Boondoggle

Yesterday I went up skiing at Crystal Mountain.  The snow was amazing, the foot or more (in places) of dry fluffy powder was awesome!  It had snowed 6" the night before, and 18" in the previous 24 hours.  You really can't beat that, plus the temps never got above mid-20's - ideal for ensuring it doesn't become Cascade Concrete.

We checked out the new Northway lift, which just opened up a week ago.  It was placed in what used to be back country territory.  I remember back when you had to hike up into back country, and then the associated awesomeness as you wandered through generally uncut terrain.  You finished down a mile or two from the resort alongside the entry road, and were picked up by a shuttle every 30-60 minutes.  We usually saved this for our last run of the day, due to the amount of time it took.

The new lift has some awesome wide open entry bowls, and then funnels down pretty quickly into a few different slim runs/chutes.  The upper part was very nice early in the morning - but the lower portion was starting to get fairly well skied by late morning.  I suspect that by mid-afternoon without new snow it would be a pretty undesirable lower half.

After that we checked out the true 'summit' of Crystal (which isn't where Rainier Express drops you off), which tops out at 7,012 feet.   The snow was amazing down the front side, just below and around the lift (in the upper half of the photo below).

One of the more entertaining runs we found was a run called Boondoggle.  It wound down through some trees and had some light moguls in it - but was mostly an awesome powder field.  It's located just off the Quicksilver lift.

My brother and I remembered when we were in racing that one of our favorite races of the year - the Cherry Tree Charge - was held right off the top of that lift.  It was a downhill course that basically started at the top of Quicksilver and then hugged the tree line down to what used to be the midpoint of the chairlift.  The festivus was always held on the three day holiday weekend in February, and it involved the whole ski team (and their families) staying at the Alpine Inn - which at the time was basically the only hotel up there.  The hotel were the rooms only contained bunk beds, and the bathrooms were down the hall and shared.  It worked pretty well for skiing though since you basically just needed a place to sleep.  It had/has a huge wax room downstairs for doing prep for the next day's race, as well as a restaurant below the hotel.

One of the coolest things about Crystal is it's proximity to Mt. Rainier - just a few miles away by air.  On a clear day the view is incredible.  But it wasn't exactly a clear yesterday, so the top of the mountain was cut off.  Nonetheless, here's a photo - Mt. Rainier is the big bright blob in the middle.

All in all - because of the super-dry powder, it was probably the best day of Western Washington skiing I've had in the last 3-4 years.

How to practice falling off your bike

In this week's rendition of TGIF video's I give you the dude who cycles on one leg. Well, one leg at a time anyway. And we're not just talking about doing it locked in place on a trainer. Nope, that's for pansies. We're talking about doing it on a pair of rollers...with no hands.

Oh - and I'll award 500 points* to the first person who films themselves replicating this (no hands on rollers with one leg drill). You get 1,000 points if you crash trying and upload that video. I'll even link to your blog if ya do.

*Note: Points have no actual value. They cannot be redeemed, utilized or otherwise spent. It's like having one coin left in your bag from travel to foreign country. You can't do anything with it other than look at it like it's pretty.

*Note Part 2: This video is not of me. If it were of me, I'd be on the ground within a few seconds.

Random Note Part 3: To the one individual yesterday who Googled on the exact term "my fish is spinning around in circles" and was returned this post as your best shot at an answer... I'm sorry. I really will try to stop laughing eventually...but the mental image of a little goldfish going in continual circles - is you have to admit - pretty darn funny.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fuji Newest 3.0 Road Bike Review

(And now... I present a return to Tri/Running stuff...)

I do a lot of traveling.  In particular, I travel quite a bit to Seattle (where I'm originally from) for both work and leisure.  The problem with travel is that it has the potential to hose up your training plans.  Running is fairly easy to get in as you can pretty much run anywhere.  And finding a swimming pool isn't too hard if you take a few minutes to check out the Swimmers Guide.  But biking...that's where things get tricky.  The primary issue being a lack of bike.  In particular - a road bike.  Finding a mountain bike isn't super-hard.  Finding a road-bike is downright near impossible, let alone expensive.

For the first few weeks of going back and forth to Seattle earlier this summer I tried renting a road bike.  I was quickly spending $40-60 a shot to rent it for 2 days.  Forget that, I had to find a better solution.

The problem is I didn't want to spend $1000+ on yet another bike.  This wasn't my primary bike and wasn't something I rode all of the time.  I would ride it a few times (2-6) a month.

