Snake Eating a Chipmonk

Jessica came out to Colorado after my Colorado Trail trip. One of the first things we did in Boulder was to take a hike in Chautauqua to the Royal Arch. The highlight:

Colorado Trail Part 2

I didn't finish the Colorado Trail. From June 28 to July 9, I hiked from Breckenridge to Twin Lakes.

After I hurt my foot, I knew I didn't have time to finish the trail. So instead of pushing miles, I brought a fly rod and decided to spend some time fly fishing and climbing mountains.

I fished the East Fork of the Eagle River near Camp Hale and caught a bunch of brook trout. All of them were small. I kept 4 fish and roasted them over a fire.

A few days later I fished a set of beaver ponds near the point where the Mount Elbert trail diverges from the Colorado Trail near Twin Lakes. Here I caught a lot of 8 to 10 inch brook trout and some 10-16 inch cutthroat trout.

I also climbed a minor peak between Breckenridge and Copper Mountain and Mount Ebert near Leadville. Mount Elbert is 14,443 feet above sea level and the highest peak in Colorado.

Colorado Trail Part 1

So I made it to Breckenridge before I hurt my right heel. Nothing serious, thankfully, but I wanted to give myself a few days before moving on. My right heel is a little swollen and it hurts to walk in boots with a pack. Other than that, I've perfectly fine (but a little sore). I'm headed back out by Sunday, June 28th.

Colorado Trail

I’ve been home in Boulder for 3 months. I’m ready to leave again.

Iain and Mikka, two friends from Hanoi, recently came out to visit me in Colorado. Iain and Mikka are leaving for China at the end of June. Mikka’s got a great photoblog, complete with a post about Colorado.

Instead of going abroad, tomorrow I’m off to solo hike the Colorado Trail.

The Colorado Trail starts outside of Denver and winds through the Colorado Rockies for 500 miles to the town of Durango in the southwest of the state. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time planning and preparing. I estimate that the whole thing will take 28 days.

My Dad is meeting me a few times on the trail to resupply me with food, which is fantastic because it means I don’t have to carry 28 days of food, I only have to carry a week’s worth. 28 days of food is about 55 pounds.

Right now, with a full week’s worth of food, my pack weighs about 45 pounds. I’m pretty sure I over packed, but at this point it’s hard to say what I won’t need. Next weekend, when I meet my Dad outside Breckenridge to resupply, I’ll send any unnecessary gear back with him to lighten my pack.

Being alone for a month is what worries me the most. I’ve spent plenty of time in the backcountry, but never this much time alone in the backcountry.

Also, it’s been an incredibly wet spring / early summer in Colorado. Every day for the past few weeks it’s rained. I don’t mind backpacking the rain, but I hope I get some good weather too.

Interesting fact: the average elevation of the Colorado Trail is over 10,000 feet. The low point is outside of Denver at approximately 6,000 feet and the high point is well over 13,000 feet.

I'm bringing a camera, so I'll post some photos when I finish.

Homeward Bound

Currently I am sitting in the airport in Saigon waiting for my flight to Hong Kong to board: with one year in Vietnam under my belt, I’m headed for America. I bought my ticket three or four weeks ago and now I have mixed feelings about returning.

Tuesday I flew from Hanoi to Saigon. Leaving was difficult. I said goodbye to Ben and Huyen outside our house — it was very sad. Jessica took a cab with me to the airport and we said goodbye (hopefully more like see you later, in four or five or six months) at security. (See Ben's blog and Jessica's blog)

Ben found two couples to move into our house, meaning Ben’s going from 1 roommate to 4 roommates, but it’s only for six weeks because after that Ben’s returning to the States, but unfortunately he’s going alone because Huyen didn’t get her visa. Ben’s planning on returning to Huyen and Vietnam next winter sometime, after traveling for a bit and maybe teaching in Japan or Russia.

In Saigon, Hien, Linh, and Au took me out to dinner. My last meal in Vietnam was a selection of different types of spring rolls (nem). Then we went for beers with Zach, a guy who’s teaching in Saigon. Zach grew up in south Denver, less than an hour from where I grew up, and graduated from the same university in the same year as me. We never met until last December in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

There are positives and negatives to leaving Vietnam. I’ve met a lot of great people here and the country is amazing and offers a lifestyle that I can’t replicate at home.

Positives:

• I get to see my friends and family back home, which I’m really excited about.
• Skiing/mountains/other fun.
• I have some trips roughly sketched out:

1. I am going to visit my grandparents in Arizona in April and maybe going to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City also.
2. Iain and Mikka, two friends/co-workers from Hanoi, are going to California in April. Iain’s Scottish and has never been to America and Mikka grew up in San Francisco. They’re planning on spending a few months traveling around America before going to teach in Japan. We’re hoping to rendezvous in Colorado or elsewhere.
3. I’ve been talking to my friend Dave about flying to DC in May when his finals are finished, help him pack and drive to Chicago, then fly home from Chicago. We discussed touring bourbon country in Kentucky on the way. Airfare for such a trip was absurdly cheap when I priced it a few weeks ago.
4. Ben and Jessica will both be in New Jersey next summer, plus Steve will be in New York after he finishes his escapades in Israel. I have never been to New York.
5. Jessica got accepted to a masters degree program in international education in Vermont, which she’ll start in September. I have never been to Vermont.

