Stuck....

2 trucks and a plow....all buried in my driveway for 2 hours... let the winter begin!! That and almost lost the beer....

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Tamarack is open....

....if you want a interesting place to stay for free and want tohit the sweet slopes at Tamarack, come and get it, I live just a couple minutes away! Bring beer....

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The Frist....

The festivus season has come and gone...pineapple or not. The frist is also looking and behaving more like funcional wrist everyday. I stoked!
The snow flies and the coyote sits by the fire, waiting for his new phone to arrive in the Mail

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Barf-tuna....

seeing the goods was disturbing. and then the pa tapped her pen on the can opener pin sticking out of my wrist...no pain, just phenomenally awkward. i kept feeling like my wrist was gonna flop over, yet it never did. and you can feel the plate through the skin....


good news is the cast is off on the 6th, pin out....end of story.

I Noticed.....

-its hard to wash my right armpit

-tramadol is awesome and its not

-anticipating pin removal is like waiting to be nauseous

-cant wash stinky left hand

-cant touch my face with left hand

-zippers suck

-so do cam buckle belts

Bills....

First medical bill came today...OMFG

they cant be serious, considering the cold war era sling i got that made the nurses laugh.... this does not include er visit, anesthesiologist, surgeon, and follow-ups.... guess its time to start using that college degree....

i kinda want to rant about all those idiots that are afraid of socialized health care, thanks for your support.

i also did some research on my prescription: tramadol
this stuff is awesome.

"Tramadol is used to relieve moderate to moderately severe pain. Tramadol extended-release tablets are only used by people who are expected to need medication to relieve pain around-the-clock for a long time. Tramadol is in a class of medications called opiate agonists. It works by changing the way the body senses pain."

it feels like a combo of thc and heavy ibuprofen. complacency and desire of salty sweet snacks, ski movies, naps, and continued daytime dreaming. luckily i dont need it nor take it much at all anymore. certainly helps undisturbed sleep, but as its used to treat PE it has its weakness - extreme decrease in libido, which at this point in time is fine with me. will be filed in med kit for future emergencies.

....post op

serious pins and screws

Bones....

Before and after the set....surgery tomorrow!

Inevitable....

no words, to hard to type....youll figure it out....

Hunting....

Meanwhile....back at the ranch: Theres been mucho searching. Searching for jobs to replace the job that didnt happen. Searching for a warm abode to replace the rotten freezing abode of current driveway placed rolling unit that Garrett is gonna be so stoked about when it leaves. Searching for hot coffee on 18 degree mornings.

Kevin and Leos search ended nicely! Bastiges!

Meanwhile I found a couple future warm homes to check out. One of which was so stupid I laughed out loud and left skipping across the deep grass.

This place was SO FAR OUT in the woods and completely half built and half rotting underneath it I dont know how a person actually asks rent for it. I can already see the weasleys mixing up some potions and exploding chewing gum in here. Pass.

I also found a walk in basement for the same low price of 400 buck each month, but considering the door opened right to a minor highway, and the fact that I like zambi alive.... Pass.

Next was a shithole cabin out in Donnelly. Perfect....

Its a single bedroom, 2 loft, fire heated joint on a couple acres on the river with a huge sandy beach. The garage is already half full and when I peeked in I saw two dead animals hanging in there. I think this might be the one. So far. Check.

Motobeerdog Weekend - El Segundo....

More of the same awesome funnest way to get lost in the woods:

The team, which can be explained better over here and here, with two new members, gathered in the woods north of McCall Idaho this time. Ready and willing to tackle some laughter and late evening excitement to keep riding even though the light is almost completely gone.

Rule #1: No 2-strokes.

Apparently we suck at enforcing rules. We found this dude working at the city and snuck him out fer some real rednecking, and tried so hard to get him to shut up about Vermont. I dont think he can? Thats Brad fer ya.