I first tried the source of all things cheap: Craigslist. The problem there though is that most 'good deals' on Craigslist tend to last about 12 seconds.  Because I didn't live in Seattle I would have to negotiate with the seller around a time I was in Seattle (which could be days or weeks in advance), and then there was the issue of bike condition, etc...  It just seemed like a painful experience in the making.

I then tried the second source of all things cheap: eBay.  I had found a few bikes that were new that were cheap.  By cheap I mean sub-$500.  But after some discussions with some cycling folks, it was determined the parts were somewhat crap.

So that left me at a physical bike shop.  I tried a few local places for a used bike, but they were all WAY too expensive.  I tend to shop quite a bit at Performance Bike, because it's super-cheap.  It's also a 10 minute drive from my house in DC.  Even better they have a number of places in Seattle.  I also like the fact that they will perform maintenance on the bike for free for life.  That's really handy since I'm not quite adept at all things bike yet.

The cheapest road bike they had was the Fuji Newest 3.0.  Weighing in at $450 (on sale, which is every other week), it seemed like a viable option.  Adding in a slew of Performance points I had (credits basically), it would bring it down towards $375.  At this point, short of the thing falling apart before I left the store it seemed like a good deal.  So I bought it.

The major parts are:

• Frame: Fuji Altair 1 Compact aluminum
• Wheels: Formula Alloy Road with Kenda K-152, 700 X 25c tires
• Fork: Bonded Carbon
• Front/Rear Shifter: Shimano 2203 shifter/brake, 24-speed
• Derailleur's: Shimano Sora
• Crankset: Fuji Forged Aluminum Road 30/42/52T Chainring
• Brake Set: ProMax Dual Pivot Forged Road

After about 200 miles on the bike (spread out over a few months) I'm not entirely sure I made the right decision.  Sure the bike works fairly well and all.  And I can certainly keep up with folks I ride with in Seattle.  But there are a number of little things that I don't particularly like:

1. The bike is 6.5 pounds heavier than my Fuji Roubaix RC.  This is noticeable on hills and flats.
2. The tires on the bike are a touch wider than I like - and they've got all these stupid little tread thingies sticking out of them.  Of course, I could/should fix this problem by just buying new tires.  But this is how the bike was 'as-is'.
3. The handlebars have two sets of brakes.  One on the drops and one on the main horizontal portion of the handlebars, closer to the front fork.  I have yet to figure out when I'd use the second set.  Waste of space and weight in my opinion.
4. I did toss the seat before I even rode it.  It was this massive fluffy thing.  Seriously...on a road bike?
5. The shifting is sorta crap.  There is a very fine line when shifting up onto the big gear in the front, depending on what gear I use in the back where it will drop the chain.  I brought it back to Performance and this seemingly sharp guy worked on it for about 30 minutes tweaking it a bit and making it slightly better but simply admitted that the parts weren't that great and that was the primary cause to my shifting issues.
6. It's a three-ring bike.  Nuff said.

Now - to be clear: The bike is perfectly fine for a secondary training bike in a remote city and I even used it in a sprint tri race.  But it's just a lot of little things that are annoying.  I can't say I 'look forward' to riding it.  Once I'm on it, it's fine.  It would probably be good for a first time road bike person who isn't sure they want to enter the sport and you don't want to spend a lot of money on a 'lost cause' so to speak.  So that's something to consider.

But I don't get this overwhelming urge to just go ride it for the fun of it.  In retrospective, I somewhat wish I had spent a few hundred more dollars to get something that I would be 'happy' with.

Palau Travel Information and Logistics

As I mentioned in yesterday's post - I wanted to do a roundup of travel related information for Palau.  Information on travel to Palau is fairly sparse as I found out - so I figured anything I can add to the pile would help.  This post isn't so much for my regular readers as it is for folks that stumble on my blog while looking for various Palau information.  Do keep in mind that this post really only represents my perspective and what I experienced in Palau, and that others experiences may differ.  With that, here's the roundup of my Palau (and Guam) posts, in order of posting:

Guam Recap: The Tour de Guam
Scuba Diving: One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish
Kayaking Day 1: For the love of all raindrops holy, please stop raining!
Kayaking Day 2: Here comes the sun!
Kayaking Day 3: Jellyfish Lake
Helicopters and Peleliu: From the Air

First up: How to get there

There are basically two options with respect to getting to Palau, but all options go through Guam.  You can either fly via Honolulu or via some other major Asian city (Tokyo/Hong Kong/Manilla).  The most common route for Americans is via Honolulu, where Continental flies.  From there you pick up another Continental flight from Honolulu to Guam, and then the last Continental flight from Guam to Palau.  Continental operates what's called "Continental Micronesia" from Guam, with TONS of flights to all over the place in the region.  It's like a mini-hub for them. This is good for two reasons - it makes booking flights easy.  And you can use any of the SkyTeam alliance members; such a Delta and Northwest to redeem miles for tickets.

