Flashback to Aug 20-22nd.

I escaped Reno without attending the Tailhook Banquet. It would have been far too much for my system to absorb at the time. Instead, I spent some of the evening at the poolside, then I retired to my room for an early night's sleep. The next morning, I left Reno by 7:00 a.m. and drove to Kirkwood Ski area in the Sierra Nevada. I spent a few hours hiking with my training pack up to 9,000 ft. I figured it was good training and acclimatization for my upcoming climb of Mt. Baker.

Monday and Tuesday (Aug 20 and 21) passed quickly. I had a lot of catch up work to do in the office, and spent the evenings with Brent reading on the couch while I organized all my climbing gear for my trip to the Northwest. Tuesday evening I took my Mom and Dad to dinner for my Mom's birthday. It went OK, although that is still a strained relationship.

Wednesday was a half-day at work, cut short by the fire alarm at noon. Rather than hang around and wait for the fire people to do whatever they were doing, I simply grabbed everything I needed to go on vacation and left the office for the week.

I spent a few hours packing frantically at home, then at 4:00 p.m. my Dad came over to my apartment and picked me up to take me to the airport. Mom was in the car too, so naturally there had to be more hugs and drama at the airport. I think Mom was consciously thinking that this might be the last time she'd ever see me alive. It is beyond me how much she can resent her gay son, yet cherish him with such intensity at the same time.

When I checked in for my flight to Seattle via San Francisco, the gate agent said my flight to SF was delayed at least an hour and the connecting flight to Seattle might get cancelled. There was a chance I'd end up stuck sleeping in SFO overnight! Scamp (the bear) didn't like the sound of that at all. I agreed with him, thinking it wouldn't be safe to travel with a grumpy bear the next day and that my friend Matt in Seattle would wonder where his scheduled houseguest was.

Rather than deal with all the problems in San Francisco, I caught the first flight out of Monterey to Los Angeles, where there was a direct flight leaving on time for Seattle. Yes, I went 300 miles south to go 600 miles north! The weather in Seattle was stormy, and the flight was a little late getting in. By the time I picked up my rental car and drove into the city where Matt lives, it was just after midnight. I had to wake him up with a cell phone call to let me in when I arrived. I felt like a terrible houseguest. After all, I was supposed to arrive around 8:00 p.m. so we could have dinner together. At least I had warned him that I'd be arriving very late and he had the sense to get some sleep rather than wait up for me. He looked very cute wearing a robe with his hair all tousled when he came to the door. I have no idea why some lucky guy hasn't yet snatched Matt. He's a very sweet guy, educated, cute, and has a great job. Come on Seattle, what are you waiting for?

The next morning, I chatted with Matt for a few minutes while he got ready to go to work at Microsoft, then I jumped in the shower myself after he had said his goodbyes and left for work. Matt has a cool mirror in his shower that doesn't fog up, so for the first time, I shaved in the shower. It was a nice luxury! I dressed (for rain), then borrowed Matt's state-of-the-art PC (Windows XP RC-1!) to send a few last minute emails before dropping off the Internet for five days.

I arrived downtown at the foot of Mercer Street near Seattle Center at lunchtime. I ate a quick Thai lunch at Racha Restaurant, then crossed the street to the offices of Alpine Ascents International, my Mountaineering Agency. My huge black duffle bag was a haul up the steep staircase to Alpine Ascents' gear room where, in a half an hour, our climbing team would do a complete gear check and inventory.

I arrived early so I could say hi to a few of the mountain guides I'd climbed with in the past, and fill out some paperwork and pay for an expedition I'd be participating in this Fall. I also met Lhakpa Sherpa, who works for Alpine Ascents and has climbed Mt. Everest five times. Other climbers for our Mt. Baker group began to filter in, as did Ross and Matt (not to be confused with Microsoft Matt), who would be our group guides on Mt. Baker this week.

I got to meet and know my fellow climbers on the trip during the next two hours, while we sorted our climbing equipment. The floor was littered with tents, packs, fuel bottles, outdoor clothes, helmets, headlamps, camping food, boots, ropes and crampons. Matt said, "Look at it all! Hundreds of pounds of the lightest gear on Earth!"

When the gear check was completed I found myself lacking one item - a Forest Service permit to climb the mountain. This I had to drive a short distance up the hill to the REI flagship store to obtain. (How the heck does REI manage to employ so many drop-dead-gorgeous bois?) With my permit ready, I had one last, unpleasant chore remaining in Seattle. I had plans to join Mickey and Brian for dinner, but based on the climbing schedule I was briefed on at Alpine Ascents waiting around in Seattle for dinner no longer seemed like a prudent idea.

I had to call Mickey and to see if he'd let me out of my commitment and the only opportunity we had to spend some time together on the trip. He was obviously disappointed, but didn't insist I stick around. I felt like a flake, but my top priority on this trip was standing on the summit of Mt. Baker. The several hours of sleep that staying in town would cost me would carry over through the entire climb and possibly jeopardize my summit attempt. As it was, the traffic leaving Seattle to my motel in Mt. Vernon was terrible. I didn't get myself there, organized, fed and into bed until almost 10:00 p.m. Considering I needed to be up at 4:30 to get to the trailhead on time, I think leaving Seattle early was the right decision. It would have been nice to see Mickey and meet Brian, but sometimes you can't have it all.

I am working on a separate Website to document my mountain climbing activities. At this point, I'm not sure whether or not I'll place an entry here covering the three days I spent on Mt. Baker. If not, I'll certainly link to the mountaineering page so that those of you interested in such things can read about it, and those of you that would be bored to tears reading about a glorified camping trip can skip it over.

For the record, I'll say that it was a fun climb; difficult, scary, demanding, beautiful, joyful, and humorous. I stood on the summit of Mt. Baker (10,770 ft.) at 9:30 a.m. on August 26th.