Gorgeous!
Click here to view my pictures.
I went backpacking there with Erin and her roommate, Kelly, from June 11-14. Since the 11th was a Thursday, the first night we had the campsite (Big Beaver boat-in camp) all to ourselves--and it was a really popular campsite, too, which is usually booked on the weekends (as it was Saturday night). For good reason; this site was amazing! We were right on a spur of Ross Lake, with mountains all around us. We cooked on the rocky beach, watching the sun sink behind the mountains. Erin and Kelly read Monkey Wrench Gang out loud (I'd never read it before, but soon I'll remedy that!) as we drank rum. Erin tried giving Kelly dreadlocks, and I braided Erin's hair (it looked really nice too, and surprisingly symmetrical). As the rum slowly coursed through my veins, I began to act more and more like Gollum, especially when the mice started scampering about. I ran all over the place chasing them; it was quite fun. When we went to bed, there was a mouse that kept trying to climb up my corner of the tent. It would get about a foot up, and then slide back down. Tried this several times before giving up. Maybe it was playing.
I woke up to the sound of a loon calling. What a perfect alarm clock! I'd never heard (nor seen) a loon before, and it had always been a goal of mine to wake up to the sound of one. Worked out well! So I crawled out of the tent (I was the first to rise, and we were all in Erin's ginormous 4 person dome tent, which we opted to take instead of the 2 backpacking tents) and was greeted to a crisp mountain morning, with the tops of the surrounding peaks veiled in clouds. I slowly walked along the beach, looking at schools of fish swim about, occasionally breaking the surface to gobble up some tasty morsel. And then I saw the loon, and in breeding plumage no less! I watched him for quite some time, then went back to the tent for my binoculars. He repeatedly dove underwater, often remaining submerged for a surprisingly long time, and then reappearing far away. Soon the osprey (whose nest was right across the lake from our camp) started fishing as well. Sights like these are enough to make me a morning person (temporarily, at least)!
After a quick dip in the cold lake, we headed out to our next destination: Thirtynine mile campsite. We ate lunch on a large boulder (~15 ft. tall?) along the Big Beaver Creek Trail. We passed several very large western redcedar, as well as a beaver pond. It was beautiful, but the mosquitoes pressed us onward. The mosquitoes overall were actually really terrible; the only negative part of the trip. They apparently liked me the best, and I probably had over 100 bites, mostly on my arms. The majority of the time I hiked in long sleeves (my body armor), despite the heat. At one point along the trail the ground was covered in rough, white cobbles. They comprised the whole forest floor! It almost looked like the ground was snow-covered. It was a strange sight, for many of the trees didn't look all that badly beaten. I wonder how long ago the rocks came down the slope?
We got the Thirtynine mile late afternoon/early evening and I decided it would be fun to climb a mountain (off trail) until I hit snow. I got tired and hungry, and was running out of water, without seeing any snow (at least on my slope). Across the valley I could see that some of the low areas on the other slopes had some spotty snow, which looked to be below the elevation that I was currently at. I guess I picked the wrong slope to climb for snow. Oh well, it was least steep. Though still a tough climb (which required scrambling over rock and talus at times). My heels started developing hot spots from trying to climb so fast, but no actual blisters. Which makes me very, very happy, since this was the first long hike that I'd gone on in my new boots! I'm very happy with those boots. Anyways, I decided to turn around after a while, and the climb down went much faster. At one point I thought I heard tanagers calling, but I couldn't locate them in the treetops. Darn, hopefully I'll get to see a Western Tanager before I go back east! By the time I got back to camp, Erin and Kelly had just finished dinner, and were debating whether to wait or not (or rather, had just decided that they weren't going to wait for me, lol). So perfect timing there. We built a fire a little while later (my primary goal was to smoke out the mosquitoes, which sort of worked).
Our itinerary put us back at Big Beaver the next night, but we decided it would be best to see if one of the other camps closer to the trailhead was available (by hiking to it, of course, lol). So we went a little further than planned that day, but this shortened our hike for Sunday morning (which was good since it was a 2 1/2 drive back to my house, and then Erin and Kelly had a 5 hour drive after that). In the afternoon we heard thunder, though the main storm stayed in a different valley. We did get sprinkled on, and the rain was welcome, as it drove the mosquitoes away for the rest of the day! It was still raining as we set up camp, but we found a dry spot under some doug fir and shore pine to cook our dinner. During dinner, the rain stopped. Everything was able to dry. The weather was perfect; rain to get rid of the mosquitoes, but stopped before it could become a nuisance!
