Just another 10 days in the office....

My big block of work is now finished and I am sitting in a coffee shop in Eugene - the last 10 days at work has been a crazy time, the last ten days of a 50 day course with a run of one of the more remote rivers in the lower 48 states and a summit attempt on Mt Hood. I was joined on this section by Steve Baume and for a brief time by Meagan. This year will probably stick in my mind for a couple of reasons - smoothest run of the Owyhee ever with lots of chilling and hot springs and good campsites, an epic drive out of the Owyhee drainage where the trailer came off the hitch, it took steve over an hour to back down an epic couple of hundred yards of road (once we rehitched the trailer) and we blew out our chains on the second attempt to go upwards (though we did in fact make it) top this off with three days pretty much tent bound on Mt hood in a storm with one summit attempt where we left camp at 2am and were back by 53oam covered in ice with a bit of frostnip this will not be a 10days to be forgotten.....

Mountaineer, Rafter and Driver Extraordinary, Steve Baume - Sponsored by Red bull and other energy drinks - takes another shot on one of the long drives across oregon.

Rye grass hot springs for a lunch time stop.
Sometimes its hard, sometimes its easy but it still work - steve living it up on the gear boat.
Raft below "Pruitts Castle" on the Owyhee
Santiago puts in a bold pry on Dog leg rapid (class 3)
And gets it spot on!
Lizzie scouts Whistling Bird Rapid (Class 4)
Me in steve southards Kayak paddling towards Mongomery Rapid (Class 4) at the entrance to Green Dragon Canyon.
Steve stops trying to teach us new swear words and surveys the broken chains at the top of the nasty road.
530am - up since 1245am and turned around at 430am on our summit attempt of mt hood
Steve, Meagan and I going a little crazy with yet more time stuck in a tent as the wind blows and snow falls.
final night in the wilderness - the students cooking in the snow kitchen.

So now I have a couple of weeks off - If the weather improves I might be headed for Mt jefferson, if it doesnt then Smith Rock followed by a week with whitney, headed for the rogue river in Southern Oregon and maybe Castle crags for some climbing in Northern California... For now I plan to watch some movies and drink some coffee.