In the mountaineering world, you have to get up super early (like in the middle of the night early) to start climbing. It's called "getting an alpine start" and it involves rolling out of your tent anywhere between 12am-ish and 4am-ish (give or take a couple of hours), shivering into your gore-tex and scarfing down a power bar for breakfast. Usually, it means you get to climb on solid snow the whole time and the trip is much safer, not to mention enjoyable. So, in theory, it would make sense that this tactic should be applied to all trips and adventures.
Well, apparently, we have decided to adopt the Hoybook Alpine Start. This does not involve rolling out of the tent between the hours of 12 and 4am. In fact, it involves rolling out of a nice warm bed around 9:15am, making waffles, surfing the web, taking a shower and then heading out the door around 11:30am. Hmmm, I detect a discrepancy.
The original adventure plan for today included a stop at the John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills Unit in central Oregon. Are you aware of how far it is from Portland? Well, it's so far away that you'll get about 75 miles away and then realize you are quickly running out of daylight so you'll just say "screw it" and watch the sun set over the Cascades before you finish the day with Mexican food in Madras. Then you'll say "screw it" again and just drive home.
The H.A.S. gets us every time.
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