The Fun Scale, Revamped

A1 Fun

I recently read an older blog post by climber/writer Kelly Cordes describing and outlining the fun scale (link). I thought that it was a great post and really liked the idea. However, I decided that I wanted to expand on the idea and add an emotional ranking to the types of fun categories. Yesterday, over a few pints of Terminator, Adam and I hashed out a rough outline on our improved fun scale.

Let us start by looking at the three categories of fun: A, B and C. These categories are universal and apply to everyone and every experience. Very objective in nature.

“A” fun is the same as Kelly’s type 1 fun, and is when you are actually having fun while you are participating in the activity, “in the moment” kind of thing. Kelly’s examples describe it the best, “Good food, good sex, rippin singletrack, powder skiing. Imperial Stouts. Okay, I changed a few to fit my personality…

“B” fun could be described as activities that are not fun while you are doing them, but are considered fun after you finish. Aka retrospective fun. Activities like high altitude mountaineering or really intense training days.

“C” fun involves activities that you thought were going to be really fun, but the actual event and memories turn out to be not fun.  For example, planning a really sweet ultra light speed circumnavigation of Mt. Hood in November, but then having gale force winds, freezing rain and frigid conditions resulting in a rescue from SAR.

The second classification for the fun scales involves amount fun/thrill/pleasure you derive from an activity. This classification relies heavily on personal opinions, so one person’s type 1 fun could be completely different than someone else’s. It’s all subjective.

Type 1 fun: involves the highest, maximum, the extreme, pinnacle amount of pleasure that could be derived from an activity. Hard to get, but you constantly seek it.

Type 2 fun: a general good time, nothing really thrilling. The kind of fun you have most often

Type 3 fun: nothing to complain about and you weren’t disappointed. Not worth repeating, but glad you did it kind of stuff.

Now you have the tools to apply the fun scale, so let me present some activities and show you how I would classify it. Ripping down some long, flowly singletrack at sunset = A1 Fun aka Steak Sauce Fun, (meaning I had fun while doing it and it would be maximum level, hard to get fun.)  or long training run in the rain and wind, but achieved a new PR = B2 (not fun while I was doing it, but feel it was a general good time when looking back on it. Keep in mind this is subjective so some people might classify that experience as B1 if they really wanted the PR, for example

So in the end, the options for the fun scale would proceed as follows:

A1           B1           C1

A2           B2           C2

A3           B3           C3

Keep in mind the for Category C fun, the types of fun are reserved. So C1 would read as: I thought I was going to have fun, but it turned out to be horrible, terrible, the worst experience ever. C3 would read as I thought I was going to have fun, but in the end, it wasn’t as much fun as I thought and probably wont do it again.

So there you have it. They modified fun scale. The brain child of Adam and I. Let me know what you think. Now go out and get some steak sauce!

UNT

Bryan

Wahclella and Lower Elowah Falls

Wahclella Falls

This past weekend Kerrie and I headed into the Gorge for a nice little waterfall hike. The weather was predicted to be relatively warm and sunny so we were both looking forward to getting outside for awhile. We decided to head for Wahclella Falls off Exit 40 on I-84. This was a short 2 mile out and back with at least 3 other waterfalls along the way. The weather was clear and sunny, but a little on the cooler side. The trail was also very muddy in some spots.

After Wahclella Falls, we back tracked down I-84 3 miles to the Warrendale exit and parked at the trailhead for Lower Elowah Falls at the John B. Yeon State Park. I had never been to this falls so I was interested to see if it was as big as the guide book suggested. The hike was only .8 miles on way, but was relatively steep. In the end, the falls was amazing, especially since it was flowing at full force after all the recent rain in the preceding week.

Lower Elowah Falls

When we got back to the car, we were both very hungry so we continued East to Hood River for some food at the Full Sail Brewery. Great food and great beer and great view. What more could you ask for? After some delicious porters and a mandatory growler fill (Black Gold Imperial Stout), we headed back to Portland for a much needed power nap.

UNT

Bryan

Wahclella Falls is actually a double falls

Gales Creek Trail

This past Monday, Adam, Rylee Dog and I headed up into the Tillamook State Forest to go for a nice trail run. We decided on doing an OAB on Gales Creek Trail since it was one trail that neither Adam nor I had been on. Rylee, on the other hand, had been on the trail before with Maura so he led the way. The gate to the campground at Gales Creek was closed so we parked off Hwy 6 and ran down the gravel road to the trail head. We knew ahead of time that the trail was closed due to landslides the previous year, but we figured the trail would still be runnable for the most part, aside from the landslide. However, we quickly found out that there were now multiple landslide that had washed out the trail in a number of places. There were also multiple signs indicated “blasting zone,” which we assumed were for rebuilding the trail and clearing log jams on the river.  We continued on despite the warning because it was a holiday and most government employees were probably not working anyway. 

