Seattle Sports

I am happy and sad for Seattle sports this year. Today was the last game of the season for the Seattle Mariners, and even though they won, they finished six games behind in the AL West and the AL Wildcard. My hopes were up for most of the season as they hung on to the Wildcard and challenged the Angels in the AL West, but their mojo left them and they fell 9 games behind. Last week, they mathematically fell out of contention for the playoffs, with 7 games left and 8 games behind. It was a good season, but ended on a sad note.


Looking on the brighter side, the Seahawks won their game against San Francisco 23 to 3 today, putting their record at 3-1. Next week will be the most exciting game of the season, the Super bowl XL rematch. The Seahawks will be playing at the Pittsburgh Steelers, and both teams have 3-1 records. That game might be my highlight of this whole week. Go Seahawks!

I am hoping for the best for the Seahwks in the 2007 season and wishing good luck for the Mariners for 2008.

Writer's Block

Writer's Block. We all get it. Delay after delay, you can't think of what to put on the page. It hurts and it's scary. Sometimes, it is made even worse if there is a deadline, or if there are loud noises around. Writing this blog, I have come across it more than once. This is most probably because I don't have a theme or storyline I need to follow. Today, I had a major attack from the beast of Writer's Block, so I decided to write about it. Here is how I describe Writer's Block:

• A Blind Mind


• Brain Pain


• Fighting Writing


• Think Tank Blank

To get over writer's block, I usually let it sit, and write down interesting thngs that have happened during the day for inspiration.

Good Luck to all of you if you are forced to fight the monster that is writer's block!

Vicipaedia

At school, I study the ancient language of Latin. On the web, Wikipedia and other wikis are catching on and becoming very popular. Wikipedia is made in many languages, even ones that aren't spoken. Latin is one of the languages available on Wikipedia, and they call it "Vicipaedia." The articles aren't all about Roman History, they have many different articles about topics in history or things that are happening today. They have an article about the internet http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet and one of Caesar http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Iulius_Caesar. One interesting fact: All of wikipedia's different language sites are translated by people, not computers. That means that somebody has studied Latin long enough to write about the internet in this arcane language! This is a very interesting find on the web, and could help me with my studies.

Bicycle Trip on the Iron Horse Trail

"Well, its only car camping," Steven said as we compared the sporting equipment we had brought. Altogether, we had two footballs, two frisbees, two bandanas (for Capture the Flag) and two decks of cards. We were being delayed because, although Alex had decided not to go on the trip at the last minute, he was still supposed to bring his assigned tent and two stoves. He came early to bring the tent, and then realized that he hadn't brought the stoves! We all had a nice little laugh, but had to wait for him to go all the way back home, find the stoves, and come back. When he came back, we were half an hour late. It didn't really matter though, because "Well, its only car camping."


There were a total of five scouts and two adults on the trip, and we all got out and stretched upon arrival at the camp, happy to be finished with the hour and a half drive. Even though we were supposed to do our biking that day, we were taking it easy. It was decided that it would be easier to bike after lunch, so we had some time until we had to go. Steven and I were once again tent buddies, and once again chose to not use a rainfly. While Colin rode around camp, Steven, Ian, Daniel and I threw around a frisbee. What we saw around us was much different than on our usual backpacking trips. Across from us there was a campsite with two people in it, and they had what looked like a portable cabin set up behind their dining area, which had a large cover set up over it. They had a radio playing music and were relaxed in big chairs. When I looked back at our campsite, we had our backpacking tents set up, but we still had one luxurious thing. New Coleman stoves. These were big and had "Electronic Ignition" printed on them. You pressed a button, and the stove came on. These were way better than our usual Svea stoves (If the Sveas were a bus, the Coleman's were Rolls-Royces), but it was too heavy to take on a backpacking trip. All of this looking and observing got a frisbee in my face because I wasn't paying attention to the game.


"Lunch is served!" Steven called out. Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches, and Steven was our master cook. He always cooked meals for us because of his skill with a stove. Once we had all eaten a sandwich, we cleaned up the area, checked our tires, and made our way to the trail. We had decided to head to the town of Cle Elum, 13 miles away. We started the trail in the shade, but once we had gone around Lake Easton, we were enveloped in pure sunlight. The going got tougher as the bouncy trail shook us up like a smoothie. After five miles, we took a break. The most we had biked before as a troop was nine miles, and we came to the conclusoin that ten was enough. However, the wind picked up and it was a grueling stretch home. At one point we took a detour to get some asphault under our tires, and ended up going too far. We eventually found the place to turn to get back to the trail, and the asphault felt nice. When we finally got back to the trail, we all let out groans of pain, but then we continued against the wind. Soon, we came to the town of Easton, less than a mile away from camp. We celebrated and had ice cream, than continued to camp. We were back quickly afterwards, and the frisbee throwing began, until Ian suggested football. We made our way to a field with the football and played until 6:00, and then came back to camp for dinner, which was cheeseburgers and chips. We sat and talked by the campfire until dark, and then we crawled into our sleeping bags, bellies full and bodies warm.


