I realized my bike-construction skills are not up to snuff.

Out with the old, in with the old

So April and I have decided to get rid of pertnear everything we own, so I sold my bikes. Since I didn't have a bike anymore I bought a new one today at the thrift store, a 1982 Nishiki Caribou designed by NORCO, I brought it home and so far I've only spent about $30 total since I had so many spare parts laying about. I switched out the wheels for the ones that came with April's bike (FOR SALE!), put a longer seatpost that was slightly to large in diameter (about .2 mm, so I just lubed it up real good), the saddle that came on my road bike went next and I used a derailer from several bikes ago to act as a chain tensioner since the bike has vertical dropouts instead of the more common (for 1982) horizontal. I just got back from a test ride, very stable and fun, wish I could take it to Belize. Here is a pic of my trash turned to treasure:



I haven't been posting lately because I haven't been up to much, mostly just climbing and hanging out by myself because April went to Texass for 10 days. I did finally get on the route i bolted, my friend Brian got on it also, he said it set a new standard for Logan canyon; possibly the worst route in the canyon. The wall is extremely dirty and has no flow from hold to hold, much like the routes in the gym. Well we have approximately a month and a half left in Logan, we are paying our last months rent tomorrow. We might go to California to meet my parents there and have them take a few items to store in Oregon for the next few years. I will hopefully make enough money on my bicycles and the few other items that are worth a few dollars to pay for the cost of living between now and leaving, but at least I still have one bike for now!

One more thing, I just watched the most exciting documentary last week Life in the Undergrowth, it was done by BBC, if you have Netflix you definately need to check it out.

Home from Oregon

April and I went to see my parents in Tillamook Oregon last thursday, we left while it was raining and landed with rain, had a day and a half of good weather and returned to rain. Today is overcast, but not wet so I'm gonna try to get some exercise. April leaves again on saturday to see her sister and family in Texas for ten days.

My Mom and I hiking Cape Lookout, this chunk of land juts into the ocean more than 2 miles, in the 50's a military bomber hit the cape.

Looking down from the cape, it was around 300 feet tall.

We still have a crap load of paperwork to do before going to Belize, but we have a little bit of time to do it. We also have to get rid of almost all of our stuff, some of it has value and will probably go on ebay, the rest will probably go to either our friends or the local thrift store. My dad makes really nice furniture out of wood which means we have a really nice leather chair like the ones seen in men's smoking clubs (on the movies) and a really nice three drawer dresser that is super bomber, it would be nice to get em back after we come back from Belize, but I'm not to sure if we will have a vehicle to move furniture from Logan to Tucson in two years, so I guess I would rather just find a good home for them, one where they won't get overly abused but will see some use. I have some friends that say they will take my tools for me while we are gone, I'm not too sure if we will actually get to come back for them like I said, but I would rather give stuff to good friends than sell it for less than it is worth. I'm planning to take some climbing gear with us, not sure what, but I'll probably sell my cams on Ebay because people pay rediculous prices on there, higher than any of my bum friends will pay. We also have to find a home for our two cats, otherwise I'll have to put them down.

Our Assignment

There was a small misunderstanding, not central South America, but Central or South America. So we have our assignment to Belize, the Toledo District. While searching for Peace Corps Volunteer blogs in Belize I found good friends of mine that I haven't talked to since they graduated from USU named Todd and Ashley, they just returned from Belize hopefully I can find out some cool stuff about their experience. I can't find any info about climbing down there, but there are Mayan ruins everywhere in the southern area, I am very interested in Mayan culture, there are still large parts of the population that speak Mayan. The official language is English, but most speak a form of Creole, Spanish or Mayan.

Not Jamaica

Well we have finally heard from Peace Corps' placement office, and it looks like all of the Caribbean placements are filled, so they are looking at a place in central South America for us. I am stoked because this will be an opportunity for me to learn another language, but I was really looking forward to meeting some of the PC Jamaica folks like Jesse & Josh, and Patrick.

The program they are looking at for us will be super remote, probably in the mountains, good thing we already have so much cold weather gear, and dealing with very basic levels of education and sanitation. I am excited because these are the most crucial issues for all people. I have friends that have been to Bolivia for climbing and loved it, I just hope April can stay warm enough.

Tom & Erika

Last weekend I got back from working two days in the field, I'm always worn out after I get back even from short trips so I never want to move from the couch, but April convinced me to go to Lava Hot springs about an hour north of Logan in Idaho. She was able to convince be by reminding me that I could wear my new Penguin swim trunks that I bought for a ridiculously good price ($14.95 from $60) and that we could stop on the border and I could buy some regular beer, just so you know I bought some Moose Drool brown ale and Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale (DELICIOUS). I love the pattern on them so much that I found a picture of them and will show them to you:After stopping at the border gas station we headed off to the hot springs, which are placed in a somewhat tight and very wooded valley with a narrow reservoir running through it, for some reason it felt like Chattanooga, but with conifers. We met a couple of friends there and sipped beer out of plastic cups and watched fish jumping out of the water. We had to get back to Logan because our good friends Tom and Erika Lyon were coming up that same night from St. George to escape the heat. We made it to Logan about twenty minutes before Tom and Erika. When the Lyons made it to our house we stayed up for a beer and chatted a bit. We got up late in the morning to eat breakfast and to head off towards City of Rock's in Idaho about two hours west of Logan. We arrived around noon in the City and started climbing, in the sun with our shirts off, it felt good but I got fried. After the first climb we started climbing in the shade and I ran into an acquaintance of Tom and mine that lives in SLC, Shingo. Shingo was climbing with this big ol' Aussie named Rob. Since the super popular route Bloody Fingers had a constant line on it we goofed off on some other routes and chatted with Rob and Shingo. We ended the day by going to Elephant rock and I did Colombian Crack which felt much harder than the 5.7 grade especially since I didn't have a lot of gear that fit that thing which meant I was running it out about 15 or more feet when I wasn't bumping a #2 for 20 feet. Once we got off of elephant we headed into Almo, the local cow town to find some dinner. Almo is small, there are now two places to eat, the first one closes at the same time the sun sets, 9, and the second stays open till 10, since we were staying out so late we had to head to tiny eating establishment #2, which was a treat. The restaurant is somewhat new and makes good pizza and sandwiches and also sells beer, but since I was driving I had a Starbucks frapacino thing and a Henry Weinhard's root beer. We left just before 10 and made it home to Logan around 12:30 and we all passed out. In the morning we drank some coffee and ate some cereal before the Lyons said goodbye. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, checking email and helping April find some dress casual shirts at Ross.

I went out the Field the next day packed for four days of work, but came back this morning because it was miserable blizzard conditions up at our camp site, I don't know when I will be going back, but not before Saturday because Friday is our one year anniversary.

Here is a crappy picture of the city of rocks taken quite some time ago during a storm, most of the bigger chunks of rock you see are at least 100 feet tall, it is an international climbers destination for a reason.

Cleared

I had to work the last couple days but had good news when I got back, we are now medically cleared. hopefully we'll know for sure where we are going by the end of the week.