Here is the scenario: let’s say you live on the West Coast of the United States and one of your best friends is getting married on the East Coast, about 3000 miles away. How do you go about attending the wedding?  If you are normal, you would probably consider the following: airplane, rental car, and hotel. Seems natural, right? Not if you are Darex.  In the summer of 2008, a mutual friend of myself and Darex got married in New York.  While I stuck to the generic airplane/rental car formula,  Darex did not.  His methods were something that I wouldn’t have even thought of, much less attempted.

In order to attend the wedding in New York, Darex bought a one way airplane ticket from his home town of Medford, Oregon to Syracuse, New York.  This seemed logical given that Syracuse was the closest airport to the wedding in Hamilton, New York.  However, when Darex arrived in Dulles Airport (near Washington D.C.) he found that his connecting flight to Syracuse was delayed.  Rather than wait in the airport, he hopped on a different flight to Rochester, NY.  To some this may have seemed illogical-after all Rochester is 127 miles away from Hamilton, whereas Syracuse is only 38 miles from Hamilton.  But Darex saw this not as a problem but as an opportunity to roller blade a greater, more fun distance to the wedding. Read the rest of this entry »

If there is one backpacking destination that I have coveted over most others, it would have to Smith Lake, set high in the Trinity Alps of northern California.  This lightly visited mountain range is rather unlike some of California’s better known mountains such as the Sierras.  I could go on and on all day about how great the Sierra Nevada mountains are.  But for those looking for something a little different, the high country of the Trinity Alps comprise a small universe of surprisingly rugged granite peaks and pristine lakes.  The summits of these mountains look at feel high but aren’t (the highest point, Mt. Thompson, is only 9002 ft.)  But don’t be fooled– these mountains are no chicken scratch, they rise thousands of feet above their valley floors and are tough, chiseled sculptures of towering granite.  Like the Southern Alps of New Zealand, alpine conditions start at fairly low elevations.  Also in common with New Zealand’s Southern Alps, the Trinity Alps lie relatively close to the ocean, and therefor the weather can be highly unpredictable.  Allow me to emphasize this unpredictability;  I have been hiking in a t-shirt under a clear sky and had a  thunderstorm appear from out of nowhere, with  less than twenty minutes of space between suntan conditions and then rain, hail, wind, thunder, lightning, and plummeting temperatures.  The lesson here is that a hike of any length needs to be equipped to handle 4 seasons in one day.  However, there is no reason why a competent backpacker should miss out on this wilderness area, and if you are up to the challenge, consider Smith Lake as one of the ultimate cross country (off trail) destinations of the Trinity Alps.

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Darex Roberts

Do you perhaps know someone who operates on a wavelength that isn’t even part of the elcotromagnetic spectrum?  In other words, someone who is well and truly out there?  I know at least a few people like that.  But what happens when you bestow such a person with near superhuman physical capabilities?  I have one friend like that.  Allow me to introduce Derek Roberts, a.k.a. Darex.  First, an explanation of the name Darex.  Derek is many things, but a good speller he is not.  I have seen him write his name as Derek, Darek, Derrick, Derik, and so on.  So why guess how to spell his name, why not just give him a new name that we can all spell?  The result is a name that seems to work: Darex.  The “x” is for extreme, as in eXtreme.  He is an extreme guy, and I’ll share a couple of stories to give some background to this claim.

Spur of the Moment Bike Ride

A ringing telephone jolts me out of a perfect sleep.

“Hello?” I ask grogily.

“Hey what’s up Bryan?”  I recognize the voice of Darex.

“Were you sleeping?” Darex asks.  “Not anymore,” I reply. Read the rest of this entry »