Bag Packing

The trip is getting real! Our Nepal team met last Wednesday to pack duffel bags of supplies that we will take with us to Kathmandu. It was quite a fun night. We had great fellowship among the team and several people of our church and community who showed up to help. We wolfed down some Little Caesar's pizza and slowly diminished the large quantities of items on pallets designated for Nepal.

All 24 of us will each carry two 50 pound bags through security and customs! I think that will be quite the sight going through an airport. We stuffed clothes, shoes, seeds, personal hygiene supplies, medicine, and kids toys into our bags.

Please Pray: 

• that our bags arrive safety and all in one piece. 
• for customs--that all of the items intended for the people in Kathmandu and in the mountains make it through customs. In particular, Bread that we will be flying into Vietnam.
• that all bags would be under the weight limit or overweight bag fees would be waived. 

Building Day

 Last Saturday (March 30), another team leader on the Nepal trip, Jeff, generously offered to host a work day. If we would come and help him "raise the barn" then he would donate the money he would have paid a normal crew to do the same work toward our expenses. We had a really great group of guys there for a beautiful morning of work. We put up the walls for a garage and sheeted the outside for shear strength (I had to throw some enginerdiness in there).

The group cranked from 8 until about 10:30 when a "coffee angel" showed up, Jeff's wife, with coffee cake, muffins, and hot coffee! What a treat! We stopped for a break, chatted about preparations for the trip, and then got fired up for finishing the job.

I am excited to say that we each received nearly $150 toward the Nepal trip. Thanks a bunch to Jeff!

Year 2012 Wrap Up

Since I have basically failed to blog since June I'll try and catch you all up to my world over the past six months:

I went to the Young Life property Washington Family Ranch (affectionately referred to as WaFaRa) for a week in June with my high school buddies for summer camp. As advertised, it easily qualifies as one of the best weeks of my life.

The guys in my cabin at camp. They are awesome!

I asked my girlfriend to marry me while at the top of Bridger Bowl Ski Area, fulfilling a life-long goal to propose with a ring-pop.

I worked for 7 weeks of my summer in Lewistown, MT. My research work with Western Transportation Institute involved building a test road at an old B-52 landing strip. It was a frustratingly long process where the contractor underbid the job and took them much longer than expected.

The "Trench": an imitation of a weak road base that we strengthened with plastic meshes. 

We had a family reunion on the Oregon Coast. So good to see everyone and share Alli with my family!

School started again in August and I had a pretty full load trying to take 3 graduate classes, teach 2 sections of lab, and work part-time for WTI. I wound up telling my boss that I couldn't work any more of the semester in October.

The highlight of my hunting season was killing my first antelope opening day the beginning of October. I had a blast chasing elk through the woods, and was relatively successful finding them. However, I was still unable to close the deal on any opportunities. There's always hope for next year...

Hunting in Anaconda with Alli before Thanksgiving.

I married the love of my life on November 10, 2012. I never thought that this would be the first thing checked off my bucket list made almost 3 years ago.

We visited Mom and Dad for Thanksgiving in Kalispell, had a birthday celebration for Alli, and we both got our first tattoos! Although I won't admit to any tears, I will assure you that commitment like that hurts really bad.

Alli and I just recently found out that we received an honorable mention in an outdoor adventure checklist contest we entered. There was a list of 20 activities to be accomplished in the Bozeman area and we completed 14. We got a shout out as the love-bird couple who did the tasks together and got engaged along the way. No prize money, but there's always next year...

Alli and I on the top of Hyalite Peak the last weekend in September, one of the tasks for the Outside Bozeman Hitlist contest. 

The semester of school refused to die and I spent an inordinate amount of time in my office at school trying to finish several papers, projects, and reports. After I finished we left for a weekend trip to Kalispell, and then flew to Kansas City to visit Alli's parents and grandparents.

Our final adventure of the year is our Honeymoon! We leave on Monday for South America for some Feliz Navidades! We plan to see the sites, taking it all in as we backpack and flyfish in the area of Puerto Natales and El Calafate. More updates of our trip to follow.

