After nearly a decade, I finally broke down and bought me a new rig. In order to get us safely to the snowboarding mountains and the rocky forest roads that lead to our favorite hiking spots, Shawna and I decided that the Subaru Outback is the car we need. It's got all-wheel drive and a surprising ground clearance of almost 9 inches, so it should get us where we need to go.

 

P.S. We're selling my 1995 Chevrolet S10 pickup, so send me an email if you're looking for a great little truck!

 

- Jas

What better way to round out a busy, fun-filled summer than with a whitewater rafting trip? Shawna and I headed down to Yakima with a dozen friends to take a guided rafting trip down the Tieton River, on the Big Weekend when they throw open the dam doors and the river goes from a meandering fishing stream to a raging whitewater buckin' bronco.

 

Both of us were a little nervous -- Shawna moreso since her swimming skills are, well, a little rusty -- but it ended up being a huge amount of fun and we're already planning to do more whitewater trips next year. The weekend was made even better by car camping with the group on Friday and Saturday night at a gorgeous moutain campground kissed by a crystal-clear creek and reserved entirely for us. Megan even brought a giant inflatable Fun Island that we tied to a stump in the stream, which was perfect for afternoon napping.

 

We rode the rapids, we napped, we ate steak and corn-on-the-cob, we made some new friends (Zee and Suzanne, thanks for the Tarantula!), and we played on the beach until the sun went down. Then we froze our butts off until bed time, but it was still a blast. Cheers to Megan for organizing the trip, and cheers to everybody else for making it a great trip to end the summer with a splash!

 

- Jas

I've wanted to jump from an airplane ever since I was a little kid. It's just always sounded like a heck of a lot of fun, and since I'm dangerously un-afraid of heights the only thing that's stopped me up until now has been the price point. But this summer, along with a group of buddies -- Bill, Dan, Sam, and Stephan -- I decided that it was high time we made the leap.

 

After shelling out a hefty $200 each, we signed our lives away (quite literally: the contract said we couldn't sue the skydive company for an accident even if it was found that their equipment was faulty and their staff was criminally negligent) and boarded the little prop plane to the sky. As we neared an elevation of 2.5 miles over the tiny town of Toledo, WA, the jump masters and other passengers exchanged special skydiver handshakes while chanting the little prayer "hope... your shit... works" and began vanishing through the airplane's rear door.

 

The fellas and I were jumping tandem, which means each of us had an ostensibly "professional" skydiver strapped to our back who would be monitoring our descent and pulling the ripcords when it was time to do so. My tandem master had asked me to please keep an eye on his altimeter and let him know when we had fallen to 5,000 feet because "there was some stuff he needs to do then", and I was only about half certain he was joking. He and I were the last ones out, and after duck-walking to the rear of the plane we did a "one... two... three!" before hurtling out the door and plummeting toward Planet Earth in a 130-mile-per-hour freefall.

 

I've seen it on T.V., but never expected what a sensory-overload it would actually turn out to be. Flipping around in midair, the horizon tilting/disappearing/reappearing, violently loud wind distorting my face and sucking the air out of my lungs, spotting the now-tiny airplane thousands of feet above me... sixty seconds of this before the parachute opened and we began the gently-gliding ride down to the airfield where Shawna was staring into the sunny blue sky trying to pick out which of the tiny colored dots was me. If you watch the attached video, you can faintly hear me yelling "hey, Shawna!" from beneath my canopy.

 

The experience was well worth the 200 bucks. It was a thrill-a-second, it was emotionally liberating, and I'll never be able to look at an airplane the same way again. When I try it again next summer, I hope I can get my little wife to jump with me!

 

- Jas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our camping trip to the Sawtooth Range last year was so much fun that we decided to follow it up this year with another multi-day camping trip in Idaho with Uncle Kevin. This year we selected the Seven Devils area of Hell's Canyon to call our home for a few nights; we figured the warm weather, majestic peaks, and scenic views would be sure to keep us occupied while the primitive camp sites without paved roads or drinkable water would be sure to keep the crowds away. We were not disappointed!

 

Camping in the dry and fire-ravaged Idaho summers is always a craps shoot. Although our camp site was slowly being sandwiched between two massive wildfires -- one from the north and one from the south -- the smoke wasn't too bad and we generally felt pretty safe. The ranger assured us that the nearest blaze was over seven miles away, which didn't seem very far to us but her upbeat demeanor and reassuring smile was pretty convincing. I kept reminding myself that Kevin had been a volunteer fire fighter in his youth, so if the fires got too close then at least he'd probably know which way we should run.

 

The campground was nearly empty, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves apart from one friendly neighbor whose girlfriend referred to as "Jabber Jaws". Highlights of the trip included a day hike to Lower Cannon Lake; a sunset hike to a fire lookout where the two active fires were visible; watching squirrels dig up and eat underground mushrooms; living among huge craggy peaks with dramatic names like "The Ogre" and "She-Devil"; and eating ungodly amounts of bacon. We also had clear views of the starry sky each night and spent a couple of relaxing evenings spotting satellites and shooting stars while warming our paws over a dozen tiny tea candles since campfires were prohibited.

 

Take a look at the photos to see some shots of the area, and some shots of us doing the sort of things we did the most such as eating, hiking, eating, and eating. The trip was a lot of fun, and we're looking forward to hooking up with Uncle Kevin for more outdoor fun and adventure next year!

 

- Jas