‘tis the season for good brew

As a guy who enjoys the outdoors I’m not a fan of the weather getting colder but one thing I do enjoy are the seasonal beers in the fall. The winter beers tend to be a bit too spicy for me but I’m a fan of the oktoberfest märzen. From BeerAdvocate.com:

Before refrigeration, it was nearly impossible to brew beer in the summer due to the hot weather and bacterial infections. Brewing ended with the coming of spring, and began again in the fall. Most were brewed in March (Märzen). These brews were kept in cold storage over the spring and summer months, or brewed at a higher gravity, so they’d keep. Märzenbier is full-bodied, rich, toasty, typically dark copper in color with a medium to high alcohol content.

The common Munich Oktoberfest beer served at Wies'n (the location at which Munich celebrates its Oktoberfest) contains roughly 5.0-6.0% alcohol by volume, is dark/copper in color, has a mild hop profile and is typically labeled as a Bavarian Märzenbier in style.

I like the roasted malt flavor. Yesterday I got some Hofbrau Munchein Oktoberfest, Duck-Rabbit Schwarzbier, Allagash Black, and Sierra Nevada Estate 2009 from their Harvest Series. The Duck-Rabbit Schwarzbier is a seasonal for them and I had my first last night. Good stuff. I’ve been diggin’ the Hofbrau Munchein Dunkel and Maibock lately too. Definitely going back to those dark German styles.

Another similar beer that I’ve been enjoying when I can get my hands on it is Stone’s Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. It’s only brewed on occasion so it’s not around much. I didn’t realize till now that they just started brewing it this year. I’ll have to stock up next time it’s in stores.

I hit the stores this weekend and the fridge is full.

I didn’t go out till late last night and at 8pm I was enjoying fine craft brew, eating fresh picked Virginia raspberries, and listening to sweet jams on Hot Jazz Saturday Night. Life was good.

a suggestion for Pumpkin Ale

If you think the Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale is a bit too spicy for you do what I did by accident. I bought a four pack last year (10/10/2008 to be exact) and only managed to drink three. The pic at right shows three of them in my fridge on 10/25/2008. The fourth has been hanging out in my fridge ever since. I happen to be swillin’ it at this very moment. I was worried it wouldn’t keep as most beers aren’t made for long term storage but this ain’t bad. I think it mellowed out the spices a bit. You still get all the flavors but it is much more mature. It may now have more than the stated 7% ABV. Admittedly I haven’t had any yet this year so I don’t have much to compare it with but there is a reason this beer has been sitting in my fridge for a year without having been consumed. Maybe I’ll pick up another four pack this weekend and compare.

some people have all the fun

My coworker was out in the mountains of Idaho surveying remote sites where we are developing network access capability for the Forest Service. The Forest Service recreation folks manage rafting permits at these sites and they are out in the middle of nowhere. One site is about 50 miles from the closest electrical outlet. Another site they had to fly in to with a small plane. We are going to set up access to the internet for them so they can manage permits electronically in real-time. I used to go hang out in the woods a lot but since I’m doing more project management and less solution development Lewis got to enjoy this trip. I did get out to Oregon, Montana, and Pennsylvania this summer and hope to visit those locations again soon.

One of the Forest Service folks that took him out to these locations had to go out and locate a dead body on Sunday after elk hunters came across him. He crashed on his motorcycle a couple weeks earlier on a remote road by himself. News article here.

There is a photo album for each site:

Corn Creek

Indian Creek

Boundary Creek

Also be sure to check out the video of them landing a small plane in a remote mountain landing strip.

Victory Oktoberfest beer dinner

Speaking of Pizzeria Paradiso, Monday was their Oktoberfest beer dinner with Victory Brewery. I think the employees there are starting to recognize me. After Judy said she had never been to a beer dinner on Saturday I invited to Monday’s event. One of the co-owners made the 2.5 hour drive down from PA to represent the brewery. Often you just get the regional rep so that was cool. Pizzeria Paradiso does some very good beer dinners and this one met expectations. The menu...

