Merry Festivus!

Tis the holiday season and I hope you all are enjoying family and friends and gifts given and received. Since my last post I have left Joshua Tree and headed north hoping to catch at least one more day of climbing but it was not to be. I got into Bishop late and with the weather clear I spent the night, found some friends still in the area and planned on climbing the following day. It was a cold night so half the campground gathered around our campfire and as we drank into the night thinking of a warm sun the next day a light flutter of snow began to fall. And continued to fall which we would discover throughout the night. We awoke to several inches of snow and with no hope of climbing that day or days to come.

Mission Ridge Ski Area

I met up with Keith and Lisa in Bishop and they were kind enough to give me a place to stay with the snowy conditions and all. Keith had hopes of making it up to Mammoth mountain to check out all the newly fallen snow. I decided to stick around a couple extra days before continuing north towards Oregon. We spent a full day in Mammoth skiing. It was my first time on skis in 15 or so years, I had switched to snowboarding after several years of skiing. Well, after that first day I discovered I wasn't terrible at skiing but that I also had a long way to go before I could fully utilize my randonee setup. Also that my legs through having carried my large ass up to the base of many climbs in the last three months were in fact in no shape for skiing. I could barely walk the that night. It didn't help that the mountain was above 9,000ft which made sense after getting winded hiking up fifteen feet to retrieve a lost ski.

After a good day of skiing I continued up north towards Bend and Salem. After driving through quite a bit of snowy roads and icy passes I made it to Bend which had very little snow. I had actually hoped to find a partner the next day to maybe get a climb in to two. Again I awoke to several inches of fresh snow and more falling in Bend. A quick trip into town and checking the weather, it called for more snow and also none of the nearby ski areas were not quite open yet. They were hoping to open within a couple days. I headed to Salem to bug Paul and Shawana during this peaceful holiday times. I hung out a few days as more snow falled, my hopes to head further north were being impeded by the road conditions but more importantly the crazy drivers of Oregon and Washington whom were apparently not well versed in snowy conditions. After a couple days seeing it not getting better nor a whole lot worst I continued on to visit a buddy of mine, Chris living in Wenatchee, Washington. The trip from Salem to Portland was interesting with a good amount of snow falling and the interstate was far from clear, of snow crazy cars or truckers. Past Portland the roads were better and after 8 hours, which should have taken 5 I arrived in Wenatchee to a Bad Sweater party. Drinking was done, friends were made and the next day several of us headed to Stevens Pass for a day of skiing. After a rough start of a refresher I picked up where I left off and started making headway with my skis.

Chris around sunset

The following day we "borrowed" some season passes of friends out of town and hit up another ski area, just Chris and I and had another great day of skiing. My legs were quite sore this time. Christmas eve we attended another party, this one more family and friends, not mine but I think everyone else knew each other. It was hosted by a family from whom the husband/father was quite the local climber who had set up quite a bit of the Leavenworth climbing scene and who was also in the middle of putting together another guide book for the area. It had in his backyard a small barn which had turned into a bouldering gym, I'll get pictures later, where I proceded to spend the entirety of the party at climbing with the kids and later some adults. We had previous knowledge so I came prepared with shoes and chalk. Besides a nice assortment of climbing holds on the walls and structures in the middle he had taken various rocks and glued them to his walls which really added to feel. After several hours there I was able to run inside before departing and have some food and meet the hosts again.
Chistmas day was quiet, Chris and I went skiing again and now my legs are very sore.
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.
Catch ya later,

Summer is over

Well, I chased the summer for all I was worth and willing to follow south. I've been carrying skis and a snowboard on my truck for nearly three months without dipping them in any snow. Its time to switch gears and head north into what snow I can find. I have defied the gravity and rock gods with climbing, its now time to test them on the slopes of powdery fun.
Spent the last week climbing here in Joshua Tree and when the wind isn't blowing its quite nice. The wind really picked up today and the forecast is for rain and cold. If I'm going to be cold and wet it needs to be from being cruising through powder. Going to head up to Bishop again and see if I can't get the best of both worlds with a little more climbing and skiing in the nearby mountains. If both are no good I'll head East to Utah and maybe Colorado. Got to find winter somewhere out here.
Climbing has been good with no real injuries yet, the closest thing was the boulder incident, and I have hopes of resuming climbing within a couple weeks. Met a lot of cool people climbing, some out for the weekend, others for longer trips. Some chasing summer while running away from having to get a life. Like myself.
Just a short one, if anyone knows where the snow is good drop me a note, I'll keep in touch when I can. Hope everyone's holidays are shaping up well,
Enjoy

Lucky to be alive, last week was epic!

