Climbed a mountain and I turned around.

Hello, hello. I have one class left in 14th grade, and then some finals. Which, if I think about them, get me a little stressed. 'Cause one of them is a 3,000 word schmangarang due on Tuesday. I'm kinda over those sorta things. I'll get through it. Maybe. I'm flying home on the 18th. I really don't want that to happen because I'll miss my friends, especially those who are seniors, so I'll never see them again except when I do. I really do want that to happen, though, because it will mean I'm done with finals. And I'll be able to see you guys at home. Well, those of you that are at home. Rachael is here right now. Here as in Middlebury. Let's talk about that, shall we?

She showed up on Sunday, and she's here 'til Saturday. Actually, I'll start with what happened on Friday and Saturday without her, for the sake of chronology. Last Friday, after writing my post, I went on a little adventure with Chuch, Seb, Mark, and Jake. We drove to Bittersweet Falls, which is a little place we run by occasionally, but we never really explore because we're always on a big group run when we're there. We climbed up and around the waterfall, and up the creek behind it. Really cool stuff. Lots of little waterfalls and rocks that have been smoothed into waterslides by eons of gnawing water. Moss and gravity own this place now, and were gracious enough to let us in for an hour or so. The water, naturally, was too, too cold for a swim, so we didn't swim. But there is no such thing as liquid water too cold for a dip, so we did dip. And yes, we are cross country runners, so we tend to be skinny.

Me making a funny face between two of the waterfalls, not realizing that the camera really isn't good enough to do my anatomical art the justice it deserves. It was a good face, guys, promise.

Just four dudes sitting on the edge of a waterfall.

So that was Friday. Saturday's adventure was a little better. We hiked up to the top of Mt. Abe, which is the seventh (or something like that) tallest peak in Vermont, a wee bit over 4,000 feet. To get there, we drove up the Lincoln Gap, and I wondered aloud why folks from the East call their passes "gaps" and we of Western ilk call them "passes". Still not sure 'bout that one. People from the middle of the country, by the way, don't need a name for such features.

'Twas a pretty awesome hike. Even though it was in the 70s and sunny throughout the whole thing, and had been in the 70s for quite a few days in a row, there was quite a bit of snow on and around the trail, and we threw a hell of a lot of snowballs. I nailed Martin pretty good in a pretty good spot. Martin's a fun guy to nail. He gets pretty flustered.

I did not, by the way, take any pictures. Someone else took a group picture on top of the mountain, and if I ever get ahold of that I'll post it up. For now, I'll just take some pictures from the sometimes wonderful world of the internet.

Most of the trail was dirt traily, like any other trail. But a significant portion was rock jumbly, like this part.

View from the top. Scroll right. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

On the way back from Mt. Abe, we stopped at Bartlett Falls and jumped of, I mean off, a wee 25-foot rock thing into the nice warm (nope) water below. That's fun.

On Sunday, I helped the rest of the distance team man a water station at the half marathon that goes through Middlebury. Two of our guys, Melake and Mac, actually ran the race, and Melake won the whole thing, which was very exciting. After that, I borrowed Mac's car and picked Rachael up at a train station across Lake Champlain in New York, and drove her back to Midd. We've been having a jolly old time ever since. She's met most of my friends, and pretends to like them. She finished The Name of the Wind and has since started The Wise Man's Fear, and she seems to be a fan.

In the last few weeks, I've started climbing at our climbing wall instead of not going to the gym to lift, and Rachael tagged along when I went. She's a good climber. Not as good as Jake, though. You probably don't remember my Joshua Tree post, but in it I made it clear that Jake can climb rocks. He can really climb rocks.

On Wednesday, Rachael and I went a little hike to Chipman Hill. It was prettiful.

Rachael and I went to trivia last night, and we joined David's group, and we won. Cool. One of the categories was fictional addresses, and they didn't have 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, which was disappointing.

After trivia, we watched Spongebob in my room with Chuck and David instead of doing much-needed homework. "Arrgh!" and "Shanghaied", with a touch of "Fools in April". Gotta take advantage when someone like Rachael who has Netflix comes around.

Today Rachael and I watched Pete's thesis defense. Pete is a senior on the track team, and he's a joint geography-history major, with minors in math and Chinese. He gave a great presentation about 17th-18th century Chinese mapping, arguing that . . . complicated things.

And hockey happened. It's been happening a lot. Ducks are up 3-2 in their series against the Red Wings. Jack, one of my teammates, is from the Detroit area. There's been some back and forth.

Pretty much sums it up.

Game Five.