Pretzel & Pilsner Mustard

Prima Pils

German Panzanella

dice of roasted beets, mushrooms, celery, radicchio, sliced onions & vinegar served over black bread & chives

Kolsh

Sauerbraten & cabbage

wilted cabbage topped with slices of suarbraten sprinkle w/ parsley

Scarlet Fire Rauchbier

German Oktoberfest Pizza

dill & parsley pesto, beer roasted vinegared potatoes, bacon, chicken & smoked mozzarella

Festbier

1810 Rye Pie

caraway, onions, celery root, fontina served on a rye dough crust

Hofstetten Original Munchner Hochzeitsbier

Cinnamon Goat Cheese Apple

baked apples stuffed w/ rustic cinnamon goat cheese filling

St. Victorious Dopplebock

The first course, the bite, was true Oktoberfest style. The pretzel was made in-house. The mustard was spicy with lots of horseradish. And the Victory Prima Pils was just as excellent as it always is. The Prima Pils has a ton of hops but its excellent floral to bitter ratio makes it wonderful.

I wasn’t much of a fan of the salad with beets and celery but it was good enough to eat. The bread was made with the Kolsch and was quite good. Victory only makes one batch of Kolsch a year and is only served on draft at the brewery so this was a nice treat. It was very crisp. Judy compared it to wine with its dryness.

The sauerbraten & cabbage appetizer was pretty good. It was paired with another beer only available at the brewery: their Scarlet Fire Rauchbier. This rauchbier was extremely smoky. The last rauchbier I had was from Allagash and I think that was a one off for them. The Allagash was most excellent with just the right amount of smoke. This one was almost too much but it got better with time. Although it was quite smoky it complimented the food perfectly.

The first pizza was good as usual. All the ingredients fit together perfectly. It had a smoke taste that I first assumed was from the bacon but then noted the smoked mozzarella on the menu. It was served with Victory’s Festbier in true Oktoberfest fashion served in a large mug. Prost!

The second pizza was quite different but just as good. I’m sure something in this pizza was made with the paired beer but I’m not sure what. This was the one course without a Victory beer. The Hofstetten Original Munchner Hochzeitsbier is supposed to be the original recipe from the wedding in Munich in 1810 that started Oktoberfest. I’m sure the beer ain’t bad but this particular keg had a metallic taste that I could get over.

The dessert was the best course. They do some cool desserts, such as the Mango, Proscuitto, Balsamic, & Pliney Mascarpone dish from back in March that I still remember. This baked apple stuffed with rustic cinnamon goat cheese filling was most excellent. I realize my taste buds aren’t at peak performance during the last course but I wasn’t the only enjoying this one. Victory’s St. Victorious Dopplebock was a good pairing as well. Most of their beers were mild at 5 or 6 percent and this was their hefty one at over 8%. I great way to top off the night.

I like the one-off dinners and the great pairings they match up. Good thing they have them once a month. This time we got a souvenir as well. The Victory owner brought us each a pint glass and I managed to get it home in one piece on my bike.

the waterfront and Brasserie Beck

Saturday was yet another perfect day in DC. Yet another day to be out and about. Judy and I met up down at the riverfront for a bit of canoeing. Lots of people were out in motorboats and kayaking. We made a loop around the Theodore Roosevelt Island. The wildlife included two blue herrings and some ducks. Not a bad little paddle.

We had reservations at Brasserie Beck, a nice Belgian/French place, at 9:30 so we had some time to kill. Being in Georgetown my perfect idea to kill time is to have some fine brews at Pizzeria Paradiso. The downstairs bar was full and it took quite a long time to get a beer. After a La Chouffe we had a Three Floyds Blackheart. It wasn’t on the menu but after ordering a Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow that they didn’t have the bar tender suggested it. I had yet to have any beer from Three Floyds and they have been on my list for a bit. They have quite the reputation. The Blackheart is an English style IPA released once a year in May. I was quite happy with it.

