Celebrating, lazy blue-collar American-style

My company won a tidy little sum of money from the defense department for research purposes, so a group of us went out yesterday to celebrate. We hit the Pioneer Square Saloon and drank to our heart's content on the tab of one of the engineering guys. I think I had about 5 glasses of beer, then went to the gym. Funny, it actually seems easier to do 35 minutes on an eliptical and then lift weights when you're drunk. The drawback is that it is easy to overdo it. Boy, do my shoulders hurt...

I have a four-day weekend coming up, and I fully intend to waste it in my typical style. I'm going to rake leaves, clean out the garage, muck out the rain gutters, bleach the hell out of the bathroom, stow my summer wardrobe, and play MapleStory waaaaaay too much. And quite possibly play Final Fantasy III on my Nintendo DS. I believe it will be a very full four days. (Of course, I say that I'm going to do all of this, but chances are that I will just watch TV, eat, and play MapleStory waaaaaay too much.)

Most importantly, the season premier of Scrubs is on Thursday night! You know where I'll be for that hour.

Speaking of eating, I am not celebrating Thanksgiving. I couldn't really care less about the holiday. I'm not going to my parent's house because I'm selfishly keeping my time to myself this holiday. I told them originally that I had only one day off because I thought that I had only one day off, but I was wrong and I'm not about to correct that. I want four days to myself. They can have me for Christmas.

However, I will be well-fed. I have rediscovered how much I like to cook. I was very lazy for the last two years because my free time was taken up with homework and other assorted undergraduate-related crap, but now I'm getting back into it. On Sunday I made a pot roast (I use Guiness, so you know it is heavenly) and a spicy butternut squash-white bean soup, and I have leftovers to last me through Friday, so I may do some more cooking on Saturday. I don't know what I'll cook yet, but at least I'll be able to go grocery shopping in the post-holiday lull rather than during the feeding frenzy today and tomorrow.

This is not going to help my Seasonal Affective Disorder

You can't quit the gym!

First, apoligies. Yes, the title of this post is a reference to an episode of "Friends." Now, onward.

I joined a gym. I had a choice of two; the one near home and the one near work. The one near home is $12 a month. The one near work is $35. I knew that if I chose the one near home, I would bag out as I drove past it each day on the way home. It is also smaller and very crowded and doesn't have the incredible range of ways I can hurt myself that the one near work has, including classes (yoga and BOSU leap to mind) and a sauna. All of this lead me to choose the more expensive gym.

"Why did you join a gym?" Well, I have only two real hobbies - hiking and video games - and you have to be in top physical condition for both. I'm getting older (not that I'm counting the days until I'm 40 or anything) and the last two years of school and strange eating habits have taken their toll from health and aesthetic perspectives. I'm not going to magically get back into condition, so I decided on professional help. The gym that I joined provides quite a lot of one-on-one training as a part of membership, and I am going to take advantage of it. I figure that if I can get in there three times a week, I'll get my money's worth.

Still, I wonder how long I'll last. It is a bit inconvinient. I either have to leave work at 4:30 so that I can work out and still make the last train, or I have to go during lunch and then shower and fix my hair and makeup before I can go back to work. I imagine that I'll do the first option - I hate doing my hair and doing it once a day is more than enough. I would rather ride the train with messed up hair and no makeup than do my hair twice. I do not have hair that I can just brush and go, unfortunately. It is extraordinarily high maintenance. I should shave it off and get a wig.

How was that for a digression?

Sickness and death

Tis the season for flu shots. I never used to get the flu, and I never used to get flu shots. But for the last two years I have come down with near-fatal cases of it five days before Christmas and in neither instance did it go away until more than a week after New Year's Day. Then I had laryngitis for a week or two each time.
So this year, I decided to have a flu shot in hopes of visiting my parents over the holidays without a box of tissues in hand and constant mucus running out of my nose and mouth. My company offers them for free, so I took advantage. Me, a big old needle-fearing freak. And it didn't hurt a bit. My shoulder feels a little warm, but I'm guessing that is fine. I don't think I'm going to pass out any time soon. That was the big news of today.

