Have Mustache - Will Travel

Address Change

2009-08-04T23:34:00.000-07:00

July was a crazy month, so crazy that it's already August 4th and we don't live in Anchorage anymore. We had a great time with all of our visitors and shared some special memories with them all. We've had 11 visitors since my last post, and haven't had time to say much about the five or six weeks that went by. We made trips to Seward, Talkeetna, McCarthy/Kennecott, Cordova, Juneau, and Cooper Landing and had a blast at each one. Some were rainier than others and some had more furniture than others, but I think we all had a great time regardless. Thanks to Scott, Kadie, Tony, Katharine, Josh, Heather, Mom, Andy, Sally, Erik, and Julie for making the trek north in late June/July. We really appreciate you guys visiting us and hope you had as much fun as we did. Our friend Wally was up here as well (pilot for AK airlines who we got to see a few times) and had a very "easy" dinner with him too before we took off. Good times.

So as I eluded to earlier, we're moving on to Minnesota. We officially moved out of our apartment on July 30th and squeezed in one last trip to Seward which started rainy and ended sunny (better that way than the reverse). We're now in the Yukon, apparently camping with grizzly bears. The campground we were going to stay at tonight was closed due to bears in the area (we were a little surprised that they closed the whole campground) and the campground we're staying at up the road has a LOT of warning signs - which I think are just scare tactics to get you to keep a clean camp. We keep a clean camp regardless, so I'm not concerned.

Tomorrow we'll keep on truckin' and see how far we get. Right now we're about three hours from Whitehorse.

Here are some pictures from our last month in AK.

Sandhill Crane at Creamer's Dairy in Fairbanks

Mary on Root Galcier in Kennecott; Mt. Blackburn in background

Our view from camp at Reed Lakes

View from Seward coast

Group shot at top of Exit Glacier/Harding Icefield

And We're Off

2009-06-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while, but I have a good excuse. Our good friends Alex (my best man) and Nancy (first friend I made at UCLA) made a trip up to Alaska to visit us! We've been on the road since June 2nd and we definitely made the most of it. When Alex first got here, we were discussing our favorite hikes and camping places. Well, I can honestly say that the places we went with Alex and Nancy are now list toppers in all categories. The solitude and challenging hiking in McCarthy/Kennecott and the awesome (in the truest sense of the word) experience in Cordova at Childs Glacier are two of the richest experiences I've ever had.

Kennecott was an old copper mine in the early 1900's that was very productive and McCarthy was the town set up to cater to the miners. I could write tons of boring facts about the mines but will spare you. I do recommend you look into the place if the old ghost-mining-town thing interests you. We did a lot of hiking in the area, up to one of the old mines (Bonanza) and then we did a backpacking trip out to a spot called The Knoll, which is a 3,800ft bump that sticks out from the mountains surrounding the root glacier. We camped at the top of this thing and had a great view of the Stairway Icefall, which drops more than 5,000 ft into the valley that the root glacier travels over. Since it's moving faster down this drop than when it hits the valley, the glacier breaks apart along the way down - although we are taking glacial speeds here so the word icefall is a slight exaggeration in my book. It's still an amazing place to pitch a tent and somewhere I wouldn't mind returning to in the future (I'm generally not a big fan of doing duplicate hikes since there are just so many good ones out there). Here's a picture of our tent out on The Knoll with the root glacier in the background:

Nancy arrived after our trip to Kennecott and we grabbed a very scenic ferry ride out to Cordova, a small fishing town in Prince William Sound at the mouth of the Copper River. Upon arriving we headed out to Childs Glacier to camp and check out this "must see" in the guide books. Well, on this one the guide books hit the nail on the head. We turned off the dirt road we had been driving on for an hour into the campsite, and immediately spoke with the camp host about camping fees, wood, etc. While chatting, part of the glacier calved off into the river making a tremendous rumbling noise that literally shook the air. All of our eyes lit up in excitement and we could hardly contain our laughter. We stayed up past midnight on the river bank 1/4 mile from the glacier watching this thing calve huge chunks of ice and then got up and did the same thing the following morning over coffee and oatmeal. It's hard to explain just how exciting this was, but the glacier is 300ft in the center and we saw a couple 200ft sections of ice fall violently into the river, sending a small wave towards us that washed up on the river bank below. It was truly spectacular to witness and SO loud!

All in all, I wouldn't have changed the trip at all. We also went to Kodiak (another fishing town - where the Deadliest Catch boats are moored), Talkeetna and into Denali NP. If you're interested I have pictures of everything on the web. Links are below.

And to Alex and Nancy, thanks for the great trip! I'll never forget it.

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Kodiak Pictures

McCarthy Pictures

Cordova Pictures

Denali Pictures

An Event For The Ages

2009-05-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

I am honestly speechless. No words can describe how happy I was on Saturday. Just know that I wandered around the Anchorage Convention Center in a trance-like state of euphoria, donning a constant grin and wondering if I'll ever be able to grow a real mustache. My whole body was warm with the enveloping joy you often feel as a child, but rarely as an adult.

The World Beard and Mustache Championships was a complete success for me. Part fashion show, part facial hair competition, it consisted of everything from lengthy mustaches to jaw-dropping beards. My concept of facial hair has been completely ripped apart and rebuilt into what now stands as the Pantheon of Face Hair. Inside are the Gods that I was lucky enough to witness:

Jack Passion's Natural Full Beard 'Big Red' - it was the real deal after much promotion by the LA Times

A Seattle man who styled his 'freestyle' mustache after a spoon and fork

Gunter Rosin's glorious Hungarian/Wild West mustache

And, my personal favorite, the full bodied, ear-high Imperial Partial Beard of the German, Karl-Heinz Hille

Click Here For More Pictures

One More Day

2009-05-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a special day for my blog. It marks the culmination of my travels with facial hair, all wrapped up in a tidy little event custom tailored for yours truly. In case you forgot, Saturday May 23rd is The World Beard and Mustache Championships, which coincidentally is being hosted in Anchorage, AK this year. What luck! It's a biennial event (usually hosted in Europe) that appears to be right up my alley. I mean look at this guy:

THIS GUY IS IN ANCHORAGE RIGHT NOW! It's like a dream come true for me.

So tomorrow is the big day. Not sure what it'll bring, but I know what I'm going to bring: my camera and most likely a case of the giddies.

