October 16-19, 2008.
(alternative picture for the whiners)
We had a surfeit
of cloud cover this year for the Hangover Fall Festival but you could argue that
we were due. Thursday night was a windy, spitting rain event and Friday
was little better. Weather does not dampen the spirit of Highlanders at
their sacred place and neither does the clear cut. We just decided that
the Forest Service improved our view from camp.
Here, Scooter gloats after whipping Grady up the trail. Impressive 1.29
showing which will forever be asterisked due to allegations and concerns of
blood doping and stimulant use, e.g. I.V. Red Bull, prior to hitting the trail.
Our newest
potential initiates arrive at the clear-cut, prepared to fulfill their fetching
duties. Here Skid and Jerky Mike have retrieved their respective caches
and present themselves for initial rites.
Mike dons his
Highlander uniform.
Skid performs
well in his uniform and coonskin cap.
Luke practices for his turn next year but no one is impressed with the
"Somewhere over the Rainbow" routine. Keep working, Luke. You have a
whole year and I, for one, am pulling for ya.
Can you see where
this is headed?
It gets better.
How about them
apples?
Water was
again an issue and two rounds of water fetchery were required on this trip.
Here, Skidmore second guesses the wardrobe as he generates some heat on his
dayhike out to Naked Ground. I am told that about now, he was wishing he
was a little more naked, sans coonskin, if you get my drift.
This is
a picture of me winning 20 dollars from Mr. Mountainpedia, a.k.a., Gob Hillary
as he asserts that the Hangover summit is less than five thousand vertical feet.
I will take that in cash, Gobert. Larry wants his in a voucher.
There were, of course, the requisite feats of strength. The person on the
bottom here is Sally Dumplin, I think.
Matador Signor
Larry tries to divert the bulls.
Dave is scarred.
Don't know if that is from the feats of strength or the phone call from Robbie.
We were visited by
friends from previous years. Robin, on the far left was with us here, two
years ago.
When the sun
came out on Saturday, we were treated to twenty minutes of it setting.
Great clouds make great sunsets and Martin captured this quite well. As a
matter of fact, Martin did the majority of photography on this trip with my
camera as he forgot his and was going through DT's.
Danno explains
that he was late (e.g. pregnant).
Dave
Skidmore was a man, was a big man, but the cap was bigger and he tried to pull the
trigger off the hill.
I'm going to take credit for this one, if nothing else, because I was able to
get out of bed before the haze came rolling in Sunday morning.
As you can see, the clear-cut gives us a great canopy for star gazing.
Grady conducts tryouts for the Livvid Privvy Female Ensemble. I don't know
but I personally think it was unfair to request that she perform a medley of
speed metal classics to be followed by a Tesla song but Clark is the musician, I
am just a sound guy.
Ricky Bobby arrives with Neo.
Eagles at the Rock, photo courtesy of
Deidra.
Toad and Matt make a late Saturday showing. We had to explain who Toad is
to the newbies. Toad is our spokesmodel and superskier. If it has
wheels, Toad can handle it. Here, Toad prepares to handle Gobbie after
Sally D rabbit punches him.
Vince, a.k.a. the Indian Outlaw, performs a rain signal which worked.
Congratulations to Jerky Mike and Skidmore for their fine passing of the initiation rites and rituals. We were most impressed by their acumen and finesse with the prior week cache. You will make fine additions to the Highlander Fold. The only person not pictured, I think, is Hitler. He was there but seemed to avoid Martin. I will update the HighlanderOMeter later in the week, George.