Kepros Mountain Kayak/Hike

On Sunday I enjoyed the gorgeous weather and partook in my first Spring hike up nearby Kepros Mountain. Rather than hike this peak in the usual manner (which I have done twice before), I decided to use my inflatable kayak to approach it from a nearby marina. Rather than a long hike from the south, I instead would experience a shorter (but steeper) hike along the peak's northwest ridge.

I slept in a little bit and didn't begin paddling until just after noon. The kayak portion went smoothly and after leaving the kayak on the shore I began the ascent of Kepros Mountain. Despite feeling a little out of shape during the ascent, I made steady progress and reached the summit around 2:25pm. This peak really does have a great 360° view of the mountains surrounding Boise! After the usual summit rituals I sent Katie a text message from the summit and then descended. The descent was uneventful and I returned to the marina just after 4pm.

This was really an ideal Spring hike; great weather, a "dual sport" ascent, some intensity (but not too much), good views, and the ability to see a new aspect of a familiar peak. Another kayak/hike to nearby Grape Mountain is planned!

Trip statistics: 1.25 miles kayaked, 5.5 miles hiked, 2500' gain, 4 hours.

Kepros Mountain Pictures!

Updates

Last Tuesday, I drove back up to Vancouver to attend Ian's memorial service. Driving conditions were good and I traveled the 643 miles in approximately 10 hours and 35 minutes, a new record. The only real highlight of this trip was lunch at the Fatburger in Issaquah.

The service on Wednesday was very well done and concluded with a bagpiper playing 'Amazing Grace'. Approximately 330 people attended the service and the reception hall was completely filled with people. I got to meet many new members of the extended family, many of whom had been waiting a long time to meet Katie's husband! How many names I remember is of course questionable...

After dinner with the family on Wednesday we got up early Thursday to drive home. This drive was also uneventful and only took 10 hours and 50 minutes. Friday was back to work.. of course we were both ready for the weekend before we even showed up!

Saturday I decided it was time to mow the yard for the first time this year; always a bittersweet moment since it heralds the beginning of warm weather but also the beginning of a chore that will be with me until October or so. The weather has finally gotten warm which is most appreciated since the Spring weather up until recently has been lacking in that department. Sometime soon we will see about a patio cover and perhaps do a little rework of our sad looking flower beds. Saturday night we ate dinner with Gary and Bonnie at the Ruby River Steak House. I had a buffalo burger which was good and the 25oz Sam Adams Summer Ale really hit the spot!

Sunday I managed to get out for my first Spring hike (the subject of a future blog post). Other than that, we had a quiet day. Katie did make yummy pork chops for dinner!

Not much is planned for this week. I've set a goal to bike to work at least once sometime this week; we'll see if it actually happens!

Rest In Peace Ian Shepherd

Katie and I both traveled to Vancouver on short notice last week to say our goodbyes to Katie's father Ian. After a very brief battle with pancreatic cancer, Ian passed away peacefully on April 2nd. Always enjoyable to be around, he was an all-around great man who taught me so much in a short time about such varied things as BC camping, verbal circumlocution, scotch drinking, and Canadian politics. You will be missed very much Ian!

Ian's memorial service will be held on April 15th at the Kerrisdale Presbyterian Church.

A few photos of Ian from the Vickery photo archive.

Hockey Game

As the lack of recent blog posts attest, there hasn't been much going on with us. Yesterday we decided to go to an Idaho Steelheads hockey game since their season is almost over and we haven't been to one in two years. We ended up with second row seats and got a good view of the Steelheads defeating the Ontario Reign 3-0. The Steelheads are indeed wearing pink jerseys in the picture; this was part of a fundraiser for breast cancer treatment at the St. Luke's Tumor Institute. Before the game we had dinner at the Bitter Creek Ale House and of course I had to get a couple of beers, this time the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout and the Sockeye Hell Diver. At the game I had a Long Hammer IPA which is surprisingly good for an arena offering.

Over the past month we've pretty much been working in between weekends. My job status is pretty much unchanged but Katie has been moved further into the world of outsourcing, which she isn't very fond of. We've watched a couple of movies recently, including The International and Watchmen. The International was a good action/thriller and Watchmen was entertaining despite being surprisingly graphic.

