Franklin Ridge

Click on the images to get a better view

Last weekend Dave, Balazs, and I went on a hike to justify, calorie wise, the beer drinking afterwards. We did well. Although we are not sure whether we walked 10.35 or 11.6 miles, we are sure we worked hard and earned our dinner and refreshing pints.
We climbed from the Columbia river to Franklin Ridge, almost 3,000 feet, and came back down again along Multnomah Falls. The exact mileage is uncertain due to technology. Gmap-pedometer.com thinks the loop was 10.35 miles long, while Dave's paper map insist that the path segments add up to the larger distance. Unless the person (Dave) doing the adding, had too much beer.

Independent of that technical detail, it was a beautiful day and hike. It was quite warm, but most of the route is under the shadows of trees and along cool mountain streams. Once we got past Triple Falls, we were basically alone. Except for the snake in the top picture. Dave may have accidentally stepped on its tail and felt sorry. But it gave us the opportunity to play guessing games on how poisonous that snake really is, and take pictures of it. He was not in a good mood. Maybe it was the picture taking, a hurting tail, or just annoyance about having to share the wilderness with us. He kept snapping at us. I hope he heals up.

A path interrupted

 In several places we had to make detours around damaged parts of the trail. The biggest gap is in the picture above. A major section had been washed out and required a detour through the riverbed. This was quite a bit back in the valley and I do not envy the workers who have to haul their equipment back there to fix it.

Mt. Adams

  At the top of Franklin Ridge we were rewarded with a nice view of Mt. Adams. From there on it was all downhill. I have been to the bottom of Multnomah Falls before, but this time I got to see it from above. That was quite impressive, but some of the other falls we saw on this hike were very nice too.

Multnomah Falls from above

Triple Falls

For dinner we went to the Horse Brass pub. Maybe not the highest level culinary institute, but I enjoyed my bangers and the beer was good too. Balazs, visiting from Japan, practised his tipping skills. He wasn't thrilled with his Sheppard's pie. Dave and I explained to him that it was not the waitress who tosses it into the microwave and that he should not stiff her for that.

As always, the remaining pictures are on picasa.

Vacation

Chichen Itza

In May we spent a little over a week in Mexico, just in case Trump wins and builds that wall. We were far away from any international borders, but there was no shortage of American (and other) tourists. It was off-season and not too bad and we enjoyed it. It was just Lee Ann, Anika, and me. James felt that as a newcomer to the startup company he works for now, it would not be prudent to go slack off. Meanwhile, I forgot everything I ever new about work and let my inbox fill up.

Ek Balam

Lee Ann had arranged a program for us to see several Mayan pyramids and archaeological sites. In between we stayed at the Grand Mayan resort on the coast, alternating between tourist attractions, sheltered resort life, getting lost in tiny  villages, and seeing glimpses of local life through the hedges along the highway.
The toll road between Cancun and Valladolid is long, straight, and boring. There is almost nothing to see because the shrubbery along the side of the road blocks the view. There was almost no traffic (we got up too late in the mornings to see the tour bus caravan's head out to Chichen Iza.) Occasionally we saw bicycles despite signs forbidding them on the road. We were wondering where they were headed. They were hours from any settlement.
Sometime pedestrians crossed the road too, or had what looked like barbecue parties hidden in the bushes in the median. Another thing that struck me, was that Mexico is big. We have been to several parts and even rode a bus between Puero Vallarta and Guadalajara six years ago, but studying the Yukatan maps was the first time it really sunk in.

Cool birds near Ek Balam

Anika's Spanish was of great help, but almost everyone we met spoke at least some English and most of them very well. Barely knowing a few words, I still could tell that some of the young waiters liked Anika's Spanish and were wondering what it would take to get rid of the two old people in the group.

Fauna at the resort

And flora too

We did see some interesting animals during our explorations, but we actually saw more within the resort itself. Maybe it was the location of the jungle next to the ocean, or all the food scraps the tourists leave behind, but there were tons of birds and, of course, the ever cool iguanas.
One day one of them jumped into the pool with us and swam to the other side. They are amazingly agile in water and an unexpected surprise for us to see that they can swim. One of the bigger ones was Pablo. The staff would yell his name when they chased him away from the poolside drinks and snacks.

Pablo's friend. They hung out together at the same corner of the pool

It was a nice mixed vacation of relaxing and getting sunburned at the pool and going out into the heat, climbing pyramids, and learning history from Mayan descendants.
People everywhere were super friendly. Not a single rapist or killer in sight. As always, all the pictures are over on Picasa.