern for a knit santa hat and got to work. It was a really fun project to make and fits the moose rack, and Jake, well.

Turkey week

2009-12-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

At the moment we are in Oregon. We spent last night at Jake's after three days of turkey hunting (details from Lou soon). For thanksgiving week we were in Colorado for the 2nd annual Thanksgiving in Boulder.
Getting there proved to be more challenging than we expected. Just outside of Renno we started to lose lights in the dash board. Lou quickly determined we were dealing with alternator failure and pulled off at the next truck stop. Welcome to Fernley, NV, a dying town just off I-80. Although we were doubtful any of the local auto shops would be open the next day, Sunday, it was unlikely the car would make it the 33 miles back to Reno. With the help of the truck stop tendant we found the nearest hotel, 1.5 miles down the road. As we pulled up to the lobby to get a room the car died, and wouldn't restart. Lucky for us they had a room available and the parking spot was down hill from the lobby. With a little push we rolled the car into the parking spot right in front of our room. Sunday morning we went for a walk about of Fernley. The autoshops were closed, no movie theatre, but they did have a NAPA and it was OPEN. The fellas at NAPA were friendly and helpful, they had the alternator we need, yippy. and gave us the number for "best mechanic in town" that might be per$uaded to install it for us. We were back on the road in an hour and a half.
The first night in Boulder go the week kicked off in the right direction. Graham and Jake also were in town for the week, Alison made some yummy cookies and there was card playing.
Tuesday night Keith hosted a 20 person feast. He cooked up a delicious 7 rib roast! We brought a keg of hard cider and after dessert everyone got their dance party on.
Wednesday we started a little slow but made it to the track for a timed mile. I don't think any one PR'd this time, but Graham and Jake are a fun match to watch.
Thursday, more feasting and merriment! We began the day by participating in the 5km Turkey trot. I borrowed Al's chicken suit, it was a real hit. I was someones hero and met a lot of people fluent in turkey gobbling. There were 9 of us for dinner, but we could have fed 18. Everything was very tasty.
Jake wearing his turkey hat and carving the bird. Look at that spread!Keith made the worlds best stuffing, Lou made layered jello, Mel brought the mac and cheese, Phebe provided appetizers, Marie and Christopher made bacon wrapped scallops, and the rest of us provided support. The pie making turned into an all day thing, lesson learned be sure you have all ingredients before getting started. I love thanksgiving with friends, let's keep it going! Besides getting to hang out with everyone for a long weekend, I really enjoy sharing all our family traditions. Post dinner we played games, cards, hand stand competition, leg wrestling, you know, the usual.
Marie and Christopher getting ready to dig in. Christopher was a little under the weather most of the week, but rallied for the events.
By Friday we were all a little exhausted, but managed to get in a few climbs before Graham and Jake went to the airport. The rest of the weekend was spent lollygagging around a day in Rocky Mt. park and a day in Boulder.
Mel and Lou getting to the tippy top of the peak we climbed in RMNP.

All smiles and winter layers for the Maurer/Horan peeps.

We left early Monday back to CA. Lou had a potential contract in San Jose. We spent Tuesday night with Alexis. The contract wasn't suppose to start until tomorrow, so we spent the last three days in S. Oregon turkey hunting. Yesterday we found out Lou will not be working this month so we are back to pure fun for Dec. Check back to see where we end up this month

Seattle +

2009-11-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in Seattle. Nikki made reservations for dinner at the space needle. It was great company, great food, and the view never got old. We did 3.5 rotations before we were ready to go. After dinner we spent a few moments on the view deck in the rain and wind, but still managed smiles for the photos. In the photo left to right, Edith, Nikki, Jazzi, Garrett, and Alex. Lou and I have heard many people talk about the underground tour of Seattle, but honestly we were skeptical it really existed. So while we were in Seattle this time we made a point to find out, and check it out. We really enjoyed the tour, learned about the craziness that is the history of Seattle. One favorite story was about the exploding toilets. Back in the day, 1880ish, Seattle didn't have the sewer system figured out all too well. They used gravity to move the sewage into the bay, ok sounds like that might work except at high tide the flows reversed. If you flushed your toilet during this reversal the pressure was released and voila, exploding toilet. YUCK! The newspaper published the tidal charts to help people avoid these incidents, but you can bet from time to time some out-of-town guest didn't quite believe it until they saw it. So next time you are in Seattle and have a spare 90 minutes, try the tour.
Lou and I are in one of the underground rooms, the floors are all warped because they were built on tidal flats.
As Lou posted earlier, we were in Seattle to hang out with my sister and other Homerites participating in the Pinapple classic fundraiser race. For this event each team must carry a pineapple across 5km of obstacles, costumes encouraged. My sister's team went with the superhereo theme, and they looked fabulous! If you are ever looking for that just for fun race the Pineapple classic is for you. Plus you are raising money for a good cause. There were some great costumes and great entertainment watching teams lob their pineapple over cargo nets or haul them through tunnels, all good family fun.
The last night we made a visit to the Pikes place brewery, Pete was hanging out, Clayton (another Homerite) came over from Bremerton, and Crystal, who I have known since before we were born, came down from Bellingham. It was really great to see everyone. The brewery was followed by a visit to the candy store and a delightful candy apple treat challenge. There are candy apples and then there are CANDY apples. Pete picked out the largest most sugar coated apple in the store, green apple covered in caramel, marshmallows, nuts, and two kinds of chocolate. The rocky-road topping was over an inch thick all the way around and it was delicious. A perfect treat for six, but can't imagine trying to eat all by oneself.
photo left to right: Gala, Clayton, Louie, Jaz, Garrett, Pete, Crystal, Alex. Thanks for taking the pic Nikki.
We are back in Santa Cruz this week, Lou was offered a few days of work and we decided to take them. I should be editing my thesis, so enough for now. Headed to CO on Saturday, for more family, friends and fun!

Trials

2009-11-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

Our final stop in California before heading north once again was San Francisco. One of the coolest people that we met during out time in Cali is currently living in the The City and pursuing med school. We met with him Sunday morning and went to the Exploratorium to exercise our craniums. To our delight entry was free all weekend so we did not have to spend any money to run around and act like little kids while we did numerous tutorials to teach people about the laws of physics.

Eventually it was time to leave so that Erik could collect cadaver parts for his research with the UCSF orthopedic lab. Talk about a good job to have for someone wanting to become an orthopedic surgeon. Erik's cadavers would have to wait though because upon returning to our vehicle we discovered that some low life shmuck had decided that our car was a good one to prey on and had busted the window to steal all of our stuff.

Upon initial inspection we thought that nothing was actually taken which would have been amazing because pretty much everything that we own right now is always in the car. As we thought through all of the stuff that was in car we realized one bag had been taken, my old school bag. The same bag that was stolen out of a car 7 years ago as Lane and I were mountain biking around hag lake. Amazingly that bag was found by a good samaritan and returned to me along with the majority of its contents. Hopefully the bag still holds the same karma it did 7 years ago. There was not too much of consequence in the bag except for jasmine's newly edited thesis! Everything else was minor stuff like a head lamp, pocket knife, reading books, etc. I hate crooks. Often times they do not do any damage except to cause a major inconvenience. This jerk-off is going to cause us numerous hours of our life to get things back to normal while getting no profit out of it. There was no cash, credit cards, jewelry, or otherwise valuable things in the bag. So much for big cities. In all honesty, we feel lucky that it was not worse but I still do not like crooks.

We were able to get the window fixed the next morning and we were off again on our way to Oregon. We should be there by Monday evening and then be working our way to Seattle via Ashland, Eugene, and Portland. We are going to attempt some more turkey hunting on our way north so wish us luck.

Tribulations

2009-11-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

We made it to Tahoe with out any incidents and had 5 days filled with perfect temps and sunshine. So far on our loop from Portland to baker to Tahoe to San fran and back we have encountered every kind of weather. Plenty of rain in Portland, snow in baker, and sunshine in Tahoe. We love it all. It is wonderful to be experiencing weather and the seasons again. We had a group of six converge on the condo in Tahoe for Halloween and had a great time drinking wine and playing cards. Unfortunately the casino tables were not as nice to us but thats how it goes.