This weekend I will be attending the Boise Code Camp for a little bit of professional development. We might also check out the Idaho Fry Company which is opening this weekend. Maybe it will be comparable to Belgian Fries in Vancouver?

Getting old...

I had a pleasant 30th birthday despite not being very excited about the occasion. I spent the bulk of the day at work and that was uneventful. However it was much better than last year when I had to spend the day training replacement workers. That was probably actually my worst birthday ever.

Katie and I had a nice dinner at the Bitter Creek Ale House. I got the stout battered trout and chips which were excellent. In addition, I chugged a couple of glasses of my new favorite beer, the nitrogen charged Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. I also tried the Dogfather and Black Butte XX Porter, neither of which were as good but still worthy.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts!

Alert the media! It's Katie's first blog post!

So, now that this blog has aged like a fine wine, I figured it was time for me to actually post on here. Zach has been amazing at keeping everyone in the loop, muuuuuuch better than I could ever do (obviously!). Given that my work environment is currently in in state of upheaval, I thought that would make an exciting first post!
So, here we go! I apologize in advance for the length & the rambling tone!

Zach mentioned in a previous post that all of the temporary people in my department were being let go, for cost-cutting reasons, and that by the end of February, all temps employed by all NYK offices in North American would be gone. We just found out on Monday that the final day had been pushed up, and that all temps will in fact be gone by this Friday! This will be a huge blow to our department, since it's basically 50% temps, 50% full time employees...by Monday morning, 8 people will be doing the work of 16. The idea of this is a tiny bit more manageable right now, given the fact that the shipping industry is quite slow, and our workload has decreased considerably over the last couple of months, but when the volume picks up again, this could prove problematic!

As background, and in seemingly unrelated news, our department has had 5 extra bodies helping us with our workload since October, in the form of NYK employees from our office in Manila, Phillipines. When they arrived, we were simply told that they would be helping us with production, since, at the time, we were slammed with work, and it was cheaper to bring employees from overseas to stay in hotels than it was to hire more temps locally. More on this development shortly...

Yesterday (Tuesday) the full-timers were pulled into a meeting with our management team & their boss. We were told that, due to the state of the economy, NYK would be outsourcing the documentation process (document creation & rate application) to the Manila Documentation team...some of whom have been helping us out since October. Additionally, the Regional Documentation offices in Chicago & Vancouver will be closing in May, leaving the Boise Documentation center (or centre, for our Canadian readers!) and the Toronto Documentation centre as the only Doc centers in North America. Apparently NYK is the last carrier (shipping company) to outsource the Documentation aspect of the process. Our job descriptions will be changing completely, and my understanding is that our main purpose will be liasing between the customers and the Manila Doc team.

So, the times, they are a-changing! This is the 2nd job I have had where my job has been outsources (when we lived in Tumwater, the medical billing company I worked for outsourced my job to India). I have definitely been lucky, since I haven't actually lost my job either time, I've just been "repositioned" to something different. In this particular situation, the outsourcers are at least of the same company, and are used to working with the same programs and procedures...hopefully this will make the transition a little smoother than Zach's experience with Micron.

I have yet to be told exactly what my new position will be, and will update when I find out. It's been a crazy couple of days, and I'm sure the next couple of months will be interesting (to say the least), but I'm just glad to be able to say that I have a job. In this economy, that's definitely something to be very thankful for! As Zach said, when I told him of the latest developments, "I guess we're the new American model - a two income household with both jobs having been outsourced in the span of a year". Sad but true...and like I said, at least we've both been lucky enough to keep our jobs (or find new, better ones, in Zach's case).

Well, after that lovely, uplifting blog post, I'm sure you'd all like me to never post again! My apologies for the length of the post...I'm not known for my conciseness! I will try very hard to be a more active blogger & help keep everyone informed.

I think that's about all the news to report from here!
Love,
Katie

Squaw Butte Hike

The weather was supposed to be decent this weekend so I figured I would try to go on a solo hike somewhere close to home. I settled on Squaw Butte, a peak I climbed in 2003. I had never hiked its east side, so this choice even allowed seeing some new terrain. Of course I didn't read the weather reports well enough because on the drive over there it became apparent the peak was shrouded in fog. I didn't bring a map either because I figured I could see the peak from the road and easily find my way. Fortunately someone else was hiking the peak that day also, so I parked by his rig and just started hiking uphill.

