Preface: I’m typing this less one finger so report is scheduled to get longer with time. Yet again sliced myself on a knife, same damn finger, right down the scar line, bread knife this time. Probably should leave the guns with the parents at this rate. This ninja shit ain’t for amateurs. This time doesn’t need stitches though (contrary to what the lady friend may think), glue and pressure work A-OK.
Enchantments. Group of 6 this time, two n00bs in the mix due to a few last minute flakes. Amazes me that people can know about something 8 months in advance and still find a way to flake on it at the last minute (literally, one person told us less than a week prior – though was mentally weak last year so not a huge surprise in hindsight). Whatever, shit comes up and I’d rather not have people that aren’t stoked to be there be there so it all worked out.
This year’s trip was about a month earlier (almost to the date) than last year, and was also twice as long (6 days!). Was interesting to contrast the conditions between the two years – though this year we didn’t get ‘typical’ September conditions given the La Nina snowfall. Last year the larch were on their downward slide from yellow to almost orange, this year the larch were just starting to turn on the latter half of our trip. Wasn’t feeling my inner Ansel Adams this year so didn’t snap that many photos or put any thought into their composition. Correction, I WAS feeling my inner AA to start, but after getting setup to take what would have been one of the sickest photos I’d ever taken only to have the cloud hole close up on me I was over it. It may be time to sell off the SLR and just get a P&S since I seem to use my SLR as a P&S anyways these days.
Gotta get some work done, a few photos below. To be continued…
 It was a wee bit foggy/misty on the way up  Bridge on the way up 
 Lunch spot. Last year's was under 6+ feet of snow still  Moar lunch  Patch of wildflowers halfway up the Pass  Does this cooler go in the winter, does it not exist due to too much snow? 
So first, let’s just get it out of the way now – if you saw a guy that looked like anybody in the below pictures on Adams a week or two ago but rode like a total chump it wasn’t me. I swear.
Anyways, Mt. Adams is the second highest mountain in Washington state, aka Mt. Rainier’s easy little sister that gets no love. Got the call from my buddy Steve that one of his clients and his friends were going to hit Adams and that they had a spare pass. As soon as I heard the client’s friends had done Everest I was there as I thought they’d be interesting to talk to.
The drive from Portland to Adams was uneventful outside of the fact that we started four hours later than expected. Thus, instead of getting to Cold Springs at 5PM we rolled in at 9PM. As seems to be my thing with Cascade volcanoes it’d be a headlamp and moonlight hike to Lunch Counter.
One of our first glances of Adams.
Sunset from Cold Springs area
Hike to Lunch Counter was as uneventful as it could be for two people that had never been there before hiking after sunset. The moon’s reflection off the snow was bright enough that the headlamps weren’t needed outside of the time Steve needed to fix a blister (note: it’s damn stupid to try new hiking boots out on a major hike). Hike started off as dirt but quickly became snow and intermittent volcanic rock. Fortunately the snow was just about perfect for hiking – t wasn’t frozen, so no crampons needed, and it wasn’t midday soft so we weren’t postholing.
 It was rocky in spots 
Made it to Lunch Counter around 1AM, setup camp, attempted a few failed night photos, and climbed into my Mountain Hardwear Phantom 32 to attempt to get some ZZZs. Attempt failed. Tossed and turned all night (for some reason I seem to never sleep well at altitude, but part of it may be due to excitement??), listened to small rock slides being started by others climbing into the night, finally day broke and I gave up. Woke up to a BEAUTIFUL alpine morning though! “HOLY SHIT” was about all I could think when I climbed out of the tent. As we’d climbed by moonlight we had no idea what, if any, view we’d have from our spot, and as I hadn’t slept in the alpine in awhile I forgot how blue the sky can be. We took photos like a bunch of Japanese tourists.
 AM stretch  Steve trippin' balls on the view  Cozy, soft spot A little GoAm AM panoram. Yes, it was a beautiful morning.
Untitled from Justin H on Vimeo.
 Crumbled breakfast of champions. shit eating grin due to zero sleep We fueled up on a few deflated, crumbled donuts I brought for the occasion and got an early 9AM alpine start. From Lunch Counter to the summit it’s pretty uneventful, more or less a staircase to the summit. We switched to crampons and ice axes after the first 1/2 mile of mixed surface for the extra security they provide on the way up as some spots were a bit steep and the slide down would be miserably long. Surface was still perfect, not too firm, not too soft, but the suncups were ominous and I was starting to realize lugging a snowboard all this way would not payoff.
 Are we there yet?  it was slightly blue out We stopped briefly at the false summit to reapply sunscreen and fuel up for the last short bit to the summit. Also threw on jackets as the wind was no longer blocked and it was actually getting chilly. Finally, 3 hours after leaving Lunch Counter, we joined the party on the summit. The prerequisite photos were taken.