Then on to dinner. Neither Judy or I have been to Brasserie Beck. It is supposed to be some damn good food with a nice Belgian beer selection. We weren’t disappointed. The gruyere and mushroom crepe appetizer was very good. Judy had the pork tenderloin with confit of cabbage and mustard sauce. I had the choucroute "en croûte" which was a pastry with a few kinds of pork inside. Mine was pretty good but Judy’s tenderloin was most excellent. We were talking about that dish all night long. We’ll definitely be back.

Lightweight

I was at the doctor for the first time in way too long on Monday for a general physical. Holy crap have I lost some weight. I weigh less now than I ever have in my adult life! There are probably three reasons for this. First I was sick for multiple weeks. Then I went on a camping/kayaking vacation for a week exerting energy and eating dehydrated food. And I lost a bunch of muscle mass in my arms after breaking my collar bone.

I think every day this week someone at work has commented on how skinny I am. My pants are quite loose. No worries. I’ll fatten up soon. Need to work those arms a bit. It is good to know though that if I need to I can still lose weight without any problems.

a run down to Mt Vernon

It was an absolutely beautiful day today and it was required that I get out and enjoy it. I wasn’t planning on a big bike ride but I couldn’t resist. I didn’t want to do my normal 20 mile loop around Arlington. The choice was to head west on the W&OD trail or head south on the Mt Vernon trail. I decided to do the 40 mile round trip down to Mt Vernon. I’ve done it before with Robin and I must admit it wiped me out. It was mostly because of lack of food that day though and I assumed I was good to go today after some Indian buffet. I held back a bit being with Robin last time and I was determined to set a good pace during these 40 miles.

I started off just after 5:30 after it cooled a bit. There were a bunch of people on the trail but it wasn’t as crowded as I’ve seen it. It is a good 19 miles down to Mt Vernon. I dig the trail. After going by the river, the airport, and Old Town Alexandria, you get in to some ups and downs among trees. I dig these Arlington park trails in the woods cuz it makes me feel like I’m mountain biking. Last time on the trail I spied a bald eagle’s nest.

I felt pretty good during the 20 miles there averaging 15.9 mph. Not too bad for dodging lots of pedestrians, intersections, and navigating Old Town Alexandria. Once at Mt Vernon I only stopped for a few minutes because the sun was dropping fast.

The return trip was a bit of a challenge. The ride was over 2.5 hours and my arms and legs were feeling it. I had trouble keeping pace on the way back. I lost my legs on some of the hills. I’d get a little strength back after the straights. My arms were also feeling it. I’ve always had decent shoulders but my arms were a bit weak after 3 months of recovering from a broken collar bone. I had to sit up and relax them a few times on the way back. I think some push-ups are in order. But a 14mph average on the way back ain’t bad.

And just like the first time I was lacking calories. The one meal beforehand didn’t cut it. I was starving when I got back and felt like crap when I tried to eat. Lesson learned. I’m taking some Power Bars with me next time. And like always when riding the river trail I came back with a few bugs plastered to my face. The sun was about down when I got back but I brought my headlight and taillight with me.

I’ve got some base data now to work with and try to improve on. We’ll see how well I do before the season is out and if I can stay in shape over the winter.

Distance: 38.19 miles

Time: 2:34:14

Average speed: 14.9 mph

Average heart rate: 154 bpm

Max heart rate: 182 bpm

Stats and map

tea party, Rosslyn Jazz Fest, and Mike Gordon

On Saturday I got a good night’s sleep for the first time in awhile and woke up a bit before noon. About that time I got a text from “DC Alert” saying a few streets were closed in DC because of thousands of protesters. The protests are always an amusing aspect of DC so off I went on my bike. Estimating the size of protests in DC is a notoriously difficult thing to do. The cops, Park Service, media, and the groups involved all have different opinions and have all been blasted in the past for incorrect guesses. So now the cops and the Park Service refuse to give any numbers. It was somewhere in the tens of thousands.