Ah a little blurry

Eventually we fell into the pattern of run a little while, climb up, over, around or through a washed out trail and creek then repeat. The run quickly turned into an “adventure” run with many scrambles and overgrown and washed out trails. I got a little taste of what I guess adventure racing is like, and I enjoyed it very much. The trail eventually became too overgrown and enthusiasm dwindled as we had been out over an hour with little more the 3 miles of trail covered. We opted to turn around and head back to the car and finish up the trip with the usual stop for burgers and beers at the Rock Creek Tavern. Didn't get the mileage that I wanted but I still had a great time.

UNT

Bryan

 

Ry Dog and Adam

It's that time again

It is time to start getting back in shape and begin building up a base for some races in late spring and during the summer. I have already settled on running the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40M in early April. I have never completed this distance before so it will take lots of preparation to get my legs ready for this kind of event. I hope to attempt some smaller races before then and maybe do a 50k as a good training run. Options include the muddy Hagg Lake 50k or the new Gorge Waterfall 50k. It will be hard for me to get motivated to run for a number of reasons including: Portland’s rainy/coldish weather, very muddy and familiar trails and darkness. I plan to cross-train on my indoor bike trainer when I don’t feel like going out in the cold and rain. And I can always just run on the roads near my house to avoid the shoe swallowing mud of the Forest Park trail system.  On the weekends, however, I plan to do longer, more scenic training runs in order to get increased mileage, as well as get my trail fix.

Some of my top runs include:

1.       Elk-Kings Mountain traverse (Tillamook State Forest)

2.       Clackamas River Trail OAB (Estacada Area)

3.       Eagle Creek OAB (Gorge)

4.       Ramona Fall Loop (Mt. Hood)

5.       Wildwood Trail One Way (Forest Park)

6.       Dog Mountain (Gorge)

7.       Larch Mountain (Gorge)

I also plan to begin mountain biking pretty regularly once the trails begin to dry up a little in late spring. I love mountain biking, just wish all trails were open to bikes or else I would never trail run. I plan on doing my best to document most of my longer training runs and update them on my blog when I have time.

UNT

Bryan

Jackson Hole Trip, Dispatch 3: "Who's more Norwegian?"

Top: Patrick, Foday, John, Joel, Andrew, Bryan
Bottom: Adam, Jordan, Lange, Sean

Saturday morning, we all woke up early to get ready for the big skiing day at the resort. After a quick breakfast, Adam and I left early to rent some skis. Our boots are almost identical so we could swap out different skis with no problems. We elected to try a pair of Rossignol S3's to get a little more float for the somewhat powdery conditions. Once everyone else arrived, we all jumped on the tram and squeezed together for the 4,000ft climb in under 10mins. At the top, the conditions were very windy with a temperature around 12 degrees with limited visibility. We quickly found out that the conditions at mid mountain were a lot better. We took a few tram laps and a few runs down the Hobacks before turning in for lunch. During the day, many heavily trained athletes were competing in the US National Ski Mountaineering Championship at the resort, where they skinned and climbed to the top of Rendezvous Mountain then skied back down to the base. They each performed 3 laps achieving three different peaks. It was amazing to see these men and women climbing up what we were all skiing down.

After refueling, we headed over to Apres Vous and spend a few hours skiing the trees and cliffs of Saratoga Bowl. The powder on this back section was pretty amazing, and it was nice to have skis with a little float for once. Definitely need to invest in some better skis over the summer when the prices are lower.

All in all, we had an amazing time at the resort, and definitely got our $91 worth. We all met up at the Mangy Moose for a few pints of moose drool before heading home for a power nap as the day was far from over.

At the Mangy Moose

That evening, we treated ourselves to some delicious burgers at a place that I think was called Billys. We followed that with some whiskey and pints at Cassidys, where Lange somehow sweet talked his way into a free glass of Pendleton Whiskey on the rock. Lange has a thing for female bartenders that we are all very aware of. We attempted to hit up the Cowboy Bar but quickly backed off after noticing the $5 cover. We ended up at another local tavern where we squeezed into a corner booth. Unfortunately, an obnoxious waitress persistently kept trying to get us all to order a round of overpriced shots. We stuck with our PBR, while Foday indulged himself with the usual Long Island. It wasnt long before Foday was feeling frisky and tried to get our annoying waitress to give us free shots. She didnt take kindly to Foday's banter and proceed to leave us alone, but not before Foday repeatedly called her, Heather (her name wasnt Heather), a name Foday associates with unpleasant women. After the tavern, one group headed back to Cassidy's to act as unnecessary wingmen for Lange, while the rest of us headed back to the cabin to open the bottle of Nob Creek.