The big news of tomorrow is that I'm going out with friends to see dead bodies. After work we're going to head to "Bodies... The Exhibition." One of my friends (my ex-officemate) has a strange fascination with death, and the other one used to be an undertaker. My ex-officemate is bringing her significant other, my other friend is bringing a friend, and I have two other friends who may join us there, so we may have quite a crowd when we go to dinner after the exhibit. I haven't been out with a crowd that size in a while. It should be quite a treat. I'm wondering how the exhibit will affect my dreams. Here's hoping it doesn't.

New addiction

Maple Story. Online anime-like multi-player game.

These are my characters so far.
There will doubtless be more.
Hey, that one on the right looks a little like me...


Can't talk. Must play.

Die evil mushrooms! Aieeeee!

Lets call it a social experiment.

I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. This has been the worst year yet. There are a few things that happen to me every year, right around October.

1. I want to eat nothing but red meat, cheese, and bread.
2. I want to drink. Preferably dark beer.
3. I want to smoke.
4. I want to sleep. More specifically, I don't want to get out of bed.

There are also a couple of things I've noticed that tie to this fun little list. I completely quit exercising, though I know that if I do exercise, it wipes out the symptoms almost completely.

So I'm going to do a little experiment. On the way home tonight, I'm going to pick up a pack of cigarettes and a gym membership. Which habit do you think will stick with me the longest?

The truth comes out

I went to our Wisconsin office to learn a particular portion of my job. When I got there, the person who was supposed to train me told me that I am doing only one part of the job, and I didn't need for him to teach me that part. He then proceeded to refuse to teach me anything else on the grounds that there was no need for me to know any of it. The co-worker with whom I was traveling contacted the controller and asked him what I was supposed to be learning, and her interpretation of his answer was the same as the guy who was supposed to be training me.

Yesterday, I spoke with the controller myself, and it turns out that I am supposed to be taking all of the fixed asset work off of the WI guy's hands. All of it. Not just the reconciliation - everything. So basically, he either lied or he misunderstood the directions from the controller, and I traveled for a week for nothing but a nice new pair of boots. Now the controller is going to speak with him personally about it, and I am going to have to return for some actual training.

Here's the thing... This guy who is supposed to train me did some questionable accounting transactions in 2004 that caused the company to restate its financials, which is like the touch of death to a publicly owned company. It lead to SEC and investor litigation which has only recently been resolved in favor of our company (whew!). There is a possibility that he is refusing to hand over this project because he is hiding something. Or he may just be a control freak. Or he may be trying to hang on to it for job security. Who knows. Whatever his reasons, he's going to have to hand it over completely to me in the next two months and get over it. I had a feeling that my taking this from him would cause friction, and I was right. Sometimes I wish I would be wrong about these things.

Final notes on Wisconsin

I took very few pictures while I was there. Here's one of the sunset pictures. If it wasn't for the power lines, it might have been a nice shot.

I escaped the Mall of America in Minneapolis without spending more than $150.00. I bought a pair of brown suede boots, a pair of black suede shoes, and lunch. We only walked the first floor. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, and it didn't have any stores that I don't have access to here, so it wasn't a particularly unique experience.

The flight back was standard, complete with a guy sitting next to me with his elbow crammed into my ribs most of the way back. Same guy kept getting up to get things out of or put things into the overhead bin, each time rubbing his crotch on my shoulder. Not pleasant. Maybe I'll just plant my elbow in someone's crotch next time it happens. Then I'll sue them for molesting me. That is the American way, no?

