10 MPG…

Portland, OR to Taos, NM in one weekend. This was the first time I tested out the ol’ RV for real. Over 1,500 miles with a gas milage of 10 MPG at best equals a lot of time behind the wheel and a lot of time filling up with gas!! I had decided to try and cut the costs of traveling and post on craigslist for rideshare and see if anyone wanted to catch a ride between Portland and Taos. At one point I had 3 people confirmed for the ride to Denver, but all 3 bailed at one point or another. So at the last minute I called back one other person who had e-mailed me prior who was looking for a ride for him, his bike, and his Bob trailor. With only 5 hours until the time I was planning on heading out, I figured he would not have the ability to get all of his stuff together in time, I was wrong though.



After getting off the phone with Mark, he did a 5 mile run from his current location to where he was storing his bike, to get on and ride back to his orginal location. At that point he picked up his Bob tailor, gathered all his belongings, and biked over to the Gateway Transit Center. I, in the mean time, was running around Hillsboro getting all the final logistics squared away before I leave the pacific NW for the next 7 months. After arriving 1 hour after my predicted departure time, I met Mark with in 10 minutes of arriving at the transit center.





Friday evening was spent driving long hours and sharing lots of stories. Mark had just finished biking across the country and was heading down to Prescott, AZ to re-incorporate into a less transient life style. He had many crazy stories of long hours in the saddle, big mountain passes, amazing generosity found along the way, and many other anecdotes. On Sunday morning we pulled into Ogden, UT where Mark jumped ship and aimed his bike south towards AZ in much awe of how many miles we covered in such a short time compared the rate of speed he had been doing over the past several months.






Summit and I continued on in our journey, driving across the incredibly flat and amazingly boring state of WY. We made to the Colorado border without being blown off the road too many times and with great expectations of meeting up with friends in Denver. Sunday morning I met up with my good friends Mike and the very pregnant Mary Bateman. We walked down to the local breakfast diner and spent a couple hours catching up on life. After wishing Mike and Mary the best with their new house and, soon to be, new baby Summit and I headed over to the local park. Within 20 minutes of being at the park (which has no posted signs about dogs or leashes) we attracted the attention of the dog cops and a $50 ticket. Summit’s first ticket; I’m so proud. The county of Denver is going to be receiving an appeal…







At the Colorado, New Mexico border I was able to watch my engine heat gage slowly rise to the red line as we crested the pass that separates the two states. A little rest for the tired old RV and we were back in business. I rolled into Taos and was greeted by an amazing sunset looking over the sagebrush and the Pinon Trees.

Catching up…

So I have been a slacker and have neglected this blog for most of a month; but here goes an attempt to bring the cyber world up to date with my life. The return from Alaska was bitter sweet. There were many thousands of miles of amazing hiking and exploration that were left untouched and unseen by myself, but it was also time to move on in my clinical year. (I think the ratio of play time to clinic/study time while in AK was very much one-sided: so leaving such an amazing playground might do well for my studies!! I do have to pass a board exam at sometime.) I know that I will return to Alaska at sometime in the future and will come back for more adventures, though this was a great introduction to the largest state in the nation, punctuated by meeting lots of really cool people.

I was met in Portland by some great friends who were gracious enough to store the old RV at their house while I was away and we re-connected over breakfast (after flying all night). Thanks Jordan and Cecily. Next stop was to reconnect with Summit up in north Portland and the amazing Missy who gave Summit lots of love and caring over the past 6 weeks. Summit had the “wiggly-bottom-syndrome” when he saw me and was so excited to play frisbee yet again.
This week was supposedly focused on a week of lectures bolstering our knowledge and bettering ourselves as a PA student back in Hillsboro, OR. By Monday afternoon I was wondering how I lasted a full year sitting in a chair for 8 hours of the day, 5 days a week. Much of the time, however, was spent catching up with classmates, sharing stories of being flung to the far reaches of the country, and crazy stories of seeing patients and getting pimped by your preceptors.

There were also a lot of extracurricular activities that filled the week. Monday night my friend Ryan organized a night ride at Tillamook Forrest which was an absolutely amazing ride and much overdue ride!! I was able to reconnect with my bike and give Summit a chance to really stretch his legs. A group of 7 or 8 of us headed out on the Brown’s Camp loop which is one of the greatest rides around the Portland area. Right about dusk, my Yeti mountain bike decided to punish me for neglecting it for the past 6 weeks and ejected me from the saddle after I didn’t see the rock covered by grass on the side of the trail. One quick flight through the air sent me rolling down the lush green hillsides of Tillamook Forest. Thanks for a great ride Ryan!!

