Big F'ing Asia Trip (BFAT)

Well, it's finally here! After much planning and negotiating for time off, I'm heading off for five weeks in SE Asia! My head is still spinning at the prospect of five weeks (I actually pulled for seven weeks...hey, you gotta start high!). Hell, my longest summer camp was only five weeks.

I'll probably be able to post travel updates on Facebook and  I'll try to update this blog if possible, but be on the look out for any "international incidents" on CNN. If all goes well, I'll be adventuring through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore!  

2007

Midwest Tour

Work had me in Chicago and Kansas City for the week, so I jumped at the chance to catch up with friends. Sally and I checked out Russian Tea Time, which was a really fun experience. Not only was the food really good and the vodka made onsite, but apparently the Russians have a seven step process (the last step being to repeat the first six) for enjoying vodka! We managed to practice the process a few times, but not without cracking ourselves up! Another night was spent catching up more friends at the wine bar Bin 36 followed by some bar hopping. Ironically, we ended up at a Fado, which is one of the regular bars near work. In KC, no visit is complete without some BBQ so a stop at Jack's Stack was in the cards. I was staying in the Country Club Plaza area, which turned out to be the source of much amusement and merriment.

Hello HD. Farewell to productivity.

3.5 years...that's how long I've managed to live without cable or satellite service. Well, the streak has finally ended. First order of business was adding the season pass for The Office and Heroes. Only two shows - not bad, right? I should've put down the controller right then and there because knew I was in trouble when I started perusing the TV guide. Colbert Report? Click! How I Met Your Mother? Click! UFC? Click! ESPN Sportscenter? Click! ...and Lost or 24 haven't even started yet...uh oh...      

Syriana

Caught a lecture featuring Robert Baer, the ex-CIA agent and author of the books Sleeping with the Devil and See No Evil, and a screening of the movie Syriana, which is based on those books.  Totally fascinating and Baer seems very well-informed, experienced, and pragmatic.  There are so many great educational opportunities like this here in the city...I really should find the time to check out more of these.  

Finish the Fight

Post-race recovery entailed a trip to Cincinnati to visit Lauren and Frank.  Activities included a dinner party and restaurants, kayaking the LIttle Miami River, cranking out 250 rounds from a Glock 22, and of course playing the newly released Halo 3!

Oh yeah, and they're expecting twins in March! Ok, I was just joking with Lauren about the twins, but they are expecting!  

VentureQuest

So for the past several months I've been working out five days a week, missing out on sleeping in on the weekends, eating tons of fruits and vegetables from the farmers' market, and forgoing the usual guns 'n golf weekends with my peeps.  Why?

One word: VentureQuest.  In its 8th rendition, VQ  is a team "sprint" adventure race (i.e., less than 12 hours duration) and one that I haven't run since 2002 and 2000 with Emily and Frank. The 30-35 mile race mixes up mtn biking, trail running, kayaking/canoeing, and orienteering in and around the various parks surrounding Fountainhead Regional Park. (Race report coming)

Here are tons of pics snapped by the race photogs

Team Kia Kaha (kiwi for strength in the face of adversity) at the start line. Ulmer is looking a little grumpy... 

Dismounted for Shockhoe Billy Hill. The girl in front of me had just completed an awesome end over with an impressive number of spirals...her mangled body at the bottom of the hill persuaded me to dismount. : )

Hulk Smash!

Another shift at the rescue squad and another seriously jacked up car. When I rolled up on this MVA, it looked like the Hulk had grabbed the BMW at the base of the A-post and just ripped the car wide open. Not surprisingly, the driver was critically injured with significant head and chest trauma.

America's Last Frontier

A family vacation to cruise Alaska's amazing Inside Passage. Sailing from Seattle, when  to see Juneau, Skagway, the Yukon, Tracy Arm Fjord, Ketchikan, and Victoria B.C.

(Another trip report in the making...)

Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjord

Whitewater Festival

This weekend, a bunch of us went to check out the Potomac Whitewater Festival that was being held in the rapids of the Potomac River near Great Falls.

After watching the kayaking for a bit, Ulmer and I went for a run. Because really, what would anyone want to do on a hot humid day other than go for a trail run? Yeah, it was a little brutal...  Here's the track as captured by Ulmer's Garmin Forerunner.

