District of Columbia

Ah, the District of Columbia. A place I don't think I would ever choose to vacation to, but my aunt and uncle were going to be there so why not? And to top it off a friend I worked with at Emandal lives there as well! It was a jolly good time, and was also the first time in a long time I was hitting the pubic transit solo, I felt pretty awesome at it. Totally achieved just below pro level, definitely.

Awe, that's nice. Uncle Kelly and Adam
holding hands, how sweet!

They are fond of red circles with lines thru them in DC.
We were entering the grounds of the pentagon.
We weren't allowed to take photos but somehow I'm
positive they were being taken of us.

A recurring theme... 

The 'tube' as the english might say.

Intriguing columns

..... chinatown?

The one chinese looking thing in chinatown...

There are no words for the awesomeness this portrays.

An anti Nuclear weapons display out front of the whitehouse...

The following three photos, I just couldn't help myself. Honestly I'm just really easily entertained, and there was an astounding amount of them....

On the walk back the hotel, I found a little unassuming beauty. Colors of course :)

Christian I hope you had fun!! It was definitely awesome riding
 back from the Jefferson monument!

A lovely trip.

The Cascades: Virginia. Trip one. 6/22

My (totally awesome) friend Paige came to visit, she lives nearby in Harrisonburg, VA. Upon her arrival Neville and Michael decided that it would be an excellent day for the crew to take a zero day (in hiker terms a day off so you hike 'zero' miles). Well on our 'zero' day we hiked 2 miles in and 2 miles out in this gorgeous gorge! I managed to leave my nice camera back at the hostel for this adventure....silly me, luckily I still had my phone camera.

We had stopped to get some food in town and the above was the resulting food coma....mmm napping at a waterfall, what could be better? Also noted, apparently we were the crazy people of the woods... everyone who were there when we arrived vacated shortly after we starting jumping in off the rocks! We honestly didn't smell THAT bad!?

Got ya!

Congrats Cascades, Best nap ever list achieved!

Mountain People: Evan, Neville, Michael, Paige and Shad

Professor Evan giving us a lesson on the mushroom "Chicken of the Woods". Hilarous....

Trip to town anyone?

slack packing and building demolition

hi.

Well, I just arrived in DC, where I shall meet up with my Auntie Jolene and Uncle Kelly, their son Adam and their foreign exchange student Christian (Who is from Chile) And also where I am updating from! Anywho stay tuned for those adventures next....onto the adventure recap

SLACKPACKING!!! yup, for those of you who don't know, this Appalachian Trail (AT) term it means as a Thru Hiker you have your heavy backpack toted to town by car and you take a daypack and some agua on the trail. More like a day hike.

This was the awesome crew that convinced me it would be rad to hike to town with them. And it was. 10 miles in 5 or so hours left my knees feelin' decrepit and my side butt sore for a couple days! IT ROCKED Thanks crew! You can keep up with what's left of this crew here at Wren's Blog.

From left to right: Neard, Old Spice, Lauren, Wren, Josiah, So Far, and Birch

We trekked thru some awesome Rhododendron forests (I love that word because it sounds like a dinosaur! You can guarantee I was holding my arms t-rex style as I bounced on thru) and saw some awesome Mountain Laurel flowers...that I didn't photograph. I encourage you to google it...ha Ooh and a Scarlet Tanager, electric red feathers!

This was an overlook entitled "Power Lines" where we stopped to have a snack and pee on stuff! (I've really come to enjoy peeing outside...its just so convenient lol!) What a fun group.  Magic Mix is the one with blue hair who picked up a kitten in Demascus, Va and is now hiking with him. The kitten's name is Sir. Night Walker is the other man on the right who enjoyed my "slow"pace until he commented about it!

The Deconstruction Project

Ranger Cabin Before Shot

Sunlight on an old mattress

I strolled into the cabin after carefully maneuvering the rusty nail obstacle course of a deck and found a treasure inside. Im not sure if I can describe to you why I love such old and dilapidated things. They just have such a profound stillness perhaps, they have just been there still, enduring the weather not wanting just there.

Shad, Neville and Michael taking it to the roof!

Evan or "Easy" ripping off the siding. 

A butterfly visitor.

Aumakua with her stick of course...
she has an addiction...

Michael throwing popcorn!
It looks like its in his beard!

Rocky and Bookworm

The wrecking crew back row:
Aumakua, Scrubbs, Easy/Evan Bookworm, Shad/Scar, Five Stones
Front Row:
Neville, Michael, Rocky, and myself

All in all it took us 3 days to take down the old ranger cabin. I was on the de-nail crew. Which at some points I was not entirely thrilled with, but it was still really fun! Evan tore down the old privy too, and now all the wood we saved from that has been turned into siding for the pig pen! There should be three new little piggies to meet when I get back to the hostel!