Pigeon Woman

2009-05-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

I’m in the process of renewing my passport which expires in July. Yesterday, I found a local photographer who does passport photos whom I will dub the pigeon woman from here on out. Her nickname is pigeon woman because she had a pet pigeon inside of her house/studio. Once we broached the subject of her pet pigeon, she informed me that it was a pigeon she'd rescued that had been attacked by an eagle and now had psychological problems making it fall to the ground like a rock whenever it tried to fly. She said that they [the pigeon’s problems] were improving, as evidenced by its ability to fly halfway across the room when I almost stepped on it accidentally.

We were chatting after she took my picture (she actually made me take three different ones: I wasn’t smiling enough in the first two. She brought up a good point that it’s always best to beam a smile in your passport photo so that you don’t look too shady to the border agents...not that I have anything to hide...not that I’m defensive about not having anything to hide) and when the pigeon came up she said, “Do you want to see him dance?” I said, confidently, yes.

What followed was an exchange between pigeon woman and pigeon that really needs some sort of audio capture, but I will attempt to transcribe. It went:

PW: Hmmm - gluck, gluck - Hmmm - gluck, gluck - Hmmm - gluck, gluck

P: (Quivering and moving around in little circles) Hmmm - gluck, gluck - Hmmm - gluck, gluck

PW: Hmmm - gluck, gluck - Hmmm - gluck, gluck - Hmmm - gluck, gluck

P: (Quivering and moving around in little circles) Hmmm - gluck, gluck - Hmmm - gluck, gluck

Then she looked up at me smiling. Apparently the Hmmm - gluck, gluck means the bird is happy. If it’s a gluck - Hmmm, then it’s angry. Don’t ask me how she knows that.

This experience may have cemented my preference for mom and pop businesses vs. your average box store. I could’ve gone to the UPS store to get my passport photo taken and saved 5 bucks, but I wouldn’t have seen the pigeon woman show.

Taxi Heaven!

2009-05-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last week I was in Bethel, AK for work. For those of you unfamiliar with Bethel, it’s a smallish town (6,000+ people) at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River in Southwestern Alaska. The Kuskowkim is a large river that is a major transport route for the native villages that line its banks and Bethel is the largest of these towns. As such, it is the hub of transportation and government services in the area.

A much more interesting fact is that Bethel is the nation’s taxi capital! I had heard this before my trip and was a little skeptical, but I must admit that I am now a firm believer in the Bethel taxi-hype. They are EVERYWHERE. Bethel is relatively small, landlocked, off the Alaska road system, and next to a large river so you can imagine that not many people need to have full-time vehicles. And, regardless of what the median income data suggests, Bethel in my experience was not exactly a booming town. It is EXPENSIVE, at least double Anchorage prices (housing excluded) which equates to $6 a gallon gas and $10 for a family size bag of Dorritos. I bought a cheap loaf of sandwich bread, a small jar of peanut butter, a small jar or jelly and a gallon of water and paid $20. So you can imagine that your dollar doesn’t stretch very far here and I’m sure for most people that means not owning a car. So people take cabs everywhere, cabs that honk a lot (although not aggressively, just to let their customers know they’re ready to be picked up). You hear so much honking around town that there is a specific clause in the Bethel Municipal Code outlawing taxi honking at night:

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5.30.170 Vehicle horn honking.

It is unlawful to honk the horn of a taxicab from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, and from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., Friday and Saturday. [Ord. 01-02 § 3.]

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They also have a section addressing the illegality of minors in possession of laser pointers. Great stuff! Gotta love how a small town can really get down to the nitty gritties of their municipal problems.

So besides the taxis and the pricey consumer goods, Bethel had a smidge of foreignness to it. Lots of loose dogs running around (mostly terriers which is preferential for a door-to-door guy like myself) and definitely some shack-ish homes. Not terribly run-down (good roofs, windows and insulation), just different than what you’d see in most US Cities, large or small. Also, being next to such a large river, sans dams, means flooding and large parts of the town (homes, sewer pipes, etc) are built up on 4-5 foot stilts to handle the “usual” flooding caused by annual ice jams (as the ice breaks up and flows down the river, it can get stuck and pile up forming a natural dam).

There also isn’t very much to do in Bethel, something that I was told before my trip by a coworker who resides there. Movie theater; uncheck. Bar; uncheck. Minigolf; uncheck. You get the point when minigolf isn't even available. Luckily for the women of Bethel they do have a Curves, so half of you can't say there's nothing to do.

Oh, Bethel is also a "damp" town meaning that they don't sell alcohol but you can import it for personal consumption from out of town. I don't think there are commercial importers, but I'm sure someone is doing some under the table bootlegging...I think history can at least tell us that.

I guess this answers that question

I have to go back next week to finish up work there and I'm interested to see what my second impression will be like. I can't say that I'm excited (I worked a LOT when I was there and was pretty tired from walking around all day for 8-9 hours straight and muttering the same line over and over again) but it will be an experience at least.

Currants - Debunking The Mystique

2009-04-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

I like to think that I know a decent amount about all things kitchen for a man my age. However, I fell victim the other day to a classic marketing ploy: the currant. You may have seen these at your local boutique bakery on a scone or perhaps in the grocery store next to the raisins and dried cranberries. Currant! What a lovely name. So exotic and tangy sounding! Well, I’m going to let you in on a little secret so you don’t make the same mistake I did if you ever find yourself being tempted by these little Sirens at the grocery store.

Currants = Cute, Little Raisins.

Seriously. No extra tang whatsoever.

My work is done here.

American Flyers - I Salute You

2009-04-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

It's pretty well documented that I love the movie American Flyers. It encompasses everything I need in my life: love, sport, humor, Kevin Costner in spandex to name a few. Yes, the movie is dated a bit being produced over 20 years ago but many of the themes running throughout the plot are still valid today, such as USA vs. Russia and the adult male desire to wear shorts above the knee.

Seriously though, the movie is chock full of one-liners, quotable scenes and great overall moments. If you find yourself in the mood for an 80's movie then pick this up (it sells for around $5). I bought my two copies many years ago and can look back on my acquisition as one of my smartest investments to date. And in case you're wondering why I own two copies, I look at it like a game of tennis where you bring two rackets to the court at all times. In the event that you break a string on your first one you'll have an identical backup that will allow you to continue your match. I haven't had to use my second copy of American Flyers yet, but when the time comes I know that I'll be able to watch the film in its entirety with only a brief interruption.

