100717 – Suiattle

Posted on July 19, 2010 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Camping | Leave a Comment

First time coming up here this season – summer has taken it’s sweet time getting here and seems to be here on sufferance.  When we left Seattle it was grey and cool and threatening to rain.  Even here in July we’re reminded that warm and favorable weather in Seattle is rare and valuable.  It’s good to go bike camping, even when there’s a crack of opportunity.

THE SET

Start by tehschkott.

IMG_5195 by tehschkott.

This was the first bike camping trip for a couple people.  Deven had never gone, and for my girlfriend Elizabeth this was a completely new experience.  Before me she’d never bicycled.  Over the last 6 months or so she’s taken to it very well.  Bicycle camping was right up her alley.  She’s been riding my Pacer

which she likes a great deal, but for this trip I outfitted my old Trek 7.3 with meaty 38mm WTB mountain tires, a Titec H-Bar I had set aside for the Pugsley (never to get built now) and a rack and voila – one perfectly excellent trail bike was born.

IMG_5203 by tehschkott.

We stopped at my favorite little cabin and poked around for a moment to take pictures and explore some, and then hit the road again.

IMG_5215 by tehschkott.

They’ve done some things to improve the road up here. They fixed the Forest Road bridge for example. No pics, but the link will show you where on the map it’s been fixed.  Also, further down at Downey Creek, what used to be this

is now this

While the bridge is far nicer to traverse for us for obvious reasons, it’s also far easier for others to as well. There were other improvements in the road/trail – the segments of singletrack are now completley gone and the road there fixed, as well as the super narrow part just before the Downey Creek bridge – that’s been dug out, widened and flattened. Even the road you drive in on has been improved.  Raw spots in the road have even been blocked and evened off and dips flattened out with gravel.

This has goods and bads associated with it.  It means they’re fixing the place up, which is great.  But that means our time of having this place to ourselves is coming to an end.  So it’s important we get up here as often as we can now before they fix the road and open the campsite again and flood it with Winnebagos and 4 wheelers.

Anyhow, onto happier topics.  I brought the Karate Monkey of course.

IMG_5234 by tehschkott.

Campsite was durn nice.  Blocked and leveled camp space for the tent.  Picnic table and firepit to ourselves if we chose.

IMG_5239 by tehschkott.

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This is Elizabeth.  She’s kinda magical to me.

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Elizabeth took our cook bag over to the common area and started making lunch while I was finishing up making camp.  I was working my way over to her at the communal kitchen table about 50 feet distant when I heard the sound of large lumber falling.  I glanced up, noticed movement above and screamed RUUUNNNN!!!!!!!!!!.

The top half of a tree snapped off and came crashing down on top of the picnic table they’d all been sitting at.

IMG_5258 by tehschkott.

IMG_5287 by tehschkott.

The main trunk (a little over 14 inches in diameter) landed directly onto the kitchen table as they were unpacking food and whatnot onto it. We’re talking 500lbs+ of lumber randomly falling from around 60 feet to land directly on our heads. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it would have killed anyone who hadn’t moved.

IMG_5276 by tehschkott.

Kevin had to cut his bike out from under the tree.  Fortunately the elevated BBQ he’d laid his bike against took the brunt of the impact and his bike came out more or less undamaged.

IMG_5293 by tehschkott.

These collapsable SVEN Saws we’ve taken to carrying with us came in very handy for clearing the lumber and freeing stuff, but again made me wish I’d sprung for the slightly larger 21 inch version over the 15in version we usually pack.

IMG_5298 by tehschkott.

IMG_5417 by tehschkott.

IMG_5275 by tehschkott.

IMG_5264 by tehschkott.

IMG_5274 by tehschkott.

Deven - NOT HAPPY by tehschkott.

The whiskey survived (ha!) but several foodstuffs were destroyed, a good part of our kitchen kit ate it, and as stated Devon’s DLSR is now a homeowners insurance claim. Lame, but a small price to pay when you consider the possibilities. When we inspected the trunk, the thing just came apart in your hand like pulp.  Some sort of disease in the wood.