The next morning was also lazy, and we cooked up a breakfast of eggs after waking at 8:00. We had to do a lot of scrubbing on the pans, but then we slowly took down camp. We finished taking down and cleaning camp by 10:00, and so we went back to the field to play football, but this time the adults played too. It was all good fun, and then we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, were given Ho-Ho's by our leader, and then got into the cars, ready to come home.

Troop Newsletter, Assembly

Lately, I have been helping out with our Troop's monthly neswletter. It just started last month, and this month I volunteered and soon became a co-editor and contributor. It will be a great issue, with a word search, Weeklong Trip Summary, Funny Picture, Biking Tips, and a Software Grab (featuring Blogger and this very blog!). A big thanks is owed to Steven, who took the initiative to begin this newsletter and is the driving force behind getting the newsletter finished on time.

Today my school had its weekly asssembly, which usually takes 45 minutes. This week, the whole assembly consisted of the Senior Class representing what to know at the school in one long, well put together, and funny skit. They poked fun at teachers while still teaching the essentials for surviving high school. The skit was mainly targeted at the "awkward Freshmen", but everybody had a laugh and a great time. It put a great ending to the day.

First Week of School

My first 3 days of high school are over, and it is intimidating but fun at the same time. I get to see all my school friends and make new friends because of all the new people. It started out easy, but on the second day I was assigned an English essay! The homework load has increased significantly from last year, so now I need to focus on balancing my schedule. However, I am glad to be back and excited for my first year of High School.

On another note, I am excited for our troop's annual September bike trip, which was scheduled to be at Schafer State Park. However, my father recently went to the park to see what was there, and was dissapointed by what he saw. The park was just a road with one side camping and RV sites, and the other side picnic areas. There were only seven miles that we could bike on, and a two hour drive for just one night of camping. We are thinking of going to Iron Horse State Park (http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Iron%20Horse) instead because it is a shorter drive and has up to 110 miles of trail that we could bike on. The trail used to be a railroad, but was put out of service and taken over by the state park system. There is also a camping area where we could start, and we could possibly bike to a nearby town for an excursion where we could buy ice cream or other supplies. It should be a fun trip, and today our family will go there for a picnic and see what the camp is like.

Weeklong Backpacking: Day 7

The finale had started with a light drizzle, but soon cleared as the scouts charged onward. The group was split with four scouts in each group, and amazingly enough, Ryan and Colin were in the back group. Everybody charged with new vigor, even the regularly slow people. Nothing could stop our troop on this trail. With the river on our left, we all thought about what a shower would feel like. Soon, all eleven of us were in one group and we saw different campsites that had mile markers. One said 0.9 miles, and we all got excited. A bit later we could see asphalt, and then cars! We all yelled and whooped, celebrating that our fifty miles was finally complete. After a few group photos we ran to the cars, changed into civilization clothes, and were on our way, happy for our job well done.

We got into the line for the ferry, expecting a two hour wait. After waiting for a bit, Austin and I needed to use the restroom. The only place we could find was in the opposite direction of our car, so we tried to make it quick. However, we were too late, and the line started moving! We started running down the line, looking for our car. It had been 20 minutes of walking and running, and we could see the check point where they gave each car a tally slip. Suddenly, our car zoomed by the other way, with the leader inside yelling "HARRY!!!" Austin and I ran over to where they had pulled over and ran across the street, jumped in, and they put pedal to the metal to get to the line. We were the last car to get on the ferry, and our luck was scary but a good note to end the trip with.

Weeklong Backpacking: Day 6

Steven, Ian, Austin and I were all speeding down the one mile of down hill, hoping our fifteen minute headstart would give us enough time to rest at the end of the bridge. My knees and ankles hurt, both being punished by the trail and its rocks. When we heard the rushing water of the Hoh River we raced to the bottom and ran across the bridge. This was where we were supposed to stop. After ten minutes Ryan and Colin caught up with us, and in half an hour a leader came saying he could wait for us. I buddied with Steven, and we went after the others.

Steven and I hiked the same way that we did going up the mountain, even though the rest of the journey would be flat. The miles seemed to go by faster, and soon we could take fast and long steps. We sped past hikers taking breaks and charged until we got to the Olympus Guard Station, where we were to have lunch. Steven and I were the first there, and the benches they had seemed like the had come from heaven. We took of our packs, sat down, and waited. Four other scouts joined us, but we waited for an hour until the two last scouts came. To pass the time while they were not there, we played games like hide and seek. Once the last two came, we were all ready to eat. We broke out the best lunch of the trip: Hummus and matzos. The crumbs made it very messy, but it tasted like the best lunch in the world. On our next camping trip, I am going to demand we bring those.