Eau Claire's mysterious lady

Last night, my coworker and I drove all over Eau Claire, WI, trying to find a particular restaurant. Neither of us could remember the name or location or what type of food they had, but we thought we might recognize it if we saw it. We drove all over town, the good parts and bad parts, looking at all of the houses and buildings, reading off the names of the restaurants and bars we passed. In the older part of Eau Claire, we kept seeing the Mona Lisa on the buildings. It seemed to be a wordless ad for something, but we weren't sure what. No words, just a big blow-up of the painting. I think we saw around a dozen. We drove down Water Street near the UW-EC, and decided to pull over and walk down the street, which was filled with restaurants. As we parallel parked, we saw it - Mona Lisa's, right across the street from us. That was the restaurant we were looking for! We went in and sat down. The decor is great. It reminded me of Monica's apartment on Friends. I fell in love with the red velvet couches. I had a beef rigatoni with a glass of chianti. It was great, and very filling.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel in Lake Hallie, which was right next to a bar/restaurant/hotel called Avalon or Bridgeport. It was kareoke night. We had sundaes made with Olson's ice cream, which has been made in Chippewa Falls since 1944. It is very good, rich, thick ice cream. I had a bloody mary after that, and it was easily the best one I've ever had. Then I had a 20 ounce glass of Sunset Wheat beer from the brewery that we toured earlier in the day. Mmmm.... beer. Then, back to the hotel, packing, and then to bed.

Right now, I'm in our Mendota Heights office. It is very different from our Chippewa Falls office. Bigger, more urban, more professional looking. There's a rivalry of sorts between the offices that I find a little strange, but I suppose that "us versus them" attitude is pretty normal. They both have issues with Seattle, since that is the corporate headquarters. We will leave here shortly to go shopping at the Mall of America, then we're catching our flight back to Seattle at 2:30. My visits to Minnesota and Wisconsin have been short but sweet. I may have gained several pounds.

I found traffic amusing. We entered St. Paul during rush hour. There was less traffic on the freeway that I see in Maple Valley at 6:00 a.m. However, I did not find it amusing at all that the shoulders of the highway are covered with dismembered deer and skunks. Eesh.

The cat i s gonna be so pissed at me when I get home...

I think I'm gonna need a bucket.

Dinner was extraordinarily good and filling, as they have all been since I got here. We went to a restaurant in Eau Claire called Norske Nook. I had elk meatloaf with beer fries, preceeded by artichoke dip with flatbreads and veggie chips, and followed by cherry pie. And let us not forget the beer, which they brew there. Actually, I have forgotten it already. Red Cedar Red, I think it was called. If you're in the 'hood, I highly recommend it. And of course, I am stuffed because I ate way past where I should have. The food is just too good to walk away from it. On the other hand, it is unbelievably cheap. Excellent dinner for two with a beer, desert, and appetizers was less than $40. It was elk meatloaf, people! In Seattle, that would easily have been a $75 dinner. If I had known on Tuesday about the all you can eat elk burgers for $6, I would have gone there for dinner instead. And let me just say this: beer fries. Beer fries! Two of nature's perfect foods in one. I could literally eat them until I puked if I only had the time. Not that I aspire to that.

Notes from Wisconsin

I believe that I have already noted that it is flat and cold, so no more about that. It is also very sunny and there is no pollen, and those are great.

Yesterday on the way back to the hotel, the sunset was spectacular. I remembered to bring the camera today just in case. I'm hoping that we get a repeat.

We went to dinner at Anderson's Bar & Grill. I had the 2-cheeseburger special for $8.50. I chose the bacon cheeseburger and the blue cheese burger. Fantastic! I doubt my stomach will ever recover from the full pound of hamburger I ate. I also had a 23-ounce beer of some local brewery and the apple pie with Olson's ice cream. For an appetizer, we had the deep fried cheese curds. I believe they deep fry nearly anything, including the cheesecake. That's not a joke - it was in the menu.

My outdoor hayfever seems to be completely gone, and my skin is nowhere near as dry. However, I still have my dust allergies. As soon as I'm outdoors, I'm ok. It is nice to have clear sinuses, even if it is only temporary.

These people do not believe in eating vegetables, but they know how to do dairy and meat. I had a salad at Subway for lunch, and that is the closest thing to healthy food that I have seen since I got here. I'm going on a brewery tour after work, then back to the hotel for a while. It is a Lost night, so I may eat a very late dinner. I refuse to miss tonight's episode.

