Hello folks.  Benj’s introductory post was mostly about other people since we know him.  Most of you don’t know me so I’ll take the egotistical approach for the benefit of all you strangers (don’t fry your brain trying to resolve that contradiction).  I’m  Maurice Ribble, aka Moe.  On the trail people might call me Top Bunk if there are bunk beds to be had.  I enjoy high beds and pretty much all other high things.  High trees, high roofs, water towers, hang gliders…  If it’s high I probably like it.  Just this past canoe trip Benj mentioned in the previous post I got to jump off a cliff on Blueberry Island into a lake, a bridge into a river, a giant boulder into a waterfall/rapids (see image above – this is also were Benj lost his ring), and I climbed a fire tower.  Definitely a good trip.  On this coast to coast trip I’ll be looking for some summits to hike and whatever else is high.

I’ll know at least Benj and Seth going into this trip.  All of us worked together at ATI/AMD before we went our separate ways.  We still work on all the same fun computer-y things, just at different companies now.  The folks I don’t know I’m sure I’ll make friends with during the trip.

Outside of work I like outdoors which you have probably picked up from Benj’s mention of our yearly trips hiking or canoeing.  I need to get off the grid for at least a week each year on these sorts of trips.  It helps me keep technologies in perspective.  This coast to coast trip is a little more on the grid than I’m used to for these sorts of events, but it’s longer than a week so I figure it will work just fine.  

Another one of my hobbies is photography.  I like most types, but my specialty is high speed photography.  Here’s my flickr stream which is mostly high speed photography images.

I’ll finish up with a big one.  I met Emily the love of my life about 5 years ago and we got married about 2.5 years ago.  We should be having our first baby around the end of this year.  This little one is the reason Emily won’t be joining us on this hike.  We’ve always been supportive to each other doing their own things.  For example she likes to go on week trips back to her homeland each summer, and I like to go on snowboarding trips each winter.  But most of our other trips we do together.  This is a trip we would have loved to have done together, but after a little research it seems a three week hike is a bit longer than most people would recommend for a  6 month old baby where “appropriate” hiking trips are typically measured in hours not weeks.  Emily recommended I go on this trip without her and she’ll stay at home with the baby.  Thank you Emily!  I suspect this might mean I get some double shifts during the first six months though.

Hope this gives you a little flavor of who this “Moe” guy is.  See you next June!