SOB came out too, loving life and ready to fix some 600. But as it usually goes, it didnt fix, which is why we have so many dang bikes. On the 250 he tore it up. On foot, we both sucked air felt like poop. That being said we came to ride not hike, Period.

So we found ourselves up at Loon lake, the scene of a bomber wreck in the "long time ago" time period. We had to hike all the way over to the other side of the lake, in riding boots, which as far as I can tell are not made for walking. Its hot out too.


A B-23 is supposed to look like this:

What we found looked like a significantly smaller, crumpled, mangled mess of aluminum. Most of the important stuff had been removed and the cool stuff pillaged by visitors. Lame. A cooler part of the story was how the crew had wrecked in a giant snow storm, landed on the frozen lake, slid into the woods ripping the wings off and managed to stay alive and warm by cutting trees for firewood with a big .50 caliber machine gun from the plane. Tight.

So we continued riding, continued racing up the Carey Dome Lookout road, with or without millions of Landrovers, and cooked and ate really good yet gross looking concoctions from the outdoor kitchen, mostly made up of leftovers from the night before. Zambi guarded the camp from chipmunks. On the last day we were gonna head up to towards Riggins and hit the Hard/Hazard Creeks Trails for the sweet inverted switchbacks and such. Thankfully on the way out we decided through a haze of exhaustion that burgers and beer would feel better. They did. That night Brian and SOB took off on the long journey south, dreaming of singletrack, thumpers and whiskey. Im sure B also thought about that "youre the only one who hasnt wrecked yet" comment. We're bastards, I know.

The next day G and I continued the mission and headed up the H&H trails and made it to what I think is called Hard Peak, or Squirrel Square Britches Mountain.

This where I give major credit to Amsoil. When I rebuilt my top end earlier this spring and broke in the piston rings with some crap oil, I needed some new good stuff, and I couldnt find the Silkolene I used to be running. Back in LA at the Husky shop, old man was telling about oil with zinc being the best, so I found Amsoil and wow, it really works. Between the new rings and amsoil I no longer have to change my oil after every other ride, and it stays buttery gold in color. Impressed. I did manage to puke the radiator a couple times on climbs while watching G "mario kart" bounce up the trails ahead of me.

The struggle

Like Brian sez: videos to come....

Main Salmon!....Biznackowiches!....

So I think I previously mentioned that we tried the Main again. This much lower and with much more beer. In fact so much more that there was extras at the end. And no one wanted any. Too much....

So last time, the water peaked with us there at about 84,000 cfs, and all was crazy. This time the water peaked at about 4,000 cfs, and all was ridiculous. Saw a bear, and brought the dogs, and pushed them out, and cracked a fresh cold one at 9 am, everyday.

By the time we got down to Yellow Pine Bar, their neighbor and friend Steve was already there. This is the same guy who gave us his truck and trailer to drive out of the Whitewater ranch. Rad dude. Well, he informed us that the day we left the rive came up some more and was probably about in the range of 100,000+ cfs with 100 footer trees coming downstream. Ugh. So yeah we ran into those guys and hooked em up with some beer stuff and liqour for their amazing kindness and helpfulness. Insert "rad" anywhere in this paragraph.


Theres a lot more stories, but considering I have close to no pics of the events, I dont like to tell em. The Pano above had great fishing. Nate was catching 4 for 4, and then nothing. He must have caught em all or something. There was also the day when we were all leapfrogging in the boats and just gabbing our way down the river. Oblivious. Our boat fell behind a bit to the point we couldnt even see the other guys. And then a couple hours later, and lucky we didnt miss her, there was Amanda passed out on a giant rock in the middle of the river. She would have had a nice swim if we missed her....

One of the main scary rapids that decided out fates last time was barely even present this time. Whiplash is called a IV-V S-turn rapid with monster eddie fences and undercuts and currents to deal with. The first trip our neighboring guides informed us that their 18 foot boats were too small and that they recommended tying the boats together for that rapid....are you fucking crazy? No way..... This time it was a flat pool next to a wall. Hmmpff....

