Transitive Down Time

Uh oh, the cat's drunk again.

I started this blog on April 13^th, 2008. 

I have been blogging for roughly 2,645 days.  My blog has received about 50,000 views over that period of time.  That’s equivalent to an average of 224.21 views per post, and on average 18.9 views a day since I started my blog. 

I’ve never tried to sell anything, force my beliefs on anyone, or use it for personal gain in any way. 

In the end, it’s true; nobody does care about my blog.  But maybe, just maybe, someone does.  In any event I continue to write and post pictures here because it makes me happy and that’s all that really matters.  I’ve noticed a drastic decline (something that has been pointed out by other bloggers) in the use of personal blogs over the last four years.  I’ve found so many dead end blogs as of late that the internet is starting to resemble the closet of some narcoleptic author who started a great thought and was able to jot down half a ground breaking novel before uncontrollably nodding off and waking up to a blank slate and tossing the half-finished manuscript into the broom closet.  But really this misguided diatribe is all about my selfish needs and wanton laziness when it comes to intelligently entertaining myself at work, no less. 

It was a perfect day.  Well, almost perfect.  But what’s perfect anyway?  Define perfect for me please.

It was hotter than it has been all year and when you time an event like this that perfectly it’s only some kind of cosmic force that pushes the perfection of these events into a homogenous mix.  Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to participate in an event called the Cutthroat Classic.  An 11 mile trail run just outside of Mazama touted as one of the States purdiest trail runs.  I like running, I like trails, and I even like purdy!  It was so far off in the distance when I originally had this idea that I was excited.  Now it’s about 5 weeks away and I’m already thinking up excuses not to participate.  But I will.  So, during my short stint of no climbing I decided to do a little fitness training to gauge exactly where I am in the whole ‘trail-running-fitness-spectrum’.  It was going to be hot as ballz with high’s predicted to be in the mid to late 90’s so I manufactured a run that would end at a sweet ass lake.  Enter Lake Serene.  A microcosm of utopian grandeur so close to home yet so isolated and remote feeling as to draw all sorts of characters up there in the last few years.  Seriously, the trail is buzzing with visitors on a hot weekend, a phenomenon I feel that has increased over the last five years.  So ‘On your left!’ became part of my vernacular for the day as I passed several groups (about 16) on my way up to this alpine lake.  I made it to the lake in a whopping 45 minutes (the trail is approx. 3.6 miles in length with about 2 miles of that on steep switch backs with an overall elevation gain of roughly 2,400 feet).  So I was feeling good, I wasn’t able to run the switch back section because I’m not the Swiss machine Uli Stoeck, but I didn’t stop once and when I got to the top I felt like I could have kept going.  I made my way around the lake to the Anvil boulder perfectly perched on the water’s edge and boasting an amazing 20foot jump into the pristine snow melt below.  The water is so clear that you can see every detail of every granitic house-sized boulder that litters the lake’s floor.  With the towering peaks of Mt. Index behind you, the lake spread out in front of you, good tunes, tasty beer, dark chocolate, good company, and the sun’s heat and natures breeze readying you for the next plunge, life doesn’t get any better than this.  A little perk of this place is also the fact that you are surrounded by climbing.  Mt. Index boasts several amazing looking big wall alpine trad climbs, the talus field in front of it is host to boulder problems on bullet hard rock and lazer cut features from V.easy to V.double-digit-fuck-me-that’s-hard.  If you were in the right mind state to trek up a camp and a few crash pads you could have this paradise all to yourself on the weekdays and climb and chill and lose yourself in deep contemplation for as long as you wanted.  I can’t spray, I mean say enough about Lake Serene and all it has to offer. 

I couldn’t drink enough of this place in for a lifetime so I knew prolonging my stay wouldn’t help me feel any better or deter my sunburn so I said goodbye to the lake and headed down at a furious clip.  I managed to make it down to my car in just under 30 minutes.  I swung my small running pack off my shoulders and noticed the zipper of the main pocket had come unzipped to about halfway.  I thought nothing of it and threw it in the back of the car and headed for Seattle.  When I got home I realized my camera was gone.  Well, that explains why my back pack was halfway unzipped.  It must have jostled its way to freedom.  I was so bummed, I almost thought the day had not been worth it but I knew that wasn’t true.

Out of sheer frustration and semi-rage which led ultimately to feelings of helplessness I turned to my only point of hope: Cragslist.  I posted in the lost and found section that I had lost my camera on the lake serene trail thinking this was a HUGE shot in the dark.  Published my post, and then started looking for deals on digital point and shoots online.  The next day at work I received a message from someone who had been on the trail and claimed to have found my camera.  WHAT???!!!  I got up from my desk and did a couple high kicks even the Rockettes would have been proud of.  NOT only did they find my camera, they happened to work FIVE MINUTES from where I work.  DOUBLE WTF??!!!  Karma?  Luck?  Coincidence?  Magic?  Who knows, but I have my camera back and it’s all thanks to…..technology, Asian day hikers, and a very small world assembled by virtual relationships that allow us to connect with people who find our lost shit.  HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to Ashley and her mom for being good people and checking cragslist.  I still can’t believe it.