Anyhow, to commemorate my love for this movie I've put together a couple thematic montages. The first (below) deals with the brotherly-love undercurrent that exists between Marcus and David and the overall feel-goodness of the movie. One, might not expect such a sensitive side to a high octane sports movie but it's there! See, it's even a great date movie!

Side note: there are a few words scattered in the videos that make them more suitable for home viewing...don't say I didn't warn you.

The second montage (shown at bottom) focuses on the intense competition and fierce emotion that is really the glue binding this movie together. Much like the first stage of a rocket launch, it's the competition that takes this movie to the upper echelon of cinematic greatness. I mean, it really doesn't get much better than Cold War Cycling, does it?

Announcement

2009-04-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, spring is in the air. Can you smell it? Can you hear it?! Birds chirping again; buds starting to take a peek outside and see if it’s safe to open up for the season. It’s wonderful!

Now before I get too deep into this whole spring-is-great emotional moment I must admit, spring hasn’t quite made it to Anchorage just yet. There’s still some lingering snow on the ground, albeit patchy snow, and the temperature is barely topping 40 at it’s highest of highs. But spring is just the image I need to make an exciting announcement!

See, spring is about new life. It’s about organic matter growing again after the dead of winter leaves us. It’s about making it through another year stronger and more experienced than the last...and growing because of it. Grow. Grow! GROW!!

So, the announcement. Do you sense a theme??

I’m growing a mustache again!!! Much to Mary’s chagrin, I’ve decided to see if 2009’s upper lip follicles can top last year’s class (not a tough feat by any means)!

As such, I will be adding a lip status indicator on the right hand side of my blog, which to the nay-sayers out there is aptly named again. There you will be able to see what my upper lip looks like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I know, just what you needed.

I've Discovered How To Time Travel!!

2009-03-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Not all of you know this, but I originally went to college as an engineer. Now I didn't graduate as an engineer, but I stuck it out for a year and a half before switching to a less physics-intensive area of study. Throughout this period of approximately 18 months, I went through more physics and chemistry courses than any human should ever be subjected to. If you're looking for a quick test to see if you've also been subjected to one too many physics lectures then ask yourself this question: "What do I associate with the words 'red rectangle'?" Go ahead, ask yourself...

If you thought of this, then you're OK! No need to worry about your mental well-being any longer:

Just to show you how to fail this test, this is what comes to my mind when I ask myself the same question:

Now some of you might be asking why this is relevant. Well, it just so happens that my physics background finally paid off. I've stumbled upon something that could revolutionize the way we contemplate the current space-time view of the universe. I've discovered how to time travel! The Carpvano household has managed to warp back in time approximately 15 years! It's truly amazing!!

And for the doubters out there who say that this just isn't possible given current technologies and theories of our physical world, I submit to you this picture:

Dial-up internet!

Apartment

2009-03-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

We finally found an apartment that we both liked and only narrowly avoided slumming it in a shag carpet stink-fest had we not found this place. It's small, but brand new and nice. It has key appliances such as a stacked washer/dryer, dishwasher and garbage disposal which saves us the annoying trips to the laundromat. It also has radiant floor heating, so your feet are toasty warm when you step out of the shower in the morning (well, that's what the idea is but when you're feeling low on cash and the heat is not exactly cranked then your feet are just mildly warm when you get out of the shower in the morning. Okay, I'm just trying to save face here, they're pretty much cold still). BUT when we do get some sort of regular cash flow again THEN our feet will be toasty.

So we have an address. That's good because most employers like that.

Speaking of which, I have a job now...as a proud employee of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which just so happens to be the department housing the U.S. Census Bureau, which is constitutionally bound to perform a census in 2010 and was hiring for temporary positions in Anchorage, which just so happens to be where I'm actually working. US CENSUS 2010!! BE COUNTED!

Yep. Really.

Eric Carpenter
Enumerator
U.S. Census Bureau

1/2 Way to Finding An Apartment

2009-03-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I'm milking the whole "1/2 way" in the blog title thing for all it's worth. I almost guarantee that this will be my last uncreative title including "1/2" in it. (Almost guarantee was Mary's phrase made famous when we were in PA. I've taken a liking to it since it means I can't be held responsible when my guarantee isn't met - which, for those of you who know me, happens often. This is very similar to a "Sharp Guarantee", for those of you from Los Angeles).

Anyways, we landed a few days ago in Anchorage and are still swaying from being on a ship for 6 days. Apartment hunting has been so so thus far and our "We're in Anchorage!!" excitement has been seriously challenged by the lack of fun neighborhoods and reasonably priced apartments, aka we're still looking for a place. Luckily, Karate Kid was on ABC Family yesterday morning to lift our spirits and give us some much needed motivation to defeat our own abusive peer, relative homelessness.

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in Anchorage at first glance. I mean, you're so far away from the lower 48 and all of it's homogeny that you'd hope for some more character...something other than the chain stores and sprawl that characterize most American cities. And yet, that's precisely what you find in the majority of Anchorage. Costco, Safeway (under the Carrs brand), Lowe's, Fred Meyer, Play it Again Sports, REI...I could go on. I'm not sure why I expected it to be different, I just did. I just expected people up here to have more local pride, being that Alaskans so far tend to love all things Alaskan. It's like I was expecting to land in San Francisco and I ended up in Oakland, or substitute Seattle -> Bellevue...you get the point.

So what's the solution to my expectations bubble being popped? A moose on the loose!

Picture taken from our car while apartment hunting. It had just crossed through a main intersection...people just sat around waiting for it to meander on by and then went on with their lives while Mary laughed hysterically.

At least Anchorage has that going for it. Mountains are pretty too :)

1/2 Way to Anchorage

2009-02-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

We've successfully landed in Juneau and I'm happy to report that we made it through the first leg of the ferry with excellent weather. We were able to enjoy every inch of coastline with sunny, mid-30's weather...all from the top deck of the ship. Each day, the mountains would rise higher and higher out of the ocean on all sides of us and each day I'd continue to be awed by the miles of them that passed by.