IMG_5307 by tehschkott.

IMG_5308 by tehschkott.

IMG_5289 by tehschkott.

Had that fallen at night Torrey would have been killed in his tent, no question about it. Pretty sure the part he’s digging out was the part where his head was supposed to be.

It drove a branch 7 inches in diameter into dry ground 6 inches deep just inches from Kevin’s tent beside Tory.  Here’s a crappy picture I took that doesn’t do this statement justice.

IMG_5283 by tehschkott.

Once camp was cleaned up, we celebrated by standing in the river and drinking heavily into the evening. Koos surprised us all by showing up later that afternoon with a backpack and riding his fixed gear.   Derricks arrival was later heralded by bottlerockets in the middle of the night as he arrived from Whistler.

Elizabeth on the Suiattle by tehschkott.

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IMG_5344 by tehschkott.

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Day 2

Morning is my favorite time in the mountains – always has been, but even I slept in after the shenanigans of the day/night before.  Even so I was still up before most.  Woke up, made fire, coffee and breakfast.  Wandered about lazily, broke camp.  Nice way to start out the day.

IMG_5392 by tehschkott.

IMG_5396 by tehschkott.

IMG_5415 by tehschkott.

The abbreviated tree to the left is the one that snapped off.

IMG_5418 by tehschkott.

Fred’s “dinglespeed” 2 speed automatic transmission one-of-a-kind freak bike.  Fun but a strange contraption.

IMG_5420 by tehschkott.

IMG_5424 by tehschkott.

IMG_5435 by tehschkott.

Spent the remainder of the morning/afternoon lazing on the beach on the banks of the river drinking the remainder of our booze, did some exploring up the river, read books, and come afternoon made our way back down to the cars.

IMG_5437 by tehschkott.

IMG_5446 by tehschkott.

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IMG_5460 by tehschkott.

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Great time with great friends.  We need to get up here at least one more time before the summer is over, before the road is fixed and everything opened back up to the general public.  Need to take advantage of this crack before it’s time passes, and all we have left are these silly blog entries to help us remember how great this whole place is when just outside the reach of everyone else.

Onward.

(Not my best written post, but since I never update figured it was better than nothing.  Please excuse.)

Ben Country 5 – success

Posted on May 9, 2010 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Camping, Donts | 1 Comment

But seriously – FUCK BIKE TRAILERS.

Pictures forthcoming.

Onward.

5th annual .83 Waffle Ride

Posted on February 9, 2010 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Wrecks | Leave a Comment

75 bicyclists with trailers and bags and booze + One park on Mercer Island + waffles = Wafflegedon.

In the spirit of theft, I’m stealing everything to make this post.  Go me.

DERRICK:

1. im drunk
2. whiskey bar linsday suicide. girl met us, amangeed to post on the internet bbefore us. unacceptablbbler.
3. bacon.
3. eggs
4. waffle mix
5. we didnt get arrested on mercer island
6. fuck you ad your mckaniclals.
7. hitting on happy stick daveswife for shits n giggles.
8. cchina something karoke
9. wafffle mix EVERYWEHERE
10. henry kaoke telling htem to go fuck and die.
-11. us leaving karaoke joint in a hurry
12. hooverville
13. hooverville served us last call
14. hoovervillethrew us out
15. hooberville barback yelled at as for waffle mix EVeeyrwhere
16. china harbor
17. looked like we were going to get in fist fight at china place
18. karaoke joint that threw us out gave me back my helmet and jacket
19. ride to car
20. uh oh. problem
21. home
322. eat my ass. awesome

http://point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7898

ANDRE:

THE SET

Hello my name is Derrick, I will be your problem for the evening

Adam

Batter Up

Warming Up

Old Crow

Karaoke at Bush Gardens afterwards

GREG:

/><img src=

JENI:

Will link to flickr accounts and get permissions tomorrow.  I just wanted to get this put up finally.

Onward.

2010 Xmas Tree Massacre & Calendar Release Party – the aftermath

Posted on January 10, 2010 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Wrecks | 5 Comments

Dude. Seriously.

