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Off to Utah for three days of shredding gnar gnar sicky pow pow with Miles, Albert, and Joe. Last weekend left me pessimistic about the snow coverage, but it looks like the weather gods are smiling upon us kindly. Almost a foot in the last day, and more to come.
Joe will be in Portland next week for hacking and general mischief. If we manage to bang out the product idea I’ve had forever, it’s going to be something I’m very excited to show the world.
The Miles and Daniel ski trip is now strong into its third year. This time we were joined at Squaw by Albert and lots of Miles’ roommates and friends. Many thanks to Natalie for coordinating the lodging.
Saturday: 20.5k feet of vertical in 20 runs. Post-ski, two hour hot tub session.
Sunday: 22.4k feet of vertical in 21 runs. Miles, Albert and I prepare an epic feast of brussel sprouts, garlic bread, spaghetti, and chocolate mousse for 18 people. Albert schools everyone with his simple tomato sauce recipe.
Monday: Sleep-deprived and hungover.
Notes from Three Weeks in Asia. Observations on a variety of subjects.
Intro to Data Journalism with Python. Albert’s teaching a Python workshop at the J-School on July 27th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.
To get out of the city for Memorial Day weekend, Albert and I found cheap tickets (~$200/roundtrip) on JetBlue and flew up to Maine to meet up with Will for three days of hiking. It was epic.
Friday consisted of: getting leftover guacamole and chips from a lady at the airport restaurant, a four hour flight delay including a twenty-five airplane wait for the runway, 2 am tortellini pizza at Otto’s, and arriving in Bangor, finally, at 4 am.
After an early wake-up call Saturday morning (noon), Will, Albert, Will’s girlfriend Elyse and I drove to the coast to hike Acadia. It was a cloudy day unfortunately, but the hiking was great. Starting at the top of Cadillac Mountain, we dropped down one side to Jordon Pond and back up a sketchy Class 3 or 4 scramble with non-existent protection. Finishing just as darkness fell, we did about 8 miles and a couple thousand feet of vertical. For dinner and drinks, we went to Geddy’s in Bar Harbor.
Sunday became our gorgeous rest and recuperate day. Albert and I rented mountain bikes (his a Cannondale and mine a $2,500 Santa Cruz) and, with Will and Will’s friend Andrew, rode through Bangor City Forest for a couple of hours. This include water crossings and a leech. Afterwards, we drove to 4 Points BBQ for an early, incredibly filling dinner. I had spare ribs and beef brisket, heavy on the Kansas City BBQ sauce.
For Memorial Day, our big goal was the summit of Mount Katahdin, Maine’s tallest mountain and one end of the Appalachian Trail. Waking up at 3 am to snag a parking slot (there ended up being plenty), we started hiking around 7 am, scrambled thousands of feet up Abol Slide, and summited just after 10 am. It was a lot windier than the forecast said. We took Hunt’s Trail, another popular route, for our never ending sketchy scramble down the mountain. I got back at 2 pm, Albert at 2:30 pm and Will and Andrew at 2:45 pm. In total, Katahdin was about 9 miles in length and around four thousand of elevation gain.
Three days of awesome.
Finally on board an hour and a half late JetBlue flight to Portland (Maine) for a weekend of hiking with Albert and Will. Stoked.
10:08 pm: They kicked us off the first plane because of “… maintenance … weather …”. Back to waiting at the gate.
Taking Amtrak Empire State 255 with Albert up to Albany to ski tomorrow and Sunday. To our left is the Hudson River with chunks of ice near the shore. Awesome.