The good rapids this time around were Salmon Falls, which was flat big water last time, and Elkhorn, which was fairly long and maneuverable and moist. Gonna have to do this stretch again....and again....

Pro-Crastinator

I had a pencil and handcuffs.....

Updateables....

So with all the adventure coming to a close, I figured this would be a great time to spread the wealth of it, via pictures and stories. But theres a problem. That problem starts with my camera and its card. And my early lack of caffeine....

First off I planned on taking all kinds of pics on the Main Salmon to compare to the high water pics from last time. Unfortunately and fortunately, with Nate on the trip, I was was blasted everyday and never actually pulled my camera out. I imagine being in the state of mind my folks would be in at my age when they went to the lake for extended weekends before I was around. Anyways the camera has this card extender so it fits in the computer for download, and that piece is now gone. I MacGruber'd it with some tape and that worked for a while but now the card has a chip in the plastic and wont read on my computer....only other ones. So til then its no photo time.

About the other explorations that I havent covered lately: In the spring Garrett and I did some post snow biking over by Riggins that actually had tons of snow. We stayed at Camp Confluence where Hard creek and Hazard creek meet up. Pretty sweet. Look for that story soon.
Then Most recently we had the Motobeerdog Weekend Second Annual up in the Warren area and it kicked so much ass that my body is just starting to recover from dehydration and muscle fatigue. Half of the team took off back to CA and G and I still hada day to putt around so we headed back to the Hazard area and found ourselves on this black diamond motobike trail getting served. For the first time in the history of owning my 450 I blew the radiator 3 times, and had to jog my bike past the crux while kicking the peg and laughing with blood everywhere.

Other progressions include a new to me camper that is completely worthless and a potential job in the McCall area surveying. Hope it works. I havent lived in snow for a long long time, so I guess I better get some skis for some sick backcountry madness.

So stay in touch(e) as the updates come pouring in like maple syrup in -30 degrees....

Lol....

The Main....

The trip started with a potential invite for a permitted stretch on the Selway River, the Lochsa’s big sister over in Idaho. The couple days previous to the trip we started noticing the rain and weather, the gauges began rising. If I remember correctly, the personal safety cutoff was about 5 feet on the Selway gauge, anything higher and youre pretty much out of luck on having a successful safe trip. The gauge kept rising.

In preparation for the trip someone loaned Matt a copy of some video explaining the details and rapids on the Selway. Almost immediately we noticed and commented and laughed at the ridiculous nature of these boaters, especially the kayakers. One guy in particular would approach the rapid, fall over, run the rapid upside down and then swim immediately to shore, leaving all his gear to float downstream where somebody else had to deal with it; multiple times. Quite funny.

2 Days before the trip was to leave, the Selway gauge exceeded the 5 foot mark. Everyone bailed. There was a pretty cool option lining up, though, and the trip and most of its participants were to head to the Main Salmon River, an 80 mile stretch of river described as a fun class III-IV between the Middle Fork and the Lower Salmon. Little did we know what was about to happen.

We started picking up new team members and grocery shopping and driving the 8 hours to the put-in at Corn Creek. Driving next to the river we notice how massive a lot of the holes and waves are. Excited. That night we dine on pre-prepared burritos and beers. The whiskey is already half gone. Its raining.

Me laughing: "were so screwed"

In the morning the Corn Creek Shoe gauge reads 6.7. We were to head out and meet three other boats later in the day and have dinner ready for em when they arrive. They never show. We set up a plethora of tarps and ready for the rain. It comes and we get cold so we fire up the best accidental idea Ive ever seen: a 3 hour instant light log. It seems like the river is rising.
In the morning our campfire seemed quite a bit closer to the water than it did last night. I think the water came up the bank 15 feet or more. We estimate its close to 9 feet now, and confirmed that when the giant trees coming downstream started having rootballs. That’s what the ranger said is the indicator for 9 feet. River still rising. With the trees and debris coming down in 5 minute intervals we decide to sit this out instead of rowing with 60 foot trees. This is about the same time I get made fun of for commenting on the burnt trees coming from a burnt area. It never ends.

