Huh.  Did I really leave Asia more than three months ago?  Yep- I guess so.  It is now the middle of June, and my last blog was back in late February.  So what have I been up to?  Well, certainly not all I intended on being up to, but somehow life has a way of making me bend to its will.  I'm bending.

Upon returning to the States I began working for Peak Performance in Joshua Tree National Park, as is common for me to do in the Spring and Fall.  I worked with some great kids from Marin Country Day School and Polytechnic School who I took backpacking and rock climbing in remote areas of the park.  Between courses I visited the "Integetron".  What the heck is an Integetron?  Why, it's a machine built by aliens of course!  Ok- not exactly.  The machine was built by George Van Tassel in 1959, after he was visited by some friendly folks from Venus (would you call them Venetians?) who told him to build the thing.  Unfortunately the machine was never finished, so it wasn't able to create the positive ion field needed to increase human life expectancy twenty years, but hey, you can't blame a guy for trying.  Check it out on wikipedia:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Van_Tassel  

After my escapades in the desert I headed for Bellingham, WA, where I had spent the winter before.  I was excited to attend training for Odyssey Wilderness Programs, which consisted of rote memorization of curriculum, mission statements, core competencies, risk assessment models, and protocol.  We were then tested verbally and in written form before being cast-out on the Olympic Coast with fellow instructors who acted like at-risk youth.  Days started at 5:30am, and finished around 1am.  We hiked in the dark and the rain, taught navigation classes and camping skills, and practiced our therapeutic skills on one another until we wanted to kick each other in a very unprofessional manner.  Then we boarded a longboat.  Longboats were once used as lifeboats aboard Tall Ships, as well as for exploring shallow waters and traveling up major waterways inland.  Ours was called "The Resolution", and we rowed and sailed it for the following six days around the San Juan Islands.  Fourteen of us slept aboard its 26 foot length, double deckered on the floor boards and oars which were laid flat over the top of the seats to create a second platform.  We all relieved ourselves in a bucket on the bow, which required use of commands like "Eyes Aft!", and "Ahoy!  'Tis a mass of gas!".

Following training, I joined my friend Dave on a trip to Bend, OR so I could recertify my Wilderness First Responder.  The class was a load of fun, with one of the instructors cracking jokes left and right, and explaining how an 'inny' could actually become an 'outy' if a hernia occurs in just the wrong way.  I've always wanted to know what it's like to have an outy, so I spent the next two days trying to rupture my abdominal wall as I climbed at Smith Rocks in Bend.  Then it was back to Bellingham to wait for work.  And wait for work.  And wait for work.  But nothing.  Bad economy has meant low numbers of admissions, which means a little work divided a lot of ways.  So, it was back to teaching martial arts, and I began to make a modest sum (very, very modest) teaching private lessons and evening classes at a gym in Bellingham.  Check-out my profile under "instructors" at http://www.usmaa.us/.  I also began spending more time with mountain rescue folks, tying knots, untying knots, talking about knots, and not tying knots.  I am proud to say that I now do not know how many knots I've knotted over the past few days I've spent knotting knots that I previously did not know.

And then Bonom came for a visit, and as always happens when Bonom and I get together, thousands of feet of elevation were ascended in a matter of a few days.  We attended a talk by the infamous Dean Karnazes- an ultra-endurance athlete who has- among other things- run across the major deserts of the world, including a good section of Antarctica.  Ah, what a great vacation.  With inspiration in our pockets we woke at 5am every day for an uphill run or mountain climb, followed by a swim, and a bout of rock climbing as we made our way north through Van Couver, Squamish, and Whistler, then east through the North Cascades, and Northeast to Mt. Baker.

Then I arrived back in Bellingham and promptly contacted Thom Henley, who I worked for in Thailand and Indonesia as a trip leader and environmental educator.  He told me work was available, and to get my butt to the Skeena River east of Prince Rupert in BC in late June.  So- that's where I'm headed.  You can see my description on his website under "Who we are": http://www.in-touch-with-nature-education.com/who/who.htm.  My life is as unpredictable as ever, despite my plans to "settle down" this year.  Bellingham does feel like a home in the making, and I hope that some how, some day, some way I will actually be able to find work that allows me to stay put.  It's getting rediculous.

I hope you are all well in all those place you all call home!
Glen