Between myself and a couple others, we prestocked 14 good sized trees at my house. That’s out of some 40 trees that eventually showed up. We prefunked at my place, strapped trees to trailers and trees to bikes and trees to bags and rode out to Westlake Center to meet everyone else.

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IMG_0104 by sorahn.

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Video from Rory. This is how we got the trees out there.

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Words don’t cover this. And really, it takes everyone to tell the story properly. So these are the pictures – from everyone. What an incredible mess. Click the picture for the flickr/smugmug/gallery link. Thanks everyone. Amazing night.

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Alex's Gallery

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Alex's Gallery

btm delivers his tree

Alex''s Gallery - pictued BTM

IMG_0125 by sorahn.

IMG_4550 by vaticloupe.

IMG_4616 by vaticloupe.

IMG_4572 by vaticloupe.

Mordac's Gallery - pictured, Joby and Keylime

After this mess, we stumbled over to the Sloop and had our 2010 Calendar Release Party. Miles, you rule. This was fun. Everyones picture was great. The calendar looks excellent. There aren’t any more for sale I’m told, which is really too bad. But given the financial requirements, don’t blame him. He footed the whole bill and just pushed to break even. Awesome job Miles. Thanks to Henry Rose and Sean Sweeney for shooting the pictures.

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After all that, fires, booze, and sharpies… the calendar signing sorta got out of hand…

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IMG_0144 by sorahn.

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Another victim of the Sharpie Armageddon. Pictured - The Beard

Oh, and my picture? This is me, Mr November.

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It’s going to be a good year.

Onward.

http://point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7849
http://point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7834

Tomorrow: .83 Annual Xmas Tree Massacre AND 2010 .83 Bicycle Boys Calendar Release Party

Posted on January 6, 2010 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Events, Wrecks | 1 Comment

Zomg that’s a mouthful.

So, yes.  Tomorrow are TWO events that are so awesome they can barely be in the same room together.  FIRST OFF – it is the annual .83 Xmas Tree Massacre! At 7pm we will meet at Westlake Center and at 730 we will ride/carry/haul all the Xmas trees we can find/carry to Golden Gardens and have a completely f-ing epic bonfire on the beach and send them to their maker.

CHECK OUT MY BLOG POST FROM LAST YEAR ABOUT IT

After the massacre, we will roll – drunkenly – to the Sloop where we will have the 2010 .83 Bicycle Boys Calendar Release Party around 10~10:30! So help me god, I’m in it.  I think I’m Mr November.  I dunno.  It’s going to be great.  And by great I mean terrible.  And by terrible I mean great. Come on out. Even if you don’t have a tree to burn.  It’s going to be a dry night tomorrow night (c’mon positive thinking).  Help see 2010 and a whole new decade in with your favorite drunken bike morons over fire, booze, bikes, and… and…  I forgot where I was going with that.

All (over 21+) are invited and encouraged to come.

Tonight: More tree hunting.

Tomorrow: FIRE!

Onward.

2010 Men of .83 Calendar!

Posted on December 8, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Events, For Sale, Wrecks | Leave a Comment

Turns out, Molly isn’t doing a bike-girl calendar this year, so Miles decided to do a bike-boy calendar sorta at the last minute.  It’s not really to raise money – more of a, this seems like it’d be a hoot.  So we all went to Henry’s on Saturday and between Henry and Sean Sweeney, we spent the day trying to do all the shots in one day.  We got close, but there are a couple more that need taking.  The event itself was hilarious.  12 boys running around in Henry’s loft in their underwear, with bikes.  I’m not saying it was gay or anything…

Photo by Sean Sweeney

Calendars are being sold for $10 if you pre-order.  Go click on the above thingy and pay your dues.  Here are a few more out-takes of the shoot.  ZOMG what a mess.

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

Photo by Henry Rose

Photo by Henry Rose

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

Photo by Eric Bott - aka "The Beard"

GO PRE-ORDER YOUR CALENDAR NOW

Onward

Running of the Bulls!

