aw shit, someone's got to go back and get a shit-ton of dimes

So today (Wednesday) was pretty solid. I woke around 11:30 after sleeping like a log, had the rest of Kurt's smoothie for breakfast, and hand washed some dishes some dishes which turned out to be pretty therapeutic. However, the thing that I was most proud of was the large entry I made in the book "How to die in the mountains." It started out with me going on a hike at Rattlesnake Recreation Area (shout out to all the thugs and murderers who play the skateboarding version of rattlesnakes. that would mean my friends Tim and Steve, who are really very nice and are thugs only on weekends and never murderers) Anyways, the hike I chose to go on, after consulting with some friendly hikers, was Stuart Peak which is 16 miles roundtrip from the parking lot. So I set off at 1:30 which I believe is the fucking definition of an ideal departure time for a 16 mile hike.  Anyways, the trail was snowy immediately. It started gaining elevation around mile 3 or 4 and by mile 6, the only thing I was following was a lone pair of footprints. (And also, the higher the elevation, the more snow there is ) Anyways, the mountains were covered in snow, the sky was overcast with occasional rain, and the pine trees were constantly dripping water. Around 4:30, I came into this ravine that looked pretty awesome for backcountry snowboarding. Anyways, this is where the trail decided to play hide and go seek for keeps. It gave me two choices; one faint pair of footprints that headed straight up the gully and another faint pair of footprints that headed to the right. I chose the one to the right. The reason the footprints were so faint is because this is the point where the snow depth increased to 8-12 inches. Which is a bitch. Point being, it did not take long for the snow to vanquish my two pairs of socks and hiking boots and send them back to a frozen hell. Anyways, the footprints I was following quickly lost whatever trail that might have existed during a happier time, when the honey flowed freely, lumberjacks were everywhere, and the birds and trees were our friends. But I digress. So I followed the footprints for 15 more minutes until they disappeared. Now I had a choice. It was 4:55 pm, I was 7 miles from the parking lot on some mountain surrounded by a foot of untouched snow, and I hadn't told anyone where I was (127 hours was a great film). Sadly I chose to return. I cut back through the woods til I reached the ravine and then ran/jogged the majority of the way back. I fell like an idiot a good amount of times on the way back because the trail was only packed down about a foot wide with unpacked snow on either side. So yea, I'd be running and one foot would secede from the rest of the body and decide to take a short rest under 2 feet of snow while completely fucking over the rest of my body. Anyways, I got back at 6:18, went home, took a shower, met Kurt at the Book Exchange in Missoula (most badass bookstore I've ever seen). Got a book on Islam, modernity, and the Middle East. Had dinner at the Good Food Store (like Whole Foods, except it's the only one in existence) where I had a delicious hamburger with bacon, avocado, and stone ground mustard all on ciabatta bread. Then we came home and had vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered pumpkin cookies (f*&k me right?) and I burned some cd's from the house we are staying at. Around 1 am I decided to go dumpster diving at the Good Food Store which never actually happened. What did happen was that I ended up meeting this really friendly, drunk firefighter named Lee (who also helps disabled kids) in the parking lot of the Good Food Store. We talked and the night ended with me watching Big Trouble in Little China at his apartment while he laid passed out on his bed in the next room with the door open and the lights on. Rock on Lee.