It’s time to ramble. The past week or so was full of random events, goals, and adventures. It was all good but I feel as if I need to write about it with hopes to find some structure. I’ll start with the mountain bike trip near the Slocan, in British Columbia.

Paul Anderson, a man famous for his rock climbing accomplishments as one of the pioneers of the sport and the first person to climb a 5.11 in the U.S., has discovered the joys of the mountain bike. His goal is to sequence a series of trails, from east to west, that stretch from nearly the eastern side of British Columbia to the western side. The trails are derived from resurrected and modified train tracks that were purchased by the Canadian government and donated to local clubs for maintenance and general stewardship. Paul has plans of riding a 30 mile stretch of the trails once a week. To do this he needs a partner with another vehicle to ditch at one end of the trail and use the other to ferry back. Paul is actively recruiting and I was one of the fellas that he asked. I couldn’t turn the opportunity down so I went along. The ride was fairly easy but the scenery was breathtaking. The ride started at the southern end of Lake Slocan and paralleled the Slocan River with views of Valhalla Provincial Park and a unique and wonderful peak called Gimli Peak (which I will hike to or summit one day).

The next day I had plans to white water kayak but those failed to materialize so I went on a few nature hikes around the property where I picked up four more tick points and discovered a huge limestone bouldering rock with some kind of den underneath. The next day I went mountain biking with friends up a strenuous trail to the east of Sheep Creek Road. It was a good ride with a steep and fast descent. Following that I went to soccer practice. The next day I had a soccer game in Canada. We were able to field a full team so I wasn’t responsible for the entire midfield this time. I exhausted myself a couple of times but it wasn’t as bad as last week, the day after Bloomsday.

Tuesday my dad and I met up with a fella in Colville and we three headed to Leavenworth for a 4-H Challenge Instructor’s training in rock climbing. That was an incredible experience which I really should write a dedicated post for. The other attendees were fully supportive of my dad and my efforts to get a non-profit outdoor school started. The training was a great refresher for my climbing knowledge and incredibly valuable for methods of teaching kids new skills in a fun and safe manner. Leavenworth was amazing with warm weather and high water flow in the Wenatchee River (darn cold though), beautiful granite, and great climbs. I plan on going back.

I got back from the training a couple of days again but was sick with either the flu or heat exhaustion until today. So the past two days I sat around being unproductive and worthless which was nice (I played Dragon Quest VIII for like 16 hrs – which is odd for me because I’m not a big gamer) but has caused a great stir of renewed determination to get crap done again.

The temperature finally isn’t dipping down below 40 F so we can finish up the master bedroom and start building the library shelves, the tomato plants are ready to be transplanted and general planting is finally safe, the barb wire is ready to be stretched, kayak season is in full force, a huge snow ball effect has started with the non-profit which I need to roll with, I need to make up a bunch of hours for my ‘real’ job, and I need to start developing some climbing routes with my pops. No more Dragon Quest.

This post was the final catalyst. It’s zoom time.

The Palouse starts south of Spokane and is readily apparent. Small mountains vanish from the foreground and are replaced with rolling farmland, devoid of trees and covered in wheat. Upon entering the Palouse I was overcome with a strong urge to speak to myself in Spanish and yell things like “donde esta las montanas?” and “Ahhh… esta bonita, no?”. Perhaps it triggered something deeply embedded in me, something from the old west, of cowboys, and ranchers. Or it was just a result of driving for three hours without radio.

The view from Highway 195, south of Spokane, the Palouse Loess is nearly ubiquitous. A few road cuts expose ancient basalt with origins from a volcano near the corner of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, called the Grande Ronde volcano, which was active during the late Miocene. The numerous eruptions make up the region in southestern Washington know as the Columbia Plateau. In the far eastern distance the foothills of the Rockie Mountains rise up above the flood basalt flows. One such hill, similar to those in the distance, is much closer. It is little over five miles from Highway 195 and is named Steptoe Butte.

Steptoe Butte is composed of rock much older than any other around. The rock was here before the basalt floods and before the loess was blown here from the glacial outwash plains. It stood tall before the conglomerate of exotic islands that compose Washington State were united, before the Kootani Arc was formed and even before life had evolved. Steptoe Butte is made up of Precambrian belt sedimentary rock and is over a billion years old.

There is a campground at the base of the butte and a road that spirals up to the peak. The road allows nearly everyone an easy way to the top but scars the hill’s facade. I, of course, had to reach the top. The road was narrow. Big trucks barreled down swerving into the middle of the road so I was forced to move inches from the edge just to avoid them. Large rocks sat in my path, marmots scurried all around me, and no guardrail was present. By the time I got to the top I felt as if I just drove through the gauntlet. It was worth it as I was rewarded with an amazing view of the Palouse and its huge sky rich with cumulus clouds. In less than three months I will be one of the many specks in these vast plains and I am nothing but excited about it.

The following are just setup notes I took while I was setting up Flex Builder Linux with subversion control on a fresh Ubuntu 8.04 install. It’s not a pretty tutorial but I figured someone might be able to use them.

Installing Flex Builder on Ubuntu

- Download Java
	- search for 'sun-java' in synaptic
		- error downloading
	- update Synaptic
	- download works
	- add the PATH (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=568447)
		- "sudo update-alternatives --config java" choose #3 (sun-java-6)

- Download/install Eclipse
	- install from synaptic
	- installed 3.2 - need 3.3 for Flex Builder Linux alpha 3
	- Download Eclipse Classic 3.3.2 from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
		- http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/
			drops/R-3.3.2-200802211800/eclipse-SDK-3.3.2-linux-gtk.tar.gz
	- Unpackage and place in /home/user folder
- Downnload Flex Builder from Labs
- Install FB
	- "sh flexbuilder_linux_install_a3_033108.bin"
	- select your eclipse folder when asked
	- installed

- Testing if FBLa3 works
	- open eclipse
	- open perspective > Other... > Flex Development
	- create new Flex project, add ""
	- compile and run... success!

- installing subversion
	- Use Subclipse: http://subclipse.tigris.org/
	- Help > Software Updates > Find and Install > Search for new features to install
	- New Remote Site... > Name: Subclipse; URL: http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.2.x
	- Finish
	- Check Subclipse when search results come back
	- ERROR: Buckminster - Subclipse support (Incubation) (0.2.0.r3554) requires plug-in
		"org.eclipse.buckminster.core".
		- Unselected "Integrations (Optional)" from "features to install"
	- Accept terms > next > finish
	- Install all > restart eclipse
- testing if subclipse works
	- open perspective > Other... > svn repository exploring
	- right click in SVN Repository window > new > repository location
	- enter location, enter password
	- success!