 Summit self portrait  I'm gonna sit here and mullet over  Creating a summit panorama. Click picture to view the pano From there it was all downhill. I converted my board to board mode and ‘enjoyed’ the miserably suncupped turns on the way down. I’d heard the southwest chutes have been smooth, but as I had to be back in town for something and didn’t want to wait around on the summit for a few hours for them to soften decided to take my lumps through the suncups. Steve took the smarter route and glissaded down. The glissade tracks on Adams are INSANE, looks like bobsled runs all around the mountain and you can literally go 3k+ vertical feet on your ass should you choose.
 A chump on a board Steve’s glissade POV. A touch washed out due to lack of polarizer and blazing alpine sun.
Untitled from Justin H on Vimeo.
The hike out was uneventful, but sadly the snow had softened considerably so there were more than a few moments with unexpected ‘oh shit hope my ACL stays in place’ slides, postholding, and sweating your balls off as the sun was radiating off the snow.
Short gear list and 10 word reviews:
Tent: REI Arete 2 – Heavy, but recreational level bomber tent
Boots: Salomon Wings Sky GTX – Most comfortable boot ever, not great with crampons (obviously)
Pack: Mountain Hardwear Koa 55 – Comfy until overloaded and used as unintended, than it’s a bit less so
Crampons: Black Diamond Contact Strap – Versatile, can go from hiking boot to snowboard boot and back
Quick ‘n dirty ‘n washed out due to lack of CPL panorama from the summit of Adams. Click (and then click again…) to view larger.
aka I hiked 6k vertical feet for horribly suncupped crappy turns and all I got was this lousy photo.
Will have more eventually but my computer is being a b.i.
Yeah, these have been a bit slow getting out. Not feeling all that verbose, so just a few photos.
Sick Westfalia Syncro (4wd) with truck bed liner paint job. Yes, I’ve got permawood for VW busses of all vintages.
Vista
Was so windy it blew out a three burner gas grill with the wind closed.
This ridgeline looked like it could be fun
One of the many reasons I like mountain towns
Untitled from Justin H on Vimeo.
Short vid of part of Snow King/Cache Creek ride. First minute is a touch boring.
Untitled from Justin H on Vimeo.
Used GoAm FTL! Now when I update my facebooktwitter+circles with the minutae of my day I can do it at 30fps. If a picture is worth 1k words thats 30k words per second.
Guess I didn’t really update the ol’ blog when I was there. Here’s a quick day 2 recap.
After waking up to the below view from my tent was stoked on the possibilities of the day.
Rolled from Victor, ID over Teton Pass into Jackson. Cued up the obligatory Modest Mouse for the drive down the Pass. Chilled at a local coffee shop to get some work done, caffeinate and wait for the ladies to roll into town. Quickly realized that ‘the best coffee in Jackson’ isn’t remotely as good as the 10th best coffee in Portland. Checked into the house that is holy shit no joke 50 yards from Snow King. Yeah yeah yeah, it’s the ginger stepchild to JHMR, and yeah there’s no bike park, but being able to go from garage to trailhead in 30 seconds = FKNA money! Did a short ride yesterday that reminded me oh dear God I love mountain towns and the fit girls that call them home. So many fit little ladies running the trails. Yum.
The altitude kicked my ass in a big way, taunting me like the trainers taunt the morbidly obese on The Biggest Loser. What parts of me the altitude didn’t brutalize the horseflies finished off – massive mofos with an apparent appetite for sweat. When you were moving it wasn’t too bad, but as soon as you stopped it was game on, dinner bell ringing, horsefly buffet line. Nuts.
Elevation profile of my short ride is below. Broken into two since my phone rang and turned the app off. Fail. The downhill was damn fun I’ve gotta say, nothing tech or crazy, just fun/flowy MTB goodness. Sadly there were no girls waiting to give me flowers and kisses afterward.
A few more pics from the day
View from the ride. That don’t suck.
This bee somehow managed to wedge himself inbetween my spokes. Helluva way to go.
Clackacraft drift boats use the tagline ‘Fear No Rock’. This boat was HAMMERED on the bow and split all over inside, though you can’t tell since my iPhone cam sucks.
A decent Kolsch from Snake River Brewing. Their IPA was pretty good, too, and a 6 pack 4 pack resides in my fridge now. There’s hope for this town.
Nothing epic thus far, but being able to pick up and work remotely from wherever is truly awesome.
