The Great Outdoors

 

 

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The Great Outdoors

via Futility Closet by Greg Ross on 10/25/11

On Nov. 20, 1980, Leonce Viator Jr. went fishing with his nephew on Louisiana's Lake Peigneur. He might have noted two worrisome things: Below the lake was a salt mine, and above it was a drilling rig.

The drill punctured the mine's roof, and the resulting whirlpool devoured two oil rigs, 11 barges, a tugboat, a loading dock, "assorted greenhouses," a house trailer, several tractors, countless trees, and most of the Live Oak Botanic Gardens. Amazingly, the water drained so quickly that Viator's 14-foot aluminum boat was stuck in the mud at the lake's bottom, and the pair were able to walk away.

No one was killed, but Lake Peigneur is now saltwater.

 

 

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Nice

Way to go Saturn

Powder

Fantastic weekend up in the mountains.  Rented a condo with some friends, and Vail caught 9" overnight (but it felt more like a foot plus in the back bowls.  Best day of snowboarding so far.  Ever.

Well, the blog has fallowed pretty hard lately. Work has been busy; big hours for the most part and trials just about every week. Win some lose some.

Backpacking season is long gone, and ski season has started. A and I have gotten a couple of days in, one at A-Basin and one at Breckenridge. The snow was pretty decent, especially compared to last year.

My parents came out to Colorado for a few days, and we knocked about the mountains a bit with them. We managed to get Dad to the Columbine Lounge; his new favorite steak house.

I'm in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, which is warm and quiet, compared to the standard Minnesota Thanksgiving. A and I are headed back to Minnesota for Christmas, which should be fun. I was lucky enough to ask for the days off early enough to get them.

Had a fantastic trip at Chris and Sophia's wedding. The wedding was fun, as was the bar tour of wonderful downtown Juneau. The bachelor party was on a salmon fishing charter, where we caught 19 fish and kept 5 cohos.

After the wedding, I tacked on an extra week to go sea kayaking with a couple of the groomsmen. We tagged along with a tour boat to get dropped off at the end of Tracy Arm in front of the South Sawyer Glacier. The glacier calved huge a few times, dropping off house-sized chunks of ice and sounding like thunder. We camped on Sawyer Island overnight, and then the next day visited Sawyer Glacier and went back to South Sawyer. We hiked up to a rocky campsite that overlooked the face of the glacier, and watched the glacier calve during cocktail hour and dinner. The next morning I woke up early and moved my sleeping bag and pad outside to doze and watch the glacier. The next night we camped along a gorgeous little gorge just above a class V rapid. That camp was complete with bear shit and claw markings on a rock. Our weather was gorgeous; we probably caught the best string of 4 days the area will see, with bluebird days and 75 degree temps. It rained on our last day, and we realized that the trip would have been a lot different if it would have rained every day as we had expected. We spent the last couple of days paddling out of the arm, but only ended up paddling 4 hours a day or so at most. One day it was so warm that we found a waterfall that formed a slip and slide into the ocean.

Best. Campsite. Ever.

Trials

I won my first jury trial last week.  It was a lot of fun; hopefully my subsequent trials will go as smoothly.  Moved into a new apartment last weekend, and I'm just about settled now.  All I need are some dining room chairs.

Hunting

It's apartment hunting season again.  With the new job down south, I'm trying to cut down the commute without moving to the suburbs.  So far I've taken a look at 7 places, and one of them is a strong contender.  Things will just depend on whether I'll be able to get someone into my place early, or if I'll have to wait until the end of July to move.  Hopefully it's the former, so I'm not doubling my commute for 2 months.  Fingers crossed.

Well, last week was pretty hectic. After interviewing for 4 different positions and receiving 3 different offers, I've figured out the path from here. On June 1 I'll be sworn in. It's going to be put-up-or-shut-up time in a sense; I've had the idea that I would enjoy the job and would be good at it, for the past 11 years or so. Now I guess we'll find out.

Another beer is in bottles, an ESB this time from a split batch that I put together with P.  The beer cellar is looking pretty good now, which is good timing for summer.  2 more job interviews this week.  Fingers crossed.