We saw a lot of cool flora and fauna, too, including some notable herps. Two western toads (Bufo boreas) that were impressively large. I'd estimate about 5+ inches SVL. Several Pacific tree frogs (Pseudacris regilla) and several alligator lizards (Elgaria sp.), one of which I thought was a skink at the time (but after looking up the Western Skink, I realized that it was not what I saw). And coolest of all, a rubber boa (Charina bottae)!!!
And that concludes my trip summary. Now it's bed time. I can't wait to get back to this park in September (next time bug spray will be a required item!). I'm also excited to backpack Olympic NP and Banff NP!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Weird dream I had last night
Not the weirdest I've ever had, but it's been a while since I've remembered a weird dream. Plus I was strangely inspired to waste 9 precious minutes of my morning writing it down instead of getting ready for work in a timely fashion. So here goes.
I was moving into a new dorm (presumably at Denison?) and David was my roommate. We opened the door to discover that the building was structurally warped, such that the walls of our room (which was on the ground floor) were bent down at an 70-80 degree angle, but the floor was still level. Oh, and the walls were also sort of twisted (I swear, it must still be that time that snow collapsed my tent, twisting it on itself that haunts my dreams...). The windows were weird, kind of like bay windows but they only went out about 4 inches, and they were pretty small for the room (maybe 2 ft. by 2 ft?). And of course, there was only one double bed in the room (which was so small that there wasn't even room for another bed). No desks. Just a bed. So David and I throw our crap on the floor, lay in bed as if a TV were going to magically appear on the wall, and then after a few minutes decide that we were going to check out the rest of the building.
So we get to one of the upper floors (3rd or 4th), and there are balconies! So we hung out on the balcony for a while, and a strong wind steadily increases in speed, blowing against the building. Then seagulls start to get carried by the wind toward the building. They're blown up to it, and basically are forced to run up the walls to get over because the force of the wind won't let them change course (that, or they're really stupid seagulls). David and I begin to fake shoot the seagulls with our hands as guns, because David jokingly suggested that we catch one and eat it, since we haven't had time to go grocery shopping yet and it's dinner time. Then all of the sudden a seagull crashes/lands on the balcony with us, and I grab it by the neck and bash its head against the railing.
I give the bird to David, who starts skinning it. Then we both gut it, but we do it as if we're doing a dissection, being careful to preserve the organs intact as we take them out. I take out the ovaries/oviduct, and then see these weird organs inside so I take them out. It's a pair of blue reniform/spherical structures and a pair of red ones. I think the shapes were slightly different between the two colors, but I don't remember details. And I'm pretty sure they weren't connected to each other in any way. I ask David what they are, and he says "duh, it's the (insert nonsensical molecular gibberish, much like the chemistry that was in Bob's James Bond paper, here), don't you remember anything from your dissections?"
"Oh yeah, that's right." I reply. Even though I dont' think I had any idea what the hell he was talking about. Then for some reason I go downstairs, and I throw away our pizza boxes (yeah, I don't know where they came from either). I also brought some more of our stuff up to the room. So I walk down the hall, past the receptionist who is behind a big glass window (oh, and the walls look like Morrow's lobby). I'm now walking to our room, which is apparently upstairs now. So I open my door, and all of the sudden David isn't my roommate anymore. Liz's little sister, Maggie, is. WTF?! She's sitting on her bed, which is the bottom bunk of an L-shaped arrangement (Blair and Erin style). She's braiding someone's hair (I don't remember who), and there are two other people sitting on the floor (playing video games? I'm not sure). I'm also not sure who they were. One of them was Reyan maybe, or Josh, and David may have still been there? Two of those three maybe. But I really don't remember.
This is where it gets fuzzy, and I wake up. Two minutes before my alarm goes off. But I think that it's an hour and two minutes before my alarm should go off, so I go back to sleep right away and re-enter the dream for like 10 seconds before the alarm wakes me up.
Weird, huh?
I was moving into a new dorm (presumably at Denison?) and David was my roommate. We opened the door to discover that the building was structurally warped, such that the walls of our room (which was on the ground floor) were bent down at an 70-80 degree angle, but the floor was still level. Oh, and the walls were also sort of twisted (I swear, it must still be that time that snow collapsed my tent, twisting it on itself that haunts my dreams...). The windows were weird, kind of like bay windows but they only went out about 4 inches, and they were pretty small for the room (maybe 2 ft. by 2 ft?). And of course, there was only one double bed in the room (which was so small that there wasn't even room for another bed). No desks. Just a bed. So David and I throw our crap on the floor, lay in bed as if a TV were going to magically appear on the wall, and then after a few minutes decide that we were going to check out the rest of the building.