Recent Adventures

In this post are some photos of my recent adventures in an effort to catch up my blog to my life, not a whole lot of in depth stories or profound writings, but hopefully I'll get back into a rhythm of writing that will foster more creativity.

Climbing at Practice Rock in Hyalite Canyon before the road opened to vehicles. On this spectacular day, Alli and I road our bikes up the road to climb for most of the day. Kyler enjoyed hanging out with us at the rock. 

Later that evening after climbing, Alli and I went to a swing dance sponsored by Bozeman's Senior Center with my roommate and his fiance. This was a 3 wheeled electric car in the parking lot, affectionately named Kermit the Pod. I was super intrigued and actually talked to the electrical engineer who designed the car at the dance.

Group photo after the dance. Two good looking couples if I don't say so myself. 

The next day, Sunday afternoon, I got to hang out with Ryan of Lion's Ridge and some Young Life buddies climbing at Allenspur in the Paradise Valley. Great climbing, wonderful weather, entertaining conversations, and DQ Blizzards to cool off afterwards. Amazing! Reminds me a lot of climbing in Texas actually. 

Another beautiful day in paradise! Alli and I road our bikes up the Hyalite Canyon road to the reservoir two days before the official opening of the road to vehicles. Stupid or not we road from town and racked up a round trip of 35.5 miles in 2 1/2 hours. Mummy Peak in the background. 

Just last weekend, we climbed to the top of Mt. Baldy, the southernmost high point in the Bridger Range. Round trip 9 miles with about 4000 ft elevation gain and lost. Jon and Alli shown with Baldy in the background. 

At the Summit! We were tired puppies by the time we got back to the pickup. 

Life is good here in Bozeman and I feel really blessed to be living and working and playing in the Gallatin Valley this summer. This will be the first summer since High School where I haven't had to move from one town to the next for school.  I am doing Civil Engineering research for the university through a group called Western Transportation Institute. Research has been both physically and mentally demanding, but I'm having a blast! Look for a future post of my lab. 

Cousin Visit and Home for Easter

My cousin Luke flew in from California this Spring to check out MSU. I tried to do my best to show him all that Bozeman had to offer in an effort to convince him that he needs to come to Montana to go to school. We'll see if my efforts pay off.

Luke throwing down on the Gallagator Boulder, a 5 minute walk from my house. 

We went skiing on Saturday down in Big Sky, and it was raining. Poo! I think we were soaked before we even got out of the truck. And the snow conditions were icy, visibility was poor...yuk. So we went inside, ate some snacks and had some hot cocoa, before venturing out again when the rain seemed to abate a bit. 

All smiles and excitement in the lodge at Big Sky.

And wouldn't you know: it turned out to be an amazing day! Great spring snow conditions and we ran into a friendly Big Sky local, Karen, who gave us a ripping tour of the upper mountain. We wound up skiing until 5 in the evening. Not bad for such a crummy start.

Luke hanging out on the chair with our new-found friend Karen. We met her on a ride up a triple chair and she was willing to ski with us most of the day, giving us a tour of a lot of highlights of the mountain. Lucky to run into her. 

At the top of our last run. It got washed out but Lone Peak was finally shining through the clouds.  Such a good day: after leaving the truck in a rain shower, it only got better and turned out to be difficult to leave.

After skiing at Big Sky the night before we ate stacked enchiladas and watched A River Runs Through It that night. So the next day I had to take Luke to some of the scene locations from the movie. Luke is here messing around on the steps of the "Missoula Police Department."

Easter means a three-day weekend for us college students at Montana State, and I took the opportunity to travel home for the Parental visit. I was hoping to ski at Big Mountain, catch up with good friends, tour the sites of the Flathead Valley, and share them with someone special. 

This might be breaking news for some of you that I haven't had the chance to talk to recently, but I am dating the coolest gal I have ever met. You might be thinking, "Colter has a girlfriend?! I thought he'd never find a girl." Well, you're not alone, I thought that for a long time too. I've had pretty high criteria, high standards, that no one seemed to be able to attain. Then Alli came along and knocked me off my feet and my life will never be the same again. She came home with me to meet Mom and Dad and find out more about my past. Luckily it seems like she likes what she found.

