Educators course photos (courtesy of steve baume)

This could have been entitled - me looking stupid Looking confused (lunchtime on the Owyhee)

The office. Actually doing what I'm meant to. Final day of course and a lot of talking for me - chatting to Jason mid afternoon

Where am I? - playing with the new GPS....

Not overly impressed about the indescision over where to camp - probably needed my 4th cup of tea that day

Play time (part 1)

The first part of the road trip is now complete, I finished work loaded up steves truck and drove south to catch the end of the "open season" on the Rogue river. It was beautiful to down in the coastal region surrounded by trees on a stunning section of river. We floated the wild and scenic section (35 miles) taking three days and a minimum of stuff. We unfortunately ran out of beer but stocked up at a lodge on the river side. We then drove (or rather steve drove) down to Mt shasta and were soon half way up casaval ridge. A beautiful easy ridge to the top of the second highest peak in the lower 48 states. At 13000ft we finally bumped into Rachel and Chris and their friends before summiting, heading down and grabbing a burger and beer in shasta city. Am now back at base planning the next trip, this time heading North to Mt Rainier and Mt jefferson. Me scouting Rainie falls (class 5) in the first mile of the Rogue - we ran the fish ladder on the right (class 3) where I managed to hit every rock possible.

A better view of Rainie falls, our raft is the grey thing in the middle right side of the picture.

Rachel, Chris and steve at bunny flats trailhead, Casaval Ridge sweeps up from the left to the centre of the mountain (the summit is further back)

Steve scouts Blossom bar, the most technical rapid on the Rogue.

The best way to start the day, putting on the river in the rain with coffee and cold pizza.

50 days or more...

Photos continued. The oregon wilderness educators course has a rock climbing component at Smith rock, a Wilderness First Responder section, a river section on the lower deschutes, a mountaineering section in the sisters wilderness and lastly a finals section that contained the Owyhee river and an ascent of Mt hood. I didnt get many photos of smith or the deschutes for some reason but did get a fair few of the other sections. I worked the whole course with other staff coming in to work specific sections. It was great to be out there for the whole time and also to get to work with so many good people (we ended with 10 different staff working the course). 50 days is a long time and I was interested in how I would feel afterwards. Generally I just feel like there really is something I should be doing or someone I should be talking to but apart from that I feel energised to go on my own adventures right now. which will follow in the next post.... Chilling in the tent with meagan and steve (day 47 or 48) on mt hood. We spent a bit of tent time on hood due to a storm then from the sun.

Hot dogs in the snow at Mt hood trail head (timberline). The salad kept blowing away.

Meagan making fresh cinimon rolls on the Owyhee river.

Descending Mt hood toward the hogs back with the rope team strung out in front of me. (mt jefferson in the distance)

Rusty cooking in the snow kitchen, sisters wilderness.

Montgomery rapid (class 4) in the canyon section of the Owyhee (theres a raft in there somewhere)

Finally making it to the trail head in the sisters wilderness after slogging it out with my pack and a sled. (the sled was great except when i wanted to change direction!)

Tony sorting food in our mini snow kitchen in the sisters wilderness.

The camp at illumintation saddle (on the left) with the clouds rolling past.

Night 3 on the Owyhee sleeping in the cave.

Beards for warmth

Have just finished working the oregon 50 day wilderness educators course. 55 days of work and now i find myself back at base with the feeling that i really should be doing something. So I'm going to. Heading off today, south down to raft the rogue (flows out of crater lake) followed by an attempt to climb Mt shasta. Here are some photos from the course though.....

Tony getting some skiing done while students are on solo (having skiied in an epic amount of food to ressupply us in the mountains) (photo taken from zen puddles for the oregon people)

Steep snow climbing from golden lake to the zen puddles, sisters wilderness.

Base camp at golden lake with broken top behind. We attempted the NW ridge (the one on the right side of the mountain) but were turned back by intense cold and hard conditions.