While it was a tad windy to pitch a tent, there were dozens of lounge chairs (the kind you'd see at a hotel pool) available for us which kept us off the ground and fully reclined. We slept under a covered portion of the deck along with about 10 other brave souls of varied age and background. They helped inspire a sense of camaraderie that got us through the three chilly, windy evenings from Bellingham to Juneau.

Here are our beds:

And a picture of the deck:

Realizing that we are facing some hefty up-front apartment costs and a brief period until we find jobs, we decided to skimp on meals until we get on our feet. Our answer: good ol' PB&J. I managed to enjoy five straight meals before we had a five hour layover in Ketchikan in the early morning...the egg breakfast temptation was just too strong to pass up, but I did pass on the bacon which saved a few bucks. Fearing that we hadn't worked enough variety into our diet, we picked up a box of Cup O' Noodles to substitute here and there for a sandwich. I had one for lunch that day and was back on to PB&J for dinner. So far so good!

In Juneau we spent our day hiking up to the Mendenhall Glacier, which was very easy in the winter since the lake that it calves into is frozen over. We just walked directly across the lake and, walla, glacier. It was mesmorizing.

Here's a picture of the glacier from its base (the jagged triangles clustered near the bottom of the picture above):

Tomorrow we board for Whittier (closest stop to Anchorage)...we should land there on the 26th. This leg doesn't have the islands of the inside passage to calm the waters so I suppose I'll be sea sick this time tomorrow. At least the first half was fun!

MORE PICTURES OF FERRY

MORE PICTURES OF GLACIER

1/2 Way Point

2009-02-17T17:44:00.001-08:00

I'd like to record in the chronicles of time that we've reach the official 1/2 way point of our trip. Sound the horns and send the messenger to alert the townspeople. We're moving to Alaska.

On Friday we board a ferry in Bellingham, WA. We'll be on this ferry for 6 days, one of the six being a layover and boat-switch in Juneau, and after the 6th day we'll have landed in Anchorage. I have mixed emotions about this leg of the journey, the only mixed part, aka negative emotion, being that I intend to get sea-sick if we hit poor weather and the Gulf of Alaska could dish it out if it so chooses. Other than that I'm more than excited to cruise up the rest of the Pacific Coast with all it's natural goodies.

Back in August, Mary and I anticipated this day and packed three boxes of belongings strictly for Alaska. Yesterday we did a little switcharoo in the storage unit, pulling out those three and replacing them with about eight new ones that we'd been storing with our friend Bethany. Just keep in mind that replacing three boxes with eight isn't that easy when your storage unit is already comfortably full. Well, yesterday we went and made our storage unit uncomfortably full, to the point where we were just throwing things up to the top of the heap without worrying about how we're actually going to get them down. Hopefully we don't make the Darwin Awards when we unload this beast. At least we're getting our money's worth.

One other thing. We (also known as I) waiting a tad too long to get our reservations for the ferry so for the first half of the trip, pre-Juneau, we'll be sleeping in the common areas, aka sans-room. Oh well, at least it saves us some cash and if anything, the last five plus months have prepared us for it.

Wish us luck, we'll need it. We don't have an apartment or jobs and we need both in Alaska. Quickly.

Here's an approximation of the ferry route in case you're curious:

Survival Skills

2009-01-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

There's a lot to learn about living in the extreme cold...especially when you're from a corner of the nation where the only people with 4-wheel drive vehicles are flatbillers with west coast chopper tattoos or anyone who feels like wasting a couple thousand bucks on something they'll never use. In other words, if you're from San Diego chances are you don't know what to do when things start to freeze, unless of course they're freezing because you put them in the freezer to preserve freshness, shelf life or so that you don't have to throw your leftovers...then you'll probably know what to do with it, like throw it out when you don't eat it after 4 years and your ground beef now looks like a gallon zip-lock filled with brown snow cone, except that it has "Ground Beef Jan '05" scribbled in black sharpie on the label.

But, I digress...

Back to the original topic. Living in the extreme cold.

So far in MN I've learned:

How to keep water from freezing in my gas tank/fuel line
How to ignore 'Service Engine Soon' lights in the winter. Soon is a relative term after all.
How to gain weight "just in case" I need it later
How to not freak out when my truck slides into the snow-filled ditch in the middle of the interstate
How to avoid going outside when it's just too cold and to eat rhubarb pie and ice cream in the safety of a heated home instead.

My most recent lesson focused on ice fishing. If I could conquer this simple exercise, my source of food would be secured in the event of an emergency and I'd be able to live another day.

Well, I must be doing something wrong because I've been out ice fishing three times now and haven't even had a fish sniff my bait. The kid at the bait shop said that the fish just aren't biting right now, but I think that's crap. I think ice fishing is a joke that Minnesotans like to play on Californians...a pretty funny joke too I might add. It's right up there with the ol' Coot freezing in the lake bit, which I'm proud to say that I didn't fall for. Ha, I'm not that gullible...I'm not going to believe EVERYTHING you tell me about the cold.

Congratulations on the ice fishing one though. You sure got me good.

A Challenge

2009-01-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

My good friend Jeremiah in LA decided to throw an email challenge my way the other day.

From Jeremiah:

"hey Eric. Could you go take a picture of yourself doing a snow angel in your boxers and send it to us? I think that would be fun to see."

Please keep in mind that the mercury was hovering around 0 degrees F during the time of the request. As such, a concession was made that I was allowed to wear some vital clothing: my Umbros and a sleeveless t-shirt.

Top 5 List

2009-01-16T09:29:00.000-08:00

I have no problem admitting that this blog sucks. How am I supposed to be on the cutting edge and a premier source of entertainment for my three readers (myself included...Mary gave up a long time ago) when I don't write anything for months at a time??

I'll tell you how. A top five list! And away we go...

Top five reasons this blog sucks (in reverse order):

5. The so-obvious-it's-not-even-funny obvious: November 9th was my last post...that's over 2 MONTHS ago. Sucky.

4. The of-course-,-that's-plainly-obvious obvious: We stopped hiking two months ago and our adventures have slowed considerably. Granted, living with my mom is always an adventure (just kidding mom) but I've done run out of things to write about. In other words, my blog sucks now (relatively speaking of course, so if you thought it sucked before than it really sucks now).