Viewing the Flathead Valley from Lone Pine State Park. 

Skiing while it was snowing at Big Mountain. It's hard not to smile on a day like that.

Dying Easter eggs Saturday night.

Alli and I heated our ski boot liners for a better fit. Cinderella can have her glass slippers, my gal would rather have perfect fitting ski boots. Does that give you a picture of why I've fallen for her?

We got to see my sister Larkin while on our way back to Bozeman. Wow, aren't I lucky? Flanked by two gorgeous gals, smiles all around!

The Spring Semester of school wrapped up well, with vacations and trips like Spring Break in DC and then Easter in Kalispell as highlights. The final push juggling teaching, research, and coursework was pretty rough, but I passed everything with flying colors and transitioned into full-time work for the summer. Who'd have thought that working 40 hours a week would feel like a vacation! Now it's on to climbing, fishing, running, biking, hiking, and paddling. The problem will forever be deciding which activity to do...

Work, Weddings, and other Wildness

I've been a bad blogger recently, so apologies to any of you who have been eagerly awaiting updates on my life. I looked back at my newest post previous to this one and it's dated May 8th, the day before I started work for the Forest Service. Starting work has been a blessing and a curse in that it's wonderful to start working again and putting away money for school this Fall, but dramatically shrunk my free time. Alas, my career as a ski bum and free-lance writer has come to an end. Creative writing quickly took the back burner to more pressing things like sleep, training, church and friend activities, and Denali preparation.

Work has been great so far. Our crew was in a sort of pre-season mode for much of the first couple of weeks since the snow on the ground prevented us from getting very far off the valley floor on system roads. Once underway though we've made a great deal of progress on all our projects. I'm specifically in a semi-leadership position on a small crew that is surveying old logging roads acquired by the Forest Service in the past year. We are to map the roads on a GPS, record any important features along the way, and judge the soil erosion/water management risk level of the road.

The past month has also been a whirlwind of traveling, as is evidenced by my current location: on a hotel bed in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The first big trip cam Memorial Day weekend with a trip to Dallas for my college roommate and good friend's wedding. Marc and Bonni are finally hitched after what seemed like ages of holding off until both had graduated college, amidst two separate years of being apart. It was a giant reunion for my group of friends from ACU and what an incredible joy it was to see familiar faces. It was the hottest day in Dallas/Ft. Worth yet that year (it hit 104 the afternoon of the outside wedding), but we wetted some eyes in a touching ceremony and then burned the house down in a rockin' dance-party reception dinner.

This weekend I am in Los Alamos for another of my best friend's wedding. Nathan and Sarah are some of the coolest people I know: their love for adventure, each other, and God is infectious. I had never been a Best Man before and with the honor came some responsibilities that induced some stress. The other Groomsman and I creatively delivered the ring to the Groom via a frisbee and tradition had it that I gave a toast during the tea-time reception. However, never have I been to a more fun wedding! Everything about it was a great reflection on the type of people Nathan and Sarah are. It was a huge family/friend reunion all over again and my spirit is soaring in the clouds. Just as a heads up, single ladies and aspiring matchmakers alike, I caught the garter...

Abbey Road anyone? Marc, Nathan, and Ryan heading to the baseball stadium, just one part of a sweet Bachelor party.

The Rangers stadium. An interesting conglomeration of the facades and styles of several other ballparks around the Country.

Me and my escort for the Marc's wedding, my good friend Amanda.

First dance!

The groomsmen at Nathan's wedding. I humbly claim that we were the "life of the party..." 

Both weddings were great excuses for reunions. Amanda, myself, Marc, and Bonni.

The debut performance of "The Pickles and the Groomsmen" during the wedding reception. We sang "All I Want is You" from the movie Juno. 

The happy couple with the BM.

The decorated car. We made it as gaudy as possible and hid the keys. With both of them thoroughly confused, Sarah's dad drove up in a new Mini-Cooper for them to drive to Albuquerque.

Saying goodbye in the hotel. 

Tomorrow begins the journey back home, where I will frantically make last minute packing and gear decisions with my dad before we head out to Alaska on Tuesday. Start your "praying engines," because we're going to need them all.