From the drive over, it seemed clear that I would probably break out of the fog once I got high enough. Sure enough, that's what happened (right as I was starting to wonder if I was anywhere near the peak...). I ascended the southeast rib, the intended route which is popular due to class 3 rock climbing options it provides. I generally avoided the rock, though it was solid and made the route a little less boring. The entire ascent was uneventful, although up high it was rather slippery because above the clouds it was warm and the melting snow had turned much of the ground into mud.

The lookout on Squaw Butte isn't actually the highest point. The highest point (about 20' higher) is over two miles away on the ridge. Because I got such a late start (leaving the vehicle at about 11:40am) going over there was out of the question. I descended via a different ridge which was both less slippery and less rocky than the one used for ascent.

Despite being good exercise, this wasn't a very rewarding hike because much of the ground was muddy, the terrain was totally torn up by cow grazing, and the peak itself is covered in radio towers. I'm probably developing brain cancer as we speak!

Trip stats: 4.1 miles, 4.5 hours, 2200' gain

Squaw Butte Pictures!

Career Related Ramblings

Since a couple of people have asked for it, this post is a more detailed explanation of my current job - what the company does, what I do there, and what it's like working there.

In November 2008 I resigned as a software engineer at Micron Technology to take a position as a software engineer at Telemetric Corporation. Telemetric's business model is based around selling equipment and services to help utility companies wirelessly monitor equipment in power distribution networks. Because the company's products use the celluar network, they allow remote monitoring of substation equipment without the need for on-site personnel or physical communication lines. These products align the with the current smart grid initiatives, which are intended to make the power grid more fault tolerant, adaptable, and more easily managed.

Once a distribution system is equipped with Telemetric devices, a utility can manage intelligent electronic devices in their distribution network remotely. This means configuration changes can be initiated from the utility's control center rather than requiring a truck be sent out to a remote substation. A monitoring system called a SCADA System can be used to continuously monitor and control devices in the field over the wireless network. Alternately, Telemetric maintains a website for those customers who do not have a SCADA system so they too can monitor and control their devices in the field.

The engineering team has two main groups, a hardware group (which designs and builds the devices) and a smaller software team which maintains the software side (SCADA integration code and the web applications which allow remote monitoring and control). I'm in the software group; my main project to date have been writing software to automatically test the devices. I suspect that my future projects will include website enhancements and possibly also enhancements to the code used for SCADA integration.

So far, it has been a positive change for my career. The work has been interesting and Telemetric is a well-run profitable company with good people. With the economy being what it is, it's hard to feel too comfortable with any job but right now things seem to be as stable as they can be.

Snowshoeing in Wyoming

Since the break in the winter weather continued, Dan and I made another snowshoe trip, this time to the big mountains of the Jackson area. Dan had planned this trip for a long time and it finally came together with the good weather, good road conditions, and schedules.

We left Boise Friday afternoon and made the 6 hour drive to Jackson, stopping for dinner at an Arctic Circle in Idaho Falls. We spent the night at the Jackson Hole Lodge, a decent and reasonably priced motel in town. Saturday morning we got up early and caught the morning light hitting the Tetons. Continuing up the road, we saw moose and buffalo on our way up to Togwotee Pass, the start of the snowshoeing trip.

Brooks Mountain was the first peak on the docket. From the highway, we were able to follow a skier's trail for the first mile or more; when it stopped we had to venture across some questionable terrain before making it into the basin below the peak. From there it was easy going up to the summit ridge and eventually the summit. The summit itself looked steep and forbidding from far away but was actually pretty easy snowshoeing once we got up there. Temperatures were pretty mild (for January at least), probably in the 20s with a little bit of wind. Of course the summit views were astounding and easily some of the best I've seen anywhere. The mountains of Wyoming are a special place!

After making our way down we checked out the National Elk Refuge north of Jackson. Dinner was at the Snake River Brewing Company's brewpub. The place was packed with skiers quaffing beers after a day on the slopes. Their Hawaiian pizza was pretty good, but the Zonker Stout was even better.

