First Launch

Delta II rocket lifts off carrying Phoenix Mars explorer

This morning ULA launched their first rocket since I started there on Monday. The Delta II rocket left Cape Canaveral carrying the Phoenix Mars Explorer. The mission is to land near the North Pole of Mars and look for water ice below the soil. The Phoenix is scheduled to land on Mars in May of next year. It will survive there for the Martian summer before it freezes in a solid shell of carbon-dioxide ice during the brutal winter.

The first week of work was pretty slow, but now I am moved in and have stuff set up. The highlight was taking a two day class on the Atlas V rocket. I learned lots of neat stuff like; the Atlas V 551 generates the power of 13 Hoover dams for the 4 minutes following takeoff. Unfortunately, I can't share most of the cool stuff I learn at work, because my blog is public and some N. Korean rocket scientist could be reading.

First Day!

I had my first day of work yesterday. It was pretty uneventful. I spent all morning in a new-hire orientation and the afternoon was filled with meeting co-workers and trying to log on to my computer. They left a hyphen out of my password. The rest of the week I will be taking the "Atlas Rocket Familiarization Course." Just like being a student, except I get paid. Cool.

In other news, the tumultuous tour has concluded and I have chosen my favorite crash. Casar (the guy in white) went on to get the stage win from this break away of four. Check it out:

Old Friends

For the past week my old friends Kelly and Jason have been visiting from Seattle. This was the first significant chance we have had to spend time together since before Korea. We picked up right where we left off and had a great time. We went rafting, hiking, biking, tubing, climbing and rounded out the indoor time with watching the tour, eating, playing cards and joking around. Pretty fun stuff. I picked up a bit of a stomach bug last Saturday along with some heat exhaustion, but seem to be doing better now.

One more week until I start work. I am super excited.

backpackin'

Colorado has beautiful places too.

Mel and I went backpacking this past weekend. Mel was pretty much shocked when I asked her if she wanted to go. Usually I suggest a boating trip or some climbing, but this weekend it sounded like fun to get out and see if there are mines in the wilderness areas too. I am pleased to report that we did not see a single mine in the Holy Cross wilderness. We did see tons of beautiful alpine lakes, granite peaks, and big fat marmots. Cota was especially fond of the big fat marmots. We passed the time drinking Oregon Pinot, eating stinky cheese and swimming in the lakes, it was totally relaxing.

On the return trip I came to the conclusion that resort towns are a lot like casinos. They have all the glitz and glam and each town has it's own theme just like the casinos. Replace the tables with some chairlifts, horseback-riding and whitewater rafting and you are almost there. The only discernable difference I can make out is while Vegas gives away free lodging to encourage people to come, resort towns sell realestate for absurd prices so people feel obligated to come and spend money more often.

Month Off

I got a job offer from United Launch Alliance. ULA is a newly-formed joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing that is in the business of launching rockets. I will be a Dynamics and Controls Engineer on the Atlas V project. My official job title is super awesome, "Mechanical Engineer II" I am so excited about this and can't wait for my start date on July 30th. In the mean time, I plan to fully enjoy my unemployment for one last month. The generous signing bonus supplied by ULA should make that all the easier. The term, "It's not rocket science" no longer applies.

Upper Animas

Yesterday, Mel and I had the chance to run one of the top whitewater rivers in the world with friend Dana Kopf and many others. We had a big trip with three rafts and 8 kayaks. I unfortunately managed to forget the camera, so there are no photos, but suffice it to say we had a wonderful time with beautiful weather and classic boating. The gorge is granite, unspoiled except by a narrow gauge railroad, and surrounded by 4,000m peaks. We even extended the trip by running the Rockwood Box, a seldom rafted class V gorge that may be the most spectacular portion of the trip. Rockwood was the only place our group experienced any carnage with one kayaker taking a swim in Mandatory Thrashing. The trip concludes with a mile-long uphill hike, especially fun with rafts.

Arkansas

Flat water in Brown's Canyon.


Big Horn Sheep.

Melanie's Aunt and Uncle are in town for a few days, so we went rafting on the Arkansas. The river has a reputation for being the busiest and most commercialized in the world, but we were pleasantly surprised to find Brown's Canyon relatively unoccupied on a June Sunday. Despite the sparse humanoid population, we still managed to have a user conflict. A ghetto-fabulous raft pulled into our lunch beach and asked if they could share. I was about to point out the vacant beach just downstream when Karen (Mel's aunt) busted out the Southern hospitality and told them it would be no problem at all. This didn't bother me in the slightest until the rest of their party landed on our beach. They had four rafts and numerous kayaks, about 30 people including some yelling children. I took a cue from my mom, and told the leader that we were misinformed as to the size of their party and no longer wished to share our lunch beach. After some smart remarks, rude comments, and lots of stink eye they moved on downstream. Even so, I was totally impressed by the Ark's great scenery and top-notch rapids. Monday, we moved a bit further upstream and made a couple of laps on the Numbers section. Again, I was pleased by some great read-and-run class IV.

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing 12 yr. old Dane Jackson and 13 yr. old Jason Craig tear it up in the Salida play park. These kids are some of the best playboaters I have ever seen. They were throwing down loops three at a time and doing some crazy stuff I had never seen before. What a good life, sponsored kayaker at age 12.

