Vegas Baby!

Dec 1st – Dec 6th, 2010

I flew from Portland directly to Las Vegas, NV. I was there for a number of reasons: to run a marathon and tick another state off my list, try and PR and qualify for Boston (by running faster than a 3:15:59) catch up with my friend Angela I met while traveling through Spain in the spring of 2009. Angela and I stayed in contact for the past 18 months, and she had been inviting me to come out sometime for a visit, so when I found out the marathon was Dec. 5th I made a trip of it and combined it with my trip to Portland Oregon.

I arrived late Wednesday night and picked up a rental car and headed over to Angela’s only about 10 minutes away. When I arrived I met her father, brother, aunt and uncle. We spent the evening catching up. Since Angela was working until the weekend, I headed west for the mountains near Las Vegas (I mean what else I was going to do in Vegas for 2 days?). My goal was to climb to the top of Mount Charleston (11,918 ft or 3633m). I was on the trail head around 9AM, and began the steady ascent, because my boots had fallen apart on Mt. Hood I was left to climb with only my trail shoes. I did not think it would be too bad as it was the desert and there’s not much snow right? It’s an 8.5 mile hike each way; the weather was clear and cold. I was hoping to summit and then camp for the night and return back the next morning. During my climb I only saw one other person on the trail and he was planning to go only half way up. I continued on my way and the higher I got, the deeper the snow became. Eventually my feet got wet and the snow got deeper and deeper. There were some snow shoe tracks (that were probably 4 or 5 days old) I was following but eventually those stopped too and I could barely find the trail. At this point I was at around 10,600 ft and decided that if I kept going much longer I would get frostbite if I was not careful, so I decided to turn back, and setup camp around 10,000ft on a small landing that stuck out of the side of the trail. I crawled in my tent around 3:30PM and start to warm back up. I spent the next 16 hrs mostly in my tent crawling out on my frozen feet only a couple times to take photos and use the rest room. The wind was minimal; the views of the city were amazing. I had plenty of food and water and was starting to warm back up. I passed the time by sleeping, watch 7 or 8 episodes of “How I met Your Mother” on my PSP (Hey I never watch television at home so it’s OK) and reading. The next morning I had breakfast and put my shoes back on (luckily I had stuck them in my sleeping back so they would not freeze) packed up camp and headed back down. I was back at my car before 10 AM, so I headed for Red Rock Canyon.

From Red Rock I made my way back to Angela’s and met up with her. We went out for dinner that night with my friends Chad and Janice, from Spartanburg, SC who happened to be in town on business. Later n we went to a couple dance clubs and walked the strip a bit. The next day Angela and I visited the small town of Boulder City, it then onto Hoover Dam. Since I have visited the dam before we walked across the new Bridge that just opened in Oct 2010.

Bridge Wiki

Saturday night I made Angela dinner and got to bed early. Sunday morning was the marathon Angela woke up with me and drove me down to the start line. The race went well and I stayed on pace until around mile 19 or 20 when I started to slow down. I ended up finishing 3:19:24, still no Boston qualifier but a good time nonetheless and my 2nd fastest ever. Having finished my 3rdmarathon in 6 weeks I am ready for a break from marathons until at least January or February. Chad, Janice and Angela were all at the finish line waiting for me. We spent the rest of the day celebrating hitting the casinos and staying out late. Early the next morning I flew home. It was a great trip, with great friends and good fun. I look forward to returning to Las Vegas to see Angela and to climb Mount Charleston when I am better equipped.

Photos: Complete Album

The Try Out

Trip Report Mt.Hood Snowshoeing Oregon


Now that the house was sold it was time to celebrate, by you guessed it taking a trip!

For thanksgiving this year I decided to bypass the usual turkey and pig out fests for something a little less traditional: Snowshoeing and Camping on Oregon's Mt. Hood for 4 days and 3 nights. Not only was this a chance to visit one of my favourite cities again, but it was also a sort of 'evaluation' for my friend Rose.

I met Rose last August while visiting Portland Oregon. I couch surfed with her for a night. We got along really well, and shared a lot of the same ideas and aspirations about travel, music, and life. I told her all about my Freedom Thirty Five plan, and she shared with me her plans about joining peace corps next year. Since then we've managed to stay in contact through Facebook.

About a 6 weeks ago Rose contacted me, and asked about how my plans were shaping up for FTF. I told her I was still waiting on selling the house, but that I was still committed and hope I could start in the spring of 2011. Well as you all know the house sold, so I was able to give myself a definite start date for the trip. Rose explained that she was having second thoughts about Peace Corps, and really liked the idea of my trip. I told her it would be great to have someone along for the ride, but that my style of travel would not be an easy one and is not a ‘vacation’ in the minds of most people I know. We agreed that a trial trip was in order and she invited me out to Portland Oregon so we could do a camping trip and see how we get along for a few nights in some rough conditions.

I flew out to Portland on Nov 23rd, the day before thanksgiving. Rose picked me up and we spent the evening catching up and sorting out our gear. Thursday morning we jumped in her pickup truck and headed for the mountain. Along the way we picked our sno-pass, and food for the trip.

We spent our first day snowshoeing along the Tilly Jane Trail. Weather was clear, and we finished about 5 miles total round trip. After we got back to the truck we drove closer to Government Camp (town in the National Forest around Mt. Hood) and found a place to camp not far from where we parked. We setup camp and cleared a proceeded to make dinner. The next 2 days we had some great weather for snowshoeing, Unfortunately we did not have clear skies so we were not able to get any great views or photos of the mountains. We spent our second night camping in a different place, near frog lake. We snowshoed to the twin lakes which was really pretty, and we had the fun of dodging big piles of snow sliding off the trees. Unfortunately we also discovered that it was a popular spot for dog sledders and snow mobilers, so there was plenty of activity throughout the night. On the third night we decided to live large and stayed in a cheap motel near Mt. Hood. The next day we visited the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, it was used for exterior shots in the Shining, but there was no maze or anything when we were there. That afternoon we headed back to Portland. On the way back though we stopped for lunch, Rose suggested that instead of going out to eat we just pull over and cook up some food that we had left, so I used the camp stove and we tail gated on the side of the road. This sealed the deal for me because I felt she would be able to travel with me on a very tight budget. It was this kind of attitude and ideas that I was looking for in a travel companion. Rose has to be at work Monday morning so we headed back Sunday afternoon.

Sunday night I was able to meet with my good friend Melissa, who is in studying law at Lweis and Clark university. I would have liked to spend more time with her during my visit, but first year law is very demanding so I was lucky to have spent an evening with her.

The next 3 days I spent the days working from Rose’s apartment and the evenings planning more of FTF. She was still undecided at this point between FTF and Peace corps, but I knew that we could travel together and things would work out if she did choose FTF. Either way I was looking forward to my trip In March, but first off to Las Vegas to run a marathon.

 

 
 

See the complete album here:  Mt. Hood Album