After getting in some nice evening runs on the lake as the sun set and a few days of climbing we made our way over to Santa Cruz. On the way we had a great lunch with Emily Campagna and met a friend at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield which I would recommend to anyone going through this area. It is conveniently located right off the freeway at the interchange of highways 80 and 505. The tour was great and who does not like some free Jelly Bellies. By Saturday we were with friends in Monterey sailing around the bay with more surprisingly nice weather.This is Jasmine's major advisor Captain, and Dr., Greg Cailliet, with Zach and Barrett behind him.Lou took his turn sailing the boat too. He expertly kept us clear of the sail boats that were racing that day and smoothly tacked to keep the race in view.

Before we left Santa Cruz for San fran jasmine was able to pic up her edited thesis (with minimal edits, good job jaz, wahoo!) and I stepped on the track in an attempt to run a personal best in the mile. When I came across the line I had run one second faster than my PR. I was hoping for more but I was still very pleased.

Thats the synopsis of another awesome week on the road. We are looking forward to heading back north. By next weekend we will be in Seattle for Nikki's, jasmine's sister, fundraiser relay race and then we have our first unscheduled days of our trip. Where will we go, what will we do? We do not have the slightest clue but I am sure it will be great. What a nice thought.

Baker City

2009-10-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

Visiting my pops in baker city has been great. It snowed last night as we sipped tea, played cards, and caught up on life. I woke up before first light and went on a hike in the hills looking for rabbits but had no luck. Jasmine got up a little later and did a similar thing and between the two of us we did manage to find a fox, a few black tail dear (including a small buck), and dozens of quail. What a great way to start the day. Tomorrow we are leaving for lake tahoe and will be there for almost a week.

You may have noticed that we have not had any pics to post and I thought that might give a short explanation. Our camera is broken. That was short huh? We are looking into a new one and will hopefully be snapping away again soon.

Back to Blogging

2009-10-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
So...Jasmine and I have overcome some major milestones in the past few weeks. In short, jasmine finished her thesis to a point where she could take to the road and we were able to successfully extricate ourselves from California. We sold, donated, or gifted away every piece of furniture that we owned and stuffed the rest of our belongings into my mother's attic. We only kept out as much stuff as we can fit in our new toyota corrola wagon. Which reminds me of another milestone. The Jetta finally deteriorated enough that we decided it made more sense to move on. We had a very tearful goody and left it in california which is ironic because in the three years we lived there I some how avoided changing the plates with the idea that it would someday be back in oregon.

We have been on the road for about two weeks now and it has been absolutely awesome. So far we have visited friends and family in portland, painted my grandparents house, gone turkey hunting, and began cleansing our souls with wonderful northwest sunshine. We visited Jake in eugene and are now in Baker city visiting my father.

Ok, lets cut to the chase. We are going to try to start keeping our blog updated. Our intention is not only to allow people to stay updated on where we have been but also on where we are going. It has been increasingly difficult to keep tract of everyone over the years and so we may end up passing through areas and not getting in touch with people. If anyone reads this and finds out that we will be passing close by and has not heard from us please drop us a line so that can connect. Our biggest focus over the next few weeks is to spend quality time with people that we have not been able to visit over the past couple years. Over the next two weeks we are traveling down to tahoe for halloween, then to the san fransico bay area to wrap up some school things and visit some more people, and finally to seattle for a race that jasmine's sister is doing. We hope that everyone is doing well and that we see everyone soon.

The vagabonds,
Louie and Jasmine

Worth sharing

2009-07-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

This was just too clever to keep to myself.

Spring Break

2009-03-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

From time to time I am reminded how wonderful still being in school is. One of those times is spring break. This year my cousin, Grant, came to visit for the week. It was great to get to spend some time with him and to show him a small slice of California. Which includes a stop at the over crowded golden gate viewing area. Grant and Louie tolerated my requests for photos. They sure are handsome devils!
Grant had never been back packing before so we made sure that happened on this trip. We spent three days in Point Reyes national sea shore. This is a great little area, much more scenic than I had expected it to be and there is a lot of wildlife within the park. We started out with a short hike in on Saturday to a campsite with a beautiful overlook to the ocean and the some of the park. It rained on us that night, and we woke up to dense fog, the kind that gets you wet in five minutes. We decide to stay and as we moved out closer to the coast the fog lifted and the sun came out. After a sunny lunch break we played on the beach by Arch rock. Fun place, Grant and Louie climbed up and down every which way racing the waves as they crashed against the beach. Our second night we were right next to the beach and spent a long time exploring it before dinner. The beach was littered with agets, and perfect skipping rocks. We walked down to a waterfall skipping rocks in the surf and beach combing. Grant, despite the not so warm weather stayed in his shorts and walked almost the whole way in the surf. To be 14 and feel no pain. We managed to stay dry between short rain showers and hoped our luck would last.....it didn't. It rained all night. We made breakfast under the rain fly and rushed to pack up camp when it let up. Back on the trail we didn't get five feet before the rain started again. Despite the less than perfect weather conditions we had a good time. Much of the hiking was under the cover of trees so we didn't get the full force of the weather. Most importantly Grant really enjoyed it and wants to go again. Mission accomplished.
The rest of the week was full of more exploring. We spent a day at the aquarium, did some ocean swimming and visited SF. We had a wonderfully sunny day while in SF. It is the first time I have been there and been able to see the whole golden gate bridge. We did tea tasting in China town, rode the cable cars to and fro, walked Lumbard street, enjoyed some street shows, and had a sundae at ghirardelli's.
Spring break, yeah I will miss it, then again maybe I'll just keep going to school.....
To end this post I have to include a picture I just couldn't help but take. My most favorite fish, Eumicrotremus orbis, the spiny lump sucker! Normally I wouldn't take pictures of animals in exhibits, but they were really putting on a show while Grant and I were at the aquarium, smimming all over the place. And did I mention they are my favorite fish, I had to try to get a pic. One day I will find one in the wild and THAT will be big news.how could you not love this fish?!

My Chilean Family

2009-03-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school I spent my junior year on foreign exchange in Chile. It was an incredible year and my host family had everything to do with making it that way. By the end of the year they had become family. My exchange experience was unique at another level, it was a true exchange. The same year I went to live with the Varas's they had sent their oldest son Ricardo to live in the US. He started in Texas, but the program couldn't find a family that was willing to host him for the whole year. So while I was settling right in, Ricardo was bouncing from family to family. At this point the Fry's stepped in and offered Ricardo a place in their home and hearts, if he was willing to spend a winter in Alaska. This was a big deal, Ricardo had never seen snow before, he grew up in Vallenar which is on the Southern edge of the Atacama desert (big spider country). After a little thought he decided to go for the whole experience, Alaska and the Fry family.
Leaving Chile after a year was hard, not knowing when I would see the Varas's again made it even more difficult. I returned to Homer, to my senior year in high school, then college, and now grad school. I'll do the math for you, that is 10 YEARS! Being that Chile was the jumping off point for Antarctica it presented the perfect opportunity to see my family again.
During the flight to La Serena to meet them, I was filled with so much excitement I was shaking. I have to admit there was a little nervousness too, 10 years is a long time, would the connection still be there? I knew the moment I saw them all waving down at me from the airport balcony that nothing had changed. Well almost nothing, Gera went from cute 7 year old to a grown 17. I was only able to stay four days, but we had a wonderful time.While I was there it was Vecko's birthday. He was ready to eat the cake.Hiding from the sun at an artisenal fair. Gera, Loreto, Vecko, and Tina. We were watching local dancers perform traditional dances from the numerous Chilean regions.We made cinnamon rolls! Loreto is very artistic with layering the sugar on the dough. I had made cinnamon rolls for them many moons ago, but forgot to leave the recipe. Loreto was very happy to get it after waiting so long with the memory of cinnamon rolls and no way to make them. While I was there the Coquimbo soccer team had their first game in the new world class futbol stadium. The stadium was completed in December 08 in time for a game between US and Brazil's women's team. The game we went to was the first local game. Ready for the game to start. Tina, Vecko, Loreto, looking at the camera. Gera, Ricardo next to him in yellow, at the end Cynthia and Antonia.The old stadium had high fences with barbed wire on the top to keep people off the field etc. The new stadium has a trench all the way around it and the track. The distance to the field seemed to keep the field clear of debris thrown by the crowd. I did notice that there wasn't nearly as much stuff thrown by the crowd as there was the last time I went to a game in Chile.Abuelita and Mama cooking up fried fish for lunch. I really enjoy having large lunches with the whole family, and the food was wonderful. Nothing compares to home cookin!The crazy sisters
One more birthday photo.Ricardo, his almost 1 year old Antonia and Cynthia. I had a blast meeting Cynthia and Antonia for the first time. The whole family taught me a few new songs. Antonia really enjoyed listening to us sing, she would clap along and dance in her chair.This is the Millinium cross, it wasn't here 10 years ago. It was a surprise to see such a large structure in an otherwise small town. It is 30 stories high and on top of the tallest hill in Coquimbo. You can go up to the top for a fantastic view of the surrounding area.
I am very much looking forward to returning with Louie to Chile to introduce him to my wonderful Chilean family. We had so much fun together in such a short time, I really look forward to spending more time with them in the near future. One more big reason to graduate this summer.