People here have an accent and I'm not sure they realize it. It is like the Minnesota/North Dakota accent we are all so familiar with from Fargo, but not as pronounced. They use the word "pop" for fizzy beverages, and they say "Eye-talian" for the dressing.

In general, people seem to be pretty nice. Though the town is about the same size as the one I live in, it is nowhere near as urban, crowded, loud, or stressed. It is actually a pretty nice little place. I am a nobody in this company, just a new bottom-rung staff accountant, but they refer to me as a big fish because I'm from Seattle, which they think is exotic. Isn't that charming?

The little town is very old, dating back to the late 1800s. The older downtown buildings sit apart from the shopping district, which helps to preserve the look of the place. I have yet to see a new house. They all seem to be Craftsman homes from the 50s. I've never seen so many wrap-around porches in one place. The building I work in must have last been renovated in the 70s, judging from the colors of the wallpaper, the dark wood veneer, and the "chandelier" in the lobby. I think the shopping district is probably the newest thing in the area, at a few years.

I find it a little difficult to work away from my office. All I have is my laptop, so all of the paperwork I need is in Seattle. I have to communicate with everyone through email. The time difference causes problems. The hotel is nice, and the food is good, but I want to sleep in my own bed and eat my own food. I'm going to get fat eating restaurant food all the time. I worry about my cat and my fish. I am definitely not cut out for business travel. Still, I like the change of scenery, and I am glad it is temporary.

The earth really is flat!

At least, that is the impression when I stepped off the plane in Minnesota yesterday. I had an aisle seat over the wing, so I didn't see the... ahem... view until I was in the airport. Ah, the midwest. Land of 10,000 lakes. And not a hill in sight. Anathema! Despair! Glad I'm here only for a week, I collected my baggage with my co-worker and departed for Wisconsin.

The flight in wasn't bad, but there was one spot of turbulence that made me wish I was Catholic so that I could have genuflected and said a Hail Mary. It was like the first big drop on a roller coaster, except quite unexpected in an otherwise smooth ride. I read the first 114 pages of Love Monkey while eating my $5 Snack Box and drinking my tiny $5 bottle of Chilean Chardonnay. It is strikingly similar to High Infidelity, which may be intentional - that book is mentioned in the first chapter of this book. I have to add, though, that it doesn't measure up. It is amusing though.

Getting the rental car was an experience in itself. They gave us a convertible Miata. Now, think about this. Two women, packed for a week-long trip in the midwest in late fall, and they gave us a Miata. Each of us had a suitcase and a laptop bag. We put my suitcase in the trunk and it wouldn't close. I would have had to hold the other three bags on my lap for over an hour. We traded it for a Subaru Tribeca, which definitely held all of the luggage and was nice to drive.

The hotel is a standard Country Inn & Suites, nothing particularly special. After breakfast, I have to go meet the Wisconsin accounting team and learn the fixed asset module from a guy that I've heard a lot about and yet I'm still not sure what to expect. He may have been involved in some fraud, he may be very knowledgeable, he may be very nice, and he may be incompetent. That's the gist of what I've gotten from other teammates. This should be interesting. I will be going to lunch with "the girls" at a place called Olsen's. I have no idea what that is.

I will also be trying the fried cheese at the restaurant next door to the hotel as an appetizer for dinner. I'm not sure what to expect from that. Added bonus: there may be a brewery tour in store for me. Woo! That I'm looking forward to.

Oh, yeah. I graduated with my Bachelor's of Science in Accounting on Saturday, the 21st. I thought it worth a mention. Two years and three months of my attention should get at least two sentences on mention on the Internet, I think. Woo! on that as well.

My new job included a new laptop with wireless capabilities. Dude. I'm at home with my work laptop, watching Animal Planet and surfing the 'Net. Sure, I should be doing homework, but I'm being lazy. I actually brought the laptop home to see if I could get into my work network (I can't, and I don't know why), but since I can work on my homework on it too, I might as well, right?

