Read by Dave Seese, Kelley’s brother-in-law

Click to listen to the life sketch from the memorial service.

Jared Floyd Carr started life on his own terms on April 4, 1981, in the emergency room at the McMinnville Hospital in McMinnville, OR. While his proud daddy was registering at the hospital, one of the nurses came out and asked him if he was the father. He said “No, not yet I just got here.” He was then informed that his son had already been born. Gary and Patricia brought their son home to the house in Laurelwood near Gaston, Oregon where Jared grew up. This was the same house that his grandparents had moved into when his dad was 5 years old.

Jared looked up to his older sister, Sara. When he was 3 years old he got some money and, much to his dad’s consternation, wanted to buy a Cabbage Patch doll because his big sister had just bought one. Dad talked him into getting a calf instead so off they went to the dairy to buy Jared’s first calf, which he named Joey. Joey was the first of many calves that they would later raise. Jared named some of those calves Murphy, Big Mac, Whopper, T-Bone and Sir Loin.

Jared was introduced to and developed a love for dirt bikes at an early age. His dad was known to give him rides on dirt bikes and one of the more exciting events was when Uncle Gene bought a Honda 50 dirt bike for Jared’s older cousin Justin. That dirt bike provided many hours of fun while cousins Wendy & Justin, big sister Sara, and Jared learned to ride it. They all spent many hours riding the Honda up and down the road and through the woods to Grandma & Grandpa Pence’s house. On one particular occasion Sara was trying to teach Jared how ride. He was supposed to be steering. As they were going up the driveway Jared started steering towards the blackberry bushes on the side of the road. Sara kept trying to correct him and when it looked like it was almost too late she finally just stood up and Jared and the dirt bike went into the blackberry bushes. Boy was he mad at Sara!

One of Jared’s favorite things to do when he was little was go to work with his dad. His dad did not have a boring desk job like some dads. No, going to work with dad meant spending the day in the woods because his dad was a logger. One time while Jared was out there he was bored just sitting in the pick up so his dad suggested he learn how to operate the log loader. Jared climbed up into the loader and his dad gave him a lesson on how to pick up logs with the loader and move them. After the lesson, his dad went back to work falling trees within sight of the loader and left Jared to move the trees with the loader. When his dad looked back over to check on him Jared had one of the tracks of the loader about 6 feet off the ground. He had picked up a log that was way too heavy and it had thrown the loader off balance. His dad was able to signal to Jared so he would know how to get both tracks back on the ground, Jared was able to follow the instructions, and no one got hurt.

One summer, Jared and Sara went with their Great Uncle Ron’s family on vacation to the North Cascades National Park. This was the first trip Jared remembered taking to the North Cascades. On that trip he went on a hike with Uncle Ron that was approximately 30 miles long. Sara remembers waiting in camp for the hiking group to get back. All of the adults were worried about Jared because he was the youngest; he was only 8 or 9 years old. When the group finally got back to camp, Jared was the only hiker that still appeared to have any energy left. This trip was the beginning of his love of the North Cascades, a love that lasted his entire life.

Growing up, Jared’s dad could often be overheard telling Jared & Sara “Get a job and you can buy it.” Jared was good at saving his money when he worked or sold a calf and he used that money to buy big items: a week at summer camp, a trumpet, a mountain bike, his first road bike. After buying his mountain bike he spent hours riding with his cousin Donnie around the country roads where he lived. And they didn’t stay local. They had an annual tradition of riding from Mt Hood to the Oregon Coast every summer. By the age of 16, Jared had put over thirty-six hundred miles on a single bicycle. When he was old enough to get a job at McDonalds he bought his first road bike and then loaned his old mountain bike to Sara to share his love of cycling with her.

In 1996 Jared went to Upper Columbia Academy, in Spangle, WA as a sophomore in high school. There he made lifelong friends that would later become his backpacking companions, cycling companions, co-workers, and even a future brother-in-law. While at UCA Jared played his trumpet in the band, Brass Choir, Trumpet Trio and Trumpet Sextet. He was also an Associated Student Body officer.

After graduating from Upper Columbia Academy in 1999, he spent his Freshman year of college at Pacific Union College, in Angwin, CA pursuing a Physics degree. While at PUC he loved riding his road bike and his mountain bike around the hills of the Napa Valley.

His sophomore year, Jared went to Walla Walla College and switched his major to Computer Science and Mathematics. There he met and fell in love with his future wife, Kelley Gillette. He graduated in 2003 with Bachelor’s Degrees in both fields and found a job in Walla Walla to be close to Kelley. They married on June 20, 2004, one week after she graduated from college, and settled in Walla Walla.

In 2006, Jared began his career at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Even though it was a 70 mile commute each way, he and Kelley decided to remain in Walla Walla. They both had family in the area (Sara had moved to Walla Walla to be close to her brother), plus there were the Blue Mountains just on their doorstep. Jared wanted to be close to the Blues and went there often to go driving, motorcycling, mountain bicycling, hiking, and backpacking. He would also take day hikes in the Wallowas in Oregon either with his dogs and family or on his own.

Jared shared his love of the outdoors with others. He helped and encouraged Sara to complete two Seattle-to-Portland bike rides, and Kelley to get halfway through one. He encouraged and supported Kelley when she decided to train for a half marathon, and then do three more. He and Kelley wanted to take long backpacking trips together and they would go on overnight backpacking trips in the Blues or Wallowas to build up her endurance for the sport. They planned on doing some more short backpacking trips this summer with friends. He also started planning backpacking and hiking trips with his wife’s brother-in-law, Dave Seese. They were just getting started doing things together and Jared was helping out with some of the tricks of backpacking.

Jared would usually train for the Seattle-to-Portland bicycle event and, once completed, stop riding his bike until it was time to train for the next one. Last year was different, after completing STP by himself in one day, he kept training. He bought winter gear so that he could train in 20 degree weather, and would wake up at 4:00am on his training days to get a ride in before work. He felt that he was finally in good enough shape to participate in Randonneuring (rusa.org), which is “ultra-distance” self-supported bicycling. He had been talking about doing this for several years, but this year he felt that he was in the best shape he had been in since high school. He was nervous about the 400 kilometer (~250 mile) event and thought that he might not be able to finish it. The last time Kelley saw him, he knew he was going to make it. He had less than 30 miles to go – a short bike ride by his terms.

In 2011, Jared and one of his high school backpacking buddies went on a week long backpacking trip in the North Cascades along what is known as the Ptarmigan Traverse. They were planning on backpacking up to a point along the Traverse next month with other high school friends. His friends are still planning on going up there, taking some of Jared’s ashes along for one last backpacking trip, leaving him in the place he loved.