Later that same day we meet with the other 3 boats that camped 45min above us. With us being out of beer and them having two kegs and a lot more we try and persuade them to our best ability but to no avail. We take note of their gear; shorts, sandals and rain jackets. Our drysuits hanging on the line suddenly seem warmer than they were the day before. They take off, and we learn later, flip a boat and lose some gear and beer. Swimming in 38 degree water doesn’t sound very fun.

Before and after (9ft). Later the
next day the water was
above the downed tree in the foreground (12ft)

Around 7pm that night we witness something quite freaky. A yellow Hyside raft drifts by us, no people and no gear, just a frame. 30 minutes later a purple Maravia floats by, fully loaded and geared but upside down. Fuck. Night time falls fast and the water still rises. Were out of beer.

A nice 50 footer

Our tarp city at Blackadar

The next day we pack up as the debris flow has stabilized. Water still high. Like 12 feet on the Corn Creek gauge high. Like 84,000 cfs high. About time for diapers high. (Note: the biggest water I ever ran before this was in the Grand Canyon at 12,000 cfs in an 18 foot raft) As we head down the river at 12-17 mph we notice all the rapids are gone and the flats have monster eddies and super monster wave trains. Now in 14 foot boats we play everything extra safe. as we near Salmon Falls we see it, a purple boat caught in a eddy. We manage to eddy out and rope it in, remove the debris, drink the remainder of the found whiskey, fix the oar locks and I hop inside. After a few very fast miles, horizontal rain, and dodging wood we find ourselves headed right into one of the largest and longest wavetrains I have ever seen. Tim's 15.5 foot raft disappears and seems like its never going to reappear. Matt freaks out as his son is on that boat and is invisible for seconds upon seconds. It finally reemerges at the next crest. Holy shit.

Im solo rowing the purple boat and find out how easy it is to almost flip on a continuous scale. We make it. I wish we had beer.

We end up at Yellow Pine Bar and see a road from teh river to a nice little house on the cliff. Stopping there we inquire about what we should do with this boat and find out our friends fates and that one is waiting below at the campground so we head there. Turns out one of three boats is there as the flipped one was chased down by the second because it had wallets and keys in it. Bad choice. Drysuits were the deal maker today, thank you NRS!

The Gang: Matt, Levi, Michael, Chris, Timmy, and Mr Stinky

As we start setting up camp we notice the outfitters we spoke with earlier but nobody is there. No customers, no guides. Turns out as the water was showing no signs of receding the company flew its customers out, as the next class II rapid, Whiplash, was way too big and dangerous to continue without getting crazy and tying the boats together in a diamond rig and drifting through somehow. I didnt get it. Something about a giant tongue and 8 foot eddy fences and never escapeable eddies. I get it. We need beer.

When the guides returned from their hike to whiplash a beautiful blonde walks over and introduces herself. Turns out shes the daughter of "old man river" and was on the cover of our river maps. Nice. This chick is tough as nails, and appareantly not to impressed with us. As she walks back to her camp I chase her down for a "very important question"..... "do you guys have any extra beer that the customers left?" "No", she responds, as everyone there was extremely Mormon. Damn, stumped again. It begins to rain again.

The next day one of the boys and I get to hang with the awesome couple watching the Yellow Pine Bar awaiting radio communications from Whitewater ranch about our proposed road evacuation. We got to sample a ton of Homebrew and tour the property. The only way into this place is via jetboat or small plane for which theres a private landing strip that is far from flat and all grass and rocks. Neat.

After unloading and taking out at the awesome Whitewater ranch, we somehow borrow a 3500 and trailer and drive out with the rest of the yahoos. Life is good. Somewhere on the drive out we drive next to 40 miles of amazing high class IV creekage. Life on land is pretty good, and freezing wet. What an awesome trip! Going again on Sunday!