Speaking of school, only 35 days to go until I get my degree! Woo hoo!

I haven't done any hiking in the last month. I was falling behind in school because I was hiking instead of studying and doing homework, and besides, the weather is changing nastily and now the best areas all seem to be on fire anyway. Maybe I'll do some more hikes if the weather is good on upcoming weekends. We'll see.

But...

I left my old job last week and began my new job yesterday. No window here, but I don't have to share an office, either. I have a brick wall behind me that is over 100 years old, but the rest of the building interior is new. The floors creak when you walk, but I like that. The work load is more even over the course of the month, so I won't have down time, but it will never be as hectic here as it was there. Uwajimaya is further away now, but the exercise won't kill me. This company pays for parking and the train, so I can do either at will and lose nothing out of pocket. The walk through Pioneer Square might be a bit harrowing in the upcoming months when it is dark during the commute, but I have police-issue pepper spray that I can use if someone seriously threatens me. We get bagels on Tuesday and lunch on Friday. I miss the security of  familiarity, but I like everyone I've met here and I am training with an old friend to take over part of his work. They didn't have me set up with a computer or a phone on day 1, but I now have a new wireless-enabled Dell laptop of the type without the exploding battery. I still do not have access to all of the software and websites I'll need to do my job, but that will come in time. There's no convinient Starbucks in the lobby of this building, but the company coffee is good and it is free. My ex-officemate has the office to herself until Thursday so that she can work distraction-free through the final steps of the month-end close, but after that she has to share her office with Katherine from purchasing, who drives everyone nuts with her bizarre behavior and her endless chatter about her kids. I feel bad for my ex-officemate, but I have a better job and better pay, and like everyone else in the world, I'm in it for myself. 

Once again, a thwarted birthday hike

I took the third week of August off of work to go hiking. I planned one hike, but my car couldn't make it down the terrible road to the trailhead, so at the last minute I changed to a different hike. I went to Necklace Valley. Pretty, but not worth the horrific trail you have to endure to get there. Pictures are in the usual place. I did the mile-long scramble up talus to get to Chain Lakes, which would have been nice if the sun was out. Of course, it was totally overcast, with no view whatsoever of the peaks across the valley. Oh, and it was 51 degrees, and the clouds blowing across at eye-level were very cold and wet. The high-point of the hike was the sow and cub that I got within 30 feet of before seeing them. They ran away so fast I didn't even manage to get a reasonable picture, just bear butts running up the slope away from the trail. Curses! Foiled again. On the other hand, I saw more frogs on this hike than I have seen in the last 10 years. And the blueberries were perfect.

But before that, I accidentally found a new job. I wasn't looking, it just happened! I was minding my own business and got a phone call from an ex-coworker, who told me about the opening. I went for an interview on the 17th and got an offer on the 18th, which I accepted. I start my new job on September 11th.

Change

It seems that when things start to change, the changes don't stop with just one thing. They snowball into changing everything in reach.

 

An old friend called me last week about a job opening in his company. I think I may be changing jobs right at the same time that my current company is being acquired, which happens to be the same time that I am graduating.

 

Nice timing, eh?

Strange day

It is only 8:39 in the morning and my day is having major mood swings.

1. I found out that someone for whom I have great admiration and respect died in a hiking accident the day before yesterday on Mt. Formidable.

2. My boss is trying to set me up on a blind date.

3. An ex-coworker from 3 or 4 years ago called me to tell me about a job opening in his company.

What could be next? I'm almost afraid to find out.

Spectacle Lake

When I told my compadres where I was spending the weekend, I got a lot of warnings about staying cool, staying hydrated, and loading up on sunscreen. I set out early and arrived at the Pete Lake trailhead at 6 am armed with a cotton shirt, a hat, a ton of Gatorade and salted almonds, and 40+ SPF gel. Luckily, I went one step further and brought lots of DEET. The moment I stepped out of the car I was swarmed with mosquitos. It was already 71 degrees, but there was a bit of cloud cover that I expected to burn off.

