atop an active volcano.

well, for once an incredibly random title actually has something to do with the rest of the post, because, in fact, I was on top (well I guess sort of on the side) of an active volcano today. Pretty psychedelic dude. If it decided to blow while we were up there I would be writing this post.....and I'd probably be looking like an over-fried chip.


A little background first.....
My buddy joshua wants to drive to mount baker in washington and go for a hike. Josh and I decide to come. We leave. we, very nervously, cross the border. we begin the drive.

One of the first comments of the trip was that even though it only takes a few minutes to cross the border, once you're in the USA things are totally different..... like ghetto gas stations..... and flags on EVERY house....(it's Canada day today and I've only seen a couple of flags)....... and those were most of the observations i think...


Well we quickly reached the wilderness, and because it was nearing noon we decided that we'd get food at the next place that sold it, and that place happened to be "Starvin' Sam's Mini Mart". I don't think I've ever seen so many rednecks congregated in one small location before. We were all awkward until we left Sam's.

Once we got to the furthest point that had a road that wasn't covered in snow we got out and spent a few hours exploring, rolling already bad ankles, getting sun burnt, almost falling of cliffs, almost falling through snow drifts into the streams that ran beneath......yeah. they were good times.

Walking on the snow drifts was cool. You would be walking and think that there was ground right beneath you then you'd see a little hole, cautiously approach, then jump back when you realized that there was a stream flowing beneath you that had created a cavity under the snow creating a nice little cave that you could pretty easily fall through into .\/

and then I tried to climb this cliff by a water fall, and everything was fine until I got to the top, but then I realized that at the top was a ledge sloping toward the waterfall that was wet and had no hand or footholds, and three feet past that was a snow wall that was too big to get on top of without standing up which would have been plain stupid on the sloping/slippery ledge.......but I can be really stupid sometimes, and the idea of getting to the top the quickest way was a lot stronger than the thought of going the longer/smarter way. So I cautiously got my knees up on the ledge and crawled up....then I pretty much had cardiac arrest when I started to slip back toward the edge. I flipped over so that I was sitting down, and then the slipping stopped. I sat there for a few minutes breathing really hard and tried to think of what to do. even though I was sitting with my back up against the snow wall, I knew the idea of getting onto it was plain suicide, so I slipped my legs back over the side, climbed half way back down, then found an easier way up. When I reached the top I felt pretty good. Then I saw a few guys with snow shoes and backpacks and ropes linking them all together, and I wondered I was just a little dumb.