Perdition Trail and a Another Flashback to 1995

Last week's hike took us back to the nearby falls to climb a closed off section called Perdition Trail (if this is eternal damnation, I am all set!) It was raining cats and dogs, so I didn't take pictures, but I did find this one on the internet that I believe was taken by a guy named Scott over 10 years ago (based on the caption on his photo blog) which revealed that, even back then, the trail was closed off. Add 12 years of no maintenance, landslides, and rain, and you might be able to picture what the trail looks like now: these staircases are largely horizontal, and the overgrown vegetation provides loosely anchored handles with which one can pull oneself up the muddy sides of Larch Mountain. It was great! Definitely one of those days where loving hiking trumps all other emotions and good sense.
The rest of the week consisted largely of work, with some occasional sidesteps for play. It is really hard not enjoy the delicious abundance Portland offers up when it comes to food and drink. My neighbors Aasta and Stefan have turned me on to the happy hour possibilites (more for the food than for the drink) all over town which provide a fantastic opportunity to dine out on the cheap. This past week, for example, I went to a late night happy hour at a steak house and ate like a queen for about $7 (including steak!) My friend Esther came to town yesterday unexpectedly and we more or less gnoshed our way around Portland, one appetizer at a time, all evening. It is good that the hiking is so great and close by to offset how great and close by the happy hour specials are too.
In other news, I am starting to prepare for summer travel to Europe and East Africa in earnest. At the moment, this primarily involves daydreaming and chitchats with the travel clinic about vaccinations. I will be in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania this summer to teach a couple of workshops in bioinformatics and genomics, while collecting spiders and caterpillars on the weekends for research. I cannot wait. It has been 5 years since my last trip there and my Swahili is getting rustier by the day. Those of you who know me well know there are few places I am happier than sub-Saharan Africa, so it will be great to get back. On my hopeful To Do list will be a return to Mt. Kenya-- one of the first mountains I ever attempted to summit (back in 1995). We were a motley crew and I was a very recently inaugurated climber, but somehow more experienced than most of the rest of the party. Towards the top, one guy developed altitude sickness and the consensus was to head down as a group (we *were* Earlham students after all) . Point Lenana (shown here, but not my photo) is the highest accessible peak with only one's feet as equipment, so I will head for there again if I finish everything I need to do and have a few days at the end of the trip to spare. Recently, I got a group email regarding that first trip to East Africa, lo' those many years ago. In response to it, someone sent out a picture that was taken of us at Lake Naivasha in November of that year (yours truly, front row, center) which has been such a fun trigger of memories from that time and a welcome seed for lots of daydreaming about my return trip.