Antarctica (el fin)

2009-02-27T12:52:00.000-08:00

Two and a half weeks home, time to get up the one last post of my trip.
Back to Cape Shirreff, here are some photos of the Southern fur seals. They were laying all around the camp and chasing each other up and down the hills. A group of pups near the water kept busy playing and chasing eachother around the rocks. A few of the pups were very curious and came right up to Amy to check her out.The elephant seal below couldn't be bothered by all the activity, she barely opened her eyes as we hauled boxes past her up to the camp.

These two chinstrap penguins were an entertaining pair. They took turns leading eachother around in circles and zig-zags for the duration of our time on shore. See the video below.
Wet baby fur seal. They are cute, right up until they bite you. No one suffered a bite while we were there, but we did hear a few horror stories. Moral is, watch out for the cute ones.

I find penguins to be endlessly entertaining, on land or in the water. I love the way they have to hop over every little rock because their legs are too short to step over the rocks, makes me chuckle everytime.
Besides all the cool wildlife, there is also some spectacular landscapes and large amounts of ice.
First tabular icebergs we saw. They are incredibly large, and very beautiful. I couldn't get enough of them.Joelle making sure you notice the LARGE hunk-o ice in the background. photo by Kristen A.This one had trapped its own cloud. last two photos by Mariaphoto by MariaWe had some pretty nice island views throughout the cruise, but it was really enjoyable the last few days when the clouds lifted and we could see the tops of the ridges.
Joel in the black downy, Kim has the lolly pop, Tony in green, and Dug in the back with the red coat. This isn't everyone, but you can see it was a fun group. photo by MariaHere we are hanging out, during a bad weather day I think. As you may have noticed this is the intelligence center. NO DRINKS ON THE TABLES! photo by KristenAmy and I getting ready to go to shore at Copa. photo by Kristen
There are many more photos, as it was a wonderful trip and we saw many wonderful things. If you want to see more be sure to ask next time you come to visit us.

Antarctica (part 2)

2009-02-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

It took us 2.5 days to get from Punta Arenas to the South Shetland Islands. Crossing the Drake we had sunny days and calm seas. Our first order of business was to re-supply two field camps. One is located on King George Island and the other is on Livingston Island. Both of these field camps are part of the AMLR program doing research on Antarctic predators, penguins and fur seals. Researchers had been at the field camps since Oct. When we arrived in Jan it was the first time they gotten fresh supplies. They were very happy to see us.
Copacabana on King George Island (aka Copa)The field camp is on the beach just to the right of the phallic rock. Those of you that have been kayaking with True North should also be able to pick out "Southern Elephant rock". The beach between Copa and the glacier is all penguin colony. On the zodiac ride from the boat to the beach we were escorted by many porpoising penguins. I was impressed with their speed in the water, and laughed a lot to see them swimming about doing what penguins do.The Jacobs ladder.
I personally loved getting in and out of the zodiac, I should add that I never had to do it in angry seas. When getting in or out you had to time it with the swell. For example on the way down the people before you would tell you which rung to stop on, even if it was 6ft above the zodiac, then you waited. When the swell brought the zodiac to your feet you stepped off, but go quick because the swell is about to fall again. As I said, it was good fun.A closer look at Copa. photos by Joelle SweeneyCopa from above. To the left is the outer edge of the Gentoo penguin colony. I am standing with Kristen Green, another MLML student who has been at Copa since Oct. It was great to see her and all that she has been doing.
This is what 3 months of produce for three people looks like. The boxes above and below the last shelves also are full of produce.
It didn't take us too long to haul all the supplies up the beach and unpack everything. Then we got to explore and the kind folks at Copa made us a fabulous lunch.Another look at the penguin colony next to buildings, they are mostly Gentoos.
Penguins every where! And there are fewer now than there were a few months ago, the chicks are getting all grown up and their parents have started leaving them. photo by Joelle SweeneyThis photo is also by Joelle, unfortunately my camera battery died shortly after landing on the beach. Big thanks to eveyone for sharing their photos and letting me take pictures with their cameras.
Adelie penguin colonies above Copa. You can tell it is an Adelie colony by the red color of the ground around the colony. The color comes from their poop, they eat krill and it shows. Earlier in the season the colony was as large as the outline in red.You have to forgive me, I don't remember all the names of the folks in the back ground, we met a lot that day, but the two in the front are Jasmine and Joelle.Adelie Penguin, photo by Kim Dietrich. Check out those fluffy chicks.Adelie feet! photo by Kim Dietrich.The view from the main building at Copa. Penguins don't really know what to do when they get to the bridge. Some will walk across it, some get in the water and swim across. A few start to cross it then seem to panic and falter at the edge "should I jump in the water!?!". It is all very entertaining to the human observer. photo by Joelle SweeneyMe, Kristen, and Joelle enjoying the sunshine and watching Adelie penguins.Close up of an Adelie.Life in Antarctica is ruff. After leaving Copa we did a zodiac tour of the bay, stopping at this glacial spit for a rest.Time to head back to the Yuzmo. Joelle is happy with the thought of hot chocolate in her near future.
The next day we stopped at Cape Shirreff on Livingston Island. They mostly study fur seals at Shirreff, but also have on-going studies of Leopard seals, elephant seals, and the local penguin colonies. Shirreff isnt as green as Copa, as you can see.
We didnt have time to explore here, there was a lot more gear to unload. Lucky for us there are fur seals all over the place between where the boat lands and the camp. I'll get some of those pics up soon this post is long enough.