I saw a few people with protest signs in Arlington before I got across the river. I didn’t see much on the west side of the mall or at the White House but once I headed down Pennsylvania Avenue I ran in to the crowd. This was mostly an anti-government protest with people who drove and flew in from all over the country. Conservative groups did most of the organizing and no part of government was spared. Signs blasted Obama, public healthcare, taxes, gun laws, “big government” in general, the bail outs, and anything else you can think of. Signs compared Obama to Stalin and Chavez. Lots of people claiming the US was turning in to a socialist country. I thought it was interesting how many pro-capitalist signs there were after the financial collapse. Regulation? Must be a bad thing! And I’m a very capitalistic guy. Unlike most DC protests, which are mostly people my age, this one was a bit of an older crowd with families. Lots of little kids holding anti-government signs. A very white crowd as well. They filled up the west lawn of the capital and overflowed in to the streets and mall. It went on for most of the day. DC protests are always good for a laugh.

pics on Flickr from the protest

On my way back I stopped by the Rosslyn Jazz Festival. I wanted to see a jazz harmonica player named Frederic Yonnet as I’ve never heard a jazz harmonica player. At this time around 1:30 a sweet latin influenced band called The Spanish Harlem Orchestra was jammin’ and they were rocking out. People were getting down.

biking stats and map

I ran home to shower, eat, and see if I could recruit someone for Fred Yonnet at 4:00. My friend Sarah, George Will’s neice, was game for relaxing at the fest. Somehow I managed to bike there with both my outdoor festival chairs. She biked down all the way from north DC. Apparently she had seen Fred play with Stevie Wonder last year. It was a cloudy day with a chance of rain and it wasn’t as packed as it was two years ago. Last year was rained out. They have food and beer and the show is broadcast live on the radio. Fred played pretty well. There were a few songs that weren’t my style but the solos rocked out. I enjoyed it. He ended his set with Georgia. Sarah and I boogied after that.

After the jazz fest it was time to see Mike Gordon at the State Theater. I’ve seen Mike play solo before years ago and wasn’t so impressed. He played at the 9:30 Club with one person accompanying him. It wasn’t the jam I expected. This was a completely different show. And the State Theater took on a different feel as well. There were more staff walking around then I have ever seen. For the first time we were searched upon entry. They took out all the table and chairs so they could fit more people. Mike had an acoustic guitarist open for him and he wasn’t bad. Then Mike came on with his quartet. They immediately rocked. Similar to Phish they had some sweet band dynamics and each musician played a key part. I’m sure it helped that I was rollin’ for the first time in years thanks to a friend of a friend who drove us there. There were no long spacey jams; just great rockin’ from all members of the group. It was upbeat with a groove you could get down to. The crowd was pleased.

Setlist:

Another Door

Andelmans' Yard

Emotional Railroad

Can't Stand Still

Spiral

Ain't Wasting Time No More* >

La La La*

Sound

Sarala^

Couch Lady >

15 Step

Only A Dream

Encore:

Sugar Shack

Taking It To The Streets

Show Notes:

* Allman Bros cover, Reid Genauer on guitar & vocals

^ Craig Myers original

Facebook pics of show

finally I get my hands on the Touch Pro2

I finally got my hands on the Verizon Touch Pro2 today; the day it was released to the public. I was promised it weeks ago but my contact was a bit late in sending it to me. My first impressions are mixed. I’m over due for a new phone and have been excited about these new HTC phones for awhile. I dig it but I’m still getting used to it. I guess my biggest complaint is the lack of a scroll and ‘enter’ button that I’m used to on my XV6800. I really like all the hot key buttons and the scroll of my phone allowing me multiple methods of interaction. For instance, often web pages have very small links and instead of using my finger or the stylus I can just quickly scroll to the link and hit the enter button. The Touch Pro2 doesn’t have any such input methods other than the touchscreen and a stylus. I thought we were past the days of a stylus.

The phone is similar in size and weight of my current brick. It may be a millimeter smaller in depth but it is actually longer. And it is heavier. This is the version with the full keyboard and I’m thinking I want the Touch Diamond2 that is the same phone without a keyboard (and smaller). So I’m going to try to use the virtual keyboard while testing this phone to see if I can live without a real keyboard. So far I like the virtual keyboard.