Posted on July 20, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Misc | Leave a Comment

Well, much has been going on.  Slightly less bike camping, more daily riding with the locals (.83) here in town.  Summer is in full swing.  And it has been ridiculous fun.

Too many bars and too many miles to go into specifics.  A couple recent highlights.

I lent my Pacer to Jeff for a couple days, and then he left for RAGBRAI.  My Pacer remains in his house.  Oops.  Not a big deal actually.  I’ve been using the excuse to ride the LeMond aka “30 Rock” because really, I never ride it.  Weather’s been so nice… boy it’s been a good time.  This is a really great bike and I’ve been happy to have the excuse.

Anyhow, other things…

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Photo from Alex

Photo from Rob

Last Thursday about 60 of us had a no-reason costume ride that morphed into a running of the bulls ride.

I’m the one in the dress.  Derrick Ito – aka Ronald McFondle.

Photo from Rob

Photo from Rob

Ronald McIto by joeball.

Photo by Andre

I mean seriously, we were a mess.

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Photo from Alex

From here, down to Cowgirls Inc to ride the mechanical bull at that douchewad bar, then over to Goldies for some serious Karaoke action.  Yeah, I rode the bull.  And I sang me some karaoke.  In a dress.  I’m embarassing.

Photo by Andre - L to R - Jeff, me, Derrick

Travesty I tell you.

Friday was Henry’s birthday shindig.  Saturday was lounging on Madrona Beach and then Cass’s birthday party at The Nickerson, Sunday was riding with Slow Sunday out to ABR and then an impromptu BBQ at Lincoln Park, then a ride over to the Chop Suey where some vodka company called 42 Below was hosting more Gerbil Wheel sprints with the Emerald City boys.

For the life of me I do not understand the appeal of indoor sprints when the weather is so incredible outside this time of year.  On the 4th of July they put on REAL bike sprints outside on the Bridge to Nowhere at the Arboretum and it was totally fucking great.  Real bikes, real distance, real sprints.  Save this roller stuff for shitty weather and unridable conditions I say.  Bah HUMBUG.

Still it was a good time, Ryan and the boys from Emerald City did a fine job putting this together – my hat’s off to em.  Even I got conned into sprinting.  Someone said oh it’s just for fun.  I’m like, waiddaminnite losing’s not fun.  But they were short a guy and after much pressuring I finally mounted up.

You know, walking up to the bikes I had this small fantasy in my head that I was going to get on and due to some genetic autistic like abnormality completely out of my control, I was going to get on this bike and we would discover that I had this unbelievable GIFT.  Like I was going to be the fat retarded kid that could for whatever reason play poker better than anyone on earth.  I would be the Rainman of sprinting it would be revealed.  I would be the fastest dude ever.  I would get off the bike sweaty and panting, smile and say something like, “Wow what happened?” and everyone would cheer and pat me on the back.  Cyclists and bar hoochies would come up smiling to congratulate me with this newfound respect in their eyes like holy shit, you’re really fast!  Some cute bike girl would come up and plant one on me.  It would be great.

I lost by 6 seconds.  It’s a 500 meter dash.  Fuck.  He could have stopped, had a cigarette, and still beaten me.  My Rainman sprinting dream was dead in it’s retarded little shoes.  In front of everyone it was revealed I possess no special powers or abilities.  And nobody was surprised.  It made me a little sad.

But again, even after my mighty fall from grace I found myself smiling more often than not.  And my consolation for the night was that my adversary is a fellow .83er – Patrick – and he took first place.  So if I’m going to get beat, might as well get beat by the fucking champ.

Last details, my camera died two weeks ago.  I’m still debating what kind of camera to get next.  Until then, you get these verbose posts and a series of thieved photographs from everyone else.  If you have camera recommendations, I’m up for em.  Will probably just ask what Alex uses though and get one of those.

There are a pile of details I’m glossing over with all this post of course.  Personal stuff, geeky stuff, riding stuff, stupid stuff.  The stuff our summers are made of – this travesty of a life in Seattle.  Boy, it’s pretty rough.

Summers in Seattle.  Hell yes.  Ride your bike.

Onward.

