Hoybook Holiday Tradition #2

Skiing with the Lodges on Christmas Eve.

Ahem, make that skiing with one Lodge on Christmas Eve. Julia is busy growing two babies so she stayed home from the hill this year. She still joined us for dinner though, so the tradition continues. However, apparently, the boys decided this would be the perfect opportunity to drag Gayle into Heather Canyon, double black diamond territory.

Well, as it turns out, diamonds really are a girl's best friend.

Wishing you all the merriest Christmas and the happiest New Year! May the snow gods bless a slope near you soon.

A note about confidence

I've been thinking a lot about the recent events on Mt. Hood. For the second time in three years, a trio of climbers has gone missing on the upper reaches of the mountain in cold December weather. Both trios started up in light and quick alpine styles on gorgeous sunny days with decent weather windows. Both groups didn't return. As with the well-publicized incident in 2006, rescuers were able to recover one body, but two remain missing. Early this week, weather moved in and now both remaining climbers are presumed dead. Both groups were experienced, had a decent amount of climbing under their belts-- one of the climbers in the most recent group had reached the Mt. Hood summit six other times.

So, why is this still on my mind? Well, for starters, I've been up there. Twice. Once when I was super naive as to what the mountain could do and then again with Scott when he made the summit in 2008. I think to myself, how can you get lost up there? The weather was gorgeous, what went wrong? How come I've been up and down safely without even a hint of impending danger?

I've decided that it all boils down to confidence. All of these climbers were experienced, confident in their skills. But something happened. Something happened to shake that confidence and that's all it took. One little thing goes wrong with the plan and things just start to pile up and bear down. I was thinking about confidence on Friday as B and I were headed up Mt. Hood on the Cascade lift at Meadows. We saw this in front of us:

And that's all it took. I was done, my confidence deflated. I had been skiing well all morning and as we picked our way down in the foggy soup, I got more nervous and scared with each turn. I couldn't see and didn't know where to carve, and if I had fallen on my way down, things would have piled up quickly and we would have had the longest ski run imaginable. But, I talked myself into it and we finished the day lower on the mountain.

I think that your confidence can be shaken at any moment. I've just been blessed and lucky enough to have those shaky moments lower and safer on the mountain. I pray for the families who lost loved ones on the mountain last week. May they feel comfort in knowing they were doing what they loved and out there living it!

Portland Holiday Tradition #2

Tuba Christmas, Pioneer Square, downtown Portland.

Nothing says Christmas like 200 tubas playing carols in the middle of downtown Portland. It was delightful. Absolutely, delightful.

Hoybook Holiday Tradition #1

Cutting down our own Christmas tree.

It's just not Christmastime without tromping out to the countryside to cut down our own Christmas tree. Oh, and then having it up in the living room for five days before I decorate it. Whoops.

Fresh Tracks

Finally! B and I got out on the ski slopes for the first time yesterday. It seems we've been really busy so far this winter and couldn't find a day off to go skiing together. We finally made it happen yesterday and headed up to Meadows on what was easily the coldest day so far this year. We had checked the weather on Tuesday night, saw the predicted -7 wind chill and called Geoff to say we were sleeping in instead. But, he called bright and early and talked us into it. That guy is always making us do ridiculous things.

I'm not going to lie, it was COLD. Living in the Northwest, I've skied in all kinds of weather-- sleet, rain, heavy snow, snow squalls, snow showers, drizzle, sun, etc. However, this was the first time I've spent the day on the slopes in my down jacket with every inch of my skin covered.

Even though it was freezing and the snow wasn't stellar, we had a great day. We literally had the place to ourselves and really, it's not often that we get to ski in sun on Mt. Hood in December. It's going to be a great season.

You may have noticed the curious absence of Julia on this ski trip. Usually, where there is a Bryan, there is a Gayle. Where there is a Geoff, there is a Julia. Well, Julia has been working on a fresh new project of her own and we are so excited. Click here for the juicy details.

Portland Holiday Tradition #1

The Holiday Ale Festival

Gather your friends and join us downtown under a heated tent for a few tasters of some extremely strong, Oregon micro-brewed, Holiday beers.  It's just not Christmastime without getting a little tipsy off a beer called the "Tannen Bomb."

Adventure Family

I've lived in Oregon for a little over six years and in that time, my parents have visited four times. While this is fantastic and we love to see them, when they announced they were coming for Thanksgiving, I got a little nervous. See, B and I are running out of things to do with them. They have visited the Japanese Garden, Powell's, Hood River, Timberline Lodge, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Smith Rock, the Capitol building in Salem, the Canby dahlia fields, Cannon Beach, Astoria, Newport, the Newport Aquarium, Multnomah Falls and the Gorge. How were we going to entertain them this time?