3. The obvious: The frigid cold in MN has switched my body into survival mode. This means my body has opted to prioritize things like breathing and weight gain over things like showering and blogging. It's a glamorous life we're living, let me tell you.

2. The not-so-obvious-but-makes-sense obvious: my diet has switched from lean proteins and quick-burning carbs to carne asada burritos and jalapenos to pickled herring and cheeseballs. In other words, my body has been terribly confused lately and as such was in no state to write blog entries. Luckily, it seems to be adapting quite well to the herring and cheeseball state, which is why I've decided to resume my writing...that and it's -20 outside right now and I can't do anything other than write to you. Write suckily that is. (Side note: oddly enough, suckily didn't trigger the automatic spellchecker...Way to go Google!) (Side note II: automatic spellchecker was triggered on suckily with considerable delay. Suckily is not a word, per Google. Something tells me they have some algorithm to continually scan blogs for criticisms and bugs in their products which was able to read my previous side note and automatically update their dictionary. I'm on to you Google! And you thought suckily was a word! Ha.)

1. The it's-totally-not-your-fault-you-didn't-realize-because-it's-absolutely-not-obvious obvious: I shaved my mustache off...about a month and a half ago and should've told you. The shame I feel is overpowering and I haven't been able to face the aforementioned three of you (myself included) until now. I mean, how am I supposed to maintain a blog titled "Have Mustache - Will Travel" without a mustache! I struggled with this mightily until recently, where I was able to reason that since we're not technically traveling anymore I don't need to have a mustache. That got me through the moral crux I was in and I've emerged ready to write once again.

Here is a picture of my current lip status:

That's right, it sucks.

Speed Blogging!!!

2008-11-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

So I have a lot to say and I don't want to bore you. Combining a few posts should do the trick. I'll do my best to write key details and leave out the fluff.

Grand Canyon was grand indeed. We hiked down from the North Rim to the bottom and then back up. three nights inside the canyon and a fourth night on the Rim at a sweet campsite called/on Cape Final. We both had a really good experience and want to go back and explore some more next time. At the bottom we camped on a plateau bordering the Colorado River (not at the massive campsite/lodge they've been so nice to place at the bottom of the canyon...it was full). We had to haul water up, but we were the only ones up there and it was my favorite night. A rodent also stole our sponge in the middle of the night. I would've gone for the snickers bars myself.

More Pictures Not Coming Soon

After the GC, we met up with Jason and Heather again...this time to celebrate Halloween. Great night. It took us about 3/4 of the night to figure out that all you have to do to partake in the dieschity of Vegas on Halloween is to blurt out as loudly as possible what someone's costume is that is walking by.

"GHOST BUSTERS!!! BEETLEJUICE! BUBBLE WRAP!!"

Like that.

Jeremiah brought the camera, but I have a few of his pictures from the night. Costumes were as follows:

Mary - box of Kleenex (great costume for dancing in a crowded area)
Eric - Adam Morrison (recognized only by men in their 20's and early 30's)

Jason - Bubble Wrap
Heather - Caribou Barbie (aka, Sarah Palin)

Jeremiah - A Mexican
Citlali - An American

I Stand Before You...

2008-11-07T09:59:00.001-08:00

...with mustache and scenery and nothing else. It's been a long, awkward fight to get where I am today, but I made it.

To the doubters out there: I told you I could grow it, bare chin and all. And to the children, the next generation, my inspiration: anything is possible. Anything.

Shame On Me

2008-10-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

You know the saying "Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!"? Well, we enacted that saying last night in a not-very-ideal location.

It went like this.

We're on our way to Utah right now. We were staying in Sacramento Wednesday night and planned to make it to the Grand Canyon by Friday, splitting up the 12-13 hours of driving by camping in the Mojave desert. We didn't have a detailed map on hand of the Mojave, but we had a road map and a general idea of where to camp based on the nps.gov website. There are a few car campsites for $12 but the website also tempts you with free roadside camping on any dirt road in the park, at least 1/4 mile from any paved roads. I should also mention that 4-wheel drive being necessary was not exactly highlighted on their camping page either.

We arrived in the park around sunset and we wanted to find a spot to camp before it got too dark. First dirt road we came too we took. As soon as my truck pulled off the pavement I knew something bad was going to happen. It was soft, slow sand (definitely not what I would call dirt) and I didn't dare stop. We kept bouncing along until I saw an opening to turn and I whipped around. There were definitely some scary moments, but we eventually made it back onto the pavement. Barely. Whew! Close call.

So we kept going further down the paved road looking for a more substantial side road this time. A mile or two later we see a little hyundai looking thing parked just off the road (definitely not past 1/4 mile as supposedly required by the nps). Mary suggested we do the same and stick close to the road. I agreed (if a hyundai can do, then my truck sure can) and soon enough we were on another small dirt road. Fool me twice! I could feel the tires spinning and losing traction, so naturally I did the same thing as last time. I didn't stop. I figured at some point the dirt road would reconnect with the pavement and I had good reason to since the dirt road we were on paralleled the pavement, almost like it was the shoulder. The only problem was that I was wrong. The sand started slowely descending away from the level of the main road, until it was more like a ditch than a shoulder. Then, a few moments later, I was officially stuck. Shame on me.

We had roadside assitance, but we still tried to free the truck ourselves before giving in. Two hours went by with no luck (we'd move a few feet and then hit a soft spot again and a tire would dig in) so we gave in and called Progressive. Within an hour they had someone come and winch me out of the ditch. Really great guy. When we were filling out the paperwork afterwards, he asked for my mileage. 61616.1! Crazy huh? I'm pretty sure that's why we got stuck, stupid odometer.

Cheaters!

2008-10-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

My lack of recent posting can mean only one thing: we're cheating! We've inched our way back into society! We've gotten soft! Okay, that's really three things but I can't deny any of them.

See, we landed in Northern California which happens to have a high concentration of family and friends. So it's not really out of any weakness or lack of desire to "find ourselves" amongst the wind and trees. It's more out of a desire for familiar human contact, which was nice. Thank you to all who have housed us over the last 15 days or so...it means a lot.

So after a little over two weeks of not-camping we're off to Utah again to camp. I think the Grand Canyon is going to be our next stop on our way to Moab to finish off the season. Time has gone by so fast! I feel like we just started...

