Jason’s Bachelor Weekend
Jason’s Bachelor Weekend
This is a quick chronicle of my most recent trip to Baltimore, MD for Jason’s Bachelor weekend. The adventure started on Thursday morning when I left early for the airport only to find that my flight had been delayed and I would be getting Big B in the evening. Having ready access to my laptop allowed me to kill the time drafting reports for the office. When I arrived in Baltimore I quickly discovered that my luggage was still in Chicago and didn’t clear customs in time. The folks at United Airlines offered to deliver to Jason’s place on Friday afternoon or to ferry it out to Deep Creek Lake. I opted to wait at the airport until the next flight for Chicago dropped off my luggage. Jason met me and we headed over to Safeway to grab some food for the weekend. While cruising the aisles of Safeway, Jason found the ultimate in terms of subs, a Super-Sub. It was huge.
On Friday morning Jason’s dad picked us up and we headed towards western Maryland and stopped at Sideling Hill for lunch. The geology of the rock folding were cool. It would take the three of us to devour the sub. By mid-afternoon we were in Deep Creek Lake and headed over to a place I have always wanted to visit, Swallow Falls. It was under light rain that we hiked on both sides of Swallow Creek. Along the way we checked out Upper Muddy Creek which is the tallest fall in Maryland. A little before sunset we headed over to the house we rented in Deep Creek Lake. It was at time point we started what was to be one of the many highlights of the weekend, playing Kings. One word of advice is to pick your beverage wisely. After playing a couple of rounds of Kings we had burgers and beans for dinner. This was followed by a couple of more rounds of Kings. A couple of hours before sunrise we all headed to be.
We all started Saturday morning possibly a little tired and hung over. Breakfast took the form of strong coffee, scapple, sausages and scrambled eggs. Much of the day was spent taking it easy and we paused the day for a pizza lunch (three large pizzas) We would need some physical activity to work off the meal. Some of us watched while other played ladder ball which is a game where you throw two golf ball attached by a string over to a three rung ladder. We played a couple of rounds of kings as we waited for the steaks, potatoes and aspargus to cook on the barbeque. Once dinner was over we would played more rounds of kings until the wee hours of the morning.
On Sunday morning, I drank twice as much coffee as I did on Saturday morning possibly due to a hang over or most likely being tired. We checked out of the house at noon. Dom, Adam and Eddie headed back to Baltimore. Dave, Mark, Jason and I headed over to Swallow Falls for an afternoon of hiking. I’m really glad we made the second trip as the recent rain had transformed Swallow Falls, Tolliver Falls, and Upper Muddy Creek fall into a torrent of water. Another highlight of the weekend was the hike the Herrington Manor. Along the way Jason found his first geocache. I hope that this starts a tradition.We attempted to find another one near Herrington Manor but ran out of time as the GPS reception in the cedar was bad. A little before sunset we started our trek back to Baltimore and made a quick detour for dinner.
On Monday, Jason dropped off very close to his office. I took the light rail north to the REI store in Timmonium. Today would be a geocaching day. I headed in an easterly direction over to Loch Raven and found a couple of good geocaches. Late in the day, I attempted to find a geocache near Jason office which involved wading across a river but bailed due to time pressure but hope that I get another attempt at next time. I closed out the evening with some swing dancing.
I was up early on Tuesday morning with the goal of finding a couple of geocaches near the hotel. The two I found were in cemeteries which were easy to find and well presented. By mid-morning I checked out of the hotel and headed over to Jason place to chill before my flight. (Thanks again Jason!) At this point, I did something that I really had to do and that was to take a run which helped loosen up my back. It felt good to run along the Inner Harbor in a light misting rain. A little before rush hour I headed over to the Inner Harbor to catch my flight to Detroit.
It was an awesome weekend…
Boilermaker Jazz Band
When I was in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago I listened to and swing danced to the a href=”http://www.boilermakerjazzband.com/”Boilermaker Jazz Band/a. Jason gave me a couple of there tunes to check out. Once back home I went over to iTunes to see if any of BJB’s music was available and I discovered that I really like “St. Phillip Street Breakdown”, “Down By the Riverside” and “Home Sweet Home.” Some of these tunes I can dance to at the same time I am eager to expand my dancing repertoire.
