"...but this is my world..."

With regards to whomever might be stopping by this site on the rare occassion I figured an update was inorder. My last few weeks have been hectic to say the least, on all ends, so without further introduction let me say that these photos are the work in progress we like to call Madison Ave down here at Moonlight.

Above is our new Wintersteiger machine getting moved by the front end loader and put into our repair shop.

Madison Ave: Earlier on, over a week ago. Eventually snow will be groomed up flush with all the boardwalks.

So, we have a retail, a rental, and a repair shop making up our department thus far. My job has recently rotated (it didnt change a lot, it just shifted) from the retail supervisor to a sort-of backdoor retail maintenance position where im doing most of the computer work and tag printing. im hoping this will be a looser riding schedule, but who knows....with how our snow has been so far I haven't missed out on much. The bottom line for our dept. down here is that if we had opened on time (turkey day) we woulda been screwed- everything is becoming more and more streamlined the later it takes us to open, so hopefully things should go smoothly....

....and finally, this was from the other morning when i went out to start my car. Stay Tuned...

Keep Your Head To The Sky

i can't sit still when my head is spinning lately. Getting nauseous from the fumes of expectancy and premonitions- feelings of regret like 'i could have definetly avoided that' are all too numerous. Don't get me wrong though- to this day i still regret no decision ive made, its just that....well, i guess with the good has to come the bad, or else the balance would be way off.

I believe in balance. I also believe that almost none of you reading this have any idea tangibly what im talking about, but thats ok. This uncommented tiny corner of the internet can for this post be just considered my vent space, because i no longer have someone to vent my frustrations/joys/pains/etc. to anymore.

But I do believe in balance, as my convenient astrological sign would suggest. And I sincerely do believe that 6 months from now I will look back at this cataclysmic blow to my life out here and understand it in some rhyme or reason- maybe not even 6 months but longer, or shorter. It will come though.

Nothing I can muster resembles any type of premonition as far as whats to come out of all of this. I do recognize the fact though that I have spent so much energy over the past 9 months making someone as happy as I could, maybe those energies could (and should) be directed to something more constructed and creative in my life, and perhaps in turn be a more fruitful endeavor? I can't say.

What I have and can say is though that I do sincerely regret nothing, and everything happens for a reason. The hardest thing for me personally however is letting things play themselves out. I remember starting college in Chicago, an excited 20 year old, walking by a wall outside my first classes. The energy of the city was so alive with potential- i was excited as to what the city could (and would) offer me, but moreso I was excited to see what the city would do to me- or better put my understanding and perspective in life. That period of my life felt like a horizon, where I could look on to infinity but the glare was so strong my eyes would squint to even catch a glimpse. Anyways, I walked by a wall outside my first class, to bear the words tagged in large and intrusive lettering, questioning the reader "have you ever forced it?" To be honest, at the time I was looking for the joke in it. After 4 years there I definetly began to understand what it meant, but now- i think 7 years since that moment.....well let's just say thats only one of the definitions ive read in the past to be learned in the future....

Moonlight Basin Bound

Goodbye, Shipping & Receiving...we had some fun together this summer, lots of running with sharp objects and what-not....but, well, come Halloween IT's OVER. Had a good run, but hopefully things are getting betta. I'm moving over to Moonlight to help MJ run the retail op's snowboarding stuff...and with the other MJ doin the park over there this year should be a little more than interesting!

This is a good way to kill some time...

This track is on heavy rotation....well for the beat + ghost' verse at least.

I got a new cellphone...recently

Think me and jenny are gonna check out The Departed this afternoon...heard it was real good...

...and that's all i got right now....stay tuned...

Garnet Lookout Cabin

After climbing four miles, 2 in the rain and 2 in the snow, wood heat has never felt better...

Seriously, the woodstove in this cabin is amazing. There's no water or electricity up there, but the view alone is enough to keep anyone entertained.

The 4 of us plus Howie relaxed and had a great evening. Around 4am I woke up and everything was in black and white- it felt like a lucid dream. When we all crashed around 1am a snow storm socked us in and nothing was visible, however after that passed the full moon came out and everything was visible around from the moonlight. I watched a cloud go by and had to ask myself if i was really awake....

this trip was ALL about relaxing when we got up there, and the trip was definetly worth it. I don't feel like these pictures capture very much of the experience, but i guess i can't expect them to, everything felt so much larger from up there.

On the hike down we did see a wolf from a distance away. besides a few deer that was the only animal encounter we had. Just a lot of views and booze....

this was the best 40 bucks ive spent in awhile....

...A Less Jaded Monday...