Antarctica (part 1)

2009-02-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

Token penguin on top of an iceberg.
The boat in the background was my home for 26 days, the Yuzhmorgeologiya or Yuzmo as we fondly referred to it. It is 105 meters, by far the biggest ship I have worked on. There were 63 of us on board and not all of the bunks were filled.
What was I doing in Antarctica?
I got to participate in the Antarctic Marine Living Resource (AMLR) Program's annual krill survey. I was part of the zooplankton team. We had 101 stations to sample during the survey, two were dropped due to weather. Sampling was done around the clock. I had the night shift, which I actually really enjoyed. At night zooplankton migrate closer to the surface so the catch could be more diverse than during the day, plus I was always awake for sunrise and sunset which was great when it wasn't overcast.
The photo below is a regular size petri dish with a variety of common critters that we saw.
Some of the things we caught as seen under the microscope.....
This is a siphonophore. photo by Maria Paz Andrade Martinez. They form chains and are something like firm jello to touch.
An amphipod, they have shrimp like body armor, sort of the insects of the sea. The petri dish photo above has several other species of amphipod in it (Vibrilia sp., Themisto sp.). We identified this one as Gnathiphimedia sexdentata with the guide books we had, some are going to be sent to an expert to confim the id. We only caught it in one haul, but there were many of them.
Chaetognath! These guys are predators, this photo only shows its head and a small part of the body. Their bodies are perfectly clear and their jaws are huge. photo by Maria Paz Andrade MartinezCheck out those fangs, light brown, and all the jaw structure. I am very happy to be larger than they are. photo by Ryan Driscoll
Baby squid. I know you are all thinking, "that is the cutest cephalopod I have ever seen". photo by Maria Paz Andrade Martinez
photo by Maria Paz Andrade Martinez
This is a copepod and a big one at that. Most of them don't have as much color as this one.
This year turned out to be an odd year for zooplankton, according to those that know about these sorts of things. There were a lot of salps. Salps are another gelatinous animal that forms chains and filter sea water. The red dot is the nucleus the rest of the body is clear. Are you catching the theme?We caught a lot of them in the net, see below.
Tony is happily sorting through all the salps to look for any krill hiding among them. Thanks Tony! This was the largest catch we had over the whole survey. I am thankful for subsampling.Jasmine, Joelle, and Nicolas preparing to eat a salp.
I joined the International Salp Suckers Society. They are salty, and really cold neither of which should have come as a surprise. But the cold part really got me. I could feel it sliding down my throat and then it took a while for my throat to warm up again.
The net we use is shown below. The mesh is really fine to capture all the little critters. On the front is the sled that helps drive the net down. There is a flow meter attached to measure the amount of water filtered.
From time to time we would get a myctophid (small fish that migrate up and down following isolumes, light levels, and have many photophores). We also caught larval fish my two favorites are shown below. The first is an ice fish. The pectoral fins are so large they have the look of a dragon:This next photo is just to show how clear the body tissue is, you can see the back of its eye from the bottom of the jaw.This is a Harpagifer sp. larvae. I think they are pretty cute, big blue eyes and lots of yellow and black pigment spots.
Every once in a while we would catch some krill.Krill are very similar to shrimp in look. They are the primary food source for many of the predators in Antarctica, whales, seals, penguins. Joelle and I also discovered that they are good for short range water fights. All those legs trap water, so when you pick them up and they continue to try to swim away = instant water flinger. It is important to keep yourself entertained as you sort through hauls.
More later

2009-01-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well here we are with the holidays all gone by and what a crazy bunch of holidays they were. The festivities kicked off the week before thanksgiving with Lou getting laid off. This may seem like a bad thing but let me tell you what he was more relieved than anything. This allowed for plenty of time to thoroughly enjoy a thanksgiving week in Las Vegas and Boulder. We set off to meet up with Keith, Jake, Graham, Pete, and Garret. Good times ensued fueled by 5 gallons of hard apple cider, great climbing at red rocks, gambling, and vegas shows.

Lou, throwing a sick dino to finish off a climb.
Jaz showing off her awesome arms.

Graham looking oh so aesthetic for the camera.

Somehow we never managed to get a group picture but this was such an awesome weekend. We had people coming in from 4 different states to hang out and climb. I will surely be trying to organize trips like this in the future.

Next we loaded up our little jetta with 4 people and all of there gear and headed for the mountains. Somehow we managed to get it all actually in the car without strapping anything on the top. That left precious little room inside but jake and keith did great job of folding themselves up to about half of there size to make it work. The drive ended with meeting up with a whole new group of people in Boulder, Alison, Melanie, Josh, Ashley, and Bro. Dinner was hot and ready when we got there which was awesome and the evening rapidly progressed through eating, drinking, dancing, and game playing. Just one more late night. The next day thanksgiving was upon us and everyone did there part to prepare a wonderful feast.

Josh and Ashley deep frying the turkey. Jaz and I had never had a deep fried turkey and it was great. I will certainly be doing this more in the future. It also takes way less time than baking one. The rest of the weekend got rounded out with a little more climbing, chasing after elk in RMNP (which is probably a big no no but we did have a bonified biologist with us, i.e. jazzi), and the ususal friends, games, and good eats.

Lou on lead in Mesa Verde canyon outside of Boulder. Running after elk in the snow. This was super fun. I almost botched up the whole thing from the start by basically running right at them. I had lots to learn about the capabilities of elk. They are no dumb animals that is for sure.

Jaz and Mel in Rocky Mountain National Park.

It was back to the reality of school for jaz once we returned to california and back to job hunting for lou. After about a week of solid looking I determined that no jobs were going to be landed until after the new years. Well I got antzy pretty quick so the decision was pretty easy to start the Christmas vestivaties early. I bought a ticket and headed to Homer, AK for the next three weeks. Aside from general relaxing in the hot tube, eating ice-cream, skiing, and watching movies I was rather productive. I made about 1000 gallons of wine and helped my brother and sister in laws frame in there portch for there new house. That is right they are building a house in alaska in the winter. Not such a big deal if you are working on the inside but we weren't.

Lou dressed for home building in the winter cold of Alaska.
A posotively breathtaking january skyline in Homer, AK.

Quiz 3: Try Googling This!

2008-11-21T12:27:00.001-08:00

Background:
One of the more disgusting things that scientists of the world get to do it diet studies. This may not sound bad in principle but how do you truly figure out what and how much of what an animal has eaten. This is a particularly tricky task for marine animals since it is very difficult to observe them for any significant amount of time.

The best way of finding out what an animal has eaten is look at what is inside that animal. Yep, that's right. You have to catch the animal, kill it, and then dissect its innards to find out what kind of animals are in its digestive track. To the untrained eye most things just look like a pile of goo since they are inevitably in some sort of decomposed state but believe it or not people become very good at identifying those piles of goo.

The fact that there are indigestible parts of animals is a huge help to scientists that perform these studies. Body part such as bones, otoliths, beaks and eye lenses can all be counted and potentially linked to a specific prey.

Question:
And so we finally arrive at the questions, how do you tell the difference between fish eye lenses and squid eye lens?
ANSWER:
Keith is correct. Squid and fish eye lenses are different shapes. Fish eyes are sphere shape and squid eyes have a flat surface. Keith you are ready to dig into some guts and start describing food chains.

Big Spiders

2008-11-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

We spent Sunday climbing at Pinnacles in preparation for the Red Rocks trip. It was a great day, we managed to stay in the shade except on anchor of the last few routes. We got to see a lot of wildlife too. Before arriving at the craig we spotted three hairy spiders aka tarantulas. First wild tarantulas we had ever seen.
The photo above shows how well they blend in with the ground, you can just make out it's last legs and abdomen in front of Louie as it leaves the road. I made Lou take the close up pictures as I didn't really want to get that close.

We also saw frogs, two soaring CA condors, woodpeckers stashing acorns for the winter and deer. We even made a new friend! Any who, it was a good day. Now we are counting down to Red Rocks and Thanksgiving, 6 days until mayhem begins and we can't wait!

This is from last month, Louie spent a weekend in Yosemite with Graham, Greta, Jake and Emily. They had a grand ol' time. I thought this was a great pic of Graham.

We only got one photo from our weekend in Tahoe, and this is it. Good times with family and friends!

October/November

2008-11-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

Time for an update. Since our last post we have continued to have fun outside and I have been making progress on my thesis.
I am taking a diving class this fall. Last week we were diving with a foraging sea otter and the week before we got to dive in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's kelp forest exhibit. It has all been awesome. Check out the MBA exhibit live link at http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_kelp/kelp_underwatercam.asp
In the mornings between 9-10 they have a diver in there to feed the fish. While you are checking out the site you can print out a sea food watch card, they recently put together one for sushi.
Louie has spent some weekends without me in Yosemite. He met up with Jake and Emily, and Graham and Greta last month for a fabulous weekend in the park while I made progress on my thesis.
Halloween weekend was the annual Tahoe trip with my Grampa Don. We were joined by a new cast of characters (new to the Tahoe weekend), including Louie's mom, her boyfriend and his daughter, my grandpa's girlfriend Pam, and Jake and Emily.
The weekend started on Halloween night in Sacramento. Louie and I dressed as Dr. Seus's Thing 1 and Thing 2 complete with silly string, water gun, and balloons for props. It is good fun to create small bits of mischief at a party where you only know two other people.
Saturday night we spent several hours at the casino. Emily played 4 hours of blackjack and didn't lose any money! I sat down at a roulette table and placed 6 chips on number 23. The ball was tossed spinning around and coming to rest on......23! The first spin! One spin and I doubled my gambling money. One spin and I was cashing in, a short successful night of gambling for me. Jake played some roulette later and won all the chips in his color!
Most of our group walked out of the casino with some extra money or at least even, and we all had fun.
We played a great game of Pictionary and went on a group run. There was a lot of rain this year so no climbing, but there was great company, good food, and a welcome soak in the hottub.