So we get to one of the upper floors (3rd or 4th), and there are balconies! So we hung out on the balcony for a while, and a strong wind steadily increases in speed, blowing against the building. Then seagulls start to get carried by the wind toward the building. They're blown up to it, and basically are forced to run up the walls to get over because the force of the wind won't let them change course (that, or they're really stupid seagulls). David and I begin to fake shoot the seagulls with our hands as guns, because David jokingly suggested that we catch one and eat it, since we haven't had time to go grocery shopping yet and it's dinner time. Then all of the sudden a seagull crashes/lands on the balcony with us, and I grab it by the neck and bash its head against the railing.
I give the bird to David, who starts skinning it. Then we both gut it, but we do it as if we're doing a dissection, being careful to preserve the organs intact as we take them out. I take out the ovaries/oviduct, and then see these weird organs inside so I take them out. It's a pair of blue reniform/spherical structures and a pair of red ones. I think the shapes were slightly different between the two colors, but I don't remember details. And I'm pretty sure they weren't connected to each other in any way. I ask David what they are, and he says "duh, it's the (insert nonsensical molecular gibberish, much like the chemistry that was in Bob's James Bond paper, here), don't you remember anything from your dissections?"
"Oh yeah, that's right." I reply. Even though I dont' think I had any idea what the hell he was talking about. Then for some reason I go downstairs, and I throw away our pizza boxes (yeah, I don't know where they came from either). I also brought some more of our stuff up to the room. So I walk down the hall, past the receptionist who is behind a big glass window (oh, and the walls look like Morrow's lobby). I'm now walking to our room, which is apparently upstairs now. So I open my door, and all of the sudden David isn't my roommate anymore. Liz's little sister, Maggie, is. WTF?! She's sitting on her bed, which is the bottom bunk of an L-shaped arrangement (Blair and Erin style). She's braiding someone's hair (I don't remember who), and there are two other people sitting on the floor (playing video games? I'm not sure). I'm also not sure who they were. One of them was Reyan maybe, or Josh, and David may have still been there? Two of those three maybe. But I really don't remember.
This is where it gets fuzzy, and I wake up. Two minutes before my alarm goes off. But I think that it's an hour and two minutes before my alarm should go off, so I go back to sleep right away and re-enter the dream for like 10 seconds before the alarm wakes me up.
Weird, huh?
Musings on "House"
"Like Socrates and House, we need people to confront us. If others either agree with us or 'agree to disagree with us' to avoid engaging us in debate, we'll stay confined to our own little reality. We need someone to stand up against us.
Yet very few people will do this for us, because they know we'll reciprocate and ask questions about their beliefs and opinions. Having one's most basic assumptions challenged is unpleasant, unsettling, and considered offensive in our society. Most people will simply refuse to do it...unless they are attacked and feel threatened. To learn anything, people like House and Socrates need others to question their opinions. Since others usually avoid conflict, they have no choice but to relentlessly attack people's beliefs from all sides, and harass them with questions and ironical remarks, until someone 'awakes from their slumber' and strikes back, criticizing House's or Socrate's own assumptions.
Should we condemn such an attitude? If we think about it, an education that wouldn't challenge and change the ideas students already have would be a poor education indeed. And a doctor who wouldn't display a healthy skepticism about the current state of medicine wouldn't be more than a medical ATM, dispensing drugs according to some preestablished guidelines. Yes, just like physical fights, intellectual confrontations are painful. But they lead to our greatest discoveries. At least with respect to knowledge, House is right: 'Being nice is overrated.'"
~Melanie Frappier, from her essay "'Being nice is overrated': House and Socrates on the Necessity of Conflict" in House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies.
Ok, so the title is a bit misleading as these aren't exactly my musings, but they generate further musings so whatevs :D
Yet very few people will do this for us, because they know we'll reciprocate and ask questions about their beliefs and opinions. Having one's most basic assumptions challenged is unpleasant, unsettling, and considered offensive in our society. Most people will simply refuse to do it...unless they are attacked and feel threatened. To learn anything, people like House and Socrates need others to question their opinions. Since others usually avoid conflict, they have no choice but to relentlessly attack people's beliefs from all sides, and harass them with questions and ironical remarks, until someone 'awakes from their slumber' and strikes back, criticizing House's or Socrate's own assumptions.
Should we condemn such an attitude? If we think about it, an education that wouldn't challenge and change the ideas students already have would be a poor education indeed. And a doctor who wouldn't display a healthy skepticism about the current state of medicine wouldn't be more than a medical ATM, dispensing drugs according to some preestablished guidelines. Yes, just like physical fights, intellectual confrontations are painful. But they lead to our greatest discoveries. At least with respect to knowledge, House is right: 'Being nice is overrated.'"
~Melanie Frappier, from her essay "'Being nice is overrated': House and Socrates on the Necessity of Conflict" in House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies.
Ok, so the title is a bit misleading as these aren't exactly my musings, but they generate further musings so whatevs :D
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