The Story of How I Got Lost

Alternate title 1: How my 5mi Run Became a 10mi Run, and it Wasn't Because I Was Feeling Good
Alternate title 2: My What a Big Park You Have
Alternate title 3: Plenty of Common Sense, No Sense of Direction

Once upon a Tuesday in mid July, I went Christmas shopping. This has nothing to do with how I got lost, but I am hoping to impress people with my early jump on the holiday season. After spending lots of Ross' money, I headed to the Willamette Mission State Park where I paid $5.00 for the privilege of running on the park's trails.

I've been battling the early stages of tendinitis in my knee so I thought that the soft surface of the trails would be a good change of terrain, not to mention a nice change of scenery for me. I was limiting myself to 5ish miles for the same knee issue.

I started my run feeling good. I took an opportunity to run by the river to watch the cars get ferried across. I hadn't seen that before and was feeling pretty proud of my run choice. I got off the beaten path and on to some horse trails enjoying the solitude, the river, and the run itself. I was running a loop. I thought.

After my Garmin registered 5mi, I thought I'd better cut back to the parking lot on the next available side trail. Which is exactly what I did. Unfortunately, I didn't read any of the park maps along the rout. I didn't know that I wasn't remotely close to the parking lot. As I got deeper and deeper into the woods, the trail got muckier and the underbrush got denser. I started having to tip toe across the edges of the trail to avoid falling into the mud pits that had formed from all the bad weather and horse traffic. I was wearing brand new running shoes and wanted to protect them from being completely trashed after only my second run in them. That didn't last long. I finally lost my footing and sank my left foot up to my ankle. My right foot would follow suit a few hundred yards later. Trying to keep myself upright, I grabbed what must have been something along the lines of stinging nettle. My hand was burning from the nettle as were my shins where I ran into some blackberry briers. This was getting ugly.

Finally, I got to a split in the trail. I tried the first - dead end. I back tracked and continued down the other branch of the trail until it split again. I took the branch - dead end. Back to the main trail I kept pushing down but the underbrush was getting thicker. I really didn't want to turn back at this point because I figured I must be getting closer to somewhere. Dead end. I had no choice but to go back out the way I came. Insert "mad face" here.

Back on the main trail I decided to read the park map. Unfortunately, I can't read maps, and wasn't sure which direction I was going on the trail from the "you are here" star. It looked like maybe if I continued on this main trail along the farm fields, I might come to the main road. I tried it. It was a dead end. My legs were not happy, and I was not having fun anymore. I began backtracking on the original trail and kept reading each park map I passed until I could tell where I was and which direction I was headed. Eventually, I realized the next right should be a short cut back to the main park. I figured I was relatively close, but once I got up through the trees, I was running through a clearing surrounded by more trees. The clearing had bird houses staked every few yards in every direction, and until I got out of there, I felt like I was in a cheap horror film.

Finally, I found the path that would lead me back the parking lot. I took a pit stop at the river where I tried to scrub most of the mud off of my legs and shoes, then I squished back to my car, got in, and never looked back. And to think I paid money to do that. I may be tall, but I'm not very smart.

One Handsome Dude

How did


I get

so lucky?

My Favorites

These are some of my favorite pictures from Maine.

More Maine

Among the myriad of other things we did in Maine, one of our evenings was spent with some of Ross' high school friends. We were invited to their house for an alphabet dinner. This is something that I may have to replicate out here because it was pretty fun. The idea is that everybody has to bring a potluck type dish that starts with the same letter of the alphabet. Ross told me that this dinner was featuring the letter "K." K is not an easy letter to find recipes for. In fact many of my cookbooks don't even include a K section. We had to put our thinking caps on for this one. Ross' cap is a size 2XL because his head is huge. Just ask him.
We started throwing out K foods: "Kalarabi." "Keilbasa." "Klondike Bar" - that one was mine. Then, as luck would have it, I flipped through my July issue of Bon Appetit and found Korean style ribs (also called Kalbi) with Korean BBQ sauce, and said "Yes, yes, and yes!"