We actually went via Tokyo instead of Honolulu.  This is because I have a pretty strong United affiliation due to business travel, so I was able to get to Tokyo easily on miles (Tokyo is a big United hub).  And then from there catch the 3.5 hour flight to Guam and the tow hour flight to Palau.  I redeemed Delta miles for the Continental flights - only 25K roundtrip from Tokyo to Palau (it would have only been 12.5K roundtrip if I was using Continental miles!).  This allowed us a day stopover in Guam, which was just about right to check out the island.

There is an Asiana Airways flight that you'll see nonstop from Seoul to Korror (Palau).  Don't even bother trying to book it.  It's actually a charter flight operated by a tour company in Korea.  It will show up in your airline search results, but it will error on when you try to book it.  I called dozens of travel agencies... I tried for weeks to get to speak to someone in English about it, but eventually gave up. 

As a general rule, basically all of the Palau flights arrive late at night, and leave around 12AM to 2AM.  It sucks...but you just find ways to keep yourself busy on your last day.

Where to stay

Once you arrive you've got a selection of hotels to choose from.  Well...really not that many actually.  I ended up choosing the Palau Pacific Resort (PPR as it's called by the locals).  It's a fairly nice place that's centrally located to everything you want to be near.  They've got a dive shop (Splash) onsite, as well as a few restaurants, tennis courts and a fitness center.  It's got a really long sandy beach in front of it and a coral reef out in front for snorkeling as well.

I don't know the other resorts that well, but if I were going to Peleliu, I would stay at the Dolphin Bay Resort, which is just recently redone.  We swung by there for a few minutes and it seemed like a really nice quiet place with good friendly owners.  Some folks in our dive group stayed at the Cliffside Hotel, and it seemed pretty nice as well.  

If you're going to be out and about every day and don't need a 'romantic' setting - then go with something other than PPR to save money (like Cliffside).  If you're looking for 'romantic', then PPR is probably your best bet.  Do keep in mind that compared to other places I've been to - I wouldn't consider Palau a hugely romantic location - more an active persons location.  For romantic, I'd recommend going to the Maldives or Tahiti - and still get great diving in.

With respect to choosing between the main island (Korror) and Peleliu, I would generally suggest Korror.  Quite simply you'll run out of things to do on Peleliu within two or so days.  Of course, it does have excellent proximity to many of the southern dive sites (such as Blue Corner) - reducing the boat trip time from 45-60 minutes down to 15 minutes.

Activities (Diving/Kayaking/Etc...)

Some folks I know did diving live-aboards (which are dive boats that you stay on for a number of days).  To be honest, I guess I'm not sure why you would do that (live-aboard) in Palau given how easily accessible the vast majority of the dive sites are from shore.  If you want to be able to pull off 3+ dives a day - then it makes sense, but for 2-3 dives a day... just go from shore.

We did all of our diving/kayaking through Sam's Dive Shop.  I can't say enough how much Sam's rocked!  I was able to sort all my pre-trip information out via e-mail with someone who spoke/wrote excellent English.  Don't underestimate the value of clear communications when you're on a tight timeline.

They picked us up most morning in front of our hotel via boat for the short 5-7 minute ride to the dive shop.   Upon arrival at the dive shop (which was just recently renovated), they were incredibly friendly and more than willing to help. They were clearly focused on the customer.

Hands down you can't beat Ron at Sam's Dive Shop for going the extra mile.  He worked to lay out a kayaking route/plan, as well as give tons of great suggestions along the way.  He was able to put together activities and itineraries that weren't on the menu - 'on the fly'.  We got the feeling that anything we could think of - he could execute on.  This included putting together the custom helicopter charter and flight down to Peleliu, the custom Kayak/Jellyfish lake trip - as well as of course the custom kayak trip.  Despite thier name, don't look at them as just a dive shop - they'll pretty much arrange anything you want for you - be it diving, snorkeling, fishing or kayaking.  Heck...they even helped us get grocery shopping done for our trip.