Friday found me in a 'sick of it all' position i guess, im not sure exactly. Well after work Jenny and I rode up to Moonlight to check out the snow line and how much had fallen and poof! she spots 2 moose eating leaves off trees. The mom was BIG, and the calf was still large but not as big (understandbly...) That's mom up top, and below you can see both, but not well...


We thought about trying to go ride downhill up at the resort on Saturday but those lazy goons were taking the entire day off...what ridiculousness, a perfect day to ride mtn bikes in a couple inches of snow. We took matters into our own hands and did a 12 mile shuttle trip from Portal Creek over to Porcupine Creek. Almost half of the trip I would say we had to push, but when we got to the downhill it was amazin...fun and FAST.....

I think the whole excursion took about 4 or 5 hours. It was definetly the workout for the weekend, by the end of the push we all were losing serious confidence that the trail would ever go down.

Sunday we took a stroll into Bozeman and caught the flick Beerfest and it was, well, fun! Not the greatest movie ever made but who would be expecting that? A good time for sure though...

...and thats whats up up here....

Thoughts On A Friday In September

I'm over it for sure. Summers been chill around here, with your general buffet line of activities previously mentioned, but like i said- i'm over it.

I was about to leave work, because-well, im over that too, and came out the loading dock to a cloud of freezing rain. Generally it doesn't rain for long up here, and whenever it does its a cheerful welcome to the dry conditions we usually see in early/mid september. True, theres been talk of snow today and tomorrow for this reason, and with all the wildfires going on thats a great thing. I'm also over the off-season, and that has yet to even begin....

My dad took the above photo almost exactly a month ago, around the same time snow first laced both lone and the spanish peaks. The photo to me represents any moment in time in this area, whether it be winter, summer, a month ago or 2 million years ago, the mountain has been here and continues despite the rising level of real estate being constructed around it. Which brings me to my next point, (youre going somewhere with this?!?!) Escramble is Volcom's newest flick that has been 2 years in the making and has recently debuted in my inexpensive dvd player from a viewing point on my free couch. At first take it's a beautiful mess- a snowboard flick with no names next to every shot, no english dialogue in the entire piece, basically none of your stock convention tactics film companies have set up in your traditional version of a snowboard flick. After watching it repeatedly there is a much more cohesive understanding of what goes on, ideas of how not only pros but snowboarders themselves feel such a connection with the mountains that they feel the need to coexist with them and push limitations. It isn't about who did that 5 off that 40 footer and where it was filmed- what im trying to say is that by eliminating the conventional snowboard film tactics they heighten awareness to other reasons these people are doing what they do.

Probably the same reasoning as to why Jaime Lynn returns to snowboard films with this project.

To note that is to point out the undeniable highlight of the film: the legends sesh with Iguchi, Hakonsen, and Lynn. Terje admits he's afraid of his own decisions in the mountains and Guch cooks up sushi. Did i mention theres claymation in this movie? Brilliant.

My last parting thoughts on this friday in september? there was an atrocious list created by someone at one of the major snowboard mags to conclude last seasons thoughts, things this person was sick of.
I would quote who said them and the mag+ the lists, but at this point it all blends together. Ridiculous quotes, like "Stop doing frontside boardslides! We are sick of them!" linger in my mind, so i figure I'd do my own list for this winter.

*If you are in northwestern WY on a pow filled morning, forget everything every ski/snowboard mag has ever told you and DO NOT GO TO JACKSON HOLE. Your magic pow day will be Chop-City starring You and Whoever You Brought Witcha. Go over teton pass (if you happen to be towing a sled just rock that sh!t instead) and go to Grand Targhee. You will, in return, receive more snow than Jackson gets+ less people! Doesn't that sound like what you're looking for now?

*If you read the recent issue of TWS' "Backcountry Gate Guide" and now feel like you are informed enough to go through these gates (god help you) I recommend buddying up with someone quick thats a local. Backcountry isn't something you are going to get better at this year like, say your backside 3's....it's more like a level you get to in Zelda after your older brother showed you how to get the dope boomerang. Guides are imperative to leaving controlled situations, especially at a new resort.
But...
If you feel you 'know' your b/c skills, then I recommend skipping the day at most of the resorts listed in TWS' 'guide' and going over to Moonlight Basin. Seriously, dudes who wrote that up woulda told you to do that but they still haven't even been.....

*When you get your new stick let somebody tune that thing for you please.
AND
*When you get your new bindings don't put them on backwards then get pissed because shopdude points it out to you.

Seriously thats all i got for now. Enough with the ramblings....

