Tuesday, February 28, 2006

A story

I fell again. Third time in um like 2 weeks. Large knots on my knees now, very painful. Was in a hall of crowded high school students. What's wrong with me? I am barely healed from crashing into the neighbor's house boob.

Ok M is going Winter camping and so this makes me remember the time I went winter camping. The word for it in espanol is "porqueria" de lo que paso. Ay, mama. Fue un disastre.

Ok so it all starts off with a young man. Not at all bad looking! He lurks here at chezwhat. Nice fella! Horrible history though, poor guy. Four years in the state pen for doing not nice things to little children. What was I doing with this person? Well, I don't know. I guess I would like to think that people would forget about the dumb/bad stuff I did in my past and not hold it against me. Young man is a Mountain Man! Was on Mt Hood seach and rescue! He also fell like some 2000 feet down the side of Mt Hood once, so I guess I thought that made him bona fide. He knew about ice camping, and I was eager to give it a shot.

So we go--somewhere in Oregon, Western part, I honestly dont remember the name. Mid March it was. We hiked 3 hours up with our packs, enjoying the scenery, dug an ice cave (I believe he did this), put the old tarp down and after a little dinner hunkered down for the night. Started raining! Puddles in our ice cave! Tarp falling, dripping water on us! Puddles began to accumulate in our sleeping bags! This is about midnite, and I am thinking to myself, "Self, if I sleep in this puddle on an icy surface on a rainy wet night, I will at least get one heck of a cold, but I am guaranteed to be once miserable thing in the AM," He wanted to stick it out, we packed up, round 12:30. Hiked back to the car in the pitch dark, no wait there was a moon. Did we have a flashlight? All my gear was borrowed. The snow boots rubbed my feet raw on several spots so that every step was agonizing. Hiking through the woods, 2 in the morning, pitch black, through the forest, being rained on, very, very cold. Kinda the perfect time to ask "Are we having fun yet?"

As I told M, I was never so happy to see a Honda in my life. Alas. Heat. Unfortunately, my friend, my Mountain Man, was so tired he was dozing off at the wheel. Around 4 AM I am driving us home the couple (three?) hours back home. Such was the adventurous trip ice caving. I can safely say, don't think I'll ever forget that experience.

4 comments:

suleyman said...

Perhaps you are so preoccupied with other things that you forget to watch where you are going and...*trip*?

I hear Mt. Hood has a glacier. I am still tentatively planning a trip out there in the future to do some climbing. But, given the current situation with grad school, I don't know when that will happen.

Every time I go camping I get wet. Every time. It doesn't matter if you are above the timberline in Colorado or in the desert of Arizona. Somehow, moisture will collect either on your body or water will collect in the bottom of the tent. I think the only way to avoid this is to build a viking long house out of earth and logs.

Oh, and you have to get a picture of this "house boob."

-Suley

M said...

melting: so NOT an issue where I'm goin'.
Toes turning black and falling off? Definate possibility.
Me, in my hardcoreness, is starting to have serious second thoughts about this expedition. Have been monitoring the weather and my mental state closely. Will advise as to verdict, however I'm thinking that perhaps a weekend with a nice afternoon ski and perhaps a day hike may be in order.
We (self and I) shall see.

Fatma said...

I went to Switzerland. It was great. I just love winter. Skying and all... What? Oh my, this comment actually starts with "I wish I'd go to Switzerland ..."

Be careful Heather, no more tripping!

Fitèna
PS: They're beautiful, Adeline's pic on flickr. She's a cuty.

Portland Hobnob said...

I haven't read your blog in ages...good to see you are doing well.

Heading snowcaving again this weekend. I plan to post pictures so that you can actually see what a SUCCESSFUL trip looks like. Not frightening in the leastbit, you will see. At one point I had 22 people signed up, but fortunately for me, the numbers shrank to a much more sane size.

And before you ask, yes, this is still me, just a different blog.