The night gets blurry from this point on, but the morning consensus agreed that many shots of whiskey were passed around, lots of food was consumed and shots of brine from Lange's pickled salmon were thrown back by all but Andrew. Apparently, he doesnt give in to peer pressure, but is now no longer considered part of the group.

Patrick indulging in a swig of brine juice
"Who's more Norwegian?"

Ideas were thrown around about the next mathering (man gathering), but the most readily agreed upon option involved Whistler in mid spring assuming conditions are ripe for skiing. Time will tell. Let the snow gods be gluttonous in their offerings.

UNT

Bryan

Jackson Hole Trip, Dispatch 2: Whoa Huge Kicker!!

Home Sweet Cabin

In the end, we had 10 guys show up in Jackson Hole to shred some pow pow. Here's how it all panned out: I flew in to SLC to catch a ride with Sean and Patrick and their friend, John, to Jackson Hole. Adam and Foday flew into Boise and caught a ride over with Andrew. Lange and Jordan pulled an all-nighter from Bellingham. And Joel Man drove down from Bozeman. We all rendezvoused at the Twin's family friend's cabin outside Jackson. It was a cozy little cabin with two beds, but plenty of floor space and loft space.

In order to save the ski day for Joel's arrival, we decided to spend Friday building a kicker in the Teton backcountry. However, Lange and Jordan decided to ski because they have money. None of the remaining group had skins or AT bindings so our only choice was to bootpack in. The closest that we could get to the mountain slope on an open road was via the driveway of an unoccupied log mansion so we parked our car there and began the arduous bootpack up to the open face. The snow was thigh deep so the going was very slow and frustrating.

After we managed to get everyone to the top, including Foday, who was recovering from knee surgery, we  quickly built up a good size kicker off a small boulder in the middle of the field. Adam and I acted as the photographers, while the the Twins, Andrew and John each took turns hitting the jump. In the end, Adam was the only one that was able to stick the landing and ride it out. Sean, in his usual chumpish behavior, lost his ski after he ripped it off mid flight, and the flowing fruitless excavation resulted in a bombed out landing area that was unsuitable for further jumps. Thus, preventing myself from a potentially painful and humiliating crash. After I located Sean's rogue ski towards the bottom of our bootpack, we all hiked out and met Lange and Jordan at the Mangy Moose at the Jackson Hole Resort for a round of Moose Drool.

Andrew

Patrick

Adam

The evening concluded with Maker's Mark 46 on the rocks and numerous games of Tourettes before the allure of our sleeping bags pulled us off to sleep.

Sean, Bryan, Foday, Patrick, Andrew, John and Adam

UNT

Bryan

It's hard to fit 7 dudes and ski gear in a Forerunner

Sean

Jackson Hole Trip, Dispatch 1: LDS means Mormon

The Route

After a sprint to gate C18 at the Portland International Airport, I scanned my boarding pass and was finally able to relax. The time was roughly 7:45am, and I was happy to be onboard flight 385 to SLC. The general plan of this trip was to get as many guys together from all over the West Coast and arrive in Jackson Hole, WY to do a little skiing. I left a few days earlier to spend some time in SLC with the Twins in hopes of skiing some Utah powder and drink good ol' Mormon beer.

Patrick with the Beer Bottle Bench @ Wasatch Brewery

After arriving in SLC to a wonderful layer of lung searing inversion, I spent the day hanging out with my old friend, Nova, the Big Bitch, Newfoundland pup. Precious roommate of the twins. Forgot to get a picture of her! Damn! That evening, we visited the Wasatch Brewery and picked up some brews for a little party that night. The gathering of old and new friends alike made me feel right at home, like I'd never even left Nora Ave in Spokane. After numerous games of the card game, Tourettes, I retired to the icebox in the twins basement.

A Sampling of the Wasatch Brewery including the crowd favorites, Polygamy Porter and the Devastator

The next day the Twins, Lauren and I spent shredding Park City Resort. While the snow wasnt that great by Utah standards, I was pretty good compared to the snow up on Mt. Hood Meadows recently. I tried my best to keep up with the twins and to practice as much as a could for the upcoming gathering in J Hole. I would need to have my A game present to be able to keep up with these guys. That evening we visited the Bayou in SLC to treat ourselves to a worldclass menu of beers. We each settled for something we had never tried before and left the restaurant feeling very satisfied.

