Desert Storm!

Well, it's officially the start of week two. We are at Joshua Tree and it blows. It's blowing dirt, sand, snow, and hail.
We have met some great folks, though, and are still managing to have fun. At the moment we've taken refuge at the Beatnik cafe, a strange, somewhat dirty establishment with nasty bathrooms and sub par food. They apparently have a pest problem as well, by the health department notice posted in the front window. But they have wireless, so we're making the best of it.


We started the day with a couple new friends, Sarah and Briana, and walked over to Headstone rock to climb SW Corner. As I was belaying Jim, I looked up and noticed huge thick white clouds blowing in... what I couldn't see was the huge dust storm it was kicking up in its wake. Once Jim got to the top, however, he could see the wall of brown dust and sand and we made the decision to bail.


He rappelled off the front of the rock and we left all the draws on the bolts. Sarah and Briana ran back to camp ahead of us with the dogs to spare them from getting a bunch of sand in their eyes. I waited for Jim to get down and we hurried back to the tent where we all hunkered down with our lunches. After several lulls and gusts, Jim took Briana out to the rock formation directly behind our tent and set up a toprope to teach her all the basics of climbing.

Sarah went to watch and take pictures, and I stayed in the tent with the dogs. The temperature was dropping fast and as the clouds thickened, it got dark and started dropping ice pellets and snow on us. It was crazy. Briana reported having to brush snow/hail out of the holds as she climbed. Hows that for an introductory lesson?

The weather service is calling for continued dust storms and high winds through 8pm tonight. It's supposed to be relatively calm and warm tomorrow, with highs in the mid 70's, so we should be able to get some good climbing in before we leave.
Our other new friends are our campsite mates, a father and his son and his son's friend from Napa valley who are out on a road trip adventure for spring break. With campsites being scarce, we opted to double up. Jim has also met several other people, and as such, I have dubbed him the mayor of Ryan campground. :)

Tollhouse Rocks

This is one of the access trails down

Tollhouse Rock is a granite dome monolith outside the city of Tollhouse, which is on the map Northeast of Fresno, CA. It sits on the boundary of the John Muir wilderness and is a great place to climb. To reach it, one drive on a level dirt road to a powerline access cut, then hike to the top, then scrambles down a gully 400ft to the base. It's pretty easy to reach, and except for the fields of poison oak and trail washout, not tricky.

Once at the base of the rock, there are crack and bolted lines that felt 5.7ish all the way to mid 10's - which made the day enjoyable. The base has a thin trail along the rock that can be a nightmare if you wander off – the area is thick with brush. There’s lot of condor/falcon/raven (we’re terrible bird identifiers) in the air above, and we heard more than one roar from a cat of some kind.


The climbs are excellent, with some steep slab on runout bolts to keep you thinking. There’s a short mild crack that was cool, with some bulges overhead to navigate. Our last climbs were on some steep face with tiny ledges that kept me laughing. At one point, I had to fully mantle a ½ inch ledge with only a shallow mono pocket above. Then, you have to switch to a slab traverse to the anchor. All in all, it was a great day.

All the pictures in this post are from this great crag.

A Route! Another! Another!

Han reaches the top of another great jam

Rapping down another

We beat the sun out of the valley

Afterwards, Han rallied for locations South. We ended up 12 miles outside of Bakersfield. Let me tell you all about that night! Hanmi has had an OK time in a KOA in the past (why spell campground with a 'K'? Are they part of the Klu Klux Klan?) - we saw a sign for one by the side of the road and simply took it. It was late.

It's not pretty. There are few hardy trees and lots of RV's. There's a freeway buzzing not far from us. Then as we were setting up the tent, some large engines in the field next to us roar to life. Then, giant bright lights switch on - the campground is in the corner of an industrial orchard! Of course, we had chosen the back corner, deepest into the orchard. Soon enough, they began to fumigate the orchard with giant trucks spewing something awful all around us. Then, a plane flew low over our heads! On the other side of this "Kampground" was an airport (across the noisy highway).

By this time, I'm screaming laughing. I'm expecting a herd of baboons to roost in the trees over us, screeching, or perhaps a jackhammer to fire up, or both. I keep telling Hanmi jokes like "Well, it's not the 4th of July!" and such. She's having asthma attacks and pretty much in tears. The air was thick with mist of something tangy and somewhat burning. The orchard folk were all wearing masks, and I think the planes were crop dusting us along with the fields. I think we lost a few year's life expectancy on that night. Hanmi swore off California Raisins and Oranges when she found what the fields had. Me? At least I know there are no bugs in 'em!