Substituting Funny Story

So I'm overseeing a group of IB Biology students on Wednesday. They are working on their projects and it's a pretty low-key day: responsible students so I don't have to get on their case too much. Then out of nowhere, one kid comes up and asks to use a scalpel. Probably a normal request in a Biology lab, but still one that causes hesitation. I respond by suggesting the use of scissors, which turned out to be totally appropriate since they were merely cutting braided nylon rope. A few minutes later, the same student with the same sheepishly apprehensive grin comes up and asks for some matches to light a Bunsen burner. I allowed myself to be talked into letting them use it, with the caveat that they would wear all the necessary protective equipment. A couple minutes later, you guessed it, the same student comes up asking if I know where the switch for the exhaust fan is. I don't have any clue. Starting to smell the smoke myself, I put the kibosh on the whole operation fearing that our classroom would trigger the fire alarm. Thankfully there was only 2 minutes left in the period. Whew!

Subbing Update

I’ve been inside all week. I’m getting restless and I‘m ready to get out and enjoy the snow this weekend. But I can’t complain about being employed and gaining an income. It’s going to be very difficult to settle back into a full-time job for the Forest Service again this summer and then graduate school in the Fall.

This week, I wore the hat of English teacher on Monday and am now playing the role of Chemistry teacher for four days in a row. The teacher I’m subbing for is a good friend of mine as well as a chem teacher when I was in High School. Evidently he trusts me quite a bit because he has given me a pretty loose reign with regard to sub plans. The AP kids in first period have had a rough week of it, taking practice tests the past three days. Tomorrow however, I’m teaching an introductory lesson on organic compound nomenclature. That’s right. I am finally teaching something rather than handing out a worksheet or popping in a video. As for general chemistry, the teacher left some videos that he made about the states of matter and inter/intramolecular attraction. I’ve had the students watch the videos for fear that I would leave something important out, all the while adding in examples and making sure everything makes sense to the students. This afternoon I plan on getting “out” of the videos a little bit and trying to lecture a little since the videos were putting the students to sleep…

Between substitute teaching and teaching a class at church on 1 Peter, I’ve been getting a solid dose of what it feels like to be in the position of knowledge and influence. There is a lot of pressure when you stand up in front of people and claim to have a firm enough grasp on information to be able to impart some of that knowledge on to them. I feel like most of what we do mirrors characteristics of God, our creator. At this point in my life I can relate to the image of Jesus as a teacher. The responsibility is intense but the reward is big.

Substitute Teaching

I was officially employed the past two days! It's been about a month since I first started the process of getting approved to substitute teach, with a background check and a whole lot of paperwork. I was finally successful in "selling myself." Last fall I called and was told that unless I was certified to teach or was a student teacher that I couldn't get on the list since there was such a large pool already. However, they told me to try back at the beginning of the next year. So I tried again at the beginning of January, getting an answering machine on the first try. Fairly frustrated with the job search and rejection, I let that bugger of a recorder have it. I told that machine that I knew that I wasn't certified but I had a Physics degree and a minor in Math for crying out loud and if they didn't use me for a science and math sub then they were out of their minds! Okay, okay. I didn't actually say it in as many words but you get the idea.  The sub coordinator called me back and said the policy still stands, but they always had a need for science and math substitutes so I was in!

My first official assignment came yesterday and I played the part of an 8th grade Physical Science teacher making the students do worksheets. Today I was a High School Biology teacher, also making the students do work sheets. It was definitely a trip down memory lane to walk the halls of my alma mater and rub elbows with my former teachers.  The highlights of today included being told I was my dad's look-alike, having lunch with the science faculty, and being able to work on my blog during a long prep period break in the middle of the day. The worst thing I had to deal with was a student trying to fit as many sticks of gum in his mouth as possible. I didn't have a problem with it: he most likely wasn't going to choke and he was getting his work done, albeit a little distracting to those around him. He stopped at 22 and took a hall pass to the bathroom to spit it out. His jaw is going to be really sore tomorrow.

I'll try to entertain with more random stories and experiences in the life of a substitute in the future.