Gotta love Red Rocks!


So, I met up with Lee and Kyle and later Lee's buddy from Yuma, Alan. We spent the week in Red Rocks climbing climbing every day for 7 days without rest. It was awesome. We did mostly trad with one day of sport and one multi-pitch climb that was mostly sport. Climbed hard everyday and drank hard every night making the most of the short time. Everything went well or even better than for nearly the entire time there. Then, despite the incidence that occurred it really only got better mostly because that fact that we had no substantial injuries and of course no one was killed.
It started easy enough on our 5th day climbing with our long day of trad on the Ginger Cracks, and climb outside the Pine Creek canyon that has one hell of an approach up a steep hill into a gully. The climb went well with Lee and I swapping leads with Kyle carrying the bag of food and water. We reached the top at dusk, Vegas was just turning back on and the sun well behind the mountain as we started the three rappels it took to get off the 6 or 7 pitches it took to get up. We came down another climb that was further up the gully and off to the left. I got to go first since Kyle and Lee simul-rappelled all but the last rappel due to anchors were small so they anchored into me, then for obivious reasons rappelled first. By the time I reached the bottom of the climb Kyle had started off to find the bottom of our climb which was down a steep gully and had the only other head lamp other than myself. By the time we reached the bottom it was quite dark, I coiled one of the ropes around my head as Lee had the other and we headed down the gully. I had all the trad gear and a rope, Lee, some more gear and the other rope. Kyle was about 30 ft in front of us which lengthened and shortened depending on the obstacle we went over. Lee stayed only about 10 to 15ft in front of me. At a very tight squeeze and short drop down the gully I steped on one of two boulders wedged in the choke point. From here the events went quickly, but one of those boulders, the one I was on or the one above it, but they came loose. I can only guess the one that mattered was 5-600lbs started to roll, I yelled as I lost my balance for warning and then will the last bit of controlled momentum I threw myself for the side of the gully. To say the least, I didn't stick liked I had hoped. I bounced right off and then begun to trundle my ass down the steep gully going ass over end with some air time inbetween. As accounted from Lee who was probably 15-20 ft in front of me he heard the boulder coming but when he turned all he say was me rolling down the gully with my head lamp doing cartwheels. After a long drop I came to a stop right on my ass. Had it stopped there it would have been the most painfull fall I've ever had. From there my legs were slightly elevated and I was in the sitting position. The rope was thrown from my neck thankfully without ringing my neck, and my head lamp was barely on my head. From above in the dark I could hear the boulder which had started below me still coming. There was not a damn thing I could do so I sat on my ass and braced for what could be the beginning of a painful or quickly over situation. It briefly crossed my mind that my knife was at the base of the climb should I need to cut my arm off. I listened to it coming and from the dark above it slammed into my side. My hip and upper left side of my back took the brunt of the impact. It was more of a glancing blow than anything but the boulder kind of bounced off and came to rest a few feet below me. It quickly crossed my mind that I may have broken some ribs as it knocked the air out of me. I got up since I could and got myself into a better position and sat on a better spot closer to where Lee had ended up. After he saw me rolling down had managed to jump off to the right and stick. Kyle on the other hand was damn sure a house size boulder had cut loose and proceded to run for his life down the gully. According to him he only made it about 5 ft before getting tangled up in some bushes. He was the first to ask if everyone was ok, he had to ask several times before anyone answered. I wasn't sure if I was but I figured I was alive. Lee answered since he was in the best shape of any of us. Kyle had beat the hell out of his legs and hand during his short but desperate flee. We gathered below and found ourselves a mere 20 or so feet from the base with the rest of our stuff. We checked ourselves out there and other than some minor flesh wounds we gathered our stuff and walked down.
My ankle was a little tweaked but I could walk on it. My back and side were sore but nothing more really. The next day I was no worse than the night before. My flesh wound on my side was right where my harness would rub but other than that all was good. I was expecting to wake up more sore or with bruises but nothing. That night the beer never tasted so good and life seem worth continuing on for the next day.
We would climb for two more days, the next day was a light day with only a single crack climb for me and the following day sport climbing. Friday night we grilled up some steaks Lee's buddy Alan had brought. We ate several steaks each along with several brautwursts. Saturday night we got a hotel, tickets to see a Cirque de Soliel show and a night of heavy drinking, eating, playing beer pong and throwing away a little money in Sin City. We got back to the hotel were Lee got to lay down for half an hour before being dragged to the airport shuttle and cast on his way. I had little doubt he would not make it, he was in rough shape but last word he was back in Alaska and not in Guantomano Bay. Kyle had choosen to continue on before being sent back to his room around 9am. I got several hours of sleep before continuing on to Joshua Tree where I find myself now.