Speaking of helicopters...we actually went up in the helicopter twice - once as part of our charter flight, and then a second time as part of a published helicopter tour.  For a 10-15 minute flight it was $79 to see the major attractions by air.  WAY worth it!  Best deal in town. The helicopter seats three passengers - however in the very near future they'll have a new one that will seat four passengers. There is only one helicopter shop in town, so everyone knows who it is.  If you're looking for the helicopter pilot's e-mail addresses - just shoot me an e-mail and I'd be happy to help get you connected; although all of the hotels have this information too.  Also, the intra-island flights you may read about in the guide books are gone now.  The company closed down after runway construction put them out of business.  Helicopter is your only air choice once you get to the islands.

As for Kayaking - lots of fun.  The weather did put a bit of a damper on the first day, but the second day was awesome.  If you at all enjoy paddling - then definitely do a few days in a kayak.  We did everything through Sam's, well technically Blue Planet (partnered with, but essentially part of Sam's).  As an FYI, I had originally tried contacting Paddling Palau, but they are apparently Blue Plane now, so just contact Sam's instead.

Jellyfish Lake - you have to see it if you go to Palau.  If you don't see it when in Palau...you need to be bonked over the head or something.  All of the dive operators will stop by the lake every few days on the way back/to a dive.  So you don't have to worry about scheduling an extra day just for Jellyfish Lake - just add it to one of your dive days and save the time.  You'll spend about 30-45 minutes floating in the lake after a short 5-10 minute hike.

The weather... there is no 'best season' to go to Palau.  It's basically the same all year round (based on my numerous conversations with locals).  It rained a little (or a lot) every day we were there, but was generally sunny out.  You sorta get used to the rain...sorta.  Don't bother trying to plan around it...just go with the flow.

At any rate, if there's something I didn't cover here (and there is probably tons of stuff), feel free to e-mail me (address on the upper right side) and I'll be happy to answer.  Even if ya find this post a few years from now.

Palau: From the Air

After we had completed enough kayaking through Palau, we decided to take to the air.  Our intent was to get to the island of Peleliu, which was where a large World War II battle occurred - the Battle of Peleliu.  Over 1,500 Americas died and nearly 11,000 Japanese were lost (in this one battle alone).

We had two options for getting there - either take a rough speedboat ride for 90+ minutes each way, or...take to the air.  With the help of Ron at Sam's Tour's we ended up chartering a helicopter for half a day.  It was a bit cheaper than I would have expected actually, to have it for 6 hours.  Sam's provided an awesome guide (TJ) to show off the island, and then the helicopter company provided the pilot (an awesome Aussie) to do the flying - and supporting guide work on the island.

We set off at around 8AM and headed south to Peleliu, via a very scenic route over the Rock Islands, Jellyfish Lake and a slew of other interesting places. Here's a shot from the chopper on the way down to the island.  It was a bit overcast, otherwise it would have really been spectacular.

Once we arrived on the island, the sky decided to rain a more.  Which seems to be par for the course.  But we soldiered on into the rain.  We stopped first by White Beach, which is where the Americans came onto shore.  After that we swung by countless other locations and fighting machines - left pretty much wherever they were left 60+ years ago.  Here's a few photos from around the island.

(An overturned American tank)

 (American aircraft pieces in the Jungle)

(Above: Memorial for American Marines)

(Above: Memorial for American Army)

(Japanese Grenades)

As I mentioned a few days ago, also intersecting is that numerous items (such as the helmet and grenades above) are just left out.  Nobody steels them - which is nice that things can be left like that for decades without being disturbed.  If you're interested in more of the battle information, here's a good link.

It isn't until you get to Peleliu that you realize the sheer amount of cave work completed by the Japanese.  Caves are everywhere.  And we're not just talking digging in few feet and that's it - we're talking extensive networks with everything from full medical centers built in to storage locations.  People actually lived in these caves for years.  Equally astounding is to remember that during the battles - this area was basically barren.  Now it's incredibly dense jungle.

After we completed our multi-hour tour of the island, it was time to take to the air for our return flight back to the main island.  Of course, like the journey down this would be 35+ minute flight of fancy through the islands.  Here's a few aerial shots I took on the way back.

(Above: Blue Corner - a popular dive spot)

The above two photos are of the 70 Islands, which is a restricted preserve within Palau.  Most of the aerial photos you see of Palau are of this set of islands.

I thought the above was a neat shot, with the cockpit in the foreground.

(A semi-sunken ship)

(This is the hill up to the Japanese Lighthouse that we hiked up the previous day)

 
(I got really good at taking photos with my hand out of the helicopter - there were no doors on it)

We did some awesome super-low flights down a lake called Long Lake.  Just barely off the deck.  Here's a shot as we exited the canyon/channel.  I'd guess about 50' off the ground at some locations.  Our pilot was awesome - we couldn't have asked for a better guy.  Super-flexible and very reasonable...and the fact that he might be just a bit crazy was awesome.