We bought the ribs, bought the ingredients for the bbq sauce, then called his friend to see what time we needed to show up, and it was at that point we learned that the letter was actually "H." How Ross got K from H, we're not really sure. He went back to check the original e-mail and sure enough, it said H there too. So instead of our Kalbi style Korean BBQ ribs, we brought hog ribs. Hot hog ribs.

They were a hit at least. Although, it's really not all that hard to compete with Hi-C, Hotpockets, and Hotdogs... :)

Fun in the Sun

Despite the fact that we're officially back in Salem, I have a few more Maine posts to write, so without further delay...


One of the biggest differences between Maine and Oregon is the overwhelming number of lakes that dot the landscape. One of the best ways to beat the heat and humidity of a July day in Maine, is to head to the most accessible body of water and jump in. We did the next best thing:


(Liz and fiance, George, dry.)


(George's blue steel pose.)


(Me, post inner tube baptism.)


(Captain Ross getting serious.)


(Phil, seriously rethinking his decision to put Ross at the helm.)


(Phil, likely plotting his revenge.)

All in all a successful trip, and a great day on the lake.

Thanks Phil and Martha!

Pizza Party!

I may have mentioned before that we're eating well here in Maine. One of the best things we've enjoyed is some homemade pizza. This isn't just any homemade pizza either - let me welcome you to Phil's Pizza Palace:

Ross' Stepfather, Phil, made this incredible wood burning pizza oven by hand. He created the oven's insulation with a mixture of straw and clay from his own garden. You burn a fire on the bricks inside the oven until it gets good and hot - like 500 - 600 degrees hot. That takes a good 1.5 hours, but then when that's done. It literally takes 3min to actually cook the pizza. It's absolutely delicious and the crust is perfectly crispy.
Here is the master at work:



And the master's side kick:






The finished product:




It's a good thing it cooks fast because it disappears about as quickly as he can cook them. I have a feeling I know what Ross' next yard project might be. :)

Hiking West Kennebago Mt.

It was a hot and muggy day - our last at the camp in Rangeley. We decided to get in one last hike, and headed to the West Kennebago Mt. trail head. I had just gotten out of the shower after my run and thought I'd wear jeans to avoid any more mosquito bites. Right now my legs look like I have a bad case of the chicken pox. At any rate, the pants seemed like a good idea until we were about 400 meters into the hike. At that point the muggy air and steep hike combined to make me a sweat slick from head to toe. There's nothing so comfortable as being sweaty in denim. Are you with me?

Here we are at the start. The hike ends at an old look out tower.


About 2/3 of the way up, there is a clearing where the Ranger's cabin used to stand. They've recently burned it down. All that's left is a pile of rusted metal and an old shed for firewood. Ross is standing in the clearing contemplating the rest of the hike.


This is how impressed I am with his "contemplation."



The tower.






The view. You can see New Hampshire and Canada from up there. The scenery was really beautiful, but pictures don't do it justice. That's my story.

The Maine Thing.

After an uneventful trip (save a short lockdown at the Newark Airport and a short delay due to fog), Ross and I made it to Maine where we're spending two weeks of our summer vacation. We spent almost a full two days relaxing, reading, and enjoying some delicious meals courtesy of Martha and Phil.

Our next stop was a long weekend at the family's cabin in Rangely (Northwest-ish Maine). They have a awesome camp on a little lake. We spent our time reading, relaxing, and eating...seeing the pattern here? We also spent some time kayaking, canoeing, hiking, cruising to spot some wildlife and running (me - not Ross so much). We saw some moose, partridges with their little chicks, ducks, rabbits, deer, and fireflies - which I realize most wouldn't consider "wildlife," but they aren't an Oregon thing, so it's pretty cool to see them in real life.


This is a shot of the cabin from the other side of the lake.


Rossome on the lake.


The fields of Lupine are absolutely unreal.




This is a shot of the lake from the cabin.


And one of my favorite parts, the roads I got to run on. :) The scenery was awesome, no traffic, and so much more forgiving than Salem sidewalks. We had a great time and are continuing to. More to come...