East Dix, South Dix, Hough Peaks
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_5w5ZZWchEd4/RvgTYdx58II/AAAAAAAACA8/ygxtSTNDP7M/s1600-h/DSCF0665.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_5w5ZZWchEd4/RvgTYdx58II/AAAAAAAACA8/ygxtSTNDP7M/s320/DSCF0665.JPG” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113858687910932610″ border=”0″ //abr /o:p /o:pOn the July long weekend I did an st1:place st=”on”Adirondacks/st1:place hike with a href=”http://ohoc.ncf.ca/”OHOC/a. As a group we hiked up a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marcy_%28New_York%29″st1:place st=”on”st1:placetype st=”on”Mt./st1:placetype st1:placename st=”on”Marcy/st1:placename/st1:place/a at 5344 feet making it the tallest peak in the st1:place st=”on”Adirondacks/st1:place. I spent much of the time hiking with Kevin Woodley as were of comparable strengths. On the second day I climbed Table Top at 4427 feet and Phelps at 4161 feet. Kevin climbed Colden at 4714 feet. While catching up on email at the Atlanta airport I received a email from Chris McDonald one of the leaders of the July trip to see if I wanted to climb a couple of more peaks. I shot back a quick email to say I was eager to climb a couple of peaks in the a href=”http://www.keene-keenevalley.com/”st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Keene/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Valley/st1:placetype/st1:place/a. Over the next couple of days we worked out the details of who would bring what gear. On Friday morning we started our journey to st1:place st=”on”Lake Placid/st1:place. We stopped in at a href=”http://www.ems.com/”st1:place st=”on”EMS/st1:place /ato rent a bear barrel which is now a requirement for overnight hiking. While waiting for ChrisMc and Kevin to sort out the barrel details I took a picture of st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Mirror/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Lake/st1:placetype/st1:place and called a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com/”Jason /ato wish him a happy birthday on Saturday. Our next stop was to buy some last minute provisions. We would drive by the st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Heart/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Lake/st1:placetype/st1:place –Adirondack Loj access road and head south for about ten miles. Since our hiking would be done on herd path or unmarked trails we stopped in at the a href=”http://www.mountaineer.com/”Mountaineer /astore to get some tips. p class=”MsoNormal”o:p /o:pbr /Once at the trailhead we loaded up Nalgene bottles and mounted our a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113557868401520402″packs/a. (N44 06.729 W073 42.459) span style=”" /spanThe first part of the trail was easy going until we missed a fork in the trail. After searching for a while we walked across the river and found the trail continued on the other side. The guide book said to take note of the Rock of Gibraltar so I stopped and had a couple of a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113557988660604738″picture/a of me next to it. We would like for the three hours running the risk of setting up camp in the dark as sunset was at st1:time minute=”0″ hour=”19″ st=”on”7:00 pm/st1:time. Much our time was spent hiking on either side of the st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Bouqeut/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”River/st1:placetype/st1:place and constantly looking for the next carron. We soon left the river and started our climb. As the sun was setting the trail came to a sudden end. There was some discussion was to where we were. We had missed a campsite that we were going to use a reference point. We quickly set up our tents and ate store-bought subs for supper. The debate about our location continued and we decided to talk about it in the morning./p p class=”MsoNormal”o:p /o:pWe were all up at st1:time minute=”30″ hour=”18″ st=”on”6:30/st1:time. After a hot breakfast of oatmeal and tea we packed our gear. The access to East Dix (4026 feet) is via a rock slide that is about 800 yards long. Water dribbles down the slide and gave us a couple of pools in which pump water. ChrisMc was absolutely certain we had made a mistake somewhere along the hike. Gazing up at the slide it appears to be to short. We hiked down for 30 minutes and met up with the river again. I fired up the GPS and set the coordinates to UTM, ChrisMc pulled his compass and map and we studied the map. After checking and rechecking we were quite sure of where we were on the map. ChrisMc had underestimated the distance we had hiked (7.5 km/4.66 m). We decided to chance it and head back up to the slide. Once back at the slide we loaded up our daypack (a href=”http://www.rei.com/product/747522″REI UL Flash pack /a+ a href=”http://www.rei.com/product/733683″100 oz camelback/a + Nalgene bottle) with the gear and lunch we would need for the remainder of the days. It was at this point I got to know my colors a little better. Dark brown/black on rock is quite slippery while gray and white surface give you good purchase. Each of us took a different route and eventually reached the sub-summit at which point we met a well used trail. We hiked for a while before reaching the summit of East Dix (4026 feet) (N44 03.990 W073 45.413). We took a couple of pictures (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113558181934133170″solo/a,span style=”" /spana href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113558233473740770″group/a) and then hiked over to South Dix along a well traveled path for about a mile. The hike to South Dix was filled with many switch backs which makes it hard to build any hiking speed. Along the way we hiked through an area where they had a blow down a couple of years ago. We stopped for lunch at the summit of South Dix (4068) (N44 03.587 W073 46.485) (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113558254948577266″pic 1/a) Lunch took the form of bagels, packaged tuna, carrots and fig newtons. /p p class=”MsoNormal”After lunch we started our descent into the valley that separated South Dix from Hough. We met two girls at the campsite midway that had climbed three of the four peaks that we had hoped to climb. They looked tired and beat up. There hike had started at st1:time minute=”30″ hour=”7″ st=”on”7:30 am/st1:time from st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Elk/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Lake/st1:placetype/st1:place in the south. Over the next hour we would gain 400 feet and a rapid rate. There was a cool part of the climb I really liked. You had to take your pack off and slide sideways between