On Sunday we ascended Mt. Glory in the morning. This peak is very popular with backcountry skiers; so popular there is hard packed boot path all the way from the highway to the peak. It was a little weird being the only snowshoers; everyone probably thought we were weirdos but of course I'm used to that! The views from up top were impressive but not as spectacular as Brooks Mountain. We made a quick snowshoe descent and were on the road around 11am to begin the long drive back to Boise.

Trip stats:

• Brooks Mountain (5 miles, 6 hours, 2000' gain)
• Mt. Glory (2 miles, 2.5 hours, 1750' gain)

Wyoming Snowshoeing Pictures
Dan's Trip Report

Nevada Snowshoe Trip

The stormy weather pattern finally abated and was replaced with sunny skies and mild temperatures. Despite an ongoing cold, I agreed to join Dan on a snowshoe trip to Ellen D Mountain in northern Nevada. It was close enough to Tabletop Mountain that we could visit both on our trip. We left early Saturday morning (about 6:30am) from Boise and headed over.

The peak is accessed from the mining town of Contact, Nevada. This is basically a ghost town but still has some activity from the operating Enexco Copper Mine. We ran into some bulldozers on the way in and they were doing a drill move which would be tying up the road. Fortunately we didn't need to follow the stretch of road they were utilizing for said operation.

At about 9:45am we got going heading up an unplowed road. Eventually we cut over to the main summit road and followed it all the way up. The temperatures were pretty mild but the wind was pretty chilling, especially near the top where it was strong and continuous. Of course my congested sinuses didn't like this a whole lot! My constant sniffling and sinus pain was the only blight on the day.

Due to the conditions, we didn't spend too long on top. We made a leisurely descent and also made a side trip to nearby Tabletop Mountain. We made it back to the truck shortly thereafter and made our way to Jackpot where we spent the night.

Trip statistics: 6 hours, 7.1 miles, 2700' gain.

Nevada Snowshoe Pictures!
Dan's Trip Report

Weekend Update

Both Katie and I have been suffering from some kind of cold; Katie seems to have gotten it first and then passed it on to me. It's the kind that involves a sore throat and lots of congestion. Katie has gotten over hers but I'm still fighting mine. Hopefully it will clear out within the next couple of days. It's mostly an annoyance but has forced us to stimulate the economy with Kleenex and Tylenol Sinus purchases!

We watched a few movies over the past few weeks: Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Valkyrie. I would say that "Benjamin Button" was my favorite; it is themed on the idea that time is the destroyer of everything and I find that to always be a powerful motif. That movie mixes things up a little by having someone age backwards, which of course inverts the typical life experience.

Friday night we had a nice dinner at the Cottonwood Grille as part of Telemetric's annual holiday dinner. Katie got to meet some of my coworkers and we both got to meet their various family members. Of course we both got treated to a good meal as well! It was a well done corporate event; no cheesy party games or requirements to pay your own way.

Despite my ongoing cold, I went snowshoeing on Saturday with Dan (pictures and trip report forthcoming). We had a great trip, although the cold and wind didn't play that well with my runny nose and sinus pain. We spent the night in Jackpot, Nevada, one of those Nevada border towns in the middle of nowhere that cater to people in other states wanting to gamble. Some of Dan's coworkers were partying down there so we met up with them, hit the buffet for copious amounts of food, then went to their suite to watch the NFL playoffs over a few drinks. Dan went on to play a little poker but I was too tired and went to bed early.

We returned to Boise around mid-day Sunday and Katie and I had a quiet afternoon and evening together. I'll probably have to go to bed early again since this cold isn't moving out as fast as I'd hoped.

This upcoming weekend Dan and I may make another snowshoeing trip to Jackson, Wyoming, if the weather holds. While this frequency of trips may seem excessive, this time of year is Dan's only reprieve from coaching his daughter's softball. Thus we tend to put these trips together when the weather turns nice.

The weather in Boise (and really all of southern Idaho) has turned rather pleasant, almost spring-like. Most of the valley snow has melted and the nice weather is expected to last through the week. Can't complain about that!