A quick note

Just a quick post here,
I've been here in Red Rocks for the last two weeks climbing, well mostly climbing. Met up with Cynthia here and climbed with her for 4 days. Then just before Thanksgiving, hope everyone have a good meal, it rained for two days here. Some serious hard rain too. Because of that and this rock being sandstone we had to occupy our time with other than climbing. Drinking took up most of our time. I was hanging out with two guys from Atlanta, and a Outward Bound group from North Carolina. They held a Thanksgiving potlatch at the campsite. Much food was consumed. After several days of rest, consuming, and intoxication we got back to climbing. The day the guys from Atlanta were heading on to Joshua Tree, I ran into Kyle and Lee from Anchorage down here and for the last three days we've managed to throw down something like 14 pitches worth of multi- pitch mostly trad climbing. The weather has been good but in the shade it gets cold. Other than that all has been going great down here. Lots of fun being had by all.
I'll get some pretty sweet pictures posted hopefully by the end of the week. With three of us here climbing together lots of pictures have been taken, some of them ought to even turn out alright.
Sorry the delay of posting but hey, I've been busy climbing and whatnot.
Hope all is going well wherever you are,
Until next time...

More climbing, more driving

Lets see here, right after I got my stuff back in Bishop I quickly continued on to Bend Oregon to check out the scene at Smith Rock and low and behold, no one was there. The campground was completely empty except for me and one other vehicle. Figuring my chances of finding climbing partners would be more difficult I choose to continue on to Salem where I could be up with Paul and Shawana. Paul and I came back for two days of climbing at Smith which included a night ascent of the Monkey's Face, which made for a interesting rappel off into the back abyss by headlamp. It was fun. The third day we were able to pull Shawana away from law studies to join us for a day of climbing for which the weather was excellent and when the crowds would then show up for. It was super crowded on the front walls. After this my hands were throughly thrashed and in need of some rest and recovery. With nothing really planned until meeting up with Cynthia in Red Rocks at the end of the week I put myself on the couch of Paul and Shawana's with the large flat screen TV and cable and proceded to not move for three days of "recovery" and brain liquidifying boob tube. It was just what the doctor ordered.
Knowing my brain was nicely pickled, and body less sore I decided to begin my trip back south. I chose to drive from Salem to Bishop, making it a full day of driving and an easy second day to Red Rocks. As I was driving through the pass to Bend I came into a nice snow storm, nothing to crazy, roads were slick but not bad, I got through and found a nice sunny day in Bend. About 20 miles south of Bend, and about three hours into driving into the day and during my usual boredom induced pondering, it came to me that I had not retrieved my trad rack and draws from Paul's backpack, which was happily sitting in his garage. After quickly pulling over and confirming this with checking the back of my truck I then turned around and headed back to Salem. This added about six hours of driving to my planned full day. This also resulted in me not quite making it to Bishop though I drove until about 3 am. I was able to find a empty campsite somewhere south of Reno close to Sonora pass. I pulled over away from the highway and set up my truck for sleeping. As soon as I opened the door I discovered it was quite cold but I had warm clothes and a decent sleeping bag. Six hours later I awoke still cold but rested so I continued on. Driving only a little ways away I saw that I had actually spent the night above 8,000ft. I was able to make it to Red Rocks easily that day.
Cynthia arrived the next day and even with having flown the red eye that night we had a full day of climbing sport routes. That night we met up with some of her friends for a shin-dig and after drinking a copious amount of spirits, I ended up passing out at a neighbor's house and awoke late the next morning and we did a nice multipitch trad climb. I was feeling less than stellar but the sweating of booze from my pores probably really helped. We had two more full days of climbing here in Red Rocks until Tuesday night when it started to rain. This is the first time in several trips here that I have ever seen rain. I guess I needed the rest day anyway. I'll just hang out here with some new friends until some more friends of mine will show up in the coming weekend. The weather is suppose to improve.
I hope everyone has a good Thankgiving, there is suppose to be quite the gathering here at the campground. I'll post next time I have something.