After all was said and done - he actually dropped us off at the hotel.  Do you know how stylish it is to get dropped off at your hotel on via helicopter?  Everyone was watching, it was pretty funny.

I've got one more post on Palau before I return to regular blogging.  More a 'logistics' post for those that find my blog while trying to find info about Palau.  It'll include all the little tips and tricks I picked up about traveling there.

Kayaking Day 3: Jellyfish Lake

After coming back a day ahead of schedule (we were cruisin'!) from our kayak camping trip, we got persuaded into going back out in the kayaks for another day (although after a good nights sleep in a real bed). It's pretty much a requirement to hit up Jellyfish Lake when in Palau, and we were working with the folks at the dive shop (Sam's Dive Shop) to get it to all fit in. That was when they came up with the idea to combine a half-day kayak trip down an inland lake called 'Long Lake' (about a mile or so long), with some snorkeling and the famed Jellyfish Lake. The plan was to take a speedboat to Jellyfish lake, then afterwards swing by a deserted beach for lunch, and then go for a few hour kayak journey. We jumped at the opportunity.

We set off early on a speedboat to Jellyfish Lake, which is an inland lake on an island. The lake is isolated from any direct ocean water contact to the sea, but it's maintained it's salt water status via the porous rock in the lake's walls. Many years ago some jellyfish got into the lake. There is considerable debate over how it happened - but the two opinions are either the larvae seeped through underwater cracks/pores, or some nearby birds picked up the larvae and dropped it in the lake. Either way, over time they adapted to the new environment, which lacked any real natural predators. In doing so, they lost their stinging tentacles - making them nothing more than a bowl full of jelly. Without any natural predators their population bloomed exponentially. Interestingly, about 15 or so years ago in a El Nino year, the lake actually overheated so much it killed off every single jellyfish. However, through an incredibly complex process that I cannot remember, the jellies eggs can remain dormant on the bottom of lake for a long time. The population was able to completely replenish itself in a matter of months. Just a couple million Jellyfish, give or take a few.

This lake was made 'popular' in the mid/late nineties with a cover feature on National Geographic. Since then it's been featured in numerous movies, TV shows (i.e. Survivor), and documentaries. Now in the peak season some 300 visitors a day visit the lake to snorkel and see the jellies (and pay the steep $35 park entrance fee).

With all of that background complete, it's time to get to the action! When we first got into the water we didn't see any jellies immediately. The jellies follow the sun, and fear the shade. For the shade brings their only natural enemy in the lake - sea enemies that cling to the walls in the darker areas. But as you swim out into the lake you see an occasional jelly floating by.

At first your natural reaction is to avoid them - as that's what you've always been taught. When you bump into one for the first few times, your body instinctively reflexes away from it - fearing oncoming pain.

However as you go further into the lake, the jelly population gets denser and denser, until you can do nothing but bump into them. They feel very much like Jello - just sliding around and bouncy when you touch them. You don't feel any pain or any irritation from contact with them.

They are all constantly pulsing, as that is how they move. It's rather surreal to watch - and even more so to float in the middle of it all. With all that said, here's a few photos I took. I think the next one is probably my favorite out of all of them. (Favorite photo that is...I don't have a favorite jellyfish)

I got my brother to take one of me, diving down into the jelly abyss.

The below photos is taken when they were at the densest point that I swam into. Apparently they can get so dense that you can't even move.

And lastly, here's a short video clip I took of the pulsing action and what it looks like underwater:

I could show you the kayaking photos from the remainder of the day and talk about paddling through deep mangroves - but really...they aren't as cool as above. So I'll just keep it to one simple photo I took of my kayak later in the day. Yes, the water really is that crystal clear turquoise color.

And tomorrow (or whenever I post next) - we've got some serious aerial adventure action. Sweet!

Kayaking Day 2: Here comes the sun!

(If you're just joining me, check out day one first)

We got an early start due to being up before sunrise. We tooled around our beach area a bit, basically just wasting time. After a breakfast consisting of Pop Tarts, Chicken Noodle Soup and Banana Bread, we packed everything up and prepared to set sail. We didn't want to leave too early because we were trying to wait for the sun to rise a bit (yes, it appeared to be finally sunny!). Our first item of the day was only a short 15-20 minute paddle away, and if we got there too early we'd be floating around waiting for the sun to get above the coral.

