Spent some time east of the mountains this weekend in our little Mazama getaway. The leaves were all bright yellow and it looks like winter is going to settle in before too soon. The pass has accumulated a little bit of snow and all of the north facing peaks are still covered. The pass is usually closed by mid-November but due to El Nina?(or Nino?) it might close even sooner. Bring on skate skiing!

Tom, Trish and Molly ventured out East to meet up with us for a weekend of relaxation. We drove up to Hart's pass one of the days and Trish was a little freaked out by how narrow and winding the road was up the mountain edge. Not to mention several big ass hunter trucks came barreling down the hillside, and barely making room for the van to get past. The views were amazing though and you could catch a small glimpse of the jagged Cascade Range. It sure is beautiful out there. I think I'd like to hike part of the Pacific Crest trail before I die - definitely a must do in a lifetime.

The nights were chilly - mid thirties, I'd suspect. Luckily we have a ton of fire wood and nice big fire pit. We had a raging fire and burned through quite a bit of the slash pile. Tom sang about 2 hours worth of cover songs and we happily sang along while staring deep into the fires flames. No marsh mellows though.

The next day Ryan and I climbed up to his project area to retrieve his rope before winter hits. He completed bolting a big climb and got the first ascent - leaving him with naming rites. Of course the first thing that popped into his head were dirty thoughts - so if you hear about some dirty rock climb, you'll know who it was.

We both slept amazing over there - 10 hours each night. Ryan burns himself into the ground during the work week and then plays catch up on the weekend. Wild dreams filled my head - including, gasp, having my house cleaned! Yah right, like that will ever happen. :)

It was the perfect calm weekend before things pick up again on the bike. Gotta love and savor those!