Pulled into the Teton Valley area around 6PM last night after being on the go since 5AM (and being awake since 2AM – of course was too stoked to fall back to sleep). Long drive made longer by the fact that my Chewbacca had to cancel at the last minute leaving me to roll Solo like Han. Most road trips you have time to ponder all your inner thoughts and question past life decisions – ‘Have I properly speced out my next big thing? Is that a gray or a blonde hair on my arm? Rework the algorithm? Should I have stayed with girlfriendABC? Wonder how my life would be different had I gone to Western and done their environmental science program? Regular or green tabasco? If a XC rider goes off a 3′ drop does that make him an all-mountain rider?’ On this drive I had time to ponder everything twice, rewind and ponder again, like Groundhog Day in my mind.
Fairly uneventful drive. Worst part was running out of the coffee I made 30 minutes into it and not being able to find a coffee shop that was open for a few hundred miles. I remember when I was a kid coffee shops opened at hours where you need coffee, not 7AM, 8AM, one place didn’t open til 10:30!?! How all the hipster coffee brands got big while subscribing to the hipster work ethos I’ll never understand.
On time departure with slight rain that stopped by Hood River
Trusty co-pilots caffeine, sugar and music
Somewhere mid-Idaho we went from hot to nuclear and hit triple digits. BTW, driving thru Idaho is about as exciting as the WNBA draft, not much to look at. Picture the stretch of I-5 between Folsom and Bakersfield only 2-3x as long.
Yup, bike is still there.
Mosquito farm
Pondering infinity and parallel universes next to the campfire
Failed attempt at light painting ‘ride’. I was trying a candle lantern (aka couldn’t turn it off/on), MUCH easier to do with the headlamp I didn’t pack.
I love waking up to views like this. Those clouds dropped just enough rain that I got up to get the rainfly, but by the time I’d got it the rain had stopped and never came back. Meh.
No riding yesterday as when I rolled into town I had to satisfy the primal urge for a beer. Even the terribly mediocre IPA from Wildlife Brewing tasted like a million bucks after that drive.
Distance: Not far, a leisurely 10 miles
Weather: Sunny with an intermittent cloud early. Halfway point saw the wind kick up to where the clouds were moving so fast it looked like riding in a time lapse video.
Short summary: After last weekend’s attempt at finding a different trail resulted in almost running out of gas and turning tail to limp back to fuel up felt good to get on the trail. Wildflowers starting to bloom – seriously can you beat the Northwest at this time of year? Terrain started to change about halfway in from definitely western to hinting at eastern Cascades. Sign at the trailhead said recent bear sighting, but as it was gay pride parade day in Portland I figured any bears would be in the city. Good short ride that I’d do again if I had more time to go further.
The up: There wasn’t a ton of challenging uphill here, was mostly rolling terrain and gentle elevation changes. A couple rocky sections that resulted in getting off and pushing the bike through due to ridiculous pedalstrikes and riding Han Solo styley – didn’t want to break myself off with no one around.
The down: After a time check and turnaround the downhill was more apparent than the uphill – didn’t have to pedal much thru large sections of trail. Scenery went from wide open vistas and sidehill traverses to forested singletrack and back again. Great views of Mt. Hood. With the wind kicking up a lenticular cloud was starting to form over the peak. Had a nice pedalstrike on a rock around a corner kick me off the bike. Fortunately kicked me off to the right and not the left as it would have been a bit of a downhill roll otherwise!
 Elevation summary  Just another wildflower covered scenic vista  Landscape started to change a bit halfway in  Lenticular forming  Same scene slightly wider Quick vid I took of the wind after my pedalstrike to dismount
Pedal graffiti
 Next time take a slightly wider line Post-ride payoff
#1: Meth Forest
Needed to get out and enjoy the intermittent non-rainy periods over the long weekend. Briefly considered Syncline yet again, but as the poison oak was bad last time, can only imagine what it was like with another two weeks to grow and fester. Some quick interwebs research decided to try a piece of trail in the hills outside the land of cheese and meth heads.
Distance: Was a short one, 7 miles
Weather: Overcast, a touch chilly, one brief ‘if you blink you’ll miss it’ period of sunshine. Do mosquitoes count as weather?
Short summary: Nice change of pace and scenery, with a very ‘northwest’ (think: green and wet) feel to it, but this trail needs some love. Wildflowers starting to do their thing. Only saw one other person, so that was a bonus. Kept the ‘number of times I fall fully clipped in’ average consistent at two.
The up: Following a creek and the gully formed by one the entire way, 1/2 mile of fire road gives way to singletrack for the uphill. Some sketch/exposed portions of path barely two tires wide with a hearty fall if you go the wrong direction. Very loose in parts, trail giving way under your foot if you dab. Dry in spots with perfect traction, other spots wet with moss covered rocks with zero traction. Was with the world’s slowest mtn biker so had lots of time to take photos.