Recent Events

I realize that I have not been doing a particularly good job of updating my blog lately. I have neither been too busy, nor lacked in exciting adventures. I have two roommates that blog and hang out with me. Three posts about climbing a mountain in a dress is a little excessive in my book.

Anyway, life is good. I take Cota on a kick-ass hike every day and ride my bike a lot. Baking cookies has slowed down since the students have left town and I have redoubled my efforts to find a good engineering job. I have quite a few great prospects right now so hopefully something will pan out.

On Monday the whole city came out for the Bolder Boulder. This is the biggest 10k race in the world with over 50,000 runners. I thought it was a really impressive event. There are bands playing all along the course and I rode my bike around to see Mel at various points along the course. My favorite stop was next to a band of middle school boys. It was an interesting study in what happens if you give a 14 year old boy an electric guitar and thousands of screaming fans. The middle schoolers had great taste in music, covering Metallica, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Kiss, GnR, and Ozzy Osbourne.
The middle schoolers play some GnR.

Jake was in town for a day last week on his way to New York. It was great to see him and we did some awesome backcountry skiing in Rocky Mountain NP. I have been continuing my exploration of Colorado's rivers and creeks.
Jake and Mel ready to make some turns.

Piedra

Dana takes a look at Eye of the Needle on the Piedra.

Dough Boy

I got a job. I'm a baker at Boulder Baked. It's a small family owned bakery on University Hill that specializes in cookies, brownies, cakes and other yummy stuff for stoned, drunk college students. They are open from 6pm 'til 2am, which is good for me because I don't have to get up at 4am to make cookies. I get to do it during the normal daytime.

Cross Mountain Gorge

The entrance to Cross Mountain Gorge

Over the weekend Mel and I drove out to North-West Colorado to check out the Yampa River. The Yampa is a tributary of the Green, which eventually joins the Colorado. It's a tranquil river flowing placidly through high-desert valleys until it reaches the Cross Mountains. It then changes abruptly in character and slices a two-thousand foot gorge straight through the range. This makes for a nice five mile section of boating.

We ran this section on Saturday and all was uneventful, except for a little swim Mel took in the very last rapid. We then hiked over the top of the crest back to the truck. On the hike we surprised some elk that were bedded down in the juniper and spruce trees. We also got to peer over the canyon rim and see the gorge in it's entirety. We also saw tons of fox, antelope, deer, and rabbits. Cota was a big fan of chasing the rabbits.

It's boatin' season!

Ski Binding Story

Melanie's friend Kelly is visiting from North Carolina this weekend and since I am such an awesome boyfriend I agreed to drive Kelly up to the mountain on Thursday and ski for a bit. We had a great time in the sun and spring conditions. Then, this really interesting thing happened. Something I have never seen or heard of. If Kelly were not there to witness this event nobody would believe me.

The Story:
I was just skiing along, making beautiful tele turns, when this guy comes flying past me. He was totally out of control, in that half tuck position, sort of making turns. Anyway, you get the picture. I didn't see him crash, although I wish I had. It would have been entertaining and it would make this story even better. I stop and he is slightly up-hill from me lying face down in the snow. He slowly gets up, slightly dazed and I realize that one of his skis is nowhere to be seen. I turn to Kelly and ask her if she sees this guy's other ski. We don't see it and we can see for quite a ways. I notice that the guy is ski/hop/flailing toward us on his one remaining ski, when he asks, "Hey man, can I get some help?" I tentatively give a positive reply expecting to be engaged in a search for the missing ski until all the snow melts. He then busts out with, "You gotta get this binding out of my ass!" Whoa, that was out of left field. Sure enough, when he turns around, he has a ski binding dangling from the seat of his ski pants. I extracted it. When this guy fell he completely ripped his binding off his ski and the brake punctured his ski pants and two layers of underwear then re-traced it's path in complete fish-hook fashion. I really wish I had a picture. It was amazing!

Back to Oregon

Graham on Thursday night


Jake, Garrett and Lisa shortly before I joined them and we sank the canoe.

Mel and I returned to Oregon over the weekend. The excuse, Graham and Greta's wedding. I flew in Thursday evening just in time for some bachelor party schenanigans in downtown Portland. We got Graham pretty drunk (see photo). The wedding itself was successful as well, although Greta looked pretty shocked when the pastor started talking about Jesus. Some good dancing followed with cameo appearances by Jaz & Lou up from California plus Garrett and Lisa down form Montana. Phil will be pleased to know that Molly caught the bouquet. Later in the evening; Brian Melvin (Graham's little brother) cut his face badly on a broken wine bottle, Jake stole the golf cart for a little drunken joyriding, and 4 of us sank the canoe in the pond with all our dress clothes on.

The highlight of the trip home was spending time with family and friends. I visited professors at OSU and spent some quality time with my grandparents and brother. It was a great trip and made me miss Oregon, although my allergies were happy to get on the plane.

No Job Yet

Looking North toward Dinosaur Mountain and the Third Flatiron.


Corey placing some gear in the sweet finger crack.

The approach to this climb is easy, just roll out of bed, pull on your shoes and walk half an hour to the crag. No driving. I can't say enough about how nice it is to hike directly to the crag. Best of all, it is far from being the only climb within easy hiking distance from our front door. Hundreds of cool routes and boulder problems await.