The times be a better

Well, as luck would have it, about an hour after I made my last post telling of tales of loss and misfortune I wandered down to the local sport shop to place my final posting of my lost gear as I would be departing Bishop the next morning. While reviewing the post board I found a lost gear posting. All it said was lost gear, call Brenda and then a number. Understanding it had been over a week since I lost my stuff I had nothing to lose. Well, after confirming the color of the shoes, it turned out to be my stuff! They were on their own camping trip so had been out of town for a few days following when I lost it. They had talked to people in the local campsite but over the weekend the turnover rate of the campers was pretty high, and where I was camping was out of the way a pit in a old gravel pit used mostly by climbers. Its cheaper and no pretty stream nearby. They actually had put some effort in trying to find the me and while we talked to the same agencies, the gears of organization kept the stars from aligning early on.
They were a neat retired couple living in a trailer park community in north Bishop. Their trailer turned out to be a real bugger to find especially in the dark and all those trailers look the same and streets are windy and crowded. For awhile I was so close yet so far.
Anyhoo, my stuff was returned, the day after I had purchased new shoes, luckily not the same kind that were returned and I departed Bishop and found a quiet scene with good weather here in Bend.
Until next time.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Well, I am still in Bishop though my plans for tomorrow are to head back up to Bend, for a little Smith Rock climbing all while hoping for some good weather. The weather up there has been iffy to say the least. I had planned on leaving here almost a week ago now and I haven't for two reasons.
One, the weather has been somewhat crappy up there and the weather here has been only getting better with the temperatures dropping and making the sunlight more bearable on the rock.
Two, for the first time on this trip, though probably not the last I made a real bonehead move that resulted in me losing my (Eric's) crash pad, two pairs of pretty new climbing shoes, my chalk bag and my Bishop bouldering guide. This was all done by merely placing it in that all sucking void that is the top of my truck and then driving away. It wasn't tied down either, though that isn't the usual place for it. I was back to the scene of stupidity within an hour but alas, it was gone, and now almost a week later, it has not returned. I managed to get the network of local climbers and climbers in the area sharing my sad story of me being below average intelligence but to no avail. Though this I managed to meet a lot of people but none that could help me reunite with my stuff. Posted notes throughout Bishop has not resulted in any leads.
I did learn this is a friendly bunch offering to include me in on trips to various bouldering areas, though the kindness of others I am already being part of. I have been climbing with fellow Alaskan Keith, and hanging/camping/climbing with a young couple from the Tahoe area just cruising around looking for good climbing areas like myself. They have proved to pleasant and humorous company. Its more fun to hang around a campfire in the evening with friendly company than without. They has proven to be no lack of such company around these climbers campgrounds.
So, I am still in Bishop, cranking hard on old climbing shoes getting to the walls quite often only taking a day here and there for rest days. My fingers are beginning to look like mush, I am on my third blood blister, but otherwise cranking hard for me and enjoying it all the while. I now plan on finally heading up to Bend in hope of good weather and equally good climbing and company.
No real new photos, sorry, the ones already posted I think are still pretty good though.

More climbing, better weather

Some sweet Bishop bouldering. I wish my climbing was as impressive as some of these photos were. It sure was fun though, in that finger skin tearing, falling, bleeding sort of way.


The weather here in Bishop has continued to improve at least until last night. The temps are dropping making climbing more tolerable beyond the usual finger and toe pains. The mountains surrounding Bishop have received a nice dusting along the tops. My skis will see some use yet.
Last night was an impressive wind event in the Buttermilks rocking my truck and pushing my crash pad around from under the truck. Very little sleep was gotten as a result of mighty impressive gusts coming from the mountains. The next day I ran into a couple from Australia whose tent was flatten and poles were broken. They had to take refuge in town. This was not the only tent I heard of suffering from the wind.


Climbing up to this point has been good leaving skin and dignity along the boulders here. Somedays are better than others, but really beyond any injury its hard to have a bad day climbing. I ran into a former Alaskan now living here in Bishop, another partner to climb with now that I had to say goodbye to me fellow Alaskans from Juneau. They departed last night heading for the west coast to return to Alaska. Good thing too, their tents would have diffiently suffered in the wind. They were kind enough to leave me with pictures they had taken with their nice camera. For more of those pics go to my picasa site to check out my facebook.
I plan to be here for another two days before departing north to Smith Rock for some more climbing while the weather is good.


This last shot is from Red Rocks, me coming out of the shade of the Black Corridor.