 Elevation profile The down: Fun up high, flowy singletrack with grip for days, and enough undulations, twists and turns to keep the smile going. Down low between the wet, the tree covered interruptions, the exposure, etc. was a bit underwhelming – lots of riding the brakes, and with my brakes stopping is merely suggested by pulling the levers and is no guarantee
A couple pics that look like they were taken with vaseline smeared over the lens are below. #iPhone4phonecamcansuckit
 Trees down across the trail  Nice stretch of uphill  Pic doesn't do this justice. Landslide, that section under the root is probably 15 feet before hitting the back wall  Ahh yes, the burgeoning sport of mountain bike hiking  I wanted to photoshop a leprechaun aka pic of a-man here, but I don't have photoshop or a photo of him  Nice visuals #2: Forest Park
Wanted to get out and recreate and give thanks on Memorial Day. Figured what better way than to conquer the Germans* in my own little way by way of a ride to Germantown Rd.
Distance: Right at 20 miles
Weather: Sunny! Not that I could see any of it once I got into the canopy of Forest Park.
Short summary: Decided to try a new route after looking at the available options. Definitely a nice change of pace and scenery in the park, and by taking Holman avoid most of the Livestronging/Team in Training going on.
The up: Not really a lot of up on this ride, which was a bummer as I could use the workout. MUDDY! Wow. Holman does NOT drain well in parts, definitely dismounted and walked around to not destroy the deep spots. Nice steep climb to start off the day with some obvious muddy spots but also spots that appeared normal but were so slick that you literally spin your wheels in place.
The down: The ups and downs weren’t really that distinguishable from each other, outside of the last downhill from Saltzman to 30. Pretty much just a low effort spin otherwise.
Ended up having a post-ride Rocky Mounts rack megafail. Loaded the bike up and went to lock the handle down and had it shatter in my hands! I had been thinking the other day that they could use a better way to microadjust, that the point between too loose and unable to tighten was hard to adjust, but never expected the handle to break as I wasn’t putting a lot of pressure on it at the time. I’ll write it off as a one in a million issue and bring it back to REI and give them one more chance, but the metal handles on my buddy’s Yakima were looking pretty nice the other day… Finished the day with in the sun, cleaning and lubing the bike, sipping on Blind Pig from Saraveza.
 Have only used the rack three times and the handle broke!  My not really trusty steed sunning itself *No Germans were actually harmed
An old college buddy was in town this weekend before he started his new gig, figured as Saturday was supposed to be spring-like that I’d bring him out to Syncline as 1) it would be dry relative to anything else around 2) I like Double Mountain and 3) wanted to check out a few bikes at one of the shops in town that he was going to rent from.
Late start on the day as we had to wait a bit for breakfast in the city at Tasty n Sons (BTW, great hostess, great service, great food, worth checking out). Loaded up the new Rockymount Pitchfork for it’s first ‘further than 5 miles and freeway speeds’ test, into local shop for a rental (their rental fleet consists of Camber 29ers….not bad for $25!), onto the trailhead. Quick change and onto the ride.
Distance: Longer than usual due to world’s slowest rider not being there, but far from difficult – about 11.5 miles.
Weather: Heh. Started off nice and springlike, though a touch windy. Turned into what I can only imagine it feels like to ride into the eye of a tornado. 35+ sustained headwinds, rain, hail, thunder, etc. for the last 4 miles or so. Awesome.
Short summary: Good times with a touch of adventure. Tried a new way, had to bushwack for a bit + the full frontal weather assault finish made for one of those days you won’t soon forget. The a-man jinx has (thus far) been avoided
The up: Just the usual low speed/enjoy the scenery and bullshitting with old friends climb. Lots of wind, at points you’d had to stop as it would push you off the trail. Pretty nuts, the shaky vid below doesn’t show nearly how it was. Doubletrack/Jeep Trail up the the brown house, left up the singletrack, onto the fire road, got bored of that so turned around and hooked a louie back at the brown house to explore a bit.
The down: Welp, not as fun as it could have been had we gone down Little Maui. Tried a new trail that was fun and flowy for a bit, eventually the trail just disappeared – conveniently right about the time the weather went to hell. Little bit of bushwacking here and there, one banged knee and some racked nuts, couple mile spin down the road, back to the blackhawk.
In what’s become a ritual, post-ride pizza and beer DEVOURED at Double Mountain Brewery. Yes, I’m a sucker for wood fired pizza and it’s a proven fact that beer tastes better after riding, snowboarding or surfing.
 Route overview. Same ol' same ol' halfway with a finishing twist  Elevation summary. Still need to do a hors catégorie climb  Captain Spandex shows how the bright Camber pops against a dark background
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