There are a few things that can ruin a perfect hiking day. One of those things is torrential downpour. The Hoh Rainforest was living up to its name as everybody put on rain jackets and pack covers. The hiking became more miserable, and everybody was seperated. I found Austin taking a break in a quick break in the rain, and by the time we got to an emergency shelter where others were stopping, the rain had stopped and we were less than a mile from the campsite. We waited for the slow hikers, and then pushed forward, making it to the campsite to found the group site taken by two people. We were supposed to have this spot, and we paid for it. They didn't want to move, so we found two individual spots and hoped that the ranger didn't come. This was the last campsite, and tommorow we only needed to do five miles to get to our cars. Some wanted to leave that day, but were outvoted because it would take too long to drive home and we would get home around 1:00 am. We built a campfire and some dried their socks and boots. Ian's boots were too close, and soon his boots were getting charred. He grabbed them and threw them into the sand, then buried them. The whole process was hilarious. By the time we got to bed, we were all dreaming of tommorow and what being home would be like.

Weeklong Backpacking: Day 5

I woke in the morning with a sense of triumph. We had completed one of the hardest trails on our journey yesterday, and today we could rest. I got out of the tent and we started breakfast when the worst thing happened.

"AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!" one scout screamed. He was foolishly mixing his hot chocolate in his lap and then proceeded to spill the whole cup upon his inner thigh. We all told the leaders (thankfully his father was one of them) and he was inspected for damage. This event had unfortunate timing, as we were supposed to leave to hike the glaciers in half an hour. We waited and readied ourselves for the hike, while the scout was being inspected. His father came back to us and told us the situation. "By spilling boiling water on his lap, he now has 2nd degree burns. This gives us four options. Option 1: We go on the hike as planned. Option 2: We skip the hike. Option 3: The rest of you go on the hike while I stay with him. Option 4: I will hike out to the trail head from here with him."

2nd degree burns are very bad. They burn enough to create blisters, but not bad enough to burn off the nerve endings. This means that it hurts very bad, and the burnt area now has blisters that can easily be popped and infected. The scout in question felt fine after some bandages and water, so we went with Option 1.

My pack, which was much lighter, was still annoyingly top heavy as I went from boulder to boulder, moving across a very steep side of the mountain. My motivation was the shade that the two lead scouts sat under, me being the third in the line. I needed that shade and a drink of water. When I finally got to the shade, I was told that we only had a half mile to go. When Austin go to the shade he took a drink and kept going, so I joined him. We quickly made it to the campsites of Glacier Meadows, where it was 1.3 miles to the glacier. We kept going, following the sign to the Lateral Moraine, where we were told the best views were, as opposed to the Terminus Moraine where we would have been plopped down at the bottom of the glacier. However, The best views require the hardest work, as we found out that the trail was just a bunch of rocks positioned on a very steep hill that kept going for 1.3 miles. At this point, the two fast scouts passed us and we took a quick break. Then we dove in to the challenge.

As we climbed higher and higher on the dusty rocks, I kept thinking about water. However, I couldn't drink because if I stopped everytime there was a small flat spot I would not have made it to the top. At this point I was hiking alone, Austin ahead of me and five others behind. The hill seemed to go on forever, but was actually steep enough that I couldn't see where it ended. Just as I thought that I should take a water break, I heard something hit the ground above me. I took a step up cautiously and saw Austin had triumphantly thrown his pack down. I quickly ran up to this moraine where Ryan and Colin, the fast scouts, were preparing our freeze dried hummus. I put my pack down where there was a good view and sat down. It was a beautiful site to see the wide expanse of ice with Mt. Olympus towering right across the ice from us. It looked so close I almost thought I could climb it, but knew the thought was insane. As I ate my pita and hummus, I took in the beauty, and it was silent until Ryan said, "Seconds on hummus!" The beauty was interrupted by seven scouts running and claiming that they got their first.

Once we had finally gotten to the bottom (but not after a lot of pictures of Mt. Olympus and the glacier), we set up a game of Capture the Flag, thanks to my bandanas. It was a fun game, and topped of the beautiful day we had just completed.

Weeklong Backpacking: Day 4

Down, down, down, the hill kept going. Four miles of very steep switchbacks heading down. I was separated from the lead group with Steven, Austin, Patrick, and two leaders. It was very uncomfortable going down because you can’t go too fast or you’ll go at a dangerous running speed, but the speed you are going at is too slow. This made the hike down the most painful four miles that I had ever experienced. And that wasn’t even the end. After four miles down, there were three miles flat and 1 mile up. After that we would get to the campsite. At least we were staying for two nights.

