so went on a hike saturday. this was a large, well orchestrated hike, so we had assigned drivers and whatnot. my driver told me she didn't want to do anything tough, so if i wanted a harder hike, i'd have to find someone else. i forgot to do taht, but i figured what the hell, let's go on a little walk in the trees. boy was i wrong.
the hike is in the snowy range, the most northern of the southern rocky mountain ranges. hour or so drive there; saw lots and lots of... fields, rocks, cows, and horses on the way. passed through a town of population 100 on the way, which was comical because half the buildings we saw were resorts/hotels, implying that in tourist season, the percentage of local residents probably approached 0. stopped at a ranger station to let the group catch up, and noted the sign that said "Wyoming mountains: land of many uses". reaaally interesting, fellas.
continued driving up the mountains, and things got real purty. the whole place is rocky fields, lakes, creeks, snow, and trees. we got to our destination, and i immediately realized this was going to be more fun than i thought, because the start of the trail was a path of snow around an icey lake. continuing along, the scenery was gorgeous. walking directly below huge cliffs half covered with snow, lakes with ice flows, big rock formations to climb on. at this point, the trail was half snow-bank and half creeks, since the paths were ideal places for snow melt to travel. this was moderatley unfortunate, because my thin-soled, canvas-skin chuck taylors weren't meant to hike through snow and mud. but w/e.
things gradually got dryer and rockier, as we ascended. at some point we passed the tree line, and entered alpine tundra territory. rocky paths, a little bit of a climb. still great views; lots of really nice, perfectly still lakes, that somehow weren't gross and filled with scummy things. we threw rocks in them to make interference patterns with the waves. it was
awesome.
it was nearing 12:30, so we stopped for lunch. some of us hiked quite high up the mountain while everyone had lunch below, and took some great pictures. eventually headed back down,, and back the way we came. the trail actually made a big loop around the lake, but it was a hardcore hiker trail, with climbing and snowbanks that if you fall, you fallinto that big lake.. so not for us. the total length was only about 1 1/2 miles each way, but it seemed a lot longer.
i got a few cuts and scrapes climbing things, and that evening i threw somebody's frisbee into a tree, so climbed up it to get it, and obtained some sizeable wounds there. so i'm kinda cut up right now. but it's all good
ok, i'm giving up being quiet about my roommate. i hate him. so much. his name is chad, and he's a super-loud-and-chatty guy from atlanta. he does nothing but chatter at me, almost nonstop. i don't even konw when to listen to him, becuase he's always saying something. and 75% of the tim ehe's making some stupid facetious joke in the exact same tone as normal, and asking follow up questions as if it was true, and as soon as you respond, he goes "haha, just kiddin' steve! guess i'm not that funny, right? har har!" (he calles everyone steve or susan, btw). i've taken to ignoring him best i can. saturday night i was in the middle of a warcraft game and he comes in (drunk, as obvious by odor, though he didn't hesitate to inform me of it several times) and goes "hey steve! me and some of the big dawgs went out and now we're gonna go out agian, you oughta come with!" i tell him not right now, but later, and he insists. over and over again. he won't stop. eventually he goes "alright, coming back in 5 minutes". when he does, i'm still not done, so he goes "part of coming to this thing is networking with the big dawgs! you gotta ome! i'm gonna make you! you gotta come. come on. come on. come on. now get up. come on. come on." over and over. i'm pissed as hell, but eventually get him to go away without hurting him. eventually i finish up, and go see what's going on. the "big dawgs" are just random people he was with (not like important people you need to network with) who are all in their pajamas with blankets in the rec room so we can watch a zombie movie. GAHALSJFDALSD. i stayed, in spite of noting how fucking much i hate this man, and he goes off when the movie starts. (incidentally, the movie is "28 days later", which is basically a zombie movie, though not quite. the noteworthy thing is that it actually has a happy ending, a rarity for zombie movies). the movie ends, and i head back to my room. as i open the door to the hallway, i can hear him snoring already. he passed out with the door open on his bed, and was snoring so incredibly loudly i couldn't go to sleep. i tried from 1 till about 1:45, then started yelling at him to get him to w ake up. didn't get anywhere. i played some games, then got to sleep at about 4. god, i hate him.
but yeah. aside from him, still having a good time. there was supposed to be a soccer game today, but i wandered around and couldn't find where they were playing. doing laundry at the moment, then gonna code some more. hehe, i hope i lose some weight from this. i've been eating twice a day (since i don't get up for breakfast at 7), and yesterday i didn't have any way to pack a lunch, and today i was busy talking to someone , so missed out on our limited lunch hour. i'm not hungry or anything, either. and dorm food isn't as good as ucla, but it's still good enough and pretty varied, so i feel like i'm eating ok. plus, i've been playing sports like every other day, like soccer, ultimate, or hiking, so i'm feeling pretty good.
as soon as i can collect them from the people who had cameras, i'll post the photos from the hike. some pictures online of where we were are
this one and
this one