Simple. Drive six hours south.

My dad actually suggested the trip during one of our phone calls: "How far away are the Redwoods?" "Well, only about six hours, do you want to go?" "Yeah, let's do it."

So, they flew in on Sunday night and Monday morning, we took off for Crescent City.

Redwood National Park surrounds Crescent City in the northwest corner of California. Redwood trees used to cover much of northern California and southern Oregon, but these were saved from being logged in the early 1920's and thank goodness. They are amazing sights to see.

I got us rooms at the uber-retro Curly Redwood Lodge, built from one single curly Redwood tree, and the woman at the front desk was nice enough to point us toward one of the best sights: the area where they filmed "Return of the Jedi." We got up early on Tuesday morning and took off for a day of photos and highway pullouts.

We finished the day at Patrick's Point State Park, where we hunted for agates on the beach and did a little whale watching.

Wednesday was the drive home and we decided to head up Highway 101 on the Oregon coast. We made stops at Cape Blanco, the western-most point of the 48 states, the Oregon Sand Dunes and Cape Perpetua for the sunset.

After spending almost twelve hours on the road on Wednesday, we didn't want to go anywhere on Thursday, so what luck! Thursday was Thanksgiving. Nothing to do but eat and watch sports. Which we did. A lot.

So, now, my parents have officially seen everything Oregon has to offer. Well, except for the John Day Fossil Beds, the Wallowas, Crater Lake, the Three Sisters, the Steens, the Alvord Desert, the Willamette Valley wine country, the Pacific City dune and Mt. Bachelor. Guess we have to live here just a bit longer.

Precipitation 101

In Alaska, the Eskimos have 300 words for snow.  In Hawaii, they have just as many words for waves.  Here in Oregon, I feel like we have about that many words to describe precipitation.  

Here is a quick primer:

drizzle:  that annoying constant mist.  no need for a rain coat.

showers:  actual decent size water drops, occasionally falling through the day.  still no need for a rain coat.

rain:  constant rain throughout the day.  waterproof jacket needed.

heavy rain:  rain you can actually hear on the roof.  break Oregon code and bring an umbrella.

showers and sun breaks:  see showers above, but add in moments of sun in between the showers.  give up on the jacket halfway through the day.

freezing rain:  ice on EVERYTHING and the city will refuse to salt the roads and just wait for it to melt.

fog: when you can see about 40 feet in front of you.

freezing fog:  a weather phenomenon that causes slick roads.  for real, this happens.

the marine layer:  a layer of fog that comes in along the river from the coast.  this won't lift until around 2pm and it will feel like you've been in a bowl of soup all morning.

snow:  white rain.

snow showers:  occasional white rain.

heavy snow:  what closes the freeway in the mountain passes.

snow squalls:  sudden bursts of windy snow followed by blue skies.

wintry mix:  white rain mixed with normal rain.  this causes the schools to close.

Pineapple Express:  the remnants of typhoons in the Pacific ocean.  warm, warm rain that melts the snow.  i.e. a skier's nightmare.

Not a complete loss

We did see this on our central Oregon tour. Not too shabby.

The Hoybook Alpine Start

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.

De-bunking theories

So far this year, the Huskers had only lost two games-- Virginia Tech and Texas Tech. Coincidentally, the only two games I've been able to watch. So, naturally, I thought it was me.

Well, Saturday didn't go so well and I had to work so I didn't see the game. Nebraska 7. Iowa State 9. Ouch. But, on the bright side, it's not me right?

Oregoniversary

Last Wednesday was the six year anniversary of the day I first set foot in Portland. Kristina and I celebrated with Thai cuisine at Pok Pok, which got me thinking....

Before I moved here, I had never eaten Thai food before. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of things I didn't do before I moved here. Like climb mountains and kayak rivers and grow my own garden and ride my bike to work and drink chai tea and ski black diamonds and eat brussels sprouts and actually like them. When I look back at the past six years, it is easy to reflect on the big, wonderful things that have happened to me. Like all of my new Oregon friends and my great job and of-course, Bryan. But, it's the little things that matter and make a place a home and I now feel like that's what Oregon is. Home.

Happy 6 years Kristina! This whole moving to Oregon thing? Totally your idea.