One final update. Katie got a rude announcement Friday; NYK Line is laying off all temporary workers within the next month or so. Like everyone else, the shipping industry is seeing the effects of the global recession. Their office uses a lot of them so they will be way short on manpower pretty soon. If the official word is to be believed, Katie's job is not in any immediate danger. However their office has been training some people from Manila, Phillippines, which sounds an awfully lot like a "globalization" (aka outsourcing) initiative to me.

Christmas and New Years

For Christmas, we visited the Shepherd family in Vancouver. For financial reasons, we opted for a driving trip. We left around 1pm on December 23rd, which happened to be perfect timing between northwest snowstorms which have been very common this winter. We had a uneventful trip on dry roads the whole way. We stopped for dinner in Yakima, which was kind of amusing as they were out of pretty much everything. I think it took us four tries to find something on the menu they actually had in stock. Nonetheless, we made it to Vancouver around 11:30pm. As we were arriving in town, the snow started falling.

When we woke up on Christmas Eve, there was over a foot of fresh snow on the ground (see pictures below). Needless to say, this complicated Christmas Eve plans since the roads around town were treacherous and pretty much required a high-clearance, preferably 4wd vehicle. We managed to get the Escape stuck in snow at one point! Despite the conditions, we had a nice lunch with Dave and managed to do a little last-minute shopping.

For Christmas Eve we went to the Shepherd family church, the Kerrisdale Presbyterian Church, for their Christmas Eve service. It is a very nice church and the service was very well done. Afterwards, we finished wrapping Christmas presents and quaffed a few tasty beverages.

On Christmas Day, the snow continued to fall. Despite this, we had a morning family brunch followed by present opening. Later in the evening we had a family Christmas Day dinner. On Boxing Day (aka December 26th), the snow resumed, dropping another foot or so. We had a pretty quiet day followed by another family dinner. Our ability to do much was pretty limited though due to the huge amount of snow around.

Due to questionable road conditions, we determined we needed to leave Saturday the 27th to ensure plenty of time to make it home for work on Monday. So we left Saturday afternoon after a nice lunch at Wing Nuts. Just parking at the restaurant was an ordeal due to the huge amount of snow around.. up to 3 feet in places. It was unreal!

Our drive home was fortunately uneventful as we again managed to sneak between storms. We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Richland, roughly halfway between Vancouver and Boise.

We both had a fairly quiet New Year's Eve. We had a few drinks and watched a movie. Does that make us boring??

Christmas in Vancouver Pictures!

Guffey Butte Hike

On Saturday, Dan and I went on a short hike to a little known butte near the Snake River, just outside of Boise. It was a little bit cold and snowy but still made for an enjoyable 2+ hour hike. Since I haven't been getting out much lately due to the snow, it was very nice to spend some time outdoors!

Guffey Butte Pictures!
Dan's Trip Report

Goings on...

Nothing too eventful has been going on at the Vickery abode. Last weekend, I went hiking on Saturday and on Sunday we watched the movie Australia. We both liked the movie, which is a very watchable (if a little overly dramatic) historical epic. The Hollywood elements are a little overdone... but that's the movies I suppose!

This weekend we have mostly been doing Christmas shopping and getting cards and packages ready to mail. Yes, we do wait until the last minute! Hopefully once we get things mailed in the next day or two we'll have most of our work completed.

For those that haven't heard, we will be spending Christmas in Vancouver with the Shepherd clan. We will likely drive all night (cue the Celine Dion song) from Boise after I get off from work on the 23rd. Since I have a new job, I have little time off to use and thus we are forced into a compressed trip. Of course, if I had stayed at Micron, I'd be forced to take 2 or 3 weeks off for Christmas. Choices choices!

Boise did finally get some real winter weather this weekend. So far the winter has been mild but it looks like it will be snowy and icy for the next several days at least. Hopefully things warm up before our upcoming trip!

Our house on Sunday:


View down the street:

South Mountain Hike

Last weekend, Dan and I decided to take a hike up to South Mountain in the Owyhee Mountains south of Boise. Despite it being December, little snow had fallen in the mountains and this remote area was still accessible. Dan and I had an easy hike in surprisingly warm weather with very little snow. After visiting the lookout atop South Mountain, we made a quick ascent of nearby Peak 7757.

After our trip, we returned home and had a late lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant while watching the SEC Championship Game. Go Gators!

South Mountain Pictures!
Dan's Trip Report