So, in the morning, we left Bakersfield and drove to Joshua Tree. Joshua Tree was great, as our next post explains…

Roadtrip 2

Well, it's Monday, the day after Easter. The past two days have found us along some majestic areas along the rugged Feather River, just outside Chino CA. We climbed at a place called Grizzly Dome, which had some excellent slab and sport routes. We happened to meet one of the areas pioneers and maintainers, who was a great friend in showing us some stellar routes. Brad is currently bolting a new route in his spare time, which after my test-flailing, may go in the mid to hard 11's. It should be a great route, with a very interesting crux sequence. I learned that my 60m rope is actually a 70m, since it allowed us to toprope more than a normal pitch yesterday. (Woot! 10m for free, and no wonder I got tired of flaking it out in the gym.) We'll definitely been meeting up with Brad again, as he had great stories of places he's climbed and seem to agree with us on every philosophical aspect of climbing (crowds, ethics, style, etc). He's a very cool guy.


Camping was fun - we simply pulled up into the hills along the river and took an access road way above the valley. The train still sounded quite close (toot toot!) but the view was vertigo-inducing. The drive itself was some mild off-roading and quite narrow in places. After choosing a flatter spot, we snarfed a hearty meal, enjoyed some great local pino, and slept on the sandy, pine needle forest floor. Hanmi manage to get some interesting photos of the location before we saddled up and headed south.


Central California is a hot valley of monotonous tree farms, vineyards, and rustic pit stops. We chugged along south of Sacramento to enter into the land of fast drivin' and hot breezes. Rosie doesn't keep up so well with the teenagers in their suspensionless civics, but we made it to Fresno in pretty good time. Fresno itself seems like a city with a hole in it. The "downtown" is full of empty-looking buildings, each with faded paint and a bulbless marquis. We wandered around a bit and then drove to the university district (not much different) looking for a wi-fi spot. Thus, this post brought to you by Starbucks.

Hanmi's hair has decided to become another entire personality, joining us on the trip. From morning to night, sleeping to waking again, it's a different shape and expression. Sometimes it's Bride Of Frankenstein, sometimes Eraserhead, sometime Robert Smith. She takes it all in stride though, and laugh along with me. After all, "its only hair" is almost a motto in our family - from the dog grooming to our own follies.

After this, we're planning a few days out again, a bit northward, toward Shaver lake. There are some sweet crags hiding out there, and they should be warm enough to keep us climbing for several days. Then, we'll probably decided again where to go. We're keeping it easy and not really deciding until we're driving.

The centipedes grow big out here!

I'd like to send a big THANKS to Cedric, the best man with the plan on the East Coast. He returned a shot-in-the-dark phone call today to chat and relay some info about old contacts in Phoenix, AZ. Sounds like he's doing well, and hasn't lost a bit of the charm/wit I remember of him. Sounds like Gary in AZ still remembers me, so we may get a chance to visit him along our way.

Climbing has been strong, managed to do everything except Brad's new project without a take/fall. I will definitely feel better when we can crank for a few days stright. The past few days has been a bit stormy or too cool to stay for long. The best places of the trip are still yet to come, with Yosemite, Tuolumne, Tahquitz, Red Rocks and Joshua Tree in the next 2 weeks, then places in AZ and CO, UT and ID on our way home. So much to do!

Doggies are doing fine. They are active morning and evening, then bliss out in the midday sun. Nights are a body pile in the tent, since everyone wants into the sleeping bags. All in all, they're doing well.



Days out: 4
Pitches: 6
Replaced: Dog Food, ice in the cooler
Gas prices: $3.29
Best Meal: Camp veggies w/wine and steak


BONUS: S'MUTT

Ellis maxes the cute factor with her new haircut

Malo in his "Playdog" pose

Roadtrip

Well, we're on the road again - six months since our tour of Ireland. This trip is the Western US. we're singing songs, tapping away on the laptop, sketching, eating gas station food and of course..climbing! This time around, we've brought the doggies.

Not much is different with them in tow, and more folks seem smiley than without them. So far, they've not been too fussy, and seem to be clear when they need to pee and eat. Thats better than our communication sometimes.

Our journey has left Portland, with a few mis-starts (had to mail the tax forms), out to central Oregon to camp/climb in one of our favorite local places, Smith Rock State Park.

This time around just for kicks, we splurged the $4 and camped at the state bivy site. The most awkward things about this site are the awful camping distance from the car and eating in a litle pen in the middle of the parking lot. They have showers though - which is redeeming.