I'm also getting used to HTC's TouchFLO 3D interface. I dig it mostly but wonder how much overhead it takes up and sometimes just want to bypass it and get directly to my applications quicker. I think I'll get used to it though. It is definitely nicer than the normal Windows Mobile 6.1 interface.

It comes with the Opera browser built in which I really like except for one big fact: it tricks websites in to thinking you are using a full desktop browser instead of a mobile browser. For that reason you don’t get the mobile version of the websites. I want the mobile version of websites when viewing on my phone. Mobile websites are made for a reason. Full desktop versions of websites are too bandwidth intensive with web 2.0 technologies that mobile browsers can’t render anyway. And the text and links of full web pages aren’t built for a touchscreen. At the very least the Opera browser should give you the option of rendering the mobile version of websites. But other than that fact, which is enough for me to not use the browser, I do like the interface. Looking forward to the yet-to-be-released mobile Firefox browser.

Either way I’ll have a new device in the near future.

kayaking, fishing, and hiking in the Hiawatha NF

I took a week off before the long Labor Day weekend for a trip up north for some kayaking, fishing, and hiking with the ol' high school crew. A few of us did the Au Sable River two years ago. We were up in the UP of Michigan this time in the Hiawatha National Forest. The first three days we spent in the Big Island Lake Wilderness at a sweet island campsite among some secluded lakes. Then five of the eight of us did a two day kayaking trip on the Indian River. We all met back up after that for a relaxing day at another campsite on another lake.

We packed up the kayaks and our gear and left Ohio at 11pm on Sunday the 30th. We arrived at Big Island Lake Wilderness at about 6:30am Monday a few minutes before sunrise. Most perfect timing. We unloaded our gear, hauled our stuff down the small trail to Big Island Lake, and were welcomed with the most perfect scene shown in the pic above. The plan was to camp on the island on Big Island Lake. Big Island Lake, incidentally, ain't so big. It wasn't tiny, we were in smaller lakes, but being not far from two of the largest lakes in the world this one wasn't so big. It was pretty cool though. Wilderness areas are designated by congress and have tight restrictions to prevent any impact to the natural habitat. For example, no motorized equipment or vehicles are allowed. In fact you are not even allowed to use some mechanical equipment such as the wheel! When firefighters have to fight fire in wilderness areas they have to hike in many many miles and use cross cut saws to create fire lines. The areas are not so remote and large in the east but they are extremely remote out west. Groups can not visit wilderness areas in parties larger than ten and you can't have more than six people at a campsite. Somehow we ended up with eight for two nights.

We were happy to find the campsite on the small island free and quickly established ourselves. It was quite the cool site. Nothing special in terms of facilities, its a wilderness site, but it was a sweet location. The only facilities were a fire ring and an outhouse without a house. If you haven't sat on a toilet isolated in the middle of the woods completely out in the open then you have not enjoyed all that nature has to offer. This was literally a toilet seat in the middle of the woods over a hole with no cover. You sat in the open with your pants down enjoying the wilderness around you. Nothing like a red-cockaded woodpecker doing its thing 20 feet away while you do your thing. We relaxed, napped, and did a bit of fishing that first day after the long drive. At dusk Adam claimed to have hooked a 30 - 40 inch pike, I have a video of him with it on the line, but he failed to bring it up.

On Tuesday we did some fishing and explored the lakes around us. Big Island Wilderness is basically a series of small lakes with portages in between. Some short and some long. After dropping a line for a bit in Big Island Lake Adam, Brett, Matt, Tony and I went on a little excursion to the neighboring lakes. After a short portage we were in Mid Lake. This was a murky lake compared to the clear water of the others. We quickly made another short portage to Townline Lake. Townline Lake was decent size and we explored it a bit later but we were on a mission to go further. The maps don't show it but Townline Lake actually connects to Upper Lake so no portage was necessary there. We hung out in Upper Lake for awhile and explored some small hidden coves. On one side was a small cove that a den of beavers were attempting to dam up. This was no stream or river. This is a freakin' lake. But the beavers didn't care they were going to dam it up anyway. It appeared this cove would have merged in to a marsh land but the beavers had a little barrier up. This had to be over 100 feet wide and they only had about one layer of the dam established but that was enough. It was just a few inches high but it might have done the job and gave them a place to habitat. I've seen some absolutely amazing work done by beavers in my day. I saw a series of dams on a small little stream while at school in SE Ohio and holy crap was that a feat of nature. These guys had created huge ponds with dams 18 feet high stopping what was at the beginning of the year a very small stream. How they held that much water and weight with sticks is beyond me. And they did it about a half dozen times on this stream I saw back in the day. On this occasion in Upper Lake I got to see a bit about how they build since it was only a few inches high. Other than logs, which were cut down everywhere, they used mud, moss, and rocks. The moss and mud was of course used as mortar but they also placed rocks every foot or so. It was interesting.