Here's a shot of our beach on departure that morning. To put some scale to things, the sandy part you see is about a hundred yards long, and then it extends another few hundred yards to the right, but mixed up with some more rocks.

From there we paddled to a place called Risong bay, which is a big bay, with a slew of smaller attached lakes/little bays. Very cool for just wandering around and doing some amazing snorkeling. From the map below, we started at Blue Devil Beach, and then hit up the green dot (a shipwreck). It was cool, but the photos didn't turn out too well because of the depth. After that we worked our way around clockwise through the bay, hitting up all of the smaller inland lakes - including some that required a quick hike.

Here's a photo just inside the entrance of Risong Bay, at the entrance to Shipwreck Bay. We were going to try and get up on that rock and take a few awesome photos, but it proved a bit more challenging that we anticipated.

The below photo is in Mandarin Lake, where there was quite a bit of shallow water snorkeling above some pretty cool coral. I managed to get the underwater camera just at the waterline and take this shot of our kayaks chillin' in the background.

After our leisurely mid-morning wander and snorkel through Risong Bay it was time to tackle the first beast of the day. The crossing of Teongel Channel. This three mile stretch was in essentially unprotected waters with nasty surf, heavy winds and heavy currents. And no pit stops once we started. Here's a shot of it from the air (on a calm day) - we had to cross from the green land on the far right, to the little island in the lower left hand corner. Long. Ass. Way.

The motivational factor in getting across the channel was lunch. Simple as that. We actually made darn good time across the channel, about an hour in total of bobbing around in the surf and paddling hard. Very solid workout.

We planned to have lunch at some old Japanese docks, which was where the upcoming Survivor's Tribal Council was held. Although you'd never know it from visiting it. Given the hard to get to location the area is rarely visited. There's a trail from the docks (which are located out of view in the lower left portion in the above photo) that starts at the water and extends up some 600 feet in elevation to a lighthouse at the top of a hill. Along that trail there are dozens of WWII relics, mostly Japanese. It was a hugely fortified position, protecting the whole bay (pictured above).

We decided to delay lunch and instead hike up to the top while the weather was still good. Took about 25 minutes to get up, here's a few of the things we saw along the way.

These were just up the trail a bit, note the large shell on the ground just behind my brother's left shoulder (his left).

Caves are EVERYWHERE in Palau. The Japanese were prolific cave builders during WWII. Here's a relatively short - but brilliantly designed one. It went in and formed a "T", allowing one to escape any incoming fire behind 20 feet of limestone.

Nearing the top of the mountain there was an area protected on all four sides by mountain, and also was conveniently flat. This served as a base camp, with remnants of buildings and bunkers all around. Below is the officers pool.

At the top, now overgrown, a large guns poke through the brush. One of the unique things about Palau is that nearly no work has been done to 'restore' the WWII items. They're just left to be found 'as is' by future generations. It was a refreshing change compared to the plastic and overprotected feeling WWII sites found elsewhere around the world. You'd wander around here and find empty shells just at random, or perhaps a canteen or grenade sitting in the brush. There is so little tourist traffic here to the sites that you don't have to worry about it being wrecked.

After we were finished checking out the top we started back down the mountain. It was then that we caught the tell-tale signs of badness. First the light rustling of the jungle leaves. Then the whipping wind heard above. Then a couple droplets of water. And then downpour. Yes Palau - we get the point - you like to rain.

We decided to skip lunch and instead down a few more pop-tarts and call it good. We had decided early that morning that we could accomplish the rest of our itinerary (including the next day) by the end of the day, allowing us more time to do other stuff the next day. So we had a pretty tight timeline that required us to make one more very lengthy paddle, double the distance of our channel crossing. This one would take at a minimum 2 hours and include all unprotected areas as well as another channel crossing. Did I mention that it was dumping out? Ahh...want photographic proof you say? Check out the below video we took right before plopping in the Kayaks and heading right into that mess. Ummm..yeah.

So off we went straight into the mess. After about 45 minutes the rain stopped, and then another 45 minutes later the wind let up. As we made our final channel crossing the sun decided to grace us with it's presence. Here's a couple shots with about 15-20 minutes to go on our journey. My brother is celebrating the appearance of the sun.

We arrived into the shop around 5PM, just before it got dark out. But what about that third day you were supposed to be out there you say? Ahh... we had plans. Grand plans! Actually, the guide dude made up the grand plans - which rocked! The next day we'd instead spend kayaking, snorkeling and swimming down some of the coolest inland lakes you've seen. And - one of the pinnacles of the trip - Jellyfish Lake. Oh...it was AWESOME! But that will wait until tomorrow. Speaking of awesome, the day after Jellyfish lake was perhaps even more incredible. I won't say what we did yet, but there's a clue somewhere in this post.