The climbing was good - it was hot in the sun. We ticked two sporty climbs on the Pinic Lunch wall. There seemed to be a large group spread all over the more popular walls, so we decided to skip them - we've climbed them many times in the past anyway. Picnic Lunch has some varied face climbing, just like the other walls, but they are mid-10's so the instructor-led crowds seem to skip them.




One night at Smith, then we drove south to Crater Lake, which is still under 3 feet of snow, snowmobiles brapping everywhere. We drove around it, then headed down 138 along the Rogue River into Ashland, Oregon. A storm was brewing as we entered, and the lightning that crackled over us was incredible. By the time we had secured the motel room and found a place for dinner, the storm was a thunder-rama. Even later that night, it hit something right outside and shook us all out of bed.


Downtown Ashland was quite cute. There was a recently developed "Main Street" area full of boutique stores and restaurants, many of which had lines in front of them (in the rain!) Checking the local paper, Ashland doesn't have a big problem with crime. However, not far from here is a sea of pickup trucks and damn-ugly strip malls and rural farm homes that seemed to have skipped the farming and gone straight to "collect rusty things in yard" stage. At one point, we were so surounded by jacked up pickup trucks, I wondered if there was a truck show going on. I passed a mustachioed guy with stringy hair at the gas statiOn carrying a Miller twelve pack and wearing a T-shirt that said "I [heart] Strippers". As he climbed into his pickup truck, I thought: Awesome! We're closing in on the heartland of America.




Dinner last night was fun. We found a Bitish Pub-themed pLace in downtown Ashland, complEte with soccer games, Guinness, dart boards and a traditional menu. We gobbled up the good food (although the lamb was off and had to be rejected) and even shared a Guinness/ice-cream float. Darts and beer always work well together. Hanmi pulled a rare "William Tell" and stuck a dart in the end of a prior one. Pretty neat!



Summary
Days out: 2
Forgotten and replaced: Toothbrushes
Kitch Level of Car Decor: 0
Pitches: 2
Best meal: Camp-cooked veggies


J&H

a response: please don't

Dear President Bush:
After thinking a bit today, reading some news, and re-reading your speech last night, I was compelled to write you - not something I have ever done to any political figure. I tend to believe letters such as this are akin to Lists For Santa mailed in December.

First, thank you for apologizing. I'm content in believing it was sincere, as I'm going to take you by your word, although I feel betrayed by speeches in your past. I'm willing to take this fresh perspective because you ask it, as I hope you are willing to extend it.

I need you to reconsider this act of your military tweak to this ongoing war in Iraq. The current numbers of soldiers in Iraq (150,000) suggest another 20,000 will not change much. Truthfully, you and I both know this is really just changing schedules of existing soldiers - who's resolve and morale you've pushed to limits by the dubious claims behind Iraq's initial invasion.

Your apology was the first step towards what I'm asking: Iraq will be so slightly changed, probably only slowed towards complete anarchy, that it's not worth the dramatic emotional toll the US will suffer. The families picking up the pieces of the returned war injured and deceased are going to be your legacy. By extending or growing this group, you are only solidifying this historical perspective. Children and grandchildren will grow up with missing, maimed or bitter ancestors from this declaration of war. I saw a photo with a tear on your face today, sir. This war wins us nothing but such tears - a stable Iraq will be found the same way with 20,000 more US soldiers or not.

I'm pleading with you. Please, Mr President - my leader as everyone's leader in the US right now: You can change years of suffering in this country by extending the humility you showed last night. Congress and the military are the best advice as to what this country feels, and all signs point to their need for a reduced military action and a new army to be deployed: An army of diplomats, leading tables upon tables of discussions with towns, tribes, religious leaders and entire countries around the world: There must be a better solution to a civil war than simply killing the participants.

Please continue the honest and humble stance you showed by extending your proposal - indeed, changing it. Put a short term limit on all soldiers in Iraq and begin deploying more teams of non-military chaperons to assist the entire region in adjusting to the realities of Iraq now, not any promised Iraq of the future. Truthfully, few people, from blogs of Iraqi and US citizens and soldiers, as well as militia they fight, believe your decision holds any real change in it.

But there is a path forward that changes their expectations: Realistically challenging the existence of a country of Iraq entirely. If we lower our military presence, the country may indeed split, fade or fall apart, but this isn't a issue we've begun but merely uncovered. We need not be the police of this part of the world - this argument leads us to believing we should also police several other countries and eventually, the entire world directly. I cannot believe you condone such a role for our country's soldiers - policing is too fine a tool for our immensely strong and yet blunt military.

Thank you for your attention.