Tuesday night I reconnected with some friends in Portland who were storing my car and my kegerator. I reaped the benefit of loaning a kegerator by sampling some excellent home brewed beer. On Wednesday night most of the class met up for the 2nd annual PA Bowl Off. It was a night filled with great costumes, a lot of trash talking, a little bowling, and some great live blue grass provided by 3 PA faculty members. It was great to intermingle with other PA classes and hear the trials and tribulations of the classes above and below us.

Thursday night Jessica and I met up with the victim from the dirt bike accident (see entry on 4/21/09) for dinner. Galen is doing remarkably well and was just released from his halo head stabilizer the week prior. For the extent of his injuries, it is amazing that he spent less than 2 months in the hospital and transitional care centers. He is doing well marked by his biggest concern of whether he will be given his driver’s license back next month or not. After going through such a horrific accident, it is great driving is his biggest concern! Best of luck to you on your driver’s test Galen.

20,320 feet of rock…

You can’t be in Alaska and at least make an attempt to see Mt. Denali (the original and native name for Mt. McKinley). With the rain for the past 2 weeks I had all but assumed that I was going to be looking at a bunch of clouds imagining looking at Mt. Denali, but Mother Nature smiled on us and allowed the clouds to part on Saturday and provided us with clear blue skies and absolutely stunning views of the mountain!!


Friday night we piled 5 people and all our camping gear into Colin’s 2 door Ford focus (which was quite impressive) and headed north out of Eagle River. Four hours later we threw down at a campsite just inside Denali National Park boundary. The car was left at the campground because no private vehicles are allowed in the part past mile maker 18 of the park road; instead there is a great bus system to make all of us gas guzzling, isolationist, Americans do something good for the environment and possibly interact with each other. A darn good idea!!


The bus ride out to Wonder Lake Campground, the campground furthest into the park took almost 5 hours with numerous stops for wildlife viewing and blowing through megapixels on amazing vistas. Denali’s big animals put on a great show for us starting out 15 minutes into the ride when a moose came meandering across the road in front of the bus. This was followed up by numerous caribou, bald eagles, ptarmigans, and many other smaller animals.


We saw a great interaction of survival and the food chain play out in front of us. The bus came to a stop because there was a red fox just ahead of the bus, then the eagle circling above came to a perch just 20’ from the fox. With his tail up straight and puffed out, the fox was trying to look domineering and scare away the eagle from his road kill meal. The eagle was eyeing both the road kill and the fox as a possible meal. When the fox finally left his road kill, the eagle began circling the fox and following him down the road, setting up the scenario for a possible survival of the fittest contest. The eagle soon lost interest, however, and went off to soaring on the thermals high above all of us.


What about the almighty grizzly?? About half way through the drive we were traversing a hillside with the bus and looking down at the river bed below when there was the first sighting. Momma bear was running down the river bank with 2 cubs in tow, with one little trouble maker trailing far behind momma. Momma was being playful with the close by and took a few playful swats at him as they were running. According to Cindy our bus driver, the cubs were probably 2 years old and over the next year or so momma will become less hospitable to the cubs and force them to strike out on their own. These were the first 3 of 6 grizzly sightings throughout the trip, with one of the big guys walking with in 20’ of the bus!


What about the mountain?? About 2/3’s of the way into the park rode we had our fist view point of the Mt. Denali. We came around the corner and saw the huge base of the mountain pushing itself up into the clouds that were shrouding the peak. As we got off the bus the clouds began to part as if on cue and suddenly there was the amazing peak as if sitting on top of the layer of clouds covering the waist of the mountain. Thirty minutes later the peak was completely shrouded in clouds again. I was happy; I had my 20 minutes to see the top of Denali and I could have gone home a very content man.


Denali, however, decided to reward us with more amazing views throughout the weekend. Saturday night, as dusk set in at midnight, the clouds left completely and the entire face of the mountain was visible in the incredible low level light that only certain times of the day can offer. We woke to clear skies and amazing brilliant light bouncing off each ridgeline of Denali providing an amazing sense of the topography of this mountain.


“Today is the best viewing day we have had of the mountain all summer,” was the comment from a park ranger as we ascended one of the mountains near the Eilsen visitor center on Sunday. That is a pretty impressive statement given this ranger looked at the mountain on a daily basis. We hiked up to the top of the ridgeline behind the visitor center which provided amazing views across the valley at Denali. The entire sky cleared out and there was only the occasional cloud blowing by in the sky.


This was another amazing Alaskan hike punctuated with a couple of caribou, numerous arctic squirrels, a few marmots, and some amazing arctic tundra. It was incredible to look across the valley at the ridgeline of mountains which were relatively comparable to the continental divide in Colorado, but these mountains were dwarfed by Mt. Denali which is another 8,000’-9,000’ taller. This is by far the largest mountain I have ever seen and I am in awe of the shear mass and majestic beauty of her. Thank you Denali.