Finding a Job

When I got home from my road trip last November, I set my sights on getting a temporary/seasonal job that would last me through the ski season and pay for my gas money to the mountains until work for the Forest Service started up again in May. However, it has been a struggle. I filled out at least 6 online applications for random companies (Home Depot, Costco, Starbucks, WalMart, etc) hoping that they would need a position filled, to no avail. Then I applied for a technology assistant position with a local school district and didn't get the job since I had something lined up with the Forest Service next spring. With the current job situation as it is, everyone is willing to work menial jobs, not just ski bums or students. In the middle of December I took a job at UPS as a Driver Helper for the peak Holiday season. I made some money, it gave me something to do, and I made a new friend but somehow I feel cheated. As it was, my hourly wage was next to nil, but there was no communication from my "supervisor," I was shorted hours, and they let me go a week before they had said would be when I would stop being an employee. (Don't get me wrong, that extra week off allowed me a lot of ski time with my parents who had the week off from work as well, so I had my cake and ate it too...).

I am the most frustrated with myself. I started to get my self-worth and identity wrapped up in those job applications. Since stores weren't hiring me then that meant I wasn't good enough. They were rejecting me because they could find better. When I took the UPS job it was almost as though I was trying to snatch up a job just to show that I was capable of searching for a job and becoming employed, maybe not the best choice for making money or taking advantage of the best opportunities. Now, still without a job, I find myself stressing out about things I don't need to be worried about. This is my year off, I am having to tell myself, relax and breathe or it won't be worth it in the long run.

What I really need to do is turn this spring over to God. I am a loved child of His. I am a part of His plan. I am playing a part in what He wants accomplished in this valley this year. With time off, I have been able to be a part of peoples' lives that I wouldn't have been normally. I've been able to volunteer, hang out, and chill with people who need to be chilled with. By faith we are to walk, and I realize that I can allow God to work. If I find a job, it will be because that's where I'm needed. If I don't, then it is my responsibility to make the best use of my time for the Kingdom.

Backcountry Work Pictures

As promised, here are some pictures from the work trip into Bunker Creek:

A very clean culvert, complete with babbling brook.

Our facilities for the week, custom chainsaw work.

Kitchen/dining room/pantry/storage closet

Solar shower (we never took pictures of our swimming pool in Bunker Creek, but we swam in the icy water every night when we got back to camp).

Looking from the main road up the drainage toward our camp. I think the middle mountain in Tranquil Peak, and camp is at the base of it and about 4 miles away at this point. The mountain on the right might be Warrior Peak.

Home, sweet home.

Bunker Boys hard at work: Benny (left) and Shawn

A sampling of our food during the week. This is breakfast one morning: hashbrowns, bacon, and huckleberry "man"-cakes.

Working in the Backcountry

I just got out on Monday from a 6-day backcountry hitch for my job with the Forest Service. They packed in a camp complete with a wall tent, wood stove, and literally a ton of food with a pack string of mules for us to stay in. There were three of us on the trip and we all had a good time.

The work itself is a continuation of a Culvert Inventory project created 3 years ago in order to ease pressure from Environmental groups and the Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. For those of you who don't know, a culvert is a metal, plastic, or wooden pipe laid under a road surface when the road is constructed in order to drain water from one side of the road to the other without it damaging the road itself. Our crew surveys permanently closed roads (those that are still considered a part of the Forest Service road "system," but are closed to motorized vehicle access for the indefinite future) for water drainage issues and damaged or plugged culverts. Then we clean them out with hand tools, take some measurements and pictures, and then move on our merry way. Our backcountry camp in the Bunker Creek drainage of the Spotted Bear Ranger District was required because of a combination of the remoteness of the roads, their length, and the number of culverts.

We cranked hard and got the work done a day early, covering 65 odd miles on foot and on bicycle, surveying close to 15 miles of road, and cleaning nearly 50 culverts in the process. Our daily schedule consisted of waking, eating a huge breakfast, heading out to work a 8-12 hour day, coming back and jumping in the icy creek to clean up before consuming a large dinner, and then relaxing a little while reading or playing cribbage before falling into bed before it even got dark. When I get some pictures of the trip from one of my coworkers I'll post them so you can see our camp setup.

When I get some pictures