One week into November and we are preparing for our Thanksgiving vacation. Louie and I are much looking forward to some time climbing at Red Rocks with a slew of friends we don't get to see often enough. At the last head count we will be joined by Pete, Keith, Jake, Graham, Garrett, and Eric. After four days of climbing we are headed to Boulder to meet up with even more of our fantastic friends for Thanksgiving feasting and other festivities.

Look for a third quiz question coming soon. Melanie is two for two, any challengers out there?
First person to correctly answer three quiz questions will receive a treat from the Fraurer's bakery.

Laboring In Tuolumne

2008-09-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

So this is going to be one more post about the greatness that can be found in Yosemite. There are just way to many world class climbs, amazing trails, and awesome animals to not spend at least one weekend a month in Yosemite. Jaz and I got our selves and four of our friends together for a backpacking, fishing, climbing trip in Toulumne meadows.

Here is the whole crew minus one, Kenny, who is taking the picture.

The trip started out pretty average with high spirits and beautiful scenery. Joelle thoroughly enjoys being outside as can be witnessed by her zen like stretching. We made it over out first pass which was an average climb but pretty windy. Apparently there are two methods for dealing with the wind, one is to try to put your head into it and power through. The other is to embrace it in the hopes that you will gain some lift and allow you to easily move forward. Kenny and Jasmine explored both methods.

Our second pass was cross country hiking (no trail) and after reaching the top we were rewarded with a spectacular view of our climb for the next day, Matthes Crest. This is a view from the east side instead of the standard approach view from the west side. We camped at Matthes Crest Lake which is off to the left.

The first evening in camp quickly exposed our weaknesses in gear and otherwise. Lewis proceeded to get progressively ill which proved to be extremely serious later in the trip while our stove, Joelle's and Lewis' stove, and our water filter all failed. Not so good for preparing food. Joelle gave us some good lessons in cooking over an open fire, a first for me, and after some small flare ups in frustrations a late dinner was served and amazing then everyone was just fine.

We awoke to what was probably the most beautiful sunrise I have ever witnessed. You can imagine how beautiful it was considering the picture was taken by complete amateurs with a cheap point and shoot. This did cause a significant delay in starting the climb however since who wants to climb on a 11000 ft. ridge with the risk of thundershowers looming.

Matthes Crest route deserves every one of the five stars that SuperTopo gives it. We climbed it in 30 mph winds that were biting cold wearing every piece of clothing we had on the trip but managed to have a great time. Especially once we got jasmine climbing and she could warm up a little. She admittedly did not have the best first pitch due to the cold. The route is usually climbed from south to north and has 300 feet of vertical climbing to gain the ridge. Then there is about one mile of traversing that is interspersed with 5.6 downcliming and upcliming moves. The last two pitches are the crux with a 5.6 downclimb and 5.7 lead. We then did two rappels off the east side to return to our camp. The standard rap route to the west had tons of rap stations but we found slings and did not have to leave behind any gear.

All ready to go and checking out the approach after the clouds cleared at 9am

Chris and Kenny climbed first so Kenny is taking the picture, Chris is the first one on the ridge, then me and Jaz are simul-climbing behind them. Jaz is the light blue spot on the highest point.

My awesome wife looking like the rock star that she is on the ridiculously exposed climbing that is Matthes Crest. I love being outside with her.

We got back to camp at 5pm, hungry but not too cold. The wind helped deliver the coldest night of our trip though and it got down to about 15F. I was the first one out of bed because jasmine and I had just purchased a new down bag two person sleeping system and were just as cozy as could be all cuddled up all night without wearing any extra cloths. Everyone was quick to jump out of there bags once I got a fire started and we started packing up to move to Cathedral lake. This hike took the four climbers of the group about 3 hours. Lewis' health had continued to deteriorate though and the hike took him and Joelle about 6 hours to complete. That evening we were all quite worried about him. He certainly was not having a very good time. We spent the evening relaxing, eating shmores, and talking logistics of getting Lewis out of the backcountry as early as possible. This involved us getting up a 4:30 to do our climb of Cathedral Peaks regular route so off to bed we went.

Now you may not think that you need an early start (especially a 4:30 one) for a climb on a mid-week day when you only have a 45 min approach but we sure were glad that we got that early of a start. Sure it was for other reasons than to beat the crowds but it still worked out that we had crowds to beat. The route was superb, again worthy of all 5 stars. Consistent, well protected, and fun 5.6 climbing for 5 pitches. This route is the debateably the most popular in all of Tuolumne for a reason. We were able to make it to the fourth pitch before anyone else even started at the base but by the time that we had walked off there were 5 other teams on the route, what a mess! I can not re-iterate enough how valuable our lesson of getting an early start has been in Yosemite on numerous occasions, thanks Chris.

Me and Jaz with South Cathedral Lake and Cathedral Peak in the background. Our route followed the right hand skyline of the peak. Our camp was off to the left.

Jasmine leading the perfect shoulder width chimney pitch and having a great time enjoying warm sunshine and zero wind.

For the most part the trip was totally awesome, relaxing, and well executed. I say for the most part because there was some fallout to deal with once Lewis got himself out of the backcountry. I have been hinting at issues all along which is exactly how it felt while we were out there. Things got serious pretty fast when Jaz and I woke up to a message from Joelle about taking Lewis to the hospital and being admitted into the ICU. We rushed to the hospital to find Lewis in stable condition but with absolutely no word as to what was wrong with him. I will spare you the details but the synopsis is that the poor guy most likely had a viral infection that was greatly exacerbated by the heavy physical exercise and high elevation. This in turn caused an acute kidney failure which of course lead to dehydration, head aches, and pneumonia. Lewis is doing quite well now but what a trip for him. Come to find out him and Joelle have numerous outrageous backpacking tails so if any of you reading this ever run into them you have an instant conversation starter. Simply ask them about the trip Lewis almost died or the trip that Joelle almost got eaten by a bear, or the trip that went horribly wrong in Big Sur.

Well, if there is anyone still reading this I am sure that you have had plenty of a story so until next time...don't get in viral infections.

APPLE CIDER SUNDAY

2008-08-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Look at all those apples! We spent Sunday harvesting the lovely fruit and mashing them to a dry pulp. It was great fun. Lou and I have talked about making hard cider since some of our very first conversations over a pint or three of Keith's hard cider and this weekend we finally did it. Our friends Joelle and Lewis live on a property that has four apple bearing trees, all with branches looking like the one in the photo.
We have 15 gallons of juice bubbling away, and another 5 of fresh apple juice for drinking right now.
Joelle collecting good apples that had already fallen off the tree.
Wheel barrel #1 of many.
Lewis, Joelle, and Louie getting it done. We decided to call this cider the Double J Double L Brew.The hornets loved the apple juice and apple pulp. They would land on the juice and float their way to the spout bursting into flight as they flowed over the edge.
Other happenings...we got a new summer sleeping bag! It is one bag that when open zips to a cover for two sleeping pads, pretty slick set-up. It will definately save on weight. I got dibs on the blue side. The hydromedary is new too, it is important to stay well hydrated.
We have still been getting a day of climbing in a week and I captured a few of the many "louie" faces I am sure you will all recognize while taking a lunch break out on the rock.
The "OH! that's interesting, I'm gunna get it" face.
The "humph, I don't know about that " face.The "my life totally rocks" face

Three weeks in Rhode Island

2008-08-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

After 9 days on a boat Lou and I spent the weekend climbing around Lake Tahoe with Eric the last weekend of June. Good times. Then on Monday I boarded a plane headed for Rhode Island. It is a hot, humid state in the summer.
Shaara and I were there for three weeks to process some sample for our theses. We worked really hard, but managed to have a lot of fun too. First the work part
We are both using vertebrae to find out how old a few different species of skates get, and some other life history stuff too. The process is, first decalcify the vertebrae in capsules shown above.Then they go in the space machine, above, for 18 ish hours. It is really called a Autotechnicon, but looks like something from the show "Lost in space". The samples are agitated as they sit for two hours in each of 9 different baths, a dehydration and embedding process.