The abridged version

Ok, I got some catch-up to do. After I got to Bend I spent a day looking for a buddy which I never managed to do since for whatever reason my cell phone coverage does not seem to include Bend Oregon. So, knowing I would have some climbing partners in Red Rocks I continued south early the next morning.
I managed to cover from Bend all the way down in to Las Vegas in about 15 hours worth of driving. I arrived quite late at night and quickly set up camp and slept until early the next morning. On the way down I got ahold of friends from Anchorage that were in Vegas and planned on climbing with them the next morning.
This being my first real-rock climbing on the trip and since last April it was nice to spend in on easier stuff getting laps under my belt. I actually spent a good portion going over trad climbing with them since it was something they wanted to do. It was a nice refresher for myself. With no flash pumpiness and several routes down it was a pleasant first day except for the blazing sun which seemed only feet from our heads.
I spent the next day sport climbing, starting in the sun but quickly moving into the shade of the Black Corridor. There I put down several more routes and also ran into another group of Alaskans.
With my birthday the following day we chose to celebrate the night before since the next day was going to be a rest day anyway and we would be better suited for a multi-pitch trad the following day. To say the least I threw down. Like most times I had no real intentions of going that far but several margaritas including a yard of one and a jello shot I was in it for my birthday. It seems that by 27 I should know better, maybe next year.
The next day I got the most of the rest day sobering up and walking around the strip. I've had worst recoveries, I've also had better.
Now being wiser for it, whether or not I use it, the next day came and we went after Dark shadows. A pleasant climb one of my partners took on every lead which I was happy to let her as she wanted to learn and she self-imposed was on the accelerated program.
Check out the photos on picasa.
Another day of sport followed though I did get to lead one route with trad and after checking it out so do my protege.
After saying goodbye and another stop by the strip we parted ways, they back to work and life and I to continue my aimless wondering.

The next morning I headed off for Bishop where I spent the night at Pleasant Valley next to the Happy boulders. There I ran into 3 guys from Juneau on a climbing trip promoting a buddy's new climbing shop and website. balanceclimbing.com I even got several free T-shirts from them. Them being friendly Alaskans new to the area we joined crash pads and headed out the next morning for the Happies. There I got the crap beat out of me on the boulders. It started off slow enough but them being a bit stronger than I, I pushed myself and after 7 hours of bouldering, it had taken it out of me. We headed off to the Buttermilks to spend the night there and have a short morning session before heading back to Red Rocks with them.
The next morning I awoke very sore and stiff. I came to enough to throw done one problem.
We spent the rest of the day heading to Red Rocks.

We spent the first day doing another multi-pitch trad, Lotta Balls, which was a lot of fun. With one of the guys we found some easy single pitch trad and we threw down. The next day became a marathon of sport climbing. I did something like 8 different routes one of them super tough, for me at least. It was another 7-8 hour day of climbing. Early the next morning we headed back to Bishop to meet up with more guys and some bouldering.

Long trip down

The first 3 days.
The physical journey began early Tuesday morning when my alarm went off plenty early so I could get a full day of driving. I quickly and effectively ignored it. Several hours later when I did get up, feeling better than hours before, I quickly realized that it had snowed, and was still snowing here in Anchorage. I was actually in Peters Creek at my folks’ house, but it was snowing there too.
I had chosen not to put on my snow tires since I figured I was heading to warmer weather anyway and in the last several many previous years October had not seen any substantial snow fall. My only saving grace was for the fact that roads were remaining free of snow. A quick last breakfast/early lunch for awhile from my mom, I loaded up which turned out to be a lot of shit into the truck, then paced throughout the house desperately trying not to forget anything remotely important, I said goodbye to the dog and cat (said goodbye to the folks’ earlier as they had both already left the house) and started which I knew would be a lot of driving from here on out. A quick stop in Palmer for gas, food, and energy drinks I was well on my way come one in the afternoon. I have nowhere to be at no particular time so what’s the rush. The journey can be half the fun, so still no rush being anywhere.
The snow continued to fall clear until just past the Mat glacier through the roads were also merely wet, it actually became quite clear out with the sun shining brightly on the previously snowed upon region around Glennallen. After turning towards Tok around Gulkana the clouds were overcast and snow was on the roads slowing my late start. I can’t really remember if it just started or I drove smack into it but it be snowing. And blowing. And I couldn’t see shit. It must not have been coming down too long since while it completely covered the roads as hard as it was snowing it wasn’t that deep yet. The roads were very slick, but really only if one wanted to stop. Turning was fine, at least at my speed and angle, but stopping as I would discover during some unanticipated field tests. While cruising through the mountains before Tok, and through the snow that fell I came down one of several moderate hills except this one had a small herd of caribou crossing in front of me. I quickly learned the stopping and staying on the road was a one or the other kind of choice. The caribou thankfully did not loiter and got the hell off the road. Continuing on still with white knuckles and the camera case open, just in case I do stay on the road maybe I can start to document this journey. I did not have to wait long for my follow up stopping check, another herd, about the size crossing again the same direction, though this time on a different hill. This one went about the same but with my previous experience I was able to make a successful stop and got several pictures off through the windows. I even had on lone caribou stick around trying to eat something on the road. Perhaps some road kill have some lichen stuck to it… After continuing on and finding another hill I found yet another herd, by this time I calmly stopped all while getting the camera out and snapping pics.By the time I reached Tok the snow had stopped and there was again no snow on the road. With such a late start this was going to be my stopping point for the day but with all the sleep I got I figured I could safely continue on perhaps staying ahead of all that snow. With several more hours of night driving though it was beautifully lit by a full moon, often through a thin layer of cloud I finished a full day of driving early into the next day in Haines Junction. Deciding it was cold and the back of my truck quite full I got a reasonably priced room the remainder of the night.
After six wonderful hours of sleep though a tad less than my normal amount, I got going earlier than the first day, I guess this can be seen as an improvement.

