Dear Winter

Dear Winter-

It is official, I am ready for you to start.  I am not talking about the cold, dreary, endless rain that constitutes an Olympia winter.  No, I am talking about mountain pounding snows that occur at the higher altitudes that make winter fun.  Sure, it is only early November, however, I have been tantalized recently by not one but two ski films. Therefore, I am am good and ready to put my paltry ski skills to the test -  the sooner the better.  Heck, I am even willing to hike miles in my boots to hit the snowline, just give me something to work with. 

In closing, this is a La Nina year - get to it!

Yours Truly,
Melissa

Smith Rock

New gear!

This past weekend Matt and I headed to Bend, OR to meet-up with some friends for climbing at Smith Rock.  Matt has climbed there on several occasions, however, this was my first time.  I was super excited to check the place out - I have heard so many good things about it!

We hit the road around 1pm Thursday afternoon to begin our 5 hour drive.  Matt was kind enough to do all the driving as I had to get some work done while we traveled.  We made a stop somewhere in the Mt. Hood area and Matt acquired a new fly rod for our upcoming Hawaii trip.

We made it to Redmond a few hours later and stopped in to see our friends that had come down from Saskatoon.  They were the real reason we were in Bend.  They are here for a conference in Portland and showed up a few days early to get some climbing in at Smith.  We said a few quick hello's determined the plan for the following day and headed into Bend to meet up with Matt and Cheryl at Deshutes for some tasty food and drink.  They were kind enough to let us crash at their home that evening and the following morning Matt, Matt and myself headed out to the crag to meet-up with the group for a day of climbing. 

The climbing at Smith is AMAZING, I love it there.  I am pretty sure I would love it even more if I had been in better shape.  As it was I felt rather intimidated by climbs that I felt should have been well within my capability.  Oh well, what can I expect after months of not climbing??  It was just great to get outside and spend time doing something I love. 

Matt and Matt

Matt and Eric

Monkey Face



Fancy digs

 Matt and I had intended to camp while we were at Smith.  We brought the dogs with us and figured this would be easiest.  However, a very kind offer from the Canada group had us staying with them at their super fancy resort house.  How can you turn down a hot tub?!?  I have to admit, I felt really spoiled staying with them. 

All in all it was a great trip!  It was nice to be able to catch-up with friends and it felt good to get out and actually touch rock.  Hopefully there won't be such a long stretch before we are able to do either of those activities again.

Halloween Tricks

Halloween is my (Mels) favorite holiday.  Costumes, candy and scary movies - what more could a person ask for!?!  However, this year the Klungle household did not experience any treats for Halloween.  Instead we got a rather unpleasant trick - our mountain bikes were stolen.   We had gone for a ride, it is currently pretty muddy out so they were locked up in the back of our truck waiting to be washed before being put back into our apartment. 

Someone decided that they are a worthless enough person to break the locks and steal our bikes.  I really hope we find out who did it, the joke would be on them.  I would be willing to bet they are totally unaware that they stole goods exceeding the $2,000 limit to be charged for a felony.  Nothing would make me happier than seeing the look on their face when they find that out!  Unfortunately, I doubt that will ever happen.  The chances of ever seeing our bikes again is slim to nil. Ugh...

On a more positive note below are some pictures I took with my camera during my Halloween trail run.  I suppose a better description would be a trail picture safari.

Even the trail was festive!

Water over the trail

Ohboyohboyohboy!

I am currently feeling a little bit guilty and a whole lotta  excited.  After much agonizing over if I should get an additional camera I reached a decision. 

First, a bit of background.  I love my dSLR, it is great, it takes amazing pictures and I love the control it give me.  However, I am realizing that it is a tad big to always have with me.  Hence, I miss a lot of opportunities for taking good pictures.  Namely while I am off running or biking or something of that sort.  Not to mention I would be crushed if something bad were to happen to my little friend.  This made me realize that it might be useful to own a little point and shoot that I could cart around with me, you know, for those moments when you wish you had a camera. 

This realization lead to a lot of agonizing over the many options available.  Trying to determine what was important to me - long range zoom, size, cost, picture quality, etc...  Matt laughed at me on a nightly basis as I scoured the net to read reviews and look at pictures that different models took.  I took multiple trips to the camera store to hold and play with the models I was considering.  Asked multiple peoples opinion.  I wanted this camera to be perfect, a match made in camera heaven.  

For awhile I was thinking that I wanted a super zoom camera,  I fell out of love with that idea.  Next up I decided that I wanted something small and cheap.  Less to worry about if I should fall off my bike and crush it (I have been known to have issues staying attached to my bike).   In the end I went big, I figured I would be most likely to use a camera that I really liked.  I am now the proud owner of the Canon S95.  I am pretty excited!

This new development has implications for you dear blog reader, you will get more pictures to compliment the text.  Hopefully this will make things more fun!

Jacks the Animal

Maybe Jacks should apply for a name change - Animal.  Seriously, our unassuming black lab is a hunting machine.  You would never guess it when you see him.  He is a super sweet, cuddly and fun loving dog.  He loves everyone and everything.  The thought of him ever hurting anything is absurd.  He wouldn't harm a fly, well okay, he does love to kill flies.  But you get the idea...

This Sunday Matt and Jacks hit the woods in hopes of bagging a few Pheasants and were met with success, they got the limit!  Jacks even managed to catch a bird of his own and bring it back to Matt.  This was somewhat problematic as the bird was still alive and flapping and Matt couldn't get Jacks far enough away to kill it.  That particular bird managed to get away with its life, two other birds were not as fortunate. 

What the?!?

Hood ornament



And this is the car it was on...



Weekend Activites

This past weekend provided us with perfect fall weather, the type of days that make this my favorite season - chilly with a lot of sun.  As far as I am concerned it doesn't get much better!  Saturday morning Matt got up early and took Jacks for some pheasant hunting, they didn't have any luck.  I rolled out of bed later in the morning and rode my bike into town to go shopping at the market where Matt met-up with me and we had lunch. 

Bike path into town

Saturday afternoon we took our mountain bikes to Capitol Forest and went for a ride.  It was essentially a grind up followed by a really fun downhill.  Every time I get out on my bike I wonder why I don't do it more, I enjoy it so much. Sunday found us at the same trail head except this time we were running.  All in all it was a great weekend!
  

Busy day at the market



Pepper stand