After the "space machine" each vertebrae is embedded into small wax cubes.
Once embedded we can section them. The top is a what is left of a sectioned vertebrae and the bottom of the photo are the sections.

This is Shaara on the sectioning apparatus, aka sledge microtome. We both spent a lot of hours standing here.

Next vertebral sections go through a multi step staining process. And the finished product....Hundreds of stained vertebral sections ready to be aged.It may be that I have a lot of time invested in them, but I think they are cool to look at. I will spend the next year working up the data and counting growth bands so that one day I can graduate and get paid to learn about sharks. Now the fun...
We got a tour of a long line fishing vessel . This is the sword part of a swordfish. Then there were the shark tournaments. The Dunkin Donuts cup clues you in to the fact that we are on the East coast; the shark being weighted is a common thresher. Lisa (that's her in the photo, Shaara and I stayed at her house while in RI and she taught us everything we know about the histology process described above) and other biologist at NMFS go to sport tournaments for sharks to collect samples every summer. Most of the fishermen let the biologist get samples and measurements from their sharks, which allows biologist to keep an eye on changing trends.
If I could design my ideal job it would be Lisa's, but on the west coast. She gets to work on sharks all the time, go out on boat's regularly for tagging & surveys and gets to see a lot of really cool stuff.
Shaara and I got to help out at a tournament on Martha's Vineyard, (and at this smaller one in RI). It was nothing short of a cultural experience. I would definitely do it again. One thing that was really reinforced while at the tournament is how miss-informed the general public can be. Don't believe what any activist group tells you until you look into it yourself, otherwise you aren't getting the whole story or may be told completely untrue things.
This is a common thresher. The large organ out closest to the head is the liver. Sharks have a huge oily liver to help them maintain neutral buoyancy in the water.
This is the tournament at Martha's Vineyard. After biological info is collected the sharks are fillet, mako and common thresher are good tasting. We were really busy at this tournament moving from one animal to the next. The white bucket on the first table is what the liver is weighed in, often the liver fills the bucket.
All samples have to be properly labeled, this is a short-fin mako. Those teeth mean business.
The tail!
The crowds!
The sunburn! The tournament on Martha's Vineyard has a minimum weight limit of 250lbs (this is above the legal limit) I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing this is one of the mako's that didn't make weight.
After three weeks we headed to Montreal for the American Elasmobranch Society meeting. We spent an afternoon in Boston to see some history before getting on the plane.
The USS Constitution. If you are in Boston it is a must see. Especially if you are married to Louie. Yes, there was a thunderstorm for most of walking tour of the city.
No, we were not dressed for rain.
The cannons took 12+ men to operate with 15 feet of recoil. The hull is three layers of wood thick giving the boat the nickname Ironside.
Once in Montreal I spent my time listening to the talks on sharks and at the bar. I got to meet a lot of the big names, other students, and learn about some interesting work being done. We had fun, and several good microbrews.
There is a nice park in the middle of Montreal I got to a few times. Our last day we spent exploring the city and hiking around the park.
Shaara, Lewis and I at the viewpoint in the park. It is pretty flat around Montreal, we are standing on the tallest hill in sight.

Tourist photo moment.

On our exploring we did see some wildlife, and since we had the time and digital memory I had to take their pictures.

Shark Tagging

2008-07-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I got to join the National Marine Fisheries Service out of San Diego for their shark survey. It was 9 days on a commercial boat with the crew and 5 other scientists. We did two sets a day,4 miles of long line gear to catch Thresher, Mako and Blue sharks. A few times we did a set after dark too.
IT WAS AWESOME! I had never been on a long liner before, I liked that mode of fishing. I got to see a ton of super cool things. I got to do everything from baiting hooks to tagging sharks. It was the coolest thing to bring an animal up on the line, tag it, measure it, and then release it and watch it swim away. Some of the bigger animals would hang out by the boat for a little while with their tagged dorsal sticking out of the oceans surface. A few of them even attacked the cradle after getting back in the water. One particularly large Mako tried bitting the boat several times. The largest shark I helped to restrain was a beauty, 2.3 meter Mako. Even the really small animals are very very strong. So while two men held down the head and mid-body I was in charge of just the tail, the last 2 feet of the animal. Despite my greatest efforts the shark had no trouble lifting its tail up 5 inches or so raising me along with it. My 130 pounds of pressure didn't count for much.
I didn't ever think I would get the opportunity to tag sharks, there just aren't very many people that do that kind of work (it cost a lot, there is a load of paperwork involved for many species, and it is very competitive). The experience of tagging sharks is one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I just love sharks, seeing them, learning about them, seeing more of them, actually getting to work on live animals. AMAZING, FANTASTIC, FUN, AND WOW!
There is a lot more to say about my trip, but I will let the pictures and videos take care of that.
This is a Thresher shark, the first big shark we got. They use their tails to stun their prey, so for their size their teeth are actually really small, but their tails are incredibly long.
This is the first shark that I tagged, it is a young Blue shark.
This is another young blue, not the most original name, but fitting.
In action, tagging a blue shark.
Two of the deckhands spent every spare minute fishing. This is a flying fish they caught, just one of the other cool things. The first night out we watch a sea lion chasing the flying fish around the boat for 30 minutes or so, the sea lion never came close to getting one.
Here is a satellite tag getting put on. It is a pop off tag, which means in a few months the cord attaching it will be cut and it will float to the surface. Data is transmitted via satellite every time the shark surfaces, but if the tag is retrieved they can get a lot more information.Mako shark with sat tag happy to get back into the ocean. You can see where the data from the fish we tagged of the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) website.
Go shark and send back lots of data!
This is a shot of John and I enjoying the sunny southern CA weather in between sharks. The weather in southern Cali is pretty nice, even on the water.
The big ones have to be brought up in the cradle. It can be a bit tricky.
This is a big blue shark, Prionace glauca.
Once they shark is in the cradle and brought on the boat we put a pvc hose in their mouth to provide oxygen. The eyes are covered for two reasons, the first is to protect them, the second is to protect us if they cant see us it will be harder for them to aim a bite.There are the big ones like the two above and then there are the great big ones. We estimated this Mako to be 280 centimeters. There was never any question that it was too big to bring on board, but they were still able to get a satellite tag in!
Beautiful animal!

Another Beautiful Yosemite Climb!

2008-06-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

Our most recent adventure took us back to Yosemite once again. We figure we will get as much mileage out of that park as we can while we are so close to it. Unlike our previous trip where we got completly skunked by the weather this trip was full of clear skies and 80 deg afternoons. We got an early start on saturday and were the first party to get to After Six but a long shot. This was an absolutley beautiful climb with lots of good 5.6 pitches. It was so much fun we decided to decend and do it again only to find four other parties on the route. What a mess! The belayer was litterally pulling there follower up the first pitch with and second party leading directly behind them literally pushing the said followers butt up the rock. I fully regret we did not get a picture. Needless to say we moved on to bag some fun short cracks on the numerous othe great walls. If you can lead 5.7 crack all you need for After Six is a set of cams 0.5-3, double on 0.75,1,2 and sneakers to walk off. I would recommend a little snack and some water because the view at the top is great and why not hang out and enjoy it. We were able to get car to car with a party of three in 4.5 hrs. Our good friend, Eric, tagged along.

