Getting Big!

Guess who’s sitting up by himself now?

Yup, once he figured it out he got it down cold.  Ok, he’s still a little wobbly, but before too long he’ll be asking me for the car keys and I fully intend to enjoy him while he’s still a baby.

Awhile back I promised to put a picture of Chey on here of when we hiked Mt. Katahdin a few years ago.  It’s the highest mountain in Maine at just over a mile high and it’s a pretty tough hike – especially if you’re out of shape like she was at the time.  Not to mention the fact that we got up at 4:00 am, drove to Katahdin, climbed it and then drove home again.  Look at her expression in this photo.  I love it.

 

Here I am on that same hike, cool as a cucumber.  :-)

One of these days we’ll all hike to the top.  It’ll have to be when Ro is older of course, but before I get too old to hobble up there. 

Thoughts on the Economy

Notes:

-Jobs are still being lost – just at a slower rate
-Jobless recovery?  Who are they kidding?
-Double dip recession?  The 3.5% increase we saw was due to cash for clunkers and the real estate tax break.  There really hasn’t been a break in the recession.  This was an artificial bump in a chart – something made because of the government’s stimulus package.
-Fiat money system.  You can’t keep printing money and putting it into circulation without debasing the dollar eventually.  Hyperinflation could become a real possibility.  Look at Germany before WWII.
-History shows that every time a government has tried to print it’s way out of debt that it debases the currency of the time causing an economic disaster.  Ancient Rome did the same thing, although it took hundreds of years before it finally fell.
-The banks on wall street are taking stimulus money that they should be lending to U.S. consumers and are investing it instead.  With a 0% interest rate that’s quite a deal for them and very hard to resist for companies that are only in it for the bottom line.  The more money they can make the happier they are.    To hell with the rest of the country.
-The U.S. has built up massive debt over the last 30 years with the advent of credit cards.  It’s not that credit cards are a bad thing, it’s just that most people who use credit cards do so irresponsibly.  If you don’t have the cash to pay off your debt at the end of the month then you shouldn’t spend, but people do and that’s part of the problem with the economy today.  U.S. citizens consumed like crazy, buying everything from cell phones to new cars on the credit cards running themselves into mountains of debt.
-Now that we’re actually seeing the evil of our ways and trying to spend less, the country is in big trouble.  Spending creates need.  When consumers are buying stuff inventory levels drop and businesses must manufacture things in order to keep up with this demand.  Well, we spent and spent and spent, and now that the bubble has burst and people are looking around and saying, “Well, I wish I hadn’t bought all this stuff now,” so they stop buying.  This creates a vacuum where there used to be a demand for goods and services, and with this drop in demand people are getting laid off from their jobs, and the cycle goes around and around.  The more people that get laid off the more people are being thrifty with their money.  The banks are supposed to be loaning the trillions of dollars to the consumers so that they can go back to consumers, but with the higher standard the banks are demanding for credit card holders it’s harder for users to get approved for credit.  With this lack of cash being spent there is no demand and thus more jobs lost.  Until this trend is broken there will be no recovery.  There can be no recovery.
-If the government keeps giving money away they might as well put money straight into the bank accounts of all it’s citizens instead of trying to run it through the banks.  People would take the money – whatever it may be, let’s say $10,000 – and spend it on something extravagant that would help boost the economy. 

This will never happen of course, at least I hope not.  But it does show the idiocy of what the government is currently doing to the economy. 

Hiking report for Chairback Gap 11/8/2009

On Friday Dave Maddox and I loaded up his truck and took off for the Gulf Hagas area.  We got there around 7:00 pm and grabbed one of the campsites along the side of the road just after you pass the Katahdin Iron Works.  We set up Dave’s tent, made a fire and some coffee, and hit the rack early so we could get a good head start the next morning.

We got up around 5:00 am on Sunday and were on the trail a little after 7:00.  It was fairly cold and we hit snow almost immediately.  The trail goes uphill fairly steady at that point for a couple of miles and we were taking it easy as the snow obscured the footing just enough to make it dangerous.  I was taken out of that area by ambulance once and have no desire to do it again!

Our goal was to get to the Cloud Pond lean-to, which is about an 11.3 mile hike; however, after the first couple of miles I was thinking that it wasn’t going to be possible given our slow pace.  When we hit the Chairback Gap boulder scramble I knew we wouldn’t make it to Cloud Pond.  The slide is steep and was covered in just enough snow to make it slippery and dangerous.  We took it easy going up and Dave still managed a pretty nasty slip about 1/4 of the way up. 
Boulder Scramble up Chairback

It took us a little under four hours to get the 4.3 miles to Chairback Gap.  It was about 11:00 am by that point and if we were going to go another seven hours we’d be on the trail way after dark.  Since we were having a hard time seeing the blaze marks with all the snow we decided to set up camp at Chairback and just climb to the top of Columbus and see what it looked like up there. 

 

Dave on top of Columbus

It’s a small hike and little boulder scramble to get to the top of Columbus.  There isn’t a whole lot in the way of a view, but we did get a few pictures while were up there.

After we got back from the top we got some wood together and got a fire going and just sat back and enjoyed the evening.  I’d forgotten how quiet it gets in the back country.  It’s so peaceful up there when the conditions are right…

We turned in around 7:00 as it was starting to get cold.  I had my mp3 player with me with some podcasts on it and I listened to that for awhile before I fell asleep.  I usually like to write in my journal, but I forgot it this trip!!! 
Me and Dave

We got up Sunday morning around 5:00.  Dave had basically frozen his ass off all night even with his –20 sleeping bag.  I was a little chilly if I didn’t have my –15 bag zipped up properly, but for the most part I felt fine.  Bonnie is often disgusted at how warm I stay when I’m sleeping.  Anyway, I think part of Dave’s problem had to do with the fact that we were sleeping on a platform in the lean-to and that cold air was circulating underneath us all night long. 

 
Lean-to – this is where we slept

A couple of notes about the trip:

1.  Bring my freakin’ journal next time!

2.  The little butane stove doesn’t work for shit in cold weather.  The next time I go on a cold weather trip make sure to bring the good camp fuel heater.  The butane stove would eventually heat the water up, but it took a long time and the flame never really got what I would consider to be hot.

3.  Dave wants to look for a better sleeping mat.  He thinks part of the problem of being cold was the fact that the sleeping mat wasn’t adequate. 

4.  Get new gaiters.  The ones I have are old and no longer adequate.

5.  Need new cold weather gloves.  Also, when hiking in the winter bring a pair of lightweight liners next time, so as not to have my warm gloves all wet and sweaty when I really need them.

6.  Have a set of warm dry clothes in the vehicle for the trip home.  Driving home with wet pants and boots sucks major ass.

7.  Get a new filter for my water filter.  Also, evaluate how long the pump filter will work in cold weather before it freezes up.  Will probably have to melt ice and snow in order to get water in the deep snow.  I’ve done this in the past and it works well.

8.  Cell phone coverage in the back country continues to be a problem.  I was able to text Bonnie a few times, but for the most time there was no signal on my phone.  Dave’s worked a little better, but he went a good bit of the time with no signal as well.  Instead of becoming dependent on cell phone communication it makes sense to be better prepared to do a self rescue if needed.  Also, an extra day or two of food in the field is a good idea. 

Let it snow!

This past Friday we had a couple inches of snow at the house and Bonnie took that time to get Rowan out for his first look at the snow. 

As you can see he seemed to be enjoying himself as Bonnie (aka Rudolph) pulled him around the house a couple of times.  This is really good practice for when he gets on the big sled this winter and we drag him through the forest for some winter time fun.