12 Hours Of Hiking

2008-10-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday Mary and I hiked Mt. Whitney and we both agree that this was definitely the most challenging hike we’ve ever done. Yes, the 22 roundtrip miles were a lot to hike in a day. Yes, the 6,000 feet of elevation gain was difficult. However, the most challenging part of the hike was the altitude.

Mt. Whitney tops out at 14,497 feet according to the handout the ranger station gave us but the pain of oxygen deprivation started much sooner than that. For Mary, it hit around 11,000 feet; for me, around 13,000 feet. Appetites were lost, headaches were formed and our pace slowed considerably...but we made it! The funny thing is that once you get up there all you can think about is how you want to get down. The immediate view was spectacular, although the CA smog limited it considerably which was too bad.

We started at 6:30am (sun was just rising when we hit the trail) and ended a little after 6:30pm. 12 hours of hiking is too much for me but I’m glad Mary twisted my arm on this one. Here are some other random notes from our day on Mt. Whitney:

Met a 66 yo woman named Joan on our way down. She had hiked 11 miles that day...in Keds. I liked Joan.

I think I’d consider doing this again if I did it in three days, camping close to the summit so it wasn’t such a slog to get up there. That would also give more time to get used to the altitude.

Never eat Spam above 12,000 feet.

We didn’t reserve a permit like they say you have to. Just go mid-week when it isn’t peak season (with good weather of course) and get one from the Ranger Station. I can’t stand the fact that you are supposed to reserve a spot to hike.

Be prepared for a raging headache. We didn’t lose them until the following morning.

Viva Las Vegas

2008-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

After leaving Zion we made a quick pit-stop in Vegas. Our good friends Jason and Heather live there and they offered to board us for a couple nights. Hard to turn down a free shower and some good company.

We got to catch up, watch some football and tour the Channel 13 news station!! Heather’s a reporter there who also happens to be an excellent cornerback for their flag football team. It was great to be around friends again. Oh, and they have a pug. I’m sold.

Thanks Jason and Heather for letting us stay with you and for feeding us burritos!

Mountain Spring Water

2008-10-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

In hopes of dodging the snow, Mary and I decided to travel southward and landed in Zion National Park. We planned on hiking the West Rim Trail for two nights/three days. Most people pay for a shuttle to drop them off at one end of the trail and then proceed to hike (downhill) to the other end that’s in the heart of the park. Well, that option was $70 and we decided that was just a little too much to splurge on a backpacking trip. Instead, we went against conventional wisdom and planned to hike up the trail and then back down again. Woops. The six miles up to our campsite on the first night were absolutely brutal. It was hot, steep, and heavy since we had to carry more water than usual (given the whole desert thing).

We were told by the ranger that there should be a water source near our campsite. A spring. Well, there definitely was a water source. A spring. A festering pool/puddle of stale water complete with flies and yellow jackets. THANK YOU DESERT!!

The water wasn’t bad tasting and we didn’t get sick (some other people we ran into said they filtered from the other spring on the trail and felt ill). Needless to say, we only made it one night on this one. On the second day, we day hiked up the trail a bit further for some views and then made our way down. Two things played a role in our wussing out early. The "fresh" spring water and a nearby In-N-Out burger. Best decision of the trip thus far.

Click Here for More Pictures

Pam's Hot Sauce

2008-09-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Pam, your hot sauce rocks. In this barren land of bland, carbohydrate-filled food we're living in, your hot sauce is an oasis of spice, flavor and hope. I can't even tell you how much more enjoyable camping is because of it, but it is. Thank you.

Dear Wyoming,

2008-09-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

I feel like we've known each other for years, and to think, we just met! Your beauty was mesmerizing when I first saw you. Remember when we enjoyed the sunset together at Lily Lake and the long stroll we took in Grand Teton National Park? I saw my first Moose with you! What great memories. Things were going so well.

Then you rained on me that morning. I guess those 300+ days of sunshine per year were meant for someone else. And what about the chili we made our last night together. Maybe if you had told me what a bad idea that was I could have avoided the next 16 hours.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I think it's time for me to move on. The time we spent together was memorable, yes, but I'm just not ready to be tied down at the moment. Please understand that it's not you, you're great. You're the best. I'm just not ready for that type of commitment yet.

Well, I guess this is it then. So long. And please, don't change.

-Eric

CLICK HERE FOR WY PICTURES

Yay Tetons!

2008-09-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

ERIC!

MARY!

BETHANY!

Idaho Is Too Great...

2008-09-23T22:27:00.001-07:00

It's official. Idaho has a special place in my heart. The preconceived notion that Idaho was only good for potatoes has been replaced, in my head, with the following slogan:

IDAHO - POTATOES AND SECRETLY BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN COMMUNITIES

We all know (or should know) about Sun Valley. But tucked away an hour and a half to the north is a small town (pop. 100) called Stanley that I fell in love with. Mary worked at a summer camp close to Stanley a few years back and couldn't wait to show it to me...and I'm glad she did.

The town survives on tourism in the summer (mostly rafting tours) but after labor day slowed way down. Not too good for Stanley I suppose, although I'm sure the locals would argue that, but it was great for us. It seemed like we had the place to ourselves. We camped, did some day hikes to mountain lakes, and stopped by Mary's summer camp to say hi.

Idaho was a very good week for us, outside of Stanley even. As such, I'd like to lay out the top five reasons why Idaho is too great...

5. WinCo Foods
We stumbled upon this gem of a grocery store during a gas stop in Meridian, ID. It had a Costco feel to it (warehouse layout with food stored on pallets) but you didn't buy in bulk. Just normal grocery store quantities, which is good when you are storing everything in a small cooler. The best part was how cheap it was! $0.42 mac-n-cheese, $0.82 for an eight-pack of chicken hot dogs, $0.30 for a can of tomato paste and $3.75/lb for Turkey sliced at the deli counter (to name a few...I saved the receipt I was so excited). We spent $59 and we still have more food after 10 days and only eating out once. If only there were more (we only came across one of them).