Chalking up on the pitch one. What a great climb!

Lou, totally excited after placing our newly purchased #3 cam for the first time ever. The largest we own. Always good to be breaking in new gear.

Eric and Jasmine looking good with an awesome view of the Valley.
Jasmine rocking the last pitch of After Six on lead. She has been working on her trad leading skills and comfort level. Look ma, only 4 pieces in 80 feet.

Day two of climbing. Eric vs. Bush. Unfortunatley the bush won, eric was forced to go around but not before tearing out a few branches and throwing a sling around it for pro. Eric has also been working on his leading skills.

Eric, making good time on lead...post bush.

Fun Facts Quiz: Round 2

2008-06-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Melanie has correctly answered the quiz once again. She is looking like a pretty good candidate to be recieving a baked goodie!
The answer to the questions are as follows...

Sharks: maintian their neutral buoyancy throughout the water column by regulating the amount of squalene, an oil with low specific gravity, is in their liver. As they move to different depths their bodies produce more or metabolise off the oil as necessary to adjust to the new depth.

Rock Fish: These fish maintian their neutral buoyancy with the most intuitive method. They have gas bladders that they can fill or drain air from in order to adjust to different depths.

Halibut: Throwing this fish in the mix was someting of a trick question. Halibut are a ground fish, like flounder, and rarely rise more than a few feet off of the sea bottom. They have no need, and hence no method, of maintaining neutral buoyancy. They must actively swim up in the water column and as soon as they stop swimming they sink to the bottom.

It is time for round two of the animal fun fact quiz. In the ocean an animal can expend a lot of energy moving from one depth to another. Fish have developed unique and really cool ways of maintaining neutral buoyancy at different depths efficiently. We are going to make you work a little bit at this one. It is a multiple part question. The question for this round is: name the primary method rock fish, shark, and halibut use to maintain their position in the water column.

Happy fact finding!

Liquid Sunshine

2008-05-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

We had been planning to climb in Yosemite over memorial weekend for a long time. Pete and Lane made the trip down from Portland to join us. Mariah decided to join us and two other friends, Eric and Kris from Santa Cruz. The forecast was 30% chance of rain Friday and Saturday. Usually that means fewer people and afternoon dampness. So we drove across the state and got into the park just before dark.

Here is most of the crew enjoying Bridal veil falls without any crowds just before dark. The mist is all from the falls.

We arrived in camp, set up and started telling stories and laughing. Routes for the next morning were decided and bags were packed, to bed we went ready for the great day that Saturday would be.....
We were woke up in the middle of the night by liquid sunshine, no good, no good. Here is the crew in the drizzle facing the change in plans. Since the rock was wet we headed to Mariposa grove for some tree hugging and hiking.Still smiling even though the drizzle had increased. These trees are called the bachelor and three sisters, or something like that.
This is the biggest tree in the grove, quite a site. Hug a tree.
The hiking was fun, we saw every tree we could, hugged a few and had a snowball fight. Returning to the valley it became obvious that it had been raining all day there too. The view was still nice, the clouds had lifted enough to see El Cap.After dinner we went to inspect some climbs. The cracks all had running water in them, it would take a solid day of sunshine to dry things out and the forecast was for rain rain rain. So we decided to get up early and head to Pinnacles, because it doesnt rain in the desert. It rained all night, some of the tents were sitting in water by morning, which made leaving a bit easier. We got a glimpse of halfdome on the way out of the park, there was snow on top! Lou and I were really bummed not to climb, but it was cool to see the park in a different condition.
To our disappointment the rain didn't let up as we drove west, in fact as we got closer to Pinnacles it got worse. Plan C, to the Fraurer house for dinner, margaritas, and an intense game of Monopoly.
Monday we finally managed to find a craig covered in sunshine and climbed until dark.
It was wonderful to see Pete and give Lane a few more hugs before he heads back to Panama. And now we know that 30% chance is a good chance of rain.Jaz climbing next to the waterfall. Great spot, amazing views, a waterfall, some practice smearing, it really doesn't get much better.

Weekend in the City

2008-05-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Lou and I spent a weekend in San Francisco with my Grandparents. My grandparents took a cruise through the panama canal from Florida and hung out a few days in our area. It was great fun to be ride the cable cars, tour the city and hang out with the family. The weather was amazing, but we never did get a good view of the bridge through the bay fog. We had lunch on Pier 39 and watched the sea lions battle for space on the floating docks. It is an entertaining site.

Going down the last hill on the cable line to the bay. Alcatraz in the background and another cable car coming up the hill.
Cable car Power house. It is worth the stop.
Jasmine and Grandpa Fred.
We also enjoyed the china town shops, filled with enough trinkets to last a life time. We tried some items from a bakery. I can't say I would recommend anything we had. Lou and I also wandered around Union square. We were surprised to see shirts, pants, and skirts for well over $1,000. None of which had diamonds or other precious gems attached. Ridiculous!
Before my grandparents headed south to Santa Barbara we spent a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and a tour of the lab. It was a fun filled visit.

Animal quiz

2008-05-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Melanie guessed it!
Seahorses only have 150 sperm per testis, the male fertilizes the eggs inside his brood pouch and carries them to term. They are way cool fish.
More marine fun facts coming your way.
First person to get three right will have a sweet treat mailed to them courtesy of the Fraurer bakery.

I get to learn all sorts of cool things about marine animals everyday. Some things stick out above others, and I have decided to share them with you all in quiz form. If we make this a regular thing maybe we will add a prize. So here goes.

What fish has the lowest sperm count of all fishes (150 sperm per testis)?

hint: it is a fish everyone has heard of, nothing obscure.
Fish in this family are found all over the world in shallow water environments.
Some species in this family are aquacultured, BUT NOT FOR FOOD.
Not a catfish
Fish in this family are a favorite, when on exhibit, in public aquariums.
They are generally small in size.
They have a very unique reproductive strategy (it's how they are successful with so few sperm)

SOLID WHITE GRANITE (& some extras)

2008-05-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't enjoy that view? Lou and I spent all day (17hrs) last Saturday looking at El Capitan while climbing our first 10 pitch trad climb together in "the valley".
It was a great day although looooong.

I learned a few things from it though,

yellow is bigger than red
10 is a lot of pitches
Australians call pants "trousers" and have a great way of pronouncing BEEE-LAY
start Early, especially in Yosemite
And, climb often if you want to be home for dinner.

The climb was the east buttress of middle cathedral.
It is a great climb, good fun, great ledge for lunching. We recommend climbing it a little later in the season, as the decent went from the normal three rappels to 9 due to all the snow still in the canyon (see the "ss" of Northeast Butress route). We got to the top of the climb at 6pm, and found the first rappel without too much effort. The second rap was not as obvious to us. We found it just as sunset turned into night, Lou got to the bottom in darkness. The second rappel was more complicated than we anticipated, but with a little resourcefulness and patience we got to the first of the snowpack. By this time of day the snow had re-hardened into an un-walkable ice-sheet. From there we had 7 more rappel stations to find in the dark. There we were zig zagging across from one side of the canyon to the other looking for the top of the next rappel. When we finally got off the rope our friends were waiting at the edge of the snow pack next to a warm crackling fire. We enjoyed the fire, finished our snacks from the day and hiked down the rest of the way to the road. We got back to the jetta at 1am. It was an experience, slow and steady we went. For a short 5 minutes I thought we'd be sleeping on the top of the cathedral, but never scarred or uncomfortable with what we were doing. The route just took much longer than either one of us had anticipated.I guess when you don't have a dog you take pictures of your charismatic car instead. Yosemite falls at full flow in background

The next day we awoke hungry and sore. After a delicious brunch we set out to do some mellow hikes. There is a ton of water flowing into the valley right now, every where we looked there was a new fall we hadn't seen on previous trips.
Bridal veil falls, too bad you can't hear things from pictures.
I know this isn't an original shot, I know it is far from being a flattering picture at that(of the scenery, Lou is damn sexy), but maybe it will entice someone to come play with us in Yosemite. The weather was perfect, not too hot not too cold.
Then we went to see some big, big trees. This one was part of the old road used to get to Yosemite Valley. Horse draw carriages went through it.
This tree fell in 1983. It had a burn scar that weakened one side so after a big winter storm it toppled. You can crawl through about 2/3 of it. I am not even that far down the tree and Lou look like a bug in comparison to its size! We love trees!
We spent the first weekend of May back at Pinnacles. I practiced placing some gear and Lou rocked an 11a. The high light, as it often seems at pinnacles, was the wildlife. This snake was a great climber and pretty good looking too. Snakes are cool. We also saw some red headed wood peckers and a few bees (there are 400 kinds of bees at Pinnacles national monument!)