PS – stumbled across this on the BBC today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8158729.stm

Somalia deports Chinese cyclist

Lee Yue Zhong

Lee Yue Zhong said he was disappointed not reach Mogadishu

A Chinese cyclist has been forced to put the brakes on a 12-year world tour, after officials in Somalia deported him for not having the right documents.

Man, when you get deported from Somalia – a country without a government – wow.  I mean seriously – you got deported by a country famous for having a serious and uncontrollable problem with FUCKING PIRATES. PIRATES. I guess Somalia’s on top of this wandering cyclist immigration problem though.

If I had to guess I’d say they were probably doing this for his own good, but still.  At least they just sent him to the adjacent country and not back to China.

On a personal note I’d like to argue that getting thrown out of a country probably beats riding through it – at least in terms of story telling around the campfire. Like driving a Ferrari. What’s a better story, driving one, or totalling one? I rest my case. But for a guy on a 12 year bicycle tour, well. I he probably has a pile of stories and getting thrown out of a country is probably kids stuff to him by now.

Best of luck mate.

Joeball Mountain II

Posted on July 3, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Camping | Leave a Comment

GALLERY

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Onward

Bikes = Boats = Blake Island

Posted on June 30, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Camping | Leave a Comment

For a change of pace last weekend, the .83 navy mobilized (in part) for Blake Island.  This started as a kayak trip from Alkai to Blake, which is about 4.5 miles.

Nothing about kayaking across open water seems like a good idea to me.

I’ve never been a water person to be honest.  Or to be more specific, never been an open water person.  Lakes, rivers, streams, creeks and cricks – sign me up.  Other than that… eh.  Climbing into this little plastic dohicky and trying to stay upright or else, over distance… no thanks. But the hook for us as cyclists is because it’s more human/earth locomotion, so in a strange way boats are a strange distant cousin to cycling it turns out.

Anyhow it also turns out a fair number of us have real boats.  Not just kayaks and canoe’s, but real sail boats.  I don’t know how MY posse of drunken bike hooligan friends, how my little sliver of anti-establisment social strata found it within their means to become proper boat people, but lo and behold they have.  Instead of buying a new car or a house and paying for parking and a $250,000+ house mortgage, they bought a $50-$75,000 boat and pay for mooring and bicycle where they need to go.  Or car share.  Or own a shitty car.  Or flexcar.  Or whatever.  They have mortgage payment but it’s significantly cheaper than a house, certainly no more expensive than rent.  Some of them live on their boats, some have an apartment.  I think we have 4 or 5 proper vessels all told.  Many of them are sail boats.  A couple are are motorboats.  Anyway, after you do the math you realize that depending on your priorities, it’s not that far out.  And thus is born the .83 Navy.

This years trip was smaller than last years (which I didn’t make).  Nick and I rode out on The October – Cass and Eric’s 32 foot sail boat that they live on.  I had a friggin blast.  We met Henry and the Dorothy Rose at Blake Island where the kayakers had already beat us there.  We spent the day on board drinking and relaxing in the sun.  In the afternoon we went ashore made camp and dinner and drank around the campfire until it was time for bed.

Role call – kayaks

The October

The Dorothy Rose

Despite my efforts to keep suntan lotion on, I managed to burn the living crap out of myself.  I am an albino, or close to it, being a red head.  I even asked others to keep an eye on me if I started getting red.  No dice.

Regardless was a good time.  We motored all the way out there from Shilshole Marina and back at a steadyish 5 knots, there not being much wind going out and there being nothing but headwind on the trip home.  Lots of drinking and laughing and napping was had this weekend.  It’s a rough life.

Oh yeah duh, pictures which tell the story unto themselves.

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This weekend coming up, camping at Green Mountain aka Joeball Mountain II which we pre-scouted two months ago.  After which there are basically 4 unplanned weekends till Dead Baby in August.  After the last 4 or 5 weekends of back to back camping or being sick or whatever, hope to take a short break and recharge.  Maybe visit Portland.  Maybe do nothing.  We’ll see.  I’m sorta looking forward to the break.