The four and a half miles to Pete Lake is just long and flat, nothing to look at, and the mosquitos never let up. I stopped by the shore of Pete Lake for a drink and a snack, swatting at everything that moved, and headed up. 

Just after Pete Lake the mosquitos thinned out. When I got to the Lemah Creek crossing, I saw how high, fast, and wide it was and decided it would be wise to add the extra 3/4 mile trip on the Lemah Meadows trail to join the PCT and take the footbridge route. Some of the PCT is a little overgrown, and some of the growth is Devil's Club. The rest of the overgrowth is just wet and full of spider webs. It was actually nice to get soaked walking through that - it was a nice cool-down.

Miles later of more uneventful trail and I finally hit the switchbacks up to the lake. Again, no views, but there was one rather fantastic, crashing waterfall that looked like something you'd see in Vegas or Disneyland. 

Right after that is the one big blowdown. A huge dead tree fell over the trail. You can't go over or around it, so you have to crawl under it. With a day pack, it might be a little more navigable than with an overnight pack. Over the whole trail, I saw one group of about 8, one other solo hiker, and two couples. All of them were going in the opposite direction. I was hoping for a lack of crowds, and I got it.

Finally, at long last, I got up to the first views of Three Queens and the peaks surrounding Spectacle Lake. It took me about 6 hours between leaving the car and getting to the lakeshore. I made my way down to the lake to find that I was alone and had my choice of campsites. I wandered down the first shoreline reached by the trail and did not find what I wanted. I went around the South shore and then North onto the large peninsula and found a campsite near the end with a view of the Western portion of the lakes and the peaks surrounding it: Huckleberry Mountain, Chickamin Peak, and Lemah Mountain. Heavenly! 
  
Eventually, two other campsites were tak en, and there was a group of 4 that fished and left, and one other solo hiker who stayed for a short time and left. The lake was very quiet.

I set up camp and ate lunch, then set out to find the trail to Glacier Lake. No such luck. I went back to camp and relaxed and took in the veiw, had a swim, watched the fish and the ducks, and relaxed some more. The cloud cover broke breifly a few times. The temperature hovered around the mid-nineties, but when the sun broke it shot up to 103. That gets a little uncomfortable, but that's what alpine lakes are for.  The sunset I hoped for did not materialize - too many clouds. It was nice, but not... well, not spectacular. I finally crawled into my tent and passed out. A deer woke me up around midnight, crashing around in the campsite, looking for leftovers or something.

I did not go up to Spectacle Point due to time and energy constraints (after hunting for the Glacier Lake trail for too long), but word is that there are still a couple of nasty snowfields on that portion of the PCT.

When I woke up this morning, it was already 64 degrees.  I ate and packed out, taking one last look for that Glacier Lake trail - for next time. I left the lake at about 6:30 and got back to the car, 11 miles later, at 11:15 and 88 degrees. I must have been in a hurry to get through the skeeters. I saw only 8 people on the trail this morning, all on their way up to Pete Lake.

Tuck and Robin

This week’s hike was a comedy of errors from the outset. Pictures are here.

I decided to hike Tuck and Robin. I had done it before, but this weekend’s weather forecast wasn’t great and I didn’t want to waste a marginal-weather weekend on a new hike. My pictures from the previous trip were great, and I felt no need to improve on them. I figured if my pictures from this trip didn’t turn out it wouldn’t matter.

I got to the trailhead early and started out at a very slow pace, knowing what was in store ahead. The first several miles are nearly flat, and they lull you into a false sense of security, making you think you can go full-speed. That just wears you out. The last two miles of the trail are a nightmare of roots, rocks, gravel, and straight up climbing – sometimes with a trail, sometimes just scrambling up over rocks marked by cairns.

First error: wrong boots. I chose the boots for this trip because I wanted good ankle support. These boots used to work just fine for me, but for some reason they don’t anymore. Last time I wore them I got a blister, and this time was no different. The best thing to prevent a blister that I have found is duct tape. As soon as you have a hot spot, slap on some duct tape. However, I didn’t have any this time. To prevent a blister, I tightened up my laces and changed my pace. That hurt my ankles, but it was better than a blister. So now, my ankles are swollen and bruised.