Negatives:

• I’m leaving the people I’ve met in Vietnam over the past year.
• I’m going from a country where I can easily get a job because my primary qualification is that I’ve spoken English all my life to a country where I may not be able to get a job at all.
• I’m going from living in a five-story house with one roommate to living with my parents.
• I’m trading in my motorbike for whatever car my parents aren’t driving at the time.
• I’m going from a place where a beer costs $1.25 and a nice meal at a restaurant costs $6.00 to a place where a beer costs $4.00 and a nice meal at a restaurant costs $15.00.
• I’m going from a place where I can walk into a DVD shop and buy most any movie for $1.00 to a place where a DVD rental costs a few dollars.
• I’m going from a place where a bowl of pho costs $1.00 to a place where a bowl of pho costs $6.00 or $7.00.

The plan right now is to return to the States and start looking for a job in the environmental/experiential/outdoor education field. That sort of work would take me through the summer, but it wouldn’t start until May-ish. I’m returning now because most of those jobs require training in wilderness medicine. The most convenient course starts next Saturday in Boulder. After next summer, I have no idea what I’ll do. The preliminary options are return to Asia to teach or work at a ski area, but I don’t like to plan more than six months at a time: too restrictive.

On the up side, I have an interview scheduled for Thursday when I get home. And my mom is cooking French toast tomorrow morning.

One of the big jokes around the school I taught at is that everyone comes back to Hanoi. It’s not hard to see why.

Tam Đảo

Yesterday, Jessica and I took an overnight trip to Tam Đảo, aka the Đà Lạt of the North. While I’ve never been to Đà Lạt (located north of Sài Gòn in the central highlands), I can say that Tam Đảo is a great place for a weekend retreat from Hanoi.

Tam Đảo is a French Hill station from back when the French built hill stations. It’s 60 km outside of Hà Nội in the mountains. Since it is March, Tam Đảo was considerably colder than the lowlands. The forests are beautiful and as soon as you start driving up the mountain you can feel the air become cleaner and sweeter, not to mention cooler. In addition to the forest, there are a few nice waterfalls near the town.

Vietnamese Motorbike License

I finally got a motorbike license. After many delays, I was able to take the motorbike driving test. I got to skip the written test because I already have a Vietnamese driver's license, which I had transferred from my Colorado driver's license.

The first time I tried to take the motorbike driving test, I didn't bring a critical document, meaning I couldn't take the test. Luckily Huyen had come with me, otherwise there is no way I would have known what I was missing — no one spoke English.

I rescheduled for another day, but I couldn't find a time that worked for me until two months later. This time I was on my own. When the day finally came, I went to the licensing office and was told to sit in a room with some other Vietnamese people. Finally, after 30 minutes, my name was called by a woman who lead me and some others into another room with desks. In that room I waited for 20 minutes before a man told the group I was sitting with to go upstairs. I was instructed via hand gestures to remain behind.

As I waited, the next group came in and sat down. One of them spoke enough English to tell me what was going on. You do not speak Vietnamese. You cannot take the test without a translator. With the help of my friend, I explained to the man that I didn't have to take the test and showed him my driving license. Another 20 minutes went by.

I was allowed upstairs to the testing room with the next group. They took one look at my driving license and immediately gave me a paper and sent me downstairs where I was directed across the large parking lot to a small table with an older Vietnamese man sitting with a stack of papers. He was watching people take the driving test in front of him and marking scores on their paper. I handed my paperwork to him and took a seat.

20 minutes later my name was called. I walked to the start of the course and got on the provided motorbike. The provided helmet was huge and lacked a chin strap — not exactly safe. The driving test was basically an obstacle course. First there was a giant figure eight which I had to follow three times around, then out of the figure eight and onto a narrow line which I had to stay on, then a U turn followed by a series of zigs and zags while avoiding the lines, then a U turn and a series of small speed bumps. The whole test took 4 minutes, but the entire time a crowd of Vietnamese people were watching me. They normally watch each other anyway, but I think they were especially interested in the foreigner taking the test.

I did very well on my motorbike test and I passed on the first try. The older man doing the grading spoke some English and he proceeded to tell me how handsome I was and how well I drove a motorbike, then asked me what I though of the Vietnamese girls. He gave me a paper and told me to come back in three or four weeks to pick up the motorbike license.

I was a process for sure, but it's a good souvenir. The motorbike license and the car license look identical, but a different box is checked on the back. You think they could just check both boxes on one license, but no, that's not the way Vietnam works.