4. Free Camping
No one lives in central Idaho. Lots of land + no people = endless free campsites for Mary and Eric to stay at. Of course, the free campsites tend to have a slight deliverance feel to them, so we paid $5 to camp at the sites with some amenities, aka pit toilets. Still the large supply of freebs makes me like Idaho more. This is a picture from one of our campsites:

3. 75 mph Speed Limits
Apparently the government in Idaho understands that their citizens and visitors don't want to spend a lot of time near any metropolitan part of their state (except, of course, to shop at WinCo Foods). To facilitate this, they upped the speed limit on their interstates to a respectable 75 mph. Thank you Idaho for getting me away from Boise quicker than most other states would (legally) allow.

2. Great Mountains
You don't hear a lot of chatter about the Sawtooths or the White-Clouds, but they are some seriously cool mountains. The Sawtooths are very rugged and powerful, and the White-Clouds definitely win the award for most unique. I can't wait to get deep in there on a future trip.

1. Road Signs
Most of the time, road signs are used to display useful information to drivers. Now, I've driven a fair amount and Idaho definitely felt like it had a higher concentration of quality road signage (I'll have to discuss this with Mary's dad before stating it as fact). This makes me happy as a driver since hours on the road can get monotonous and there's nothing better to break up monotony than a quality road sign. The winners of Idaho road sign contest are best displayed visually (honorable mentions: Chuck-a-rama all you can eat buffet and the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, ID):

You're right. Idaho is too great to litter.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES

Clean Ratio

2008-09-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

We're averaging one shower every five days so far.

My mustache still smells like campfire.

Idaho

2008-09-15T09:38:00.001-07:00

Just finished a three day backpacking trip in Olympic National Park. Saw some bears and heard Elk bugling, which was a first for me and very, very cool. We were on a ridge and we could hear them in the valley below, echoing throughout the mountains. Very loud. Here is what it sounds like...this is not my video, just an example for those of you unfamiliar with it. We had a quick stop in Seattle to see family and watch an 80's movie, and now we're headed out to Idaho for some Sawtooth action. We'll end up in Grand Teton National Park by this weekend to meet up with Mary's friend Bethany who also happens to be on a road trip.

A short post, I know, but the road calls.

Living Out Of A Bag

2008-09-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

Right now we're living out of a bag, which wouldn't be all that bad except for the fact that I don't have a coffee routine anymore. I used to be fully caffeinated by 9am and now I'm just a lost soul every morning, stumbling around with 50% of my potential brain function available to me. My friend Jeremiah would say, "Well my brain works 100% without coffee" and I would say to him "Well, Jer, mine does too." The distinction I'm making here is that it runs at 50% of my brain's potential without being caffeinated. Running the numbers real quick reveals that coffee squeezes out another 100% of brain power (that's 200% caffeinated and 100% non-caffeinated). That's a pretty big gap Jer. You're missing out on some serious brain potensh here.

It's 9am and in an hour we're going to be meeting a husband and wife to sell the Civic. We met the wife yesterday (she test drove it) and Mary and I feel good about selling the car to them. So, Seattle, it appears that this is it. This was the last thing holding us back so I guess this is goodbye. Tomorrow we're planning on heading to the Olympic Mountains for a 3-day backpacking trip in the Sol Duc River area . The trail gets up pretty high, so hopefully I'll get some good pictures.

Fun Sandwich

2008-09-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

Mary and I just got back from a 4-day backpacking trip down the coast of Vancouver Island, BC with our friends from MN, Erica and Josh. The trip was incredibly fun, but it was sandwiched between two slices of pain.

Let me explain.

Last Monday we moved out of our apartment. On our way down to Tacoma (where we're storing everything) my truck started to sputter out. Yay! I was thrilled. So we took Mary's car and made arrangements to have my truck picked up when Firestone was through figuring out and fixing the problem. Luckily, they figured out what was wrong while I still had a cell phone signal and I was able to ok the service. $488 of pain is not the best way to start off six-months of salary-free living, although the situation could have been much, much worse I guess.

That pain quickly faded though once we actually made it to the trail. The hike was simply great. Good exercise, Great company and whales! The trail hugged to coast the entire time (rising and falling in between beach access points). The north half of the trail had kelp beds paralleling the coast line, and feeding in the kelp were gray whales (some apparently live off the coast of Vancouver Island all summer; most migrate all the way to AK). It must drop off quickly because they were pretty close to the shore.

It's tough to explain how exhilarating it is to be hiking in a forest and then to all of a sudden hear a 50-foot whale take a deep breath, but you hear it and it makes your skin tingle and your heart race. At our lunch break on the first day we saw at least five whales cruise past us within a hundred feet from shore, some closer, and we'd see many more over the next three days. There weren't any spectacular jumps or tail displays, but a whale coming up for air was enough to widen your eyes and slap a huge grin on your face.

The hike was by no means easy, but completing it over 4 days left plenty of time to lounge around and enjoy the scenery. There was beach camping complete with camp fires, suspension bridges, bear sightings, and mushrooms. All very exciting! Besides the whales, the image that's burned into my head right now is a misty, morning sea scattered with cargo ships talking to each other in bellowing fog horns.

Now we're back in Washington and we're trying to get on our way. We still need to sell Mary's car and finish storing our stuff (we were in such a hurry with the truck mess that we had to dump most of it in a friend's garage). So there's still some more pain to deal with before we're truly free, but if this trip was an indicator of what's to come, then it'll be worth it.

Click Here To See More Pictures

What's With The Mustache?

2008-08-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

I suppose I have some explaining to do. See, I've seen your eyes rolling when I talk about growing out my mustache and I'm tired of it. You just don't get it, do you?

I think the best way to deal with this is with a fake Q&A session. I'll ask the questions and I'll give the answers. Here we go.

Q: What's with The Mustache, man? I mean, it's 2008 not 1908.
A: 1908 was a great year, man. The Grand Canyon was first set aside as a National Monument (later into a National Park), Teddy Roosevelt was still President of the U.S., and Mothers Day was first (publicly) celebrated in 1908 (Very Official Source: wikipedia). I might add that TR sported a mustache as well...I bet you wouldn't be making fun of him to his face.

Q: But don't you think it looks a little ridiculous?
A: Perhaps, but don't you think that wearing gloves filled with toxic, stinging ants for 10 minutes is ridiculous as well? My point here is that growing a mustache is a rite of passage for the modern man. Rites of passage have been an important part of human civilization for a long, long time and should be embraced, not ridiculed.

Q: So are you admitting that you haven't entered manhood yet? I'm not stating an opinion here, just following your logic.
A: I quit.