Let loose on the Palouse

Palouse. n. pl. Palouse or Pa·louses

1. A Sahaptin-speaking Native American people formerly inhabiting an area of southeast Washington and northwest Idaho, with present-day descendants in northeast Washington.

2. A major wheat producing agricultural region of the Northwestern United States.

Top 10 Best Things about our weekend on the Palouse

1. The temperature reading on the thermometer on Saturday morning: 12 degrees!

2. The Moscow Farmer's market. Bin after bin of apples and potatoes and boxes of every variety of pepper you can think of.

3. The smell of our peppers roasting for free at the market.

4. Hearing Grandpa say, "Now tell me, what is this tweeter thing?"

5. Hiking Kamiak Butte with our personal P-town tour guide, Claire-- felt like we could see the entire palouse.

6. Video-chatting with Craig and Bridget.

7. Dinner on Saturday night-- good food, even better company.

8. Playing Cantelope the way it deserves to be played: uber fast and competitive.

9. The beautiful curve of the golden wheat fields. Strange but interesting lack of trees.

10. Listening to my grandparents tell story after story and soaking it all in, trying to remember every detail.

A small dose of crack

Every once in awhile, the vendors that supply REI with goods like to kiss up. They want to show off the new stuff they have coming out so we are more inclined to sell said stuff to our customers. Usually, they like to schedule a time to come in, bring the staff donuts and coffee and sit down to discuss their new wares. Sometimes though, they set up demo days and let the staff come out and actually use the products. One such day was just this past week and Marmot was our host.

I wasn't planning on going, but realized I had Friday off so I said "what the heck" and talked B into it. "You could take photos of something..." really was all it took and he was game. So, after rolling out of bed just a bit late, we headed east, bound for Trout Creek, a climbing area in central Oregon.

With directions that included the phrases "if you've hit the railroad tracks, you've missed the turn" and "go under the trestle, then through the tunnel" and "the road dead ends at the river", Trout Creek is a haul and a half to get to. We rolled in right around noon and started looking for the climbing. And really, all we saw was the Deschutes river. Hmmmm. Lucky for us, two fellow REI employees came walking into the campground.

"Hey," I said, "how do we get to the climbing area?"

"Oh," they replied, "it's up there. It will probably take you about an hour to hike in. Have fun!"

"Up there" meant the columnar basalt at the top of this hill:

Yikes.

After a mile down a gravel access road, we stumbled upon the trail up to the climbing. Yes, that's right, I said up. Trails made by climbers tend to be very... direct. One thing I have learned about climbers is that they don't like to waste time, they just get there. However, the real treat was at the top, where we climbed over, around and through a boulder field to get to the wall.

That's when I realized that all the climbing to be had here was crack climbing. Ugh. I really don't like crack climbing. You have to cram your hands, elbows, shoulders, knees, feet into anything that will hold you and sort of boost yourself up the wall. It hurts and it's super tiring. And, after the boulder field, I was done. So, no climbing for me.

But, the view was spectacular and B had a great time shooting landscapes and some of the climbers. That's Tommy Caldwell up on the wall. He's pretty much the Kobe Bryant of rock climbing. He's good, real good.

When it comes down to it, technically, we drove four hours round trip to hike to the top of a rock outcropping and sit around for two hours. Aren't demo days the best?

Life in the Punchbowl

This is time of year when hikers start to get lost, people get stranded on roads and general outdoor chaos dominates the evening news. Someone is always wandering off the trail wearing a tank top or driving down a forest road only to find that it's a dead end and they've run out of gas.

Sometimes I can't believe B and I have never landed ourselves on the news.

We left Portland on Monday afternoon around 2pm bound for Eagle Creek in the Gorge. The clouds had been threatening rain all day, but we figured it would hold off long enough for us to scamper the short 2 miles up the Eagle Creek trail to Punchbowl Falls. B wanted to take photos, of-course.

After we shot upper Punchbowl, we slid/shimmied/fell off the trail down the steep side of the canyon to photograph lower Punchbowl falls. By that time, the sky was getting darker and the air cooler so we decided to hike out. We got back to the jeep just as the first rain drops started to fall and the light was quickly fading. It was about this time I took stock of our situation:

B had on sandals and his pants were wet up to his knees.

Half a bottle of water.

One Clif bar.

One headlamp.

Two rain jackets.

No cell phone coverage.

Like I said, it really is a wonder we don't end up on the news.

The Garden: A Recap

I think it's time to close the book on my first garden. Let's discuss the report card shall we?