two rock faces and climb up 25 feet. Once on top you could feel the full force of the wind. It was cold. We would climb for another 20 minutes before reaching the summit, a large rock (4409 feet) (N44 04.172 W073 46.667) I was forced to take off my hat as it the wind was a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113558306488184866″whipping/a. At this point we decided not to attempt a climb of st1:city st=”on”st1:place st=”on”Macomb/st1:place/st1:city as we were short for time and it would be easily accessed from st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Elk/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Lake/st1:placetype/st1:place.span style=”" /spanRetracing our steps we hiked from Hough, to South Dix to East Dix. Before starting our descent of the slide we stopped for a Clif bar to rejuvenate. I was running low on water. I had drunk my camelback and half a nalgene bottle. Over in the distance there was some ominous black cloud. It looked like rain or snow. Just as we were starting our descent the cloud opened and it started to pore. ChrisMc and I sat underneath an overhang and waited out the rain. After clearing the sub-summit we each took a different route down to the base. I opted to head into the bush as soon as it was available. Trudging on brush gives you good traction as you hike down. This worked for a while until I mis-stepped a slipped on a black rock. I rolled as I was going down and landed on my bum and left pelvic. At a quick check over, I headed down the slide at a snails pace. Once back at camp I make some hot tea and munched on fig newtons. We were all relieved for a hot drink and something to stop the hunger pangs. Kevin and I cooked dinner which was combined three chili, bean and curry dishes. After dinner, I cut down a small maple and spruce tree. It was great to sit around the fire and reminisce about the day’s hike. /p p class=”MsoNormal”We were up at st1:time minute=”30″ hour=”19″ st=”on”7:30/st1:time to find that the weather had changed at it was a cool 40F. The hot tea and oatmeal were what was needed to warm us up. Once we were packed up we headed down the trail and were able to make good headway. I had set the GPS to count down the miles-to-the-car as reference marker and watched the distance diminish quickly. Before reaching the car we stop at a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113558431042236514″swimming hole/a and had a brisk swim. Once back at the car we changed into our street clothes and took aa href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/AdirondacksSept2007EastDixSouthDixHoughPeak/photo#5113558461107007602″ final picture/a. We stopped in at st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Keene/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Valley/st1:placetype/st1:place for a late breakfast. /p
A week in review – Orioles and Stoli Doli’s
p class=”MsoNormal”Last week I had a really great and fun week in st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Baltimore/st1:City/st1:place. On Wednesday, I flew from st1:city st=”on”Ottawa/st1:City to st1:city st=”on”Chicago/st1:City and then to st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Baltimore/st1:City/st1:place. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /amet me at the airport and dropped me back at the hotel. After a quick shower I walked into st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Canton/st1:City/st1:place to buy some sugar, fig newtons, and pretzel goldfish at a href=”http://www.safeway.com”Safeway/a. I headed over to a href=”http://www.starbucks.com”Starbucks /ato grab some tea and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111326730440341106″st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Canton/st1:City/st1:place/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111326739030275714″harbor/a. I met Jason at his office and saw the Apple iPhone for the first time. Next, we headed over to Camden Yards to watch the Orioles play the LA Angels. It was not a good night for the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327056857855650″Orioles/a. They committed four errors in the first 30 minutes which put them at a disadvantage for the rest of the game. We had really great seats for watching the game as well as catching fly balls. Early on in the game a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327065447790258″Jason caught a ball/a. We snacked on goldfish and had pulled pork and really great sauerkraut. The game went to the full nine inning and the Orioles lost 18-6. The game attendance was 15,136. On the way back to the car we took some pictures a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327069742757570″1/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327074037724882″2/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327082627659490″3/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327477764650738″4/a./p p class=”MsoNormal”o:p/o:pbr /On Thursday morning, after a quick breakfast and we headed over to Jason’s new house. We spent most of the day a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327490649552658″framing /athe ceiling in one of the bedrooms. Jason’s mom helped us position the 2×4s. I took a picture of a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327486354585346″sign /athat Jason has leading from his basement which I took note after hitting my head on the way up. I was really happy to celebrate a special day in st1:city st=”on”st1:place st=”on”Baltimore/st1:place/st1:City with Jason.br //pp class=”MsoNormal”In the evening, Em, Jason and I headed to the a href=”http://www.thecapitalgrille.com/Locations/Baltimore/Main.asp?Location=Baltimore”Capital Grille/a to celebrate all our birthdays which are close together. I had my first a href=”http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Stoli-Doli/Detail.aspx”Stoli Doli/a which I enjoyed drinking. The fruity pineapple taste prepares you for the slight burn you get from the vodka. I heeded Jason’s advice and enjoyed it over the course of the meal. /p
Stoli Doli
Over the next couple of days, I will experience something that I have been curious about for a little while and that is, what does a a href=”http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Stoli-Doli/Detail.aspx”Stoli Doli’s/a taste like. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /a talked about them in a a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com/2007/07/27/weekend-in-florida/”post /a a little while ago and that sort of sparked my curiosity. I’ll consume the Stoli Doli on a special occasion which will make it even more memorable. I’m sure that I’ll post a blog describing the experience.