Slogging it out with the snowshoes trying to get to golden lake Chilling - cup of tea in a natural hotsprings (around day 43) on the Owyhee (oh wa hee) river, eastern oregonKayaking Montgomery rapid (class 4) on the Owyhee at the start of the Green dragon canyon. (Thanks to Mike Mourar for the lend of the Kayak, allowing me a lot of fun while the rest rafted - also a lot of fun!)
A wee bit chilly - day 46 on Mt Hood as we try and dig platforms in for the tents in the middle of a storm.
Meagan steve and I with our tent behind at illumination saddle on Mt hoodSummit day - day 48, 7am and we are just above the Hogs back (well i am anyway - steve is still standing on it as the last person on the team) on the south face of Mt hood.

More photos to follow!

Back in the USSA

And now back in the states again. My last couple of weeks in Scotland have flown past, managing to get a bit of climbing done (yes there were sunny spells) a bit of Kayaking and even a two day trip down the River Earn with my Dad. Dad has lived over 40 years of his life somewhere in the Earn valley and wanted to explore the river (after an aborted attempt and a run in with a dead sheep/capsize last year). It was kind of the wrong time of year but we did get an amazing first day of sunshine through some amazing scenery, a cold night by the side of the river and then a whole lot of snow on the last day. The trip was great, to spend time with dad and also canoe a beautiful river so close to where I grew up.

Unfortunately as I was preparing to leave Scotland I found out that a good friend and colleague Travis Lizzotte passed away. Travis was living his dream and living life to the full and his loss to the world is immense. More on the amazing person Travis was can be found on the memorial page on Facebook. I am now back in the USA to work a 50 day Wilderness Educators course to start of another season with OBUSA. Finally time to work again, a bit of a shock to the system...

The put in for the River Earn (Comrie)

Paddling into the snow storm on the 2nd day
Ice in the pan, morning in the tent
Below the 1st portage (the weir up river swamped us)

An ancient monument - exploring a castle on the first day
Matthew pretending he isnt struggling! the final moves of the imaginately named "the arete"(E1) at the Hawkcraig
The Abseil into The Hawkcraig, Edinburgh
From left, Travis, Amber, me and Steve on prouty point in the sisters wilderness last summer

The Whirlwind. (end of grand canyon and beyond)

Already the grand canyon trip seems like a while ago but thats probably due to my laziness in not finishing the blog. We did eventually make it to Lake mead. Unfortunately Ryan left in a helicopter as he said he had an infection though its more likely that he just didn't want to do any of the flat water rowing. The last few days were crazy as the river cuts through the silt built up from the dam leaving big crumbling mud cliffs on either side. By this stage there was no power left in the river and the last few miles were tough, head down and get on with it rowing and trying not to focus on the 2 miles an hour boat speed. Suddenly the Japanese tourists in speed boats dont look so stupid. An early morning saw us pull into south cove take out to wash the gear and our ride back to civilisation but only after the driver had given us a full run down on a months news.

For me it was then a quick changeover straight from Flagstaff to see Becca in New York. It felt very strange to be back in "the real world" and definitely took me time to adjust though as soon as I was in New York, Becca whisked me up to Vermont where we house sat a beautiful old Inn for some people Becca used to work for and I got a quick tour of some of Vermont.

Then within a week another massive change back to Scotland and the wonderful Scottish winter. Rain that is. Since I've been back its been a whirlwind of catching up with people along with bits and pieces of walking, kayaking and climbing. Next up is a canoe trip down the river Earn with my dad.

Dont worry folks I will soon be back at work.......
Rowing into the Lake Mead eveningEarly morning sun across the Lake as we derig the boatsSome cold washing of boats (and people)The Whitford house Inn in Vermont Becca trying to avoid the camera on an icy cycle ride in New York

A sudden change. The New York Skyline from Central Park above and a storm rolling across Rannoch moor in Scotland

Scottish winter mountaineering at its best. Robin sheltering below Ben Lui