Big thanks to everyone who made this trip what it was.  Cass and Eric for The October, Henry for the Dorothy Rose, Nick for playing Steve Zissou, Ryan for your tent so I didn’t have to set mine up, and the rest.  Good times.

Onward

Suiattle, The Return – Now Langston Free!

Posted on June 21, 2009 -- Edit Post
Filed Under .83, Bike Kwak, Camping, Maps, Routes | 2 Comments

Role Call:

My Photo Gallery
Alex’s Photo GalleryAlex’s Blog Post
Andre’s Photo Gallery

Park and ride at 65th and Ravenna.  Rolled out around 9:45 for Darrington.  Monica had a fractured hand and couldn’t ride, so Rogelio carried her on the back of his Xtracycle and I carried her gear on my bike in one of her panniers.  Derrick showed up with a fresh bottle of Boones Farm.  We were a problem.

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Derrick and Lee - check out the mountains behind them. We're in Darrington picking up supplies.

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Stopped at the liquor store in Darrington to load up on essentials.

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This was a REALLY short ride. Last year we rode in from Darrington making this a nice and easy 30 miler. This year there was a lot of sick and busted people so we drove until the road was closed, a mere 8.5 miles away from the camp site. At that distance, you can get pretty stupid about what you bring. We didn't cut a lot of corners heh. Borderline car camping.

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The Suiattle River

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Remington testing out the loaded Karate Monkey. Tellin you, this bike is 30 kinds of badass. My camping gear is in the red pannier, Monicas is in the black. I carried a small daypack too, but the only thing in it was a light weight griddle, some tent poles, and the booze.

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Remington has the whiskey on quick draw.

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Picture by Andre - look mom, Im on a bike.

Picture by Andre - look mom, I'm on a bike.

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Alex and Lee

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Good thing this is a short ride. Rogelio carrying Monica on the Xtracycle.

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The famous bridge crossing.

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We dropped bags at Downey Creek campsite and then Alex and I went further up the trail to Sulphur Creek to check out the site up there. There was a lot of downfall between Downey Creek and Sulphur Creek. All in all Sulphur Creek Campground wasn't bad, but there were already people in it so we stuck with what we had. The Lean-to and firepit make Downey Creek a damn fine place to camp.

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We started drinking almost immediately. Jesus. Derrick kept reloading the Boones bottle.

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Andre - so pretty!

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.83 Bar immediately in full effect. Funny how this seems to follow us wherever we go.

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Derrick fishing with Boones Farm. The color blue continued to get lighter and lighter as Derrick would load and reload the bottle with straight Monarch Vodka. Christ.

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Alex

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We kept throwing logs in and then tried to sink them with rocks. Rogelios pants had a catastrophic blowout and he was left in his pinstriped undies. And a sarong.

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Eventually the Boones looked like this - Greyhounds.

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Full Moon

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For the life of me I do not know how you put these in your mouth.

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This is the last picture I took that day.  Andre doing something to that bottle of grapefruit juice.  Apparently I passed out shortly afterwards.  There’s more to that story but it’s all I’m reporting on my own blog.  Self incrimination and whatnot.  I will say I missed the apple rhubarb cobbler.

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Photo from Alex - Monica

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Photo from Alex

derrick did catch a fish after all.

Photo from Alex - Derrick did catch a fish after all

lookout a few hundred yards up the river from our site

Photo from Alex - Sunday Morning - lookout a few hundred yards up the river from our site

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Morning after

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Andre brought makings for ice cream sundaes, fortunately there were leftovers because I had them for breakfast.

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The grate/griddle thing worked really really well. Breakfast was off the hook. SO MUCH BACON.

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Downey Creek - I went down and filtered water under the bridge. Boy that creek is deep and moving fast.

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Yes thats a vegetarian corndog being cooked in bacon grease on a griddle.

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Unexploded dry ice bombs.

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Weather held till then end, then rained on us on the way home.  Very pretty.  Fog on the Suiattle River.

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Good times all around.  If we were to make it back up there sometime this summer, I wouldn’t be put off by it too much.

Onward.

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