Adventures in Onionism

I accepted a job in DC starting mid-September. Gf accepted a job starting late June in Williamsburg, VA. Our stuff is in two Uhaul boxes, making its way across the country, where it will sit in storage for a few months. Our lease is up Sunday. That night gf flies to Virginia. George is scheduled to fly to Richmond via Atlanta, but it looks like Atlanta is going to be too hot (>85*), in which case pets can't fly. So maybe I'll drive to SLC to put him on a flight to Dulles, or there's a redeye through Atlanta to Reagan that may be cool enough, or I could drive to LA and get him on a direct flight to Dulles. Do you want to pick him up in DC and watch him until Amy can come get him on a weekend? Somehow I also need to sell my truck. Do you want it? Please buy it . It won't do me any good in DC. Once that is all taken care of, I'm going hiking! I was hoping to fly from Oakland to Missoula, Montana and walk from there into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I didn't ...

Well this is jealousy-inducing. My knee is slowly recovering from Zion. I ran/walked only 9.5 miles last week. I'm also in the middle of a 5-presentations-plus-a-grant-application-in-8-days stretch. Sometimes I wish I were unemployed so I wouldn't ever have to go to any meetings and could just Stata all day long. I'm a terrible multi-tasker.

My pages from the books placed at EBM a few weeks ago. Such a fun run. I'm cleaning and packing to move across town. MUCH nicer place, smaller room but bigger house, no views but equally close to parks and off-leash places for George.

Woohoo! I ran the Euchre Bar Massacre 50-miler yesterday. In its second year, the Massacre is a fat ass (a low key fun run) in the North Fork of the American River. I've been told about the North Fork before, but it hadn't really registered. Now I understand, and I will definitely be going back. The race is in the Barkley style--off trail, a ridiculous amount of steep climbing, minimal aid stations, and books placed in the woods. You rip your bib number's page out of the book as you go along to prove that you covered the ground you were supposed to. The organizer asked us not to share the directions or map with those not involved, so I'll only post this elevation profile. Look at it! A thing of beauty. By my Garmin: 18,820 feet of climbing in 46 miles, or slightly steeper than Hardrock. The entire race is probably closer to 60 miles, but unfortunately I did not finish. The race is best thought of in terms of hills, of which there are 8. There were only two cutoff...

I posted pictures previously, but I've been meaning to do a full trip report, along with some information for others intending to do do JLey's route (or make up their own). Summary I thought Iceland was amazing, and I would recommend it, but I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much as other hikers seem to have. The downsides are that JLey's route includes a lot of roadwalking. The majority of that is near-deserted two-tracks, but there's a non-neglible amount of walking on pavement (near Mývatn) and the dirt/gravel roads from the Jökulheimar hut to Landmannalaguar are endless, monotonous, and quite busy towards the end.  Iceland is a very popular tourist destination these days, so some sections are crowded, and despite a currency collapse during the global financial crisis, it's still very expensive. Maybe not Switzerland expensive, but more expensive than the US for sure. Also there is zero non-bird wildlife. The upside is, duh, that Iceland has some beaut...

A few weeks ago around the time I was running 20 miles in urban North Philly on a paved bike path (with occasional unpaved horse trails on the side) with Mark, I came across a few things about the most remote place in each state/the US. North Philly, they are not. A Dirtbag Diaries podcast about a couple visiting the most remote spot in each state. The couple's website, Project Remote .   The Bedrock & Paradox guy wrote a post on remoteness and different ways to measure it shortly before that.  By some of the common definitions for the lower 48 (from a road, county with the fewest roads) I got pretty darn close to on my CDT hike. But not so much in the last few years.

Santa Monica Mountains 3/8/14 San Jacinto (Cactus to Clouds) 3/10/14 Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim 3/12/14 Start Zoraster's Temple from Tip Off Down Splits Up Humphreys Back Down Up, Again Good Day's Work

I presented my research yesterday. Seemed like it went well. The swamp-ass weather is not suiting me well. If you feel the same, then you should watch the Norwegian film Kon-Tiki from 2012, while huddled in your AC cocoon. Sorry, I can't get it to embed right now. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97XrASFPhF0 ] Also watch the original doc, with real 16mm film from the voyage, if you can find a copy. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joem9SKS3LY ] And remember that Gourevitch article in The New Yorker about Rwandan cycling? Now there's a doc. [ http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/risingfromashes/ ]

The full (25 minute) version of Kyle Dempster's The Road from Karakol is on Youtube. Great scenery, and an amazing adventure, but I think his voice over narration is a little hamfisted.

While I was adventuring all over southern Utah, it seems others were out as well. Here 's a crazy traverse of Zion by Buzz Burrell, Jared Campbell, and Ryan McDermott. I don't know the park well enough to understand the traverse exactly, but the pictures of them setting some sort of climbing rig from an inescapable pothole and rappelling in wesuits tell quite a story. Others crossed the Bob Marshal Wilderness. Oh, and Tony K is starting to put bits of Nolan's 14 together in preparation for a go at the whole thing, but you probably already knew that. I wish I were still out there.