 Military Challenge

So Kath introduced me to this military challenge class at our gym that is a bit like boot camp and has become my favorite workout.  Washington Post article  Basically you spend two hours running up and down the Mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and even to Arlington Cemetery doing sprints, stadium steps, suicides, push-ups, sit-ups, mountain climbers, and all other manners of aerobic or strength exercise torture. After that, you get to spend another hour indoors enduring similar exercises, but with weights and no running. Awesome!

Freedom!

What's more American than celebrating our nation's independence with a BBQ and fireworks? Jen and Todd, who very conveniently live by the Iwo Jima Memorial, hosted a party for the 4th.

Californication

 What else could possibly draw four old friends to the City of Angels for a weekend of paintball action, revelry, and a trip to Medieval Times? B-man's birthday!

Lucky #13!

There and Back Again

Living the dream - 16 spectacular days in Kiwiland hanging with six friends mtn biking in Queen Charlotte Sound, sea kayaking in Abel Tasman, glacier helihiking on Fox Glacier, alpine tramping the Kepler Track, and canyoneering. Trip report coming soon, but here's a taste of paradise:

Guess what - baby seals like belly rubs!

Fox Glacier

Cherry Blossomin'

The weather was rockin' and the cherries were blossomin' this weekend, so I hopped on the mtn bike and went to check things out. The Mall was also blanketed by a flotilla of kites for the kite festival.

Who knew they made such cool kites?

Can you see my fist reflected in my shades?

The 20-mile trek to the Tidal Basin, the downtown Mall, out the Capital Crescent Trail, and back on the C&O Trail.

Eastern Market

Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu, Acura!

Well, my trusty Acura has turned nine. Having just passed into the high side of 127,000 miles, it's seen me safely through quite a few adventures with nary a complaint. The mileage these days isn't as crazy as when I used to journey 20k a year, but I know that the Acura will always get me where I'm going.

This snow storm in 2003 dumped over 20" of snow! Luckily, Bailey the wunderdog was on hand to help me search for my car.

新年快樂 in the Big Apple!

What better way to welcome the Year of the Pig than in the NYC Chinatown?! Lions danced for hours in the streets, fireworks erupted like massive volleys of artillery, dim sum and a 10-course banquet were consumed, and we joined the throngs of celebrating crowds. The city pulsated with energy. This weekend, all roads led to the Big Apple as Alysia and I cruised up 95 to meet up with Wayne and Jessie, Debra and Brian, and Jimmy. Alex even flew in from LA! 

Celestial navigation for the soul

I've always had a fascination with the stars, which seem to hint at the mysteries of the universe and the unlimited adventures that we can't even comprehend. Remember those cool class trips to the planetarium as a kid? Who didn't want to journey through the heavens with James T. Kirk!

Unfortunately, the city lights wash out most of the night sky and I've grown accustomed to not being able to star gaze much.  However, every now and then, I get somewhere that permits me to reconnect with the night's sky.

During the latest shift at the rescue squad, my unit responded to a multi-vehicle crash. The typical chaos and anxiety permeated the scene of this four-patient incident. The driver of one vehicle was already dead and my patient, the passenger in that same car, was unconscious and had  sustained multiple traumatic injuries. 

I worked calmly and deliberately, but I could sense the chaos threatening to overtake the scene like an impending storm. At one point, I glanced up at the night sky and immediately locked on to Orion like a guided missile. Taurus, Ursa Major, and the rest of the constellations were exactly where my scanning eyes sought them. This all transpired in a split-second, but a wave of calm washed over me as I felt connected with the universe. I wonder if the Vikings and other ancient mariners garnered that same reassurance from being guided by the familiar night sky on their journeys.

The Winner Is

My current theme song - The Winner Is by Devotchka from the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack. Not really sure why this song, but it seems to resonate with my life at the moment.

24

My own personal version of 24 was the 24-shift at the rescue squad. Sure, no terrorist plots were foiled, no satellites retasked, nor any suitcases nukes intercepted, but we did run 40 calls including the usual gamut of trauma (cars crashing into cars, cars crashing into people, and even a table crashing into people...yep, you read that right), medical emergencies (chest pain, diabetics, etc.), and of course the omnipresent frequent flyers. I managed to grab this pic while we worked a 5-patient MVA.

Banff Redux

I just couldn't help myself and had to go back for seconds.