After hanging out in this little cove created by the 3 inch beaver damn we paddled over to another cove and found a two foot opening to a small pond. The water level must have been high for the year or something because this pond, just like the water between Townline Lake and Upper Lake, was not on any map. There were dead tree trucks everywhere coming out of the pond. Lilly pads covered the area. Matt and I got out to check out the land and found a series of beaver paths. Humans didn't use these paths; it was beavers only. You could see branches and shrubs undisturbed that were just 3' over the path. And at one point was some downed logs over the path that were covered with claw marks from beavers running over them. Cruising out of this area we ran in to a turtle that was moulting or something. The scales on his shell were peeling and for some odd reason he was balancing on a log on his "chest" with his hind legs stretched out in the air. He was obviously in a precarious position as he wouldn't move as I paddled right up to him.

Other than beavers and turtles we say tons of frogs, a few bald eagles, and a few hundred daddy-long-legs. I'd wake up in the morning with about 10 on the outside of my tent. If you put any gear down on the ground you would pick it up with a daddy-long-leg on board. I only saw one bald eagle but there were quite a few sightings during the trip. Woodpeckers were heard often. And they were slow meticulous woodpeckers, not the machine-gun type pecking I've heard in the past. We didn't see any evidence of bears. Evidence of beavers were everywhere but I didn't actually see any. I think we heard them while hanging out near their dammed cove. And unfortunately no trophy fish were pulled out of the water. I was looking forward to some fresh flesh but everything that was caught was under the rather large size limit.

After we explored Upper Lake we checked out Townline Lake a bit. Townline Lake was a bit larger than the others. The campsite on the lake were rather nice. We debated moving camp that night to this new spot. Being at least three portages away from any road the lake was quite secluded. I ended up catching about six bluegill in Townline Lake in a short period of time and that was all the fish I caught that week. The other more experienced fisherpeople didn't do much better even though this was supposed to be excellent fishing waters. Apparently there were some huge fish but not so easy to catch.

Also on Tuesday we ran in to a Forest Service volunteer who was out in the wilderness and asked to give us a visitor survey. We answered questions such as where we were from, what our goals were in the forest, and if we were meeting our goals. Of course he was recording this on all paper. I spend over 40 hours a week trying to equip these guys with mobile devices so they don't have to record data on paper and require some lackey after the season is over to enter hundreds of surveys in to a computer. This causes all kinds of data issues such as errors from misread hand writing, lack of real-time data, data not being entered due to lack of resources, and all the time it takes to do duplicate data entry. I was going to talk to him about his technical requirements but he was a bit too friendly and took too much of our time already.

On Wednesday the same group of us that explored the lakes the previous day drove down to another lake for some more exploration. Ned's Lake was only a mile or so drive away with a bit of a portage. We hung out for the day and Adam I and did some fishing. At the end of the afternoon it was back to our campsite on the island at Big Island Lake. It turned out that it was Brett's birthday and much alcohol was consumed that night. Well actually much alcohol was consumed every day and night. On occasion we had to make a run to the small little general store in the area. One of the guys working there had all of about 10 teeth. As much as we thought of ourselves as hard-core campers it was nice to resupply with beer and ice. Oh yeah... water was important too. One of our two purifiers broke.

