the the

THE THE! = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phWv7l8Lm_A

Well... you didn't wake up this morning
Because you didn't go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes
Turn red
The calendar, on your wall, is ticking the days off
The calendar on your wall is ticking
the days off
You've been reading some old letters
You smile and think how much you've changed
All the money in the world
Couldn't bring back those days.
You pull back the curtains, and the sun burns into your eyes,
You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky.
THIS IS THE DAY -- Your life will surely change.
THIS IS THE DAY -- When things fall into place.
You could've done anything -- if you'd wanted
And all your friends and family think that you're lucky.
But the side of you they'll never see
Is when you're left alone with the memories
That hold your life together like
Glue

PTAC 1st Overnight

on a wet and dreary day, Jesse signs us in for our first PTAC overnight. Well past big hump on the Duckabush, we hike in 10 miles to you guessed it, 10 mile camp.

Zach joins in for his first PNW overnight, sans Indiana

Jesse smiles on without vision - popping lenses

Ben...whom i've yet to see unprepared for anything in the backcountry...straddles his pack and with a knife and tweezers, mends Jesse's vision & glasses

brain + poop = false Morel.

the Duckabush is a double whammy when it comes to water. Not only is the Duckabush Watershed swollen with water, there are constantly tributaries to cross, hobble and jump.

the Grizz-eater. Bear-fighter. Machine of a dog.

supposedly 3.5 miles from our camp, we enter the National Park. Not shy of this, we start seeing large bear prints and cat tracks in the dank and fresh mud. Vocal as can be, we progress with open ears and eyes.

foliage changes drastically to dry river bed scrub

and more so than that...serious old growth. cedars of unimaginable size.

Last year the Duckabush suffered a large forest fire, here we are witnessing it's damage. A warning zone of charred giant cedars that are gently leaning and balancing on other trees....a myriad of burnt dominoes.

more stream crossing and snow melt.

morning coffee on the duck

Zach treating water with the UV Steripen....malfunctioning.

anger at said battery operated Steripen

Ben, happily treating water with UV Steripen.

it glows, it goes, it works

my solution to treating water is to just drink alcohol instead

a bob moment

a chef moment

ben too. ben never surprises me with his cache of Vegemite, beans, rice, spices, jars of salsa, tubs of cream cheese....this man is EVER prepared.

bob and i make our "traditional" first night out dish....fresh lemon meyer pesto w/ smoked salmon

making camp

a beautiful Harliquin Duck that i needed a tripod for, clearly

so, i eluded to a moment on monday when we saw bear prints. We were cautious. We strung up all our smellables, toothpaste, packtowels etc....Something i was not able to capture on film was our Bear encounter, or more accuratley Bob and Daphne's encounter. As we were hiking back down through the Park, amongst the thick old cedars, Bob took Daphne off lead. As they turned the corner there stood a very large black bear within 25 feet...from the back of the line all i heard was " DAPHNE! come! right here!" and then "Shit, back up, back up, back up."

We all caught a glimpse as this rather large animal fled up the mountain...and oddly right after we had seen a large Elk. Clearly the place to see crittermals is in the park.