Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot?

I should hope not! Happy New Years to everyone back home, I miss you all dearly! (except for Nick Soles, he be forgot, jk buddy I miss your musk)

Ok, so I've been slackin a bit on keeping this blog up to date, but I'm gonna use the lame excuse of the holidays getting in the way. I've also in the mean time been weighing out several options for my trip down the coast to LA, and here's what I've come up with: Since I can't see everything I want to see, I cut the trip down to just two stops between here and LA. First being Portland and Hood River, OR, technically its two stops but they are pretty close to each other, and second being Sausalito, CA. I'll be visiting friends in Oregon and in Sausalito I've set up another help exchange for just over a week. I'll be a short ferry ride away from San Francisco, staying in a house that has a view of the bay and the bridge!



I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting antsy about leaving. Its been a nice retreat up here at the Mammoth but I'm getting a little bit of cabin fever not having a vehicle. I bum rides as often as I can when my roommates are going into town, and some of them have been cool enough to bring me out to some excellent hiking spots. On NYE we went out and soaked out bones in a hot spring near Mt. Baker. We also did a short day hike around Baker Lake and saw some mountain goats from a distance! I would post the picture but they just look like white specs on the side of a mountain. After the romp around Mt. Baker we came back to a house full of good people, good food, good tunes, and horrible, horrible dancing (all the more fun ;). The party was a huge success and in the morning we hosted a delicious brunch for all out guests who stayed the night.  

There is so much to see out here but unfortunately most of it requires a vehicle to get to. The Cascades are incredible! Huge! I'd love to be out there climbing and exploring them but I need the independence of having my own ride. So I'm thinking it would be great to come back in the summer time when the weather is warm and the days are longer. Maybe I'll buy a car then and tour the area the proper way. A car would also give me the freedom to explore more of the West coast. We'll see.