Fry+Maurer=Fraurer

2008-04-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

There is so much to say about the week we got married. In one word it was magical (Lou Fraurer summary). It was incredible to have so many people we love in one place for the week. We are very thankful so many made the trip to AK, and for the many others that called, wrote, or thought of us that week.
Our families arrived in Homer on Sunday and we managed to fit everyone into my parents house for a yummy Easter meal. The Maurer's helped us bottle the wine favors for the wedding. As you can see corking isn't easy, but they caught on fast! Emily demonstrates "Maurer Power"!
The finished product.
Monday-We set up the ceremony site.

Good times with hay bales, sleds, and snowshoes. Making sure everyone has a comfortable seat with a good view.

Later in the evening the ladies were rounded up for a pleasure party which morphed into bachelorette party. There were many shots (mostly good ones) some dancing on the bar and my favorite, three legged races. All the ladies lined up for shot # 4?Three legged races. Emily and I were doing quite well until the end when Mel and Mr. Carhart Bibs tackled us from behind.

Tuesday- Lou organized a card tournament, good fun! The house was full of card players at all levels. That night the first keg of beer was consumed.
Wednesday- we had the ceremony.
The weather was amazing, we enjoyed a short snowshoe/ski out to the ceremony site.
Lou and Jaz with Peter(Lou's brother) and Nikki (Jaz's sister).My dad performed the ceremony. Lou and I had no idea what he was going to say beforehand. It was perfect, he did an amazing job capturing what we are about and had the whole group laughing several times. Thanks Dad!Lovely ladies! Dorothy, Alison, Heidi and Mel after the ceremony.

Thursday - another amazing day.Shawn, Alison, Melanie, Jaz and Lane on the boat to the saddle trail.

While some of the group was recovering from after ceremony festivities the rest of us got on a boat and headed across the bay for hike. We went to Grewink glacier.
We were able to hike across the lake and play some capture the flag. We returned that evening to an amazing shrimp boil meal! Alison is the master of shrimp boils, Thanks AL! (and to su-chef Lane too)
Friday we decorated, napped and went dancing! Our reception was a ton of fun! My Grandma Ruth was even out on the dance floor.

If you didn't get the email and want to see more pics the link is http://www.donpitcher.printroom.com/event.asp?domain_name=donpitcher&group_id=3
I recommend looking at the photographers pics to avoid shuffling through all the ones he took. You will see I spent the majority of the week laughing, it really was a good time.

Almost a month later we have to say married life is awesome. We will keep you posted on our adventuring and we look forward to having many more adventures with all of you wonderful people.

Weekend @ Pinnacles

2008-04-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

With all of our wedding plans and organizing behind us Jasmine and I took the opportunity to enjoy a little but of fun time together. We went out to our local crag, The Pinnacles, to escape from the crazy planning that has consumed all or our time for the past few months. We took it easy most of the day and did lots of easier climbs. Jasmine even managed to get in a quick nap. The crag was totally empty because it is winter, but the weather was great.

While I was off playing around on ropes Jasmine managed to spot a California Condor. This was easily the highlight of the day, especially for Jasmine who has been trying to find one all of the 15 or so times that we have been there. Even more awesome was how close he let us get to him. I got this picture from about 25 feet away. His tag was easily visible as #32.

2008-04-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

While I was off playing around on ropes Jasmine managed to spot a California Condor. This was easily the highlight of the day, especially for Jasmine who has been trying to find one all of the 15 or so times that we have been there. Even more awesome was how close he let us get to him. I got this picture from about 25 feet away. His tag was easily visible as #32.

With Jasmine away...

2008-02-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a view from the top of one of our climbs. Looks like a great time to hike Half Dome doesn't it?

With Jasmine back on the east cost for the past three weeks I started getting super lonely. I decided to try to remedy this problem by keeping my self busy going on trips. I started by heading to Yosemite valley for some climbing and to climatize for my next weekend which was in Alta, UT (I will get to that in a bit). The weather in Yosemite was gorgeous with t-shirt worthy afternoons on the wall and downy worthy evenings in the tent. I learned I still have a long way to go when it comes to crack climbing but it was tons of fun anyway.

Me, leading the second pitch of Bishop's Terrace. Beautiful climb and one of the most popular in the Valley and thanks to climbing in february, no waiting.

So my next stop was Alta, UT where I thought I was meeting up with my brother and sister for a nice ski weekend. As it turns out I was surprised with a bachelor party weekend and about a dozen of my college friends, most of which I am sure that you know, and we proceded to ski awesome snow, poach hot tubs, enjoy quality libations, play plenty of cards, and not get enough sleep. It was awesome. My brother did a fantastic job of putting it all together and I was syched that everyone made the trip. All told I think we represented 6 different states and two countries (Lane finally flew in after 3 years in central and south america). I love my friends.

Here is most of the crew that showed up.

Some of you may be wondering where Jasmine has been for all of this. She has been in Massachusetes studying under a Prof. back there who developed a process to analyze fish bones for age and growth studies. Some of you may wonder what on earth that has to do with Jasmine. Her thesis happens to be an age and growth study on some fish that live in the north pacific. Jasmine is back there learning the process and processing her samples. I will be glad to pick her up at the airport sunday...

but I wonder what else I can find to do while she is away.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

2008-02-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Can you see the Jetta? This weekend we took a break from the dress shopping and wedding event planning that has consumed all of our time for the past few weekends and got back in touch with our outdoor selves. We drove up to Lake Tahoe with the full intention of getting in many hours of skiing only to have our well laid plans buried by the 6 feet of snow that fell while we were there. We did get some back country turns in on Saturday in an attempt to avoid the crowds and it totally rocked! Come Sunday though so much snow had fallen that there was not a single resort that even opened! So instead we...shoveled. The better part of the day was spent digging out our friends driveway and cars and then our car and then our neighbors cars. The inspiration for the weekend was to visit our good friend Jane Snelling for her birthday celebration. So while we did not ski very much we did eat copious amounts of good food and enjoy lots of good company. Happy birthday Jane.

A Note About the Registry

2008-01-12T14:32:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone,

We wanted to point out a few things about our registry. First off we would just like to thank everyone up front for their gifts, small or large. It may sound corny but it is gift enough for us to just have all of you in our lives. With that said...

Felicite is probably the most foreign to everyone. Felicite allows couples to choose charities of their liking to give donations to. Please consider donating money to a charity through the Felicite web site as an alternative to getting a gift for us. There are many people in this world with greater needs and less means than us and we would be honored and feel gifted to have aid given to them in our name.

Felicite also allows partial purchases of gifts. There are a number of higher priced items on that site and we have tried to place all of our more expensive items there because they allow partial purchases. This means that you can contribute any amount of money that you wish to any gift on that site, whether it be $1 or $100.

Happy gifting!

Welcome to our Blog

2007-08-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well Jasmine and I are taking just one more step into this great technological age that we live in. I am not to sure how good we will be about updating it but now we have a blog so that everyone can find out about our goings and comings. Our primary inspiration for setting this up is so that everyone can have an easily accessible medium for information about our upcoming wedding. We realize that a significant effort will have to made by some of you in order to celebrate this day with us and this is an attempt help in that effort. We know that the details have been a really long time coming but they are finally coming. Feel free to post, write, or call for additional information you would find helpful.