Each step hurt more and more and my knee was starting to act up. Just when I thought I would be reduced to a horribly pain ridden bag of bones lying on the side of the trail, the hill just ended. No gradual curvy ending. It just stopped and was flat. A terrific ending for a horrible four miles. We were all hungry, so our group decided to speed up because we knew that the others had to be close. As we got closer, we heard voices and as we rounded a corner we saw the rest of the group sitting down, ready for lunch. We were lucky that Steven had the food because the others looked like they wanted to eat us.

The lunch was PB+J on Tortillas, and I didn’t find it to be a good trail meal. However, others did, and after a short break we left stomach’s full, no matter if we liked it or not.

We were thundering down the trail, but Austin was close behind. I was with Patrick, and Austin came after us. We had taken a break before, and Austin still wanted to rest, so I got paired with Patrick for my race up. My goal was to beat Austin to the bridge that marked the beginning of up hill, and I told Patrick this. However we were slow and Austin overcame us a ¼ mile from the bridge. Patrick jumped back to join a leader and Austin and I were grouped. After we were hiking for a bit, Austin started running. I didn’t know why he was doing this, because we were going at a fast pace already. Once I got to the bridge, I crossed in wonder. This bridge must have been a 100 feet over some rapids, and was built with metal and wood. It must have taken a long time and a lot of work to build this.

When I got to the other side, I saw Steven resting on a rock. He told me that Austin flew past him and that we should wait for the two last scouts, then go on. We waited until we could see them, waved, and started our 1 mile trek up the mountain.

We were going up in the style of one of our leaders, who had done this part of the trail twenty years ago. He took slow long steps with no breaks. While we did this, we talked about Microsoft and Windows, restaurants, and whatever crossed our minds. It was really fun and a relaxing way of getting to the top. We soon got to the top and were the only ones smiling. The others were panting, but we had kept a good pace. Steven and I slept in a tent without a rain fly again, and the stars seemed to be much more beautiful after what it took to get there on the longest day of our journey yet.

Weeklong Backpacking: Day 3

We were all woken up by the leaders, singing some kind of song meant to get us up. I groggily shook Austin, because he didn't hear. I quickly yelled that we were up and got out of the tent, to see Steven walking towards the dining fly, he got the stoves going and we all packed our bags. We had a quick breakfast because the rangers had come to visit and we needed to take down the camp and sweep it, showing them that we can "Leave No Trace". After we all took down the tents and the dining fly, We lined up at one end of the camp. Colin said, "Go!" and we all slowly walked to the end of the camp, picking up trash and pocketing it on the way. The rangers told us we had done a good job and wished us luck, and then we started hiking out to the next destination, CB Flats.

Being seperaed by speeds was the norm now, as we hiked up the bestepped hills. Once we had gotten to Heart Lake, half of us went to clean the campsites that were there. It was a long process, but we needed all the service time we could get. This was because to get the BSA 50-miler award we needed ten-hours of community service. The best way to get it would be to clean campsites. Those who stayed behind needed to catch up to the lead scouts, and so they hurried off. The map said only 4 miles to hike, and it looked easy altitude-wise, but seemed to drag on forever. On the map they were supposed to go past Bogachiel peak, and so they were supposed to climb that after lunch. Sure enough, the lead scouts were waiting just past Bogachiel Peak, and the time was 12:15 when we got there. Lunch was pita and tuna, and after the 2.5 miles we had just completed, it tasted terrific. The lead scouts had already climbed the peak, so everybody else climbed while they moved on.

It didn't really count as much of a climb. It was .1 miles to the top and wasn't very steep. But when we got to the top, the clouds parted and we could see a lot of lakes. The place was really full of them. They were many different shapes, and some were shallow and teal, while others were deep and blue. It was a beautiful sight, cut short by the mosquitos, who apparently had not heard of bug repellant and therefore were not effected.

Once we had gotten back down, we shouldered our packs and moved on, eager to see the most beautiful lake of them all, Hoh Lake. Hoh Lake was a quarter mile from CB Flats, and we had heard from others that it was the most beautiful thing they had seen in the whole park. As we got closer, we started going down swichbacks in a forest. Suddenly, the trees gave way to the sun and a beautiful view of Hoh Lake. It truly was beautiful. It reflected the trees and mountains, but also gave room for us to see its majestic deep blue. We could see little ripples appear as fish jumped, but they quickly disappeared in the vastness of the water. It was a great reward, and when we got to the bottom, everyone ran to the water and dipped their hands in. Some scouts even caught some tadpoles, but quickly returned them to the lake. Once we had all rested and taken in the beauty, we continued to the camp, where the two fast scouts had sat down. Once we had got there, they told us that they had just come five minutes ago, which meant that we made good time. We set up the dining fly above some benches, but next to this was a tent spot that was covered by the dining fly. Steven was quick and grabbed the spot, and I was his lucky tentmate. We were completely covered so we had no need to set up the rain fly. This made the tent lighter and we could see outside, where the stars winked at us as we fell asleep.