The trail from the turnoff from the Deception Pass Loop trail up to Tuck Lake sucks. There’s really no other way to put it. It sucks out loud. As I said above, rocks, roots, gravel, straight up. I hate it. I got to Tuck Lake after seeing only two people on the trail. Tuck is a beautiful lake with a little island that looks like it should have been in Myst or Riven or one of the Lord of the Rings movies. It is a little barren and primeval while being lush and colorful at the same time. It looks a little unreal, especially in sunlight, especially since the water is so clear and so blue that you can see all of the rocks under the water and watch the fish. I stopped there for a break and headed up to the Robin Lakes.

The trail past Tuck Lake and Tuck’s Pot gives a nice preview of what the trail is like all the way up to the Robin Lakes. If you follow the trail closest to Tuck Lake, you end up climbing up, over, down, and around until you get to the logjam, which you cross to find the trail on the other side. Then you do some more climbing up and over and down and around, eventually with great views of Tuck’s Pot and Mt. Daniel, until you reach the end of Tuck Lake. That’s when you start climbing in earnest. It is about 900 feet of elevation gain from the end of Tuck Lake up to Lower Robin Lake. And it isn’t even a mile.

Up, up, up. Roots, rocks, handholds, footholds, up, down, around, through, follow that cairn, brace yourself here, haul yourself up with that branch, stick your foot up against that tree trunk while you jam your pack into that crevice for leverage and pull yourself up with your fingernails, don’t take that trail because it leads to a cliff, follow that cairn up there instead and then spot the next one. Eventually you run out of trail and all you have left is big, broken slabs of granite that you walk straight up. Not to the left – that gives a very difficult gully to climb down to get to the lake. Not to the right – that just leads to the end of the lake and adds time and distance. Follow the cairns up the middle. You see two really big cairns next to each other, like a gateway to the land of the cairns. After that, all bets are off. You can go any way you want to. Some of the cairns on the left lead to a trail that takes you down to Lower Robin Lake. Others just lead you around the end of the lake, which is great if that is what you want. Other cairns were placed for fun or some other inexplicable reason.

My welcome back to the lakes consisted of seeing the gateway cairns and a goat sticking its head out from behind a rock. Yay, goats! That is what I was hoping for. I climbed up the knob at the outlet of Lower Robin Lake, overlooking Cathedral Rock, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Daniel, Granite Mountain, and Mt. Hinman, and set up my campsite. The goats joined me shortly thereafter. I think I had 8 or 9 of them with me for a while.

Second error: For the record, that partly cloudy forecast was direly incorrect. There wasn’t a cloud anywhere over the Robin Lakes. But it was only in the low 70s, so it didn’t occur to me to put on sunscreen. You can guess what I’m leading you to. So anyway.

After the long and tiring trek up to the lakes, I was tired. I decided to whip up some chicken and rice for dinner. I boiled the water, poured the two cups of water into the freeze-dried food bag, and sealed it. I waited my 8 minutes for my lovely hot dinner. I opened up the zippered bag… and 8 or 9 little goat heads whipped around to stare at me. They could smell the salt. Uh oh. Two of the biggest goats stood up. They sparred a bit to determine who would dine on chicken tonight. The biggest one won and came at me. I backed away, telling the goat that good goats don’t eat chicken and rice, it is bad for their cholesterol levels and that goats are vegetarians and wouldn’t like my dinner. It didn’t work. Finally, the goat had me cornered and was about 3 feet from me, and like a moron I decided to treat him like a dog. I pointed at him and said “NO!” in a rather harsh tone. He blinked and gave me one of those, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me” looks and walked back to the herd and lay down. Hmmm. Interesting. Can goats really have facial expressions? Probably not, but that’s how I chose I read it.