• Unchained-New World Disorder VI - some rockin' free ride mountain biking
• Asiemut (People's Choice Award and Special Jury Mention) - a really inspiring film about a couple's 8,000 km bike ride to discover Asia and themselves. This was one of those films that really pushed my adventure button.  
• Yes to the No - checking out the sport of noboarding - snowboarding without bindings
• Mountains without Barriers - a double amputee leads two blind climbers up a 1,000-ft rock tower in the Italian Dolomites
• First Ascent: Didier vs. the Cobra - follows Swiss climbiner Didier Berthod's epic quest to to tackle the hardest crack climb in the world -the elegant, granite Cobra crack in Squamish, B.C.

Banff and Snow

Seriously, is there a better combination? I submit to you that there is not! The annual pilgrimage to see the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour was rewarded with humorous and awe-inspiring films on skiing, snowboarding, surfing, climbing, kayaking, and tigers! What better way to get motivated for adventuring than to see some of the world's best adventure sport films with great friends. The night's line-up included:

• Kids Who Rip - a cute compilation film of kids who are already better at snow and water sports than I will ever be...
• Conflict Tiger (Grand Prize winner) - The lessons I learned from this film are: 1) don't ever shoot at a 9-foot man-eating Siberian tiger with bird shot, 2) if you know you're being stalked by said tiger, hope someone finds the pile of shredded clothing that marks your remains, and 3) if your tiger-sensing dog comes bolting back to you yipe yipe yiping, get your rifle up and safety off damn fast because you're about to become a tiger snack.   
• Fatima's Hand (Best Film on Mountain Sports) - climbing, BASE jumping, and powered paragliding in Mali, West Africa
• Finding Epicocity - compilation of whitewater kayaking
• Best of Jo - a funny short on coffee-addiction and sports using Legos

Another great tradition with Banff is the door prizes because someone from my group wins a prize seemingly every year. This year, we had three winners, including the coveted Dunham boots! Alas, my number was not called. My theory is the trip organizer is doomed to a purgatory of no door prizes. : (

As if great adventure films and prizes weren't enough, it was also truly SNOWING when the show concluded! And not that light wispy crap that makes you wonder if it's just insulation blowing from a nearby construction site, but an honest to god steady snowfall. Sure it might've been about midnight and 0 degrees when I was out playing in the snow, but I can't pass up the crunchety crunch of snow underfoot or enjoying that dampened sound from snowfall. There's something mystical about falling snow at night, like the stars themselves are drifting down to blanket the world.

The Screaming Barfies

"When you're ice climbing, your fingers get really cold and the blood drains out of them. When they warm back up and the blood flow returns, the pain is so excruciating that you will want to simultaneously scream and vomit...hence screaming barfies," said Kath with a huge grin. "So you wanna come?"

Um yeah, holy crap. I just sat there speechless, imagining that agonizing moment of pain and nausea. A few years ago, I had taken Kath climbing for her very first time. She was hooked and it didn't take long for her to exceed my paltry skills. Now she's a climbing machine...picture Linda Hamilton from Terminator 2...awesome. She's rock and ice climbed all over the U.S. and in Peru, and has an awesome trip coming up in Denali. Methinks it's time to strap on the crampons, grab some ice axes, and check out these so called screaming barfies...

Update: apparently a lesser version of the screaming barfies can occur when playing touch football and the temps are in the 20's...whoohoo!

JAWS!

I am utterly fascinated by stories of survival and the endurance of the human spirit against seemingly insurmountable odds.  While some people resign themselves to fate's capriciousness, others just say F-U and persevere.  You always wonder what you would do when the shit really hits the fan...

Could you summon the sheer will to crawl for three days through the Peruvian Andes mountains while crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten after falling into a deep crevasse with a broken leg like Joe Simpson in 1985? 

Could you leverage the resourcefulness to survive for 76 days at sea drifting 1,800 miles across the Atlantic like Steven Callahan in 1981?

Could you lead a 27-man crew to safety through a 15-month ordeal in the ice-bound Antarctic seas and not lose a single person like Ernest Shackleton from 1915 to 1916?

Could you survive for over two months in the Andes after a plane crash like the 16 Uruguayuan rugby players in 1972? 