Kayaking Day 1: For the love of all raindrops holy, please stop raining!

That's it - I'm changing my blog name, blogger ID and everything else associated with 'rainmaker'. Clearly it was omen. But...let's back up a second first.

So we set out this morning (well, three days ago - but you're going to get them in order, one day at a time) for a three day kayak adventure. A self guided and somewhat self-planned journey through Palau's Rock Islands. The planned route would have us getting underway early Wednesday morning and returning Friday evening. We'd camp on beaches as we saw fit, and then during the day we'd make forward progress to our destinations via numerous small bays, coves, coral gardens and hikes. Basically whenever we saw something interesting we'd stop and check it out. Here's a Virtual Earth satellite image of the area, with our day one route in red. I'm having issues getting my GPS file off the device and onto the computer, so I had to use the little red pen instead (you'll probably have to click on it to see the red line).

We geared up and grocery shopped early Wednesday morning and 'set paddle' by around 9:30AM or so. The skies were typical for a morning in Palau - overcast with fresh rain just having fallen. Signs of clouds breaking were off in the distances. Nothing to worry about.

Here's a photo of our 'push off', with our route planner dude dropping us in.

We paddled for about 45 minutes until we got to one of our first interesting things - a channel lined with WWII Japanese Pill Boxes. These were where machine gunners would station themselves along channels or other advantageous locations. You find them littered all around Palau. They are occasionally very hard to spot, and when you're inside of them you can really see how much territory they can cover from a logistics perspective.

(Above: Looking at it from inside the channel)

(The view from inside the pill box)

After the pill box, it was time for a long 90 minute or so paddle down to our lunch stop located at an old Japanese WWII dock and cave. On the way down it started to sprinkle. Then it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then it started to do whatever it does after it pours. That would be the point in which I believe there is more water in the sky than air. And then it didn't stop...ever. Here's a photo of us after we made lunch (in a dry cave) and hiked up to the top of a mountain. It was an incredible view, but would have been stunning (due to the coral gardens in the bay below) had it not been raining.

After we visited an inland lake during our mountain climb we headed back down to the kayaks to being a solid slog towards open water. Along the way we stopped here and there to check out various things. One of the more notable ones was a huge cave (appropriately called Cathedral Cavern). It was cool for two reasons. First it was big, and more importantly - it was dry. It became uncool however when we looked up at the ceiling with the camera flash and noticed a gazillion bats. We left like a bat out of hell at that point (pun intended). Here's a photo of us exiting the cave.

From there we had to battle it out into open ocean with a pretty significant surf. Once out along the cliffs we got to choose between three beaches where we'd end up camping. We made like swift arrival parties and checked out each beach for a few minutes. We settled on a place called 'Blue Devil Beach' due to a bunch of blue fishes that hang out in front of the beach (technically Blue Devil Fish). Some of the beaches here also have small shelters built near the beach set back in the jungle a bit, great for days like this when the sky is dumping. Total kayaked mileage at this point - about 14.5 miles.

We got settled on shore (below the shelter) and setup tents. From there we had some serious time to waste since it was only around 4PM. So my brother tried spear-fishing with a stick. He didn't catch anything...or really see any fish worth catching. We did see a shark patrolling our section of the beach shortly thereafter (trademark fin sticking out of the water). We then tried catching small-medium sized crabs on the beach. They are fast. Very fast. We couldn't catch any.

We decided to work on something a bit slower moving. A coconut. While I was pondering how to climb up the tree, my brother came along and just whacked the thing with a stick. Coconut success! (I had a video I was going to upload of this coconut little adventure, but the internet is so painfully slow here that I'm going to fall asleep before it finishes).

Following all of that, I had a moment to write something out in the sand - it seemed appropriate given the day thus far. If you aren't familiar with HTFU - Youtube is your friend.

After my sand script, it was time for dinner and and sleep. Actually before sleep we did catch a million small hermit crabs. We didn't do anything with them other than put them in a container and watch them try and escape up a small stick. They're very intelligent little creatures. It's also a great way to pass the time. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the making of this adventure. For those less brilliant hermit crabs who couldn't escape, we let them go later on.

As for sleeping - it was a rough night. For some reason we couldn't find our sleeping mats (they were wedged deep in the kayak apparently), and thus we were sleeping on rock hard surface without anything more than a shirt below us - combined with howling winds and torrential rain. Btw, rain sounds even louder in the jungle than just being outside. We did actually wake up randomly at 2AM and went outside to check out the sky. It had cleared and there was spectacular stars outside. Very cool!

