One month in...two to go.

I have been in this amazing valley for a month now, and have discovered two important things:

1. Things get lonely when you don't know a soul around you.
2. Things are brand new and SO refreshing when you don't let loneliness get to you too much.

Refreshing enough I have gotten out and visited many taverns and met quite a few people. It has been interesting on one hand, and truly fun on the other. I've met some really weird people, but some awesome ones as well. One, a bartender of course, gave me the number of a tattoo artist over here (as well as his number...). So today I took advantage of the local artistry:

That was cold...

UPDATE time, since someone, I won't name names, is whining about a lack of blogging from me.

Last weekend I hiked some trail along Hurricane Creek. I thought I was headed to Echo lake, but ended up (I think) at Douglas Lake. I thought I would just go for an easy training hike, with my pack fully loaded and weighted a bit extra for conditioning. Easy hike ended up being an elevation gain of nearly 1,000 feet in four miles...all switch backs, but still mighty steep!
I got to a Lake and decided to call it good, my legs were aching, and I knew I still had to get back down without falling over the edge! The heat must have really gotten to my head, though, cause I thought the lake would be a good way to cool off...it was...it was FREEZING! I should have known, since it is a high mountain lake and all! But the little skinny dip was refreshing, albeit numbing!