Buddy Trip 2008 - The Last Days
October 11, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Castle, Fitness, Friends, Squirrels, Travel
Tags: Arm Wrestling, Buddy Trip, Burnt Forest, Death Hike, JD Ross, Mazama, Methow Valley, Off Roading, The Gun Show
When last we left my fearless band of merry men, we were somewhere around the Sauk river hiking the mountains and staying at Freds Cabin. On the third day it was time to pack up and hit the road. We were headed to Mazama on the other side of the great mountains.
It was a bit of drive, we stopped a few times to catch the view, had to go through some border patrol checkpoint and did a little site seeing including checking out JD Ross’s crypt (of Ross Lake fame).
The cabin we rented in Mazama was really pretty nice, with TV, stereo, DVD/VCR, a ton of pirated movies on DVD & VHS, all new appliances, jetted tub, etc. You can check out the cabin’s online reservation page here. My only word of warning and complaint is the web page says it has a BBQ, when in fact it has a sad little charcoal grill that can cook a single small chicken breast on.
We went exploring by vehicle and hiking mountains each day, like the previous three days. The views around where we were at are far better. I believe it was our first night there I had the brilliant idea for nachos, which turned out quite tasty. In the morning Travis made egg, ham, and cheese english muffin sandwiches, quite tasty.
We traveled to Winthrop for groceries and one night we went to Twisp, hitting a few bars. This is the good part of the story. The first bar we ate burgers, had drinks and played pool - I paid. Then we headed across the street and down a block to the more happen’n bar. As we sat down we decided it was Jason’s turn to pay. After a few shots of tequila and beers it was time to pay the tab. At this point there was a bit of disagreement as Jason believed it was my turn to pay. I decided to settle this like men. I challenged him by way of arm wrestling. Now he’s going to hate this part when he reads it, but I can’t help it. So we lock arms and at first I think he’s just toying with me - it feels like I’m arm wrestling a little girl. (Sorry man, but it’s true.) I give him a chance then my big right gun unleashes the pain.
So he’s convinced I was somehow cheating, though our two other friends were sitting right there watching and telling him that it was fair. When we return to the cabin we sit at the kitchen island and I give him a rematch. He’s holding onto the corner of the counter pulling on my arm, this time it’s at least like a 10 yr old boy I’m arm wrestling with. Then, the bastard must have lifted his legs off the ground putting the massive weight of his bulk on my arm almost breaking it, though never pinning me. I’m sure he’ll deny this to the day he dies. But that’s the story of the Big Right Punishing Gun.
It was a lot of fun to see and hang out with my friends, get off my butt, and get some serious exercise. Next year or the year after we’re thinking about hitting something farther from home, like Argentina. I’m excited to take that trip.
Anyways, that’s about it for me. I’ve just spent a long time organizing, uploading, and putting captions on pictures that Travis and I took from the entire week long trip. For your viewing pleasure here they are broken up into six albums.
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcastle/FredsCabinBuddyTrip2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcastle/OffRoadingBuddyTrip2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcastle/DeathHikeBuddyTrip2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcastle/RoadToMazamaBuddyTrip2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcastle/MazamaCabinBuddyTrip2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/alcastle/DeadForestHikeBuddyTrip2008
Buddy Trip 2008 - Off Roading and The Death Hike
October 6, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
4comments Categories: Family, Fitness, Friends, gnash-teeth
Tags: Buddy Trip, Built like the Hulk, Death Hike, Off Roading
For the first three days, each evening we ate pretty well, steak, potatoes, salad one night, asparagus, salmon, salad and French bread another night. We even made pizza on a pizza stone atop the fire, yeah that one didn’t turn out too well. In the mornings of those three days, bagels, eggs and sausage.
[Note: Jason who is on east coast time woke me up extra early. The bastard.]
We had great weather, every day we managed to go exploring, a good portion involved taking Jims Honda where only 4×4 vehicles should be going up the sides of mountains. In some places the “trails” where so overgrown the trees and branches were scraping the side of his car so hard he lost the passenger side mirror and made what he calls Mississippi racing strips on his car. Or was it Missouri racing stripes?
In many places we had to get out of the car to remove trees, large rocks, check the “road” ledge to see if it would support the cars weight instead of falling down a high cliff, and also remove branches that were stuck underneath the car, burning on the muffler.
On Monday I believe it was, Jim wanted to take us to a lake high up in the mountains that he’d been to years before. Nothing too hard for the soft bellied Jason and myself. Well we were out there for hours and hours and miles upon miles, scrambling up and down steep hills at higher and higher elevations. In what was referred to as the Death Hike for the remainder of the vacation, primarily because it was an excruciating hike, I was sweating so bad Jim was worried he’d have to hide my body somewhere.
Jim didn’t “remember” it being this bad, it was supposed to be an easy day hike, so Jason and I only brought one 16 ounce water bottle a piece and no food of any kind. I lost at least 5 lbs in sweat the first hour. Fortunately nature provided for us. Everywhere there was huckleberries and blueberries. I broke off branches full of berries and gnawed at them for the sugar and water. It’s important to note that I don’t like blueberries at all, but this was survival. It was the most brutal terrain and I’m surprised I made it. My brain kept pushing my body, and my body kept telling my brain it was an idiot. That it should lie down and let the scavengers enjoy a tasty Mexican dinner.
I knew we were headed to a body of water, and three times when we stopped for a break it was near a body of water. Yet each time that wasn’t the end of the trail. I was too scared to ask how much farther because it was all I could do to make each foot lift in front of the other. When we finally made it to the lake, which I’ll admit was beautiful I realized we’d have to make it back. I had secretly been hoping Jim would be taking us on a round about way back to where we left the car, that the way back would be easier or perhaps he’d already called for a helicopter, despite that we had no cell phone signal anywhere in this area despite being atop a mountain.