A very blurry Park City photo

The following day, while the Twins finished up work and various meetings, I visited the Patagonia Outlet store and spent some time catching up on some magazine reading at Barnes and Noble. As soon as the twins arrived, we packed up the Forerunner, picked up their friend John and began the trip through Idaho to Jackson, WY. Good times to come!

UNT

Bryan

New Years in Sunriver, OR

View from the kitchen at my grandparents house

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Sunriver, OR. My father and I headed down last Tuesday to get a jump on the trip. We drove over Mt. Hood on Hwy 26 late that night and stopped off at Deschutes Brewery to fill up my growler full of Red Chair NWPA. Delicious stuff.

I had a few goals for the trip that included snowshoeing to the top of Tumalo Mountain with a potential ski decent back to the car through the trees. However, while I would have most likely been safe skiing down through the trees, I have little to no training when it comes to avalanche terrain nor do I have the appropriate gear except for an ice ax and shovel so I decided just a snowshoe summit would be in safest. My other idea was a showshoeing trip to the Paulina Lake hotsprings from 10 mile snowpark on Paulina peak. Although the resort was getting dumped with snow, I didnt want to have to deal with the long lines and expensive lift tickets so skiing was not on my priority list. Plus, I'm heading to SLC and Jackson Hole tomorrow so great skiing is already in my future.

Dad at Besson Spring

So when my father and I on Wednesday morning, we opted for a summit bid of Tumalo mountain. When we got to Dutchman Flat snowpark, the lot was full and we had difficulty finding a spot. The weather was hovering around 15 degrees with a steady wind. Since there is no established trail to the summit in the winter, we decided to follow a skin track up the mountain. We knew not to destroy the skin track, but the snow was just too deep outside the track to get up. Rather than destroy the skin track and due to poor weather, we opted to turn around and head to a lower elevation trailhead. We settled on shoeing back to Besson Springs day use area to get a good view of the peacefully flowing Deschutes River. We ended the night with dinner and a movie.

Deschutes River

Thursday morning, after some research on Paulina Peak, we bailed on that idea due to the length of the approach to the hotsprings. Leaving from the Paulina Resort Lodge, its about a 5 mile round trip in the summer, but from the 10 mile snowpark, its roughly a 10 mile trip. This was out of my father's range and would have been a long day for me. In the end, we decided to try for Tumalo Falls from the Skyliner snowpark.

View from Tumalo Creek Trail

In order to get a more scenic view, we opted to take the Tumalo Creek trail instead of the forest road that leads directly to the falls. The trail in was beautiful and provided a wonderful workout. During the summer, Adam and I attempted to ride up Mrazek trail, down Farewell Trail, down Tumalo Creek Trail and back to the car through the Phil's trail system. I look forward to completing this loop in the future.

Stopping for some lunch

Tumalo Falls was gorgeous! I hadn't been there since I was little, and it was summer then. Winter definitely provides a different perspective.

Tumalo Falls

Quality is a little poor but this would be the money shot

That night the rest of the crew arrived including Mom, sisters, sister's friend and boyfriend and Kerrie. They arrived around 1am as they had to wait for Kerrie's train from Seattle (a 7+ hour journey for Kerrie, extremely glad she decided to come!)

The next morning (New Year's Eve) we went for a walk with the family, read books by the fire, ate loads of cookies and played board games all the way up to midnight. It was great to have everyone there and having a good time.

Kerrie and I

The rest of the trip was spent doing more snowshoeing followed by the occasional winter trail run. I wanted to get out and try my setup in more frigid conditions. Both of the runs that I did occurred during 15 degree temperatures in both nightime and daytime conditions. My nike tights were great and my Marmot tempo jacket excelled, but I was most happy about my Buffwear scarf thing and my shoe set up (Montrail Mountain Masochist GTX and MHW Seta Running Gaitors). This footwear system has now performed admirably in both wet, muddy conditions and snowy, dry conditions. I hope to use this system for a few years if they tread on the shoes hold up.

A very cold trail run out to the Benham Falls Trailhead from Sunriver

Mountain Masochist GTX w/ MHW Seta Gaitors 

In the end, I had a great trip and really enjoyed the company and the activities. It is always great to spend the holidays in the Bend/Sunriver Area. However, now it is time for a quick turn around, and I must start packing for a trip to Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole with the boys. The first Mathering of 2011! (Man Gathering..)

UNT

Bryan

p.s. All these photos were taken via iPhone 4 inside a Sealline small item waterproof case

Shoeing to Tumalo Falls

Mount Washington peeking through the clouds