As it cooled off, the wind picked up. The temperature started dropping rapidly. I watched the goats for a while, watched the lake for a while, and watched the sun setting for a while. I saw what I think was an eagle catching a fish and fly away toward the South. I read my book for a while and had a victory beverage. It got colder. And colder.

Third error: I made a stupid assumption. All of the other hikes I’ve done this year had temperatures above 60 at night. I assumed that this one would be no different. On the last several hikes, I took my North Face Blue Kazoo sleeping bag, which is good down to 30 degrees. Way too hot. So this time, I took my summer weight bag, good down to 55 degrees. The nighttime temperature fell to 41 degrees. I had all of my clothes on in my tent in my sleeping bag and I couldn’t sleep because I was shivering too hard. I was worried that I would end up hypothermic. Luckily, I was just very uncomfortable and ultimately undamaged.

I got up this morning and it was still in the 40s. I decided that I would not be staying another night because I didn’t have my good sleeping bag, and instead I would go visit the Granite Mountain Potholes after eating breakfast, then I would pack out. The Potholes are a little series of tarns just past Upper Robin Lake. I tried to light my stove to boil water.

Fourth error: your mileage may vary with stove lighting methods. I carry a lighter. Before each hike, I shake it to see how much fuel is in it. There was plenty. Today, I couldn’t get it to light. I think the flint was worn down, I don’t know. I had a brief panicky moment where I thought I would have to ask another camper for a light (so gauche, such a n00B move), and then I remembered that for the first time ever, for no discernable reason, I had packed matches! I dug them out of my first aid kit (Why there? I don’t know.) and got the stove lit on the second try. I had a nice hot oatmeal breakfast and started cleaning up the camp.

Back to the goats. The first time I was up there, they weren’t the least bit aggressive. They are now. I had them following me around regularly because they were waiting for me to pee. They want the salt. Yes, it’s gross, but that’s the way it works. I had to keep shooing them away. At one point while I was getting ready to go off to the Potholes, I was walking past a goat and her kid, and I was giving them plenty of space. And yet, she came at me like she was going to headbutt me, and then stomped her feet at me. I stomped back at her before realizing that I might be accepting some kind of a challenge, but she just gave me a “pardon me, I must have lost my mind for a moment there” look, and she left.

I headed for the Potholes. They’re pretty easy to find, but the trail isn’t exactly great. If you follow the trail around Upper Robin Lake, you see there are a number of trails. They eventually converge into one very narrow, steep track that drops straight down part of the shoreline, then becomes easier and heads up to the Potholes. However, there’s still quite a lot of snow up there. It is very hard packed and slick, so I gave up trying to walk on it and headed up the rocks to the left. You can follow some good game trails. It is an interesting little area. I think the flora is a little different from what is around the lakes, and it is very quiet. I could see no campsites, but there may be some under the snow. After wandering for a short time, I decided to pack out and I headed back to the campsite.

I got everything packed up and got the pack on my back. I turned to take one last look at the lakes. It is so pretty up there. I really love the area. I felt so bad about leaving so soon, but I will just have to go back someday. I miss it already. Away I went.

The trip up the trail to the lakes is bad. Going down that trail is even worse. You get winded and fatigued going up, but your joints take a terrible beating on the way down. I made it to Tuck Lake in about an hour, and my knees were bothering me. A short way past Tuck Lake, my right knee and hip decided they didn’t want to play anymore and they took their ball and went home. I struggled for a while, favoring my right leg, mostly using my left leg and relying heavily on my trekking poles. Eventually they came back to play, but they pouted the rest of the way down. Then my left knee decided it wasn’t happy anymore either. By the time I got back to my car, both my legs were pissed off, stiff, sore, creaky, and weak. Driving home was a great treat. I’m hoping they recover by Monday, but I may be asking for too much.

To sum up: stunning alpine lakes, glacier carved basin, mountain goats, wild flowers and heather, fantastic weekend. Did I mention mosquitoes? No? That’s because there were none! Make that a perfect weekend.

Deep Lake: July 15, 2006

No trip report just yet. Pictures are at http://community.webshots.com/album/552311123swTGdg