Q: So when can we expect to get our first glimpse of this thing?
A: When the time is right, a picture will be posted. In the meantime, you'll just have to be patient (and judging by the rate of growth so far, patience will be very, very important).

Q: Last question: Are you guys ever going to travel? You've been posting about mustaches for two weeks. This isn't what I signed up for.
A: Funny. We're leaving tomorrow to hike the Juan de Fuca Trail on the southwestern side of Vancouver Island, BC. We'll be leisurely hiking for five days with our friends from MN, Erica and Josh. We're very excited to officially be moving out of our apartment and beginning our travels.

What Else?

2008-08-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

Did we remember to pack the yo-yo so we don't get bored? Did we remember to pack the travel ice-cream maker so that we can have ice-cream on the road? What?? You didn't pack either? Oh, you packed both!

Note: we do NOT have a travel ice cream maker...or a yo-yo

I think we've got just about everything we need, but there's still something missing. Something huge. Something that will lead us when our focus begins to waiver. That something is a motto. A mantra. A guiding light for me, Mary, and my mustache, transcribed into a single sentence of purpose.

Fortunately, I had a three hour plane ride yesterday to brainstorm. Unfortunately, I came up with too many and I can't decide which one to choose. Please help me choose our motto by voting on the poll on the right-hand side of the page:

In The Spirit of The Olympic Games

2008-08-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I'm mad at the 2008 Olympic Games. I'm angry that there are 10 year olds competing on the Chinese gymnastics team. I'm upset that I haven't slept for more than 5 and a half hours in a single night over the past week...Thanks NBC! I'm annoyed that I have more important things to do than watch the Olympics, like packing for the next year of my life.

So what am I going to do about it? I'm gonna get pumped about growing a mustache! To accomplish this (and in the spirit of the Olympic Games), I'd like to salute some of my favorite mustaches that the summer games have given us:

#5
Zdeslav Vrdoljak - Croatia

On a team loaded with talent (they are ranked #1 in this year's Olympics), Vrdoljak is their captain. The Croatian water polo team's decision to sport mustaches throughout the games to boost team unity is, in my opinion, the greatest idea in Olympic history. Better than Kerri Strug's decision to vault on a hurt leg to win a team gold; better than forming a bobsled team from Jamaica.

Some day, I will travel to Croatia where I am sure to annoy even the most hospitable Croats with my incessant mustache praise. I will be looking for a team photo at the end of the Olympics, when the growth will be at its best.

#4
Bela Karolyi - Romania/USA

Legendary gymnastics coach for both Romania and the USA, in his later years, who also happens to have a very thick mustache. Among the notable gymnasts he has trained at some point are Nadia Comaneci (Romania), Mary Lou Retton (USA), Kerri Strug (USA) and Dominique Moceanu (USA).

Karolyi is a character though. I can't imagine thinking about US Gymnastics without thinking of him.

#3
Daley Thompson - Great Britain

Decathletes really impress me. Decathletes with mustaches REALLY impress me. Daley Thompson was a world record holder in the Decathlon for most of 1980-1992, before Dan O'Brien finally broke Thompson's world record score of 8,847 points that had stood for eight years. He is very highly regarded and is one of the best decathletes of all time.

On top of his domination in the 80's, Daley had a rivalry with a monster West German, Jürgen Hingsen (who ALSO happened to have an incredible mustache). Great storyline; better 'staches.

#2
Steve Prefontaine - USA

He didn't medal in the 1972 5k and his career and life were cut short after a tragic accident. He did, however, have a great passion for running and a beautiful mustache.

#1
Mark Spitz - USA

Kudos to Michael Phelps for breaking his record this year. But the best part of the whole Phelps saga isn't that he beat the record, it's the thrusting of Mark Spitz back into the popular eye.

I'll end with a quote to inspire my future mustache growing, from the #1, Mark Spitz, himself:
"When I went to the Olympics, I had every intention of shaving the mustache off, but I realized I was getting so many comments about it - and everybody was talking about it - that I decided to keep it. "
-Mark Spitz

The Chair

2008-08-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today I sold my green recliner.

As I mentioned in my last post, we're trying to downsize so we don't have to store a lot of stuff, but man I wasn't prepared for what happened after I sold it. I cried. Seriously?! Yes. Does that make me less of a man? Maybe, but at least I cried about a recliner instead of, say, the ending of Atonement. Ok, I might have cried at the ending of Atonement too. You have to understand though! Me and that chair go way back, back to high school when it was in my mom's house, then onto college with me at UCLA, and then onto Seattle with me. Now it's in someone else's house with someone else's feet on it. That hits deep.

Oh, I failed to mention that the guy I sold it to was named Eric too. Weird huh?! I did like him during the 3 minutes we exchanged pleasantries and cash, so at least I can feel like it went to a good home. Plus, the whole Eric thing makes me feel like I'm still connected in a way.

Back to my feelings.

As Eric's truck pulled away, the memories started pouring through my head. Fisher, asleep on the recliner. Myself, asleep on the recliner. Mike, asleep on the recliner. Alex, asleep on the recliner. It was powerful. So many memories I just couldn't take it. I think part of it was that it symbolized that we're actually moving on. It was the first big item to leave the apartment and it started to sink in that this is actually happening. We're really going to travel...and I guess it wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be.

Preparaish

2008-08-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Preparations are officially underway for our travels around the west. We've been going through our stuff and sorting, wrapping, packing, selling, giving away...and even buying a few things. Ultimately, our goal is to be light and nimble travelers so that we don't have to worry about anything being lost, stolen, underused or redundant. We do want to be prepared though, so a lot of thought has gone into what we need and don't need.

Take the case of our underpants. A vital garment by anyone's standards, but how many pairs should we bring so that our light and nimble goal reconciles with what we've actually brought with us? The solution: Ex Officio underpants.

Product Details:

* Air-dries within hours so you can wash as you go and pack fewer pairs
* Extremely breathable, moisture-wicking, odor resistant finish keeps you comfortable
* Terry elastic back and functional fly for ease

Wash as you go, pack fewer pairs, odor resistant, easy...that's what I'm talking about! We each have two pairs for the hundreds of miles of hiking and gallons of sweating that awaits us.

light and nimble?

I think so.