[Note: Most of you who read this know I've been hitting the gym, on the bike machine, tread mill, and crunching weights. Hiking this kind of terrain works muscles machines don't, the high altitude makes it worse and I can say without a doubt gyms are for sissies. Now when I walk down a street I feel like the incredible hulk. I'm consciously careful not to crack the sidewalk with my powerful strides. My legs are things of beauty, muscles rippling like a jungle cats and they're finally, today, not sore anymore.]
That was the worst of the excursions, the rest were certainly hard and at higher
altitudes (7000 or so feet), but we always brought a ton of water and food. When we went through a forest of burnt dead trees, I picked the highest point we could see and we just scrambled up the side of the mountain to reach it. My legs ached and burned, but once we reached the tops of these peaks the view was great.
I’ve got tons more pictures and I’ll upload them to Flickr once I finish going through them all.
Stay tuned for more about the rest of the trip.
Buddy Trip 2008 - Here To Freds Cabin
October 5, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
1 comment so far Categories: Family, Fitness, Friends, Squirrels, Travel, gnash-teeth
Tags: Buddy Trip, Death Cab, Freds Cabin
It used to be that the five of us would manage to get together at least for a few hours around Xmas, but we’re now scattered across the U.S. with families and careers so getting together even for those of us still in Washington is hard. Last Xmas we thought it would be a grand idea to try and do a yearly “Buddy Trip”. To get together for a week on some sort of outdoor excursion. This year marked the first of such a gathering and the planning of the trip, scheduling, arrangements, despite having a year to plan came down to a crunch of only four of us with the final arrangements made only a few weeks ahead of time.
Travis lives in Fall City, Wash. and we’ve been friends and neighbors since kindergarten. I started out by leaving work a little early on Friday to drive down to finally see his house (that he’s had for years), and have dinner with his family.
[Note: On the drive down, I was for the first time in about 8 years pulled over. The overly eager young state trooper gave me a citation for following too closely to the vehicle in front of me. How he 's able to judge this from right behind me I do not know, but he wished me safe driving as I tried to re-enter freeway traffic from a dead stop. Perhaps one of the more dangerous of driving maneuvers. I'm of course going to contest the frivolous $124 ticket.]
His eldest son, a 5 yr old named Tate who referred to me as “Mr. Al” thought I was the cats meow and we had fun playing XBox Lego Star Wars. A giant steak dinner complete with home made apple pie and a whiskey night cap put me right to sleep.
Saturday morning Travis and I left the Benz at his house and drove his Subaru to SeaTac to pick up Jason who had flown the red eye in from Raleigh, North Carolina. I’ve known Jason since high school were we were mostly mischievous youngsters. I’ve been fortunate enough to manage more excursions to see Jason on the east coast than I have the rest of my friends. Go figure.
Next the three man crew headed into Seattle to meet up with the one member who wasn’t going to be able to make it. He had an excellent excuse though. Famed drummer for Death Cab for Cutie had just had his first born, a son, only days before. McGerr and I also have known each other since high school, but we haven’t seen each other in about five years. His recording studio business, band touring and album making has kept him busy, but we managed to sneak in a visit to check out his home that he’s been remodeling and see how the new family was doing. After visiting for an hour or so his mom stopped by and we managed to get a group photo which we haven’t seen yet, but it will be the first group photo in probably 10 years. [Updated: Just added the picture] I’ll post it once I receive a copy (and photoshop my second chin off). He sent us off with his GPS that he knew we’d need and of course copies of all his albums.
We then traveled north and met at a grocery store in Sedro-Woolley the last member of the team. Jim transfered into our elementary school in 3rd grade and we’ve been friends since. He’s also the person I live closest to, but see even less than the others. We did some group shopping for food and headed to the first encampment of the trip. A friend of Jims owns a cabin, Freds Cabin, located right on if not practically in the Sauk River.
[Note: It was decided to keep this initial trip low cost, local and outdoors. It is this last point that had me worried. Jim and Travis are hard core mountain climbing, scuba diving, rugged terrain traveling bushmen. The kind that spend more on the latest, lightest, gear and travel the world with it than they do on techie toys. Travis was in the military and now does something technical, requiring security clearance with nuclear power plants around the globe. Jim owns his own flooring business, a contractor who when not working hard lifting heavy objects is in the Ski-to-Sea, hiking distant forbidding mountains, mountain biking and generally the most active outdoors man of the bunch. Jason and I are techies in the extreme. Although even Jason manages to get off his butt more than I do.]
I’d never been to Freds Cabin, and despite knowing Jim most of my life have never met this Fred fellow. Honestly, after so many years of hearing about both, I kind of assumed Fred was a split personality of Jims and this cabin that Fred 
owned was probably a dumpster behind the Black Cat in Fairhaven. I still haven’t met Fred, but I can attest to having lived in a “cabin” for three days right on the river. A hunting shelter, or perhaps a dilapidated rustic cabin, should bring a better picture to mind. It did have a gas kitchen stove, fridge, what once was a bathroom, a bedroom, loft, deck and a wood burning stove for heat. It was packed with a life time of stuff.
Numerous antlers and fishing thingies hanged on the walls both inside and out. This first part of the trip was about “roughing it”, well compared to sleeping outside and taking our advanced age into account it was roughing it. In any case it definitely made the second cabin that much more appealing and we thank Fred for his kindness in letting us use the place for a few days.
And this brings us to the end of the first leg of the trip. I’ll post more soon.