Summer Finale Roadtrip - Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park has been on the list all summer, it was a place everyone told us we had to experience if we were in montana in the summer. It's about 7 hours away, so friday night when we left we stopped in Missoula for the night. Stayed at the Bel Aire Motel, went out for drinks and left early sat AM for Glacier.

None of us had been there before, so everything we went off was things learned from reading things online and books. Our first night was at Avalanche campground. It was a little tight as far as campsites cramped together, but we only were there to sleep. This very old cedar tree was something of a sight coming from SW montana.

Avalanche Lake. This was about a 2 mile hike up to this basin with a lake in the middle. All along the wall you can see waterfalls coming down that feed into the lake: those are coming from glaciers of snow and ice above. During the daytime it was hot though, so seeing snow was surreal.

That's Justin swimming around in Kintla Lake. Kintla lake is located waaaay up in the nortwest corner of the park. We were literally 10 miles from the border of Canada when we were up here. I went swimming in Kintla (jenny did too) but i mostly just got my knees wet. It was amazing how frigid the water was only a little ways from shore. This location was roughly a 4 mile hike in. On the way out at dusk we had an encounter with a large black bear which was very cool, and we heard an ENORMOUS tree fall in the woods- the whole forest just shook and echoed for a minute after. That doesnt happen very often, hearing trees fall in the woods, just reminded us how much different of a pace time moves when people aren't involved.

Left: Boundary Mountains/ Canada. These mountains were amazing, we chilled here for awhile.

Going to the Sun Road. We had already been in the park a few days and hadn't made this trip yet. It's a staple thing that you have to do in the park, the most notable feature in Glacier. The engineering that went into building this road is ridiculous, and you'll never find a crazier public road in this country. The views are spectacular, as you would imagine.

Below is the north west corner of the park called Many Glacier. We didnt get to spend too much time up there, but it looked sweet when we cruised up there.

On the way out of the park we spent the afternoon at Macdonald Creek, which reminded me of a spot in NH off the Kangamangus Highway called Lower Falls. This was even more crazy though, the rocks looked all carved out like they were from another planet.

This water is cold! Justin was going to jump in right there- he saw a spot that was about 3 feet wide that looked deep enough. Crazy kid.

Jenny didn't swim here, but it was so cold she probably had the right idea. We completely stumbled upon this spot also, a little more planning we would have spent more time here.

So a lot of car camping went down! Next time we definetly want to plan a backcountry trip and get away from all the people there, but for a first time trip Glacier was incredible!

And that's all I got right now....

What Yo Life Can Truly Be...

"Saturday's are for you to see...."

In a real "Sure, why not?" way jenny and i went to the Patagonia Outlet store for some sweet deals, and they had that! Got some fresh drawers and a new shirt. From there we realized that the Lewis and Clark Caverns weren't that far away, so we went for it.

To go into these you gotta have a tour guide and listen to all of his lame jokes, but the caverns are very cool and worth the trip and cost (10$).

It was hard to get picts in there because of the light, and my flash wasn't playing with me well, so i went without the flash and just upped it later on the comp. Very cool, like I said.

After the tour we decided to go check The Descent for a horror movie version of what we did, kinda. Well it was crazy and these monsters showed up towards the end to wrap things up quicker. Its never really explained who or what these things are so I kinda lost interest in them. Overall it was cool to go see a movie about caves, but its proally fine to catch on HBO or rent sometime. That new Will Ferrell movie is like 50 minutes long?!?!? We opted for the descent instead....

That evening we got back to Big Sky late and car camped at the base of lone tree over at moonlight. Middle of the night it got cold, but it was great to wake up there early....I was hoping to see some animals just wandering around near the car, but nothing!

Sunday morning after some Coral breakfast we did the recently constructed new hiking/XC biking trail that zig zags andesite across wardance and elk park then back for a total around 4 miles or so. It was beautiful. Andesite is so much greener a mountain than Lone, mountain biking trails could litter this mountain and it would be amazing.....too bad that isn't even being considered as an option up here....



...and from what I can tell that'll be my weekend...Family is coming into town tomorrow for about a week so that should be great for them. I wanted to pass along to anyone passing by a Great new Outkast track from their new album/movie Idlewild....there has been like 4 or 5 leaks to this album, but for me this is the only one really worth mentioning thus far. I have much more anticipation for the movie than the album to be honest, but time will tell...

The Train - Outkast

And in case you haven't seen the trailer for it, check out.....
Idlewild- The Movie Trailer

A brilliant man once told me: "every day is a gift"....

The Heat is Off!

Went to the the park a few days ago. That place is BUSY in the summer, we went into the mall-like area at Old Faithful and it was swamped with people. There was a few hundred foot line of people buying cinnamon buns- i thought i was in hell...