Now granted, this particular tale below happened in a flash relative to what I just mentioned, but an Australian diver survived being half-swallowed by a 3-meter (9-foot) great white shark!! Yep, I'll say that again...some dude survived being HALF-SWALLOWED BY A FRICKING GREAT WHITE SHARK!

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2818861&page=1

 Just for some perspective, this is a 4-meter great white behind the kayak...

...and I love this picture. Even though that's actually a dolphin and not a shark, if I was that surfer watching that dark shadow slicing through the wave I'd be getting some serious heebie jeebies...game over!

BRMRG, Assemble!

Jason put the call out for assistance and we respond. You may ask yourself, does SAR vertical rescue training really translate into lumberjack skills? We were going to find out!

 Update: Several months later, the giant limb came down during a nor'easter. Fortuitously, it caused no damage to their home or vehicles!  

Wing Chun

School pic. Gonna be a red shirt one day! Just got to do another 10 bijillion punches and 1 million siu lum daos...apparently 13 punches in 1.5 seconds is the goal. Ridiculous.

24

I've been trying to find some time to visit Lauren and Frank in their new digs in Cincinnati and what better opportunity than the 4-hour premiere of 24?!  I caught a flight up one weekend and it was just like old times: tasty gourmet cooking, beating Gears of War on the hardcore setting, cruising around town, and of course watching Jack Bauer take down some terrorists!  

Check out the bad ass Gears of War "Mad World" trailer!

Mt. Tamalpais State Park

Out in Monterey for business again (it's a tough life, I know, but someone has to make the sacrifice) and a few of us spent an extra day in the Bay Area. The Mt. Tam adventuring was graced with absolutely perfect weather: 60 degrees, sunny, and a light breeze. We opted for the scenic 7.3 mile Mt. Tam loop on the Matt Davis/Steep Ravine/Dipsea trails.

I highly recommend the Dipsea Cafe in Marin County for brunch. Jay said his blueberry pancakes were the best he's ever had...and he's had a lot of blueberry pancakes!

Happy New Year!

"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."  -LOTR

2006

Casablanca (1942)

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine." -Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart)

Little Devil Stairs (SNP)

A day hike to check out the fall foliage.

Sunflower

Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam, and more Vegas

One Stop Shop

The conclusion to another succesful softball season for the Shoppers! 6-2 in the regular season and finally bowing out in the semi-finals.

A cool pic taken after the final game - damn my camera is good!

Lacy Suiter, 1937 - 2006

The Lacy Suiter Policy Forum

Dreamers

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are the dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."  -T.E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, and Vegas

An awesome 12-day adventure that included canyoneering at Zion, hiking in Bryce, going rim to rim at the Grand Canyon, and relaxing in Vegas...good times!!

Read the trip report (in progress)

Sunset from the Grand Canyon North Rim

The Art of Happiness

     "Sometimes when I meet old friends, it reminds me how quickly time passes. And it makes me wonder if we've utilized our time properly or not. Proper utilization of time is so important. While we have this body, and especially this amazing human brain, I think every minute is something precious. Our day-to-day existence is very much alive with hope, although there is no guarantee of our future. There is no guarantee that tomorrow at this time we will be here. But still we are working for that purely on the basis of hope. So, we need to make the best use of our time.

     I believe that the proper utilization of time is this: if you can, serve other people, other sentient beings. If not, at least refrain from harming them. I think that is the whole basis of my philosophy.

     So, let us reflect on what is truly of value in life, what gives meaning to our lives, and set our priorities on the basis of that. The purpose of our life needs to be positive. We weren't born with the purpose of causing trouble, harming others. For our life to be of value, I think we must develop basic good human qualities - warmth, kindness, compassion. Then our life becomes meaningful and more peaceful - happier."  -The Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

Signal Knob (GW)

This overnighter in GW Nat'l Forest was a test run before the Grand Canyon...a chance to dust off some gear and make sure everything worked. Naz easily tied herself for Best Quote of the Trip: "What is your sack made of?" and "I want to suck water off your back." Awesome!

Apparently we camped by the gates of hell...

 Bailey calls it a day...

Monterey

Graduation and another masters degree...the conclusion to 18 months of full-time work and full-time school.

The trip also afforded me the opportunity to revisit one of my favorite spots in Big Sur...McWay Waterfall in Julia Pfieffer Burns SP.