Point 1: I'm a gardener, not animal control.

Yes, those deer were pesky, but unless I plan to spend the night in the garden with a shotgun by my side, I can't really do anything about them. So, I decide to take the deer out of the equation.

Grade: C. I figure we all start out in the middle of the scale right?

Point 2: Harvests like this one:

This is what I gathered just the other day, after I have been ignoring the garden completely for the past month. I dock myself a few letter grades because I didn't get any green beans, sweet peas and only about 8 strawberries.

Grade: B-

Point 3: The habanero plant.

This took awhile to get going, but these are the hottest peppers on the face of the planet. Because B ate one and I almost dialed 911, I give myself an extra letter grade.

Final grade: A-

I'll be back in 2010 for my sophomore year with an electric fence. I predict bountiful bounty.

Fall Foliage

It's officially Autumn here in the Great Northwest so Dacia and I decided to take a drive south of Portland on Friday to see a little fall foliage.  New England, you've got nothin' on us!

Ski Training, Day 1

Welcome to our gym-- the Cooper Spur trail up to the Tilly Jane Cabin on the northeast side of Mt. Hood. B and I took advantage of a clear blue September day to stretch out our ski legs and take in some views.

Ski season is coming folks. You best be gettin' yourself to the gym.

Bambi, you win.

I give up.

I turned off Stafford Rd. today into the lane up to the garden and had to stop short.  Three deer, just chillin' in the driveway, munching on some early apples from the apple trees.  They didn't move, just kept munching away.  I didn't want to freak out the neighbors so I didn't honk but instead stuck my head out the window and yelled a few choice words at them.  They looked at me and then, almost as an afterthought, sauntered away.  Yep, that's right, they sauntered.

I parked and went to check out the damage and oh. my. god.  My garden is a disaster zone.  Every leaf on every plant is gone.  I have four-foot tall okra plants that are just stems and okra, no leaves. I have six green bean plants with a green bean here or there, no leaves.  I have habanero pepper, jalapeno pepper and bell pepper plants all with peppers on them and guess what?  No leaves.  Even the cucumber is being eaten alive.  Arrrggghhhh.  It is such a dismal, depressing sight, I didn't even have the heart to take a photo.

So, Bambi and the twins, I give up.  You win.  I picked most of the remaining veggies today so you are now free to do with it what you will.  I even took down part of my "fence" so you won't have to trample it anymore.  

But, don't get too comfortable.  Next year, you are in for a treat.  Did someone say electric fence?

The Cyclist's Republic of Portland

During the month of September, Portland's BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance) organizes the Bike Commute Challenge, a friendly competition between businesses to see who can bike to work more.

The BCC is only 5 days old, but here are some amazing stats:

Number of miles biked:  158,017

Number of calories burned:  7,742,869

Pounds of CO2 saved:  154,857

So far, I've ridden two days to work, totaling 16 miles, burning 784 calories and saving 15 pounds of CO2.

Big ups to Portland!  Saving the world, one bike trip at a time.

B's Bloggy Blog

Have you visited B's website lately?  Oh, you haven't?  Well, do it.  Right now.  

Because he has taken some gorgeous shots lately.

www.bryanhoybook.com

The Official End of Summer

Last weekend, we celebrated the "official end of summer"-- our annual raft trip with the Incredi-Lodges on the Deschutes River out of Maupin.

We brought some new kids to the group this year, Ryan and Dacia, and also had plenty of fun with the usual crowd-- Geoff, Julia, Katie, Emily, Kendra, Darci, Kathryn and Steve.  Here's our trip by the numbers:

Days on the river:  3

Rafts:  1

Rafters over the course of the weekend: 14

Brats consumed:  a bunch

Beers consumed:  a whole lot

Games of Blongo played: 4?

Times Julia floated through the Elevator rapid:  about 30

Number of rafters we lost from the boat:  only 2!

Times we rafted through Oak Springs rapid:  6

People we saw wearing socks, on the river, with their sandals:  1 (which is probably one too many)

B hopped out on one of the trips down and got these great shots of us going through Oak Springs:

The Crew:  Ryan, Katie, Julia, Emily, me, Dacia, Darci & Geoff, our fearless leader.

Raft babes!  Katie, Dacia, me, Kendra & Julia on Day 3.

So, summer is on it's way out, but September is just getting fired up.  Were you aware that September is the greatest month in the world?  It is perfection.  Warm days, cool nights, Husker football.  Ahh, yes, September, how we love thee.