Damn- you can visit, but the Buffalo live there and act like it! Cars just back up, tourists get out of their cars to shoot photos, its crazy. These animals will gore you! they almost goured my bumper....

Smiling Billy Suite Pt. 2 - The Heath Brothers
^^^^^^^^^
Nas fans take note...vibe fans as well (the instrument, not the mag...)
canyahea'meinnthaback?

Hot Chicks with Douchebags!

Did The Jack Come Back?

I'm still a little confused who this Jack person is, or if he ever came back on friday. I do know there were 30 local breweries that did show up on friday and brought a slew of IPA's to sample. It was a good time. I decided to pick up my side job of djing again for lucrative purposes and the idea of possibly catching this Jack guy. Well it was a hit/miss afternoon, but everything went together fine. Lotsa requests for "maiden" and a lady who had my drunk-a$$ yelling into my headphones as a microphone to announce the winner of some raffle. Good times.

Here's a mix for anyone to download I did a couple years ago when I first moved out here. Enjoy.

Pancakes! (1:05:40)

things i've been interested in lately...

A lot of the biggest Parliament Funkadelic's hits were initially spawned from George Clinton's earlier group, The Parliaments.

I'll Wait-The Parliaments
I'll Stay Funkadelic
I'll Stay The RH Factor feat. D'Angelo

Copywrights and ideas of ownership on song titles, group titles, have always been a funny thing to me.
Speaking on that: Here's another example of someone who had to adjust his name with his career...

InterludeDj Honda feat. Common Sense

I played a show last night up here in Big Sky and had a great time with it. I had my camera in my pocket but never took any photos for some reason. Exhausted today though....

The incredible machine

YouTube is an amazing site....

I straightjacked this from NahRight but how could I not? Charles Barkley for Governor of Alabama? aight then......


If anyone from Big Sky is checking this: I'll be back out playing records this saturday at "The Jack is Back!" Brewfest at Whiskey Jacks in the Mountain Mall, right here at Big Sky Resort.....and tentatively Jon from Illsauce will be playing along with me, me with him, whatever way you wanna look at it. That above phtoe is me rockin da chucks on lu's roof in manhattan a few months ago...oeaceo!

Good Morning

...my camera has been MIA for awhile, but weekends have consisted of floating down either the madison of the jefferson, and then a day of downhill riding. Work is work, and life is life, but it's monday- here's a great track...
Hung Up On My Baby - Isaac Hayes
Good Stuff.

Have a Good Day.

Cliff Lake Camping

What an incredible lake- I had no idea such lakes existed in Montana. Formed in 1959 by an earthquake around 7 on the richter scale, this lake was formed in such a way. In has shallow sandy areas and is green, like a lagoon. I swore we were in a horror movie, finding such a pristine piece of montana that seemed out of place, just for the sake of irony. This is Justin, guarding the fire you could say, all night.

We were first going to camp in this cove shown above. There was an otter that lived down there who seemed playful and friendly enough, but there was a large nest of two osprey (you can see in the photo above) and when we arrived the male made a lot of noise and then circled us with a massive wingspan. We could see mosquitos hatching in the shallow water at this site, and determined there were better spots we could be at- or at least less buggy.

This site was about a mile hike from the car. We only made this trip an overnighter, but in the future have definite plans to go bigger with the trip- canoes and more food, more time spent being lazy next to the lake, floating time, the site demands more attention, and so does the lake. The water was so clear, and in the morning I saw a 13 inch trout cruise by in the shallows a half dozen times.

Like I said before: I didn't think a place like this existed in Montana....

Downhill Mountain Biking

Garnet Mountain in the Gallatin Canyon is a about 4 miles to the top, and about 20 minutes to get down. We pushed up this last week and had an amazing ride down. These shots are from the hike up.

That above turn is literally on a cliff. There are some switchbacks on this trail that one could lose their bike on if going too fast.

It's beautiful exploring all the different angles of this area, and how they all connect though hiking and biking trails. It's always an adventure with exploration, and with the chance encounters with wildlife can make everything more interesting. Large moose move like dinosaurs i think...

A few days ago Rob and I built a bridge with our day off. It was great, just being outside building something on a sunny day. I got a great sunburn im still dealing with.

Just bought a new bike also, well new to me at least. Work is work, and the mountain just opened with lift service for downhill riding. It should be a good summer. I'm doing some research on some extended backpacking trips in the are to take a long weekend with. Anyone interested in visiting should get into it, because the weather is amazing, theres not too many bugs, and it doesnt get dark until around 10pm.

That's it for now....