A number of hours later we woke up (well, woke up sounds as if we actually got any sleep...) to a nice little sunrise. A sign of things to come? Just maybe...

One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish

One of the major advantages of traveling in a westerly direction is that you body naturally wakes up earlier. Yesterday I was up at 6AM, right now it's 5:30AM. After getting up at six yesterday, it was off to the dive shop for gear pickup and a quick orientation. I didn't bother brining my own gear because I wasn't doing enough dives to justify the hassle of dragging it halfway around the world. The dive company picked us up by boat to bring us to their shop - a short 5-10 minute ride away. Interestingly when we got there we noticed a sign on the wall from the Palau Government that listed a slew of restricted areas along with specific dates/times. Turns out this is for the next season of Survivor - Survivor 16- which just finished shooting last Wednesday. Here's a shot of the poster, kinda interesting (click to be able to read).

After getting our dive year, we set out on a one hour speed boat ride to the dive sites. It was pretty cool, we were flying past islands and just under rock awnings, making sharp turns here and there. Here's a quick video my brother caught on one of our little digital cameras.

We arrived at a dive site called 'Big Dropoff', which is essentially a wall dive. Wall dives mean that you dive alongside a wall - usually drifting along the wall with the currents as you go. Generally the boat picks you up wherever you end up. This wall drops off a few hundred feet deep, but we were only going to around 75' or so. It didn't take long for all of the fish to appear - pretty much as soon as you got into the water they were there. We descended down and started our drift along the wall, about 5-10 minutes in we stumbled on an Eel poking his head out of the wall. As we checked out him, a shark casually drifted behind us. It was fairly small - maybe only 4 feet in length, and harmless. Shortly after that I ran into Nemo! Well, a pair of Nemo's.

I'm not good with fish names. Many divers are like - 'Wow - did you see that cuttlefish with a pair of groupers next to the yellow spotted leaf fish?', I'm more like 'Did you see the funky fish next to the bigger fish, next to the yellow one?'. The things I recognize are: Nemo, shark, manta ray, eel, whale, dolphin, seal, regular fish. Outside of that - you're not getting any more detail.

After about 45 minutes we headed up to the surface. One interesting thing I noticed since my last dives over a year ago is that with my fitness increasing, my ability to use less air while diving has increased. This means that I'm coming up to the surface with significantly more air in my tanks after an equal length/depth dive than I used to. Good stuff!

We took a quick lunch, then it was back down below. This dive was at a place called 'German Channel', and is where long ago the Germans dredged a channel to be able to get ships through for mining activities. The main highlight of this dive was going to be the manta rays. About 25 minutes into the dive we settled on the bottom near a 'cleaning station' and waited for them to mosey on down and get cleaned by little fish. A few minutes later some sharks started casually circling our area.

After the sharks did their initial showing a giant Manta Ray gracefully swooped on. It's hard to describe how big these are. Think 8 or so feet across, and 4-6 feet long. Just massive but incredibly gracefully creatures. It wandered around a bit while the cleaning fish had dinner. My camera did my the favor of running out of battery at the moment I went to take a picture of it, so here's a photo from a person we met on the dive.

After the Manta Ray we headed up to the surface. We saw tons of other fish and creatures though, the coral was absolutely amazing - but I'll save some coral pics for later on after our kayak trip.

We zipped back through the islands again to the dive shop. After diving I decided I wanted to go for a quick swim in the bay in front of our hotel. This time the water was much deeper - 10-15 feet or so, which allowed for a significantly easer and quicker swim. I got a surprisingly good workout in, really keeping the pace up a bit. I started going out a bit further but then it got deep enough that I couldn't see the bottom, so I pulled it back in closer to shore. I don't like late afternoon ocean situations where I can't see the bottom - too much opportunity for sharks to misidentify you (I'm serious!). Did about 3/4 of a mile in 22 minutes, but that also includes a brief stop near the upper portion of that photo to take a few pictures from the water. Here's a nifty GPS map of the swim:

Following all of that, we went on a short hike up to the top of a hill (the one at the very bottom of that above satellite photo), which overlooked the ocean, the hotel and neighboring bays. Sunset arrived within minutes and made for some incredible photos.

With that, we're off here in about 90 minutes for our 3 day kayak camping adventure. As a side note, we didn't do Jellyfish lake yesterday, but will instead be doing in over the next few days. Should be a blast! See ya all later in the week!