The second day started in Haines Junction and ended about an hour from reaching Prince George. This was a full 17 hour day of driving. I only stopped three times to get gas. The vast majority of the day was uneventful with half of it in the light and another half with only my headlights. Going through Canada at this time of year must be done having planned around places to fill up with gas. Each dot on the map with a name next to yet does represent some sort of settlement but not always one with a gas station and often one without a gas station that stays open past September. This had me making extra stops when not totally near empty along with picking up a 5 gal gas can while in Palmer. I would have gotten one bigger if they had it. This proved vital to the success of my second day driving. Heading south through Canada I opted for a slightly shorter route that took me through several Indian Reservations, so they were smaller than most towns and the road less developed than the main Alcan highway. It was saving me at least 100 if not more miles (or 180 Km since I was in Canada) but with these small towns the few gas stations that did exist did not have 24 hour pumps. Few even took credit cards without going inside. My road south connected with another “major” highway east where I had planned and expected to be a gas station as I was becoming in somewhat desperate need of it. There was, it just was not open nor did it operate its pumps past closing. I had arrived right around 11 pm local time, though it appeared to have been closed for some time. This was the third gas station I came across in about 20 miles I had hoped to fill up at, though this was seen as my last hope since the other towns coming up were a little ways away and their dots on the map were no bigger. I had pulled over to confirm they were not on, and to fill up with my spare 5 gal can. While doing this I figure I would drive no more than 50 miles or to the next town whichever came first and call in a night by the side of the road, just in case I might have to back track come morning. While filling up with the damn 5 gal can I apparently did not tighten the nozzle and lost some of my precious fuel down onto my foot where my crocs allowed my sock to soak it up. Nothing too terrible but the next 50 miles was spent sucking in gas fumes in the cab of my truck. Luck would have it the next town came right about 50 miles and this dot even contained a 24 hour Chevron station where I was even able to pick up a drink and a snack to supplement my weight-loss shakes for the day. With the adrenaline pumping through me I was quite awake at midnight and decided to push it a little further since I wasn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon. Two and a half hours later I was quite tired and managed to find one of many rest areas along the side of the road. I pulled over found a nice spot only one other truck/camper was there and crawled into the back of my truck for some sleep.
I’ve chosen better spots to sleep. Not caring much I just crawled on top of all my stuff in my truck. Trying feet first to begin with I found my legs were above my head with them on a cooler and tote pushing my blood to my head, then switching position, that went away but not I had a cooler and a tote digging into my ribs. I slept with my arm under me for a short bit though it quickly fell asleep. Throwing most of my body on the cooler and tote it was a bit like sleeping with you back over a barrel. I could only manage it for so long and my only other option was with corners in my ribs. I spent the next 6 hours switching from one position to another. This was also on top of listening to all the truckers go by using the engine breaks on the moderate hill that this rest area was. I really did not think I slept that long but when I noticed to was lighter outside and checked my watch it had been a full six hours. First night in the truck was over with.
I continued on figuring I could make it to the States by the end of the day and on to Centrilia to make a drop off of one of the coolers full of Alaskan salmon for by buddy Eric at his Dad’s place.
The following day I continued on to Salem to visit Paul and Shawana and see just how terrible Salem could be. Not sure it was terrible but it sure wasn't very exciting. I chose to continue on to Bend.