On Thursday Adam, Brett, Matt, Tony and I took off for a two day river run. We tackled 10 miles of the Indian River the first day in a little over five hours. It was quite the challenging river. About every 100 feet there were a series of downed trees. This required you to move from one side of the river to the other and then back to the other. This had to be accomplished before the current pushed you in to the downed logs which would clothesline you in the water. No beginners allowed here. Other than dodging tree trunks we also had to negotiate narrow paths through cut logs and paddle over logs that were at water level. There was only one rapid run which was easy but had high water so most of us got a bit wet. The end of our 10 miles was right at the Indian River campsite and we stayed there for the night.

The next day we did about 7.5 miles. The first third was again very challenging, then it got a bit normal, and then opened up a bit with less woods and more open marsh. Normally we were always on guard and didn't have any time to rest, fish, drink a beer, eat, or whatever else one would like to do during the many hours on a river run. I very much enjoyed this challenge, but it was also nice to relax and float a bit without worrying about being taken out by a series of downed trees. At one point we came up on a series of down trees with the lowest one being about 14 inches off the water line. This required us to strip our gear from the straps on the top of our kayaks and crouch down inside the kayak as much as we could. Two of the five of us wimped out and actually portaged around. This was more my style of vacation rather then sitting in the sun all day with a line in the water.

Here are stats on the river run. If you click on the "splits" button on the top right you can see the river run organized in three laps. The first lap was day one, the second lap was an accident, and the third lap is day two. The calorie info is way off because it assumes I was biking. I don't trust the max speed either, no way we went 15 mph in a kayak. I assume it is a miscalculation between plotted GPS points.

We got done early on the river the second day and drove a short distance to the third and final campsite on Nineteen Lake. On the way Adam had an emergency stop at some random outhouse at a campsite or trail head. We decided to drive the car up to block the outhouse door and honk the horn just to make sure Adam knew we were there for him. At Nineteen lake we were to meet back up with the other three guys the next morning on Saturday. Adam and Matt drove in to the Forest Service headquarters before our river run to reserve the campsite for the weekend. It is a good thing as every campsite but the one we wanted on Nineteen lake was full that Labor Day weekend. Ours was not because it again required you to paddle across a lake to get there. This was ideal for us. That Friday afternoon after setting up camp we did a bit of a hike around the lake and next to other lakes (stats). We found a short portage to the neighboring lake. Adam had us hiking to a small shelter at Rim Lake and for some reason he really dug this wooden partial cabin. It had a bird's nest in it along with a family of mice, not exactly where I would set up camp, but Adam dug it. There were many interesting shroom varieties around the forest. Again Adam was all about the shrooms and wanted to pick the eatable ones but none of us trusted him.

On our last day the other three guys joined us around noon. Most of us made the quick portage over to Ironjaw Lake. We did some unsuccessful fishing for a bit and enjoyed the sixth perfect day in a row. Two of the guys took off on a long drive to civilization to watch the first college jockball game of the year. The rest of us thought they were crazy. Later in the day we went on a small hike with some of the guys that weren't there the previous day. We were supposed to tie up our food and garbage each night to keep the bears away. We didn't do this on the island assuming the bears weren't in the mood to swim while we were there. We didn't do it at Nineteen Lake either mostly from laziness. Matt's method was to take his small amount of berries and nuts (he is a vegetarian) and hang them about seven feet off the ground on a stick in the middle of our campsite. This is exactly what not to do when trying to keep bears away. We all got quite the chuckle out of him. I'm surprised his food didn't get eaten by varmints. I kept mine in a water proof bag in my tent. Those bears were going to have to go through me to get my food!

On Sunday we woke up, broke camp, and drove home. No breakfast even. Tony had to get back by 6:00 for a fantasy football draft. We were right behind them and I got home around 6:30. It was a great week in the wilderness. It's nice to get away from work for awhile. Also, as much as I'm dependent on the internet it was nice to be disconnected for a week. I came back to a lot of local news, sports news, national events, and of course work to catch up on. It is late now and I'm still catching up. Good times though and looking forward to the next trip.

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