Monday, April 16, 2007
Arizona
Well, we're sitting at Oak Flat campground, and it's pretty. Pretty wild too, with almost no road (we were grinding out on the "road" here, passing a Land Rover Discovery that turned back). The sun is just now dipping beneath the horizon, and the cooler air is moving over in small breezes. We've already set up the stove, eaten and packed it away again. The dogs have completely become accustomed to our mixing dogfood with gravy washings from the cans of chili or whatnot. They refuse to eat the (admittedly poor) dry food we bought for them. But, after a long day, they'll give in.
And what a long, great day it's been. Last night, we rolled into Phoenix, AZ from Joshua Tree. We rolled into Arizona and got to chat with an old acquaintance, Gary. He's been a good pal to my friend Cedric (mentioned in a prior post) over the years, and was really helpful on giving us bearings to choice climbing just outside the city. He wasn't kidding - we had a great time. We spent last night in a posh hotel and relaxed all night and morning. There's an Ironman competition going on this weekend (Sunday) and having arrived Friday night, we were greeted everywhere by thin-skinned hairless athletes. The guys especially looked gaunt, with deeply sunken cheeks. That’s a neat sport and I admire the physical capability those folks can build up. The competitive nature of it isn't for me though. I like climbing, where you battle your own capabilities with rock features testing you. Sometimes you're hot with your abilities, sometimes not, but never do I feel ranked in a long list of people.
After breakfast in bed, we drove out here and found it no problem. After a short hike down into a dry creek bed, we walked into a 20ft wide slot canyon, water carved from a canal built upstream by a local mining company. The rock faces were full of small ledges and holes, but overall followed a smooth rounded pattern. It was quite sharp and in many ways the face climbing reminded me of Smith Rock. However, this had no nubbins and more cracks (most horizontal) to play on.
We met some local climbers who were just scouting, and they gave us some starting lines to warm up. They felt good, like mid 8's with a harder move now and then. We had the place to ourselves, which was great for a weekend, and just scoped out a climb and then bargained for lead. I won all the leads, simply because Han didn't have the mojo today. Most of the climbs felt okay, without any being much sustained. Some had great stretches of roof moves, some with tiny hands. My last climb of the day went over this 8 foot curving roof, with a clip under the lip.
Both my feet fell out before I was able to regain the lip and throw a foot. Then, as I pulled, a bunch of rock burst under my hand, sending grapefruit-sized nuggets into the canyon. After that one fall, though, I made the anchor and felt great. Hanmi dodged all the big stuff, thankfully!
Hanmi had a fun adventure on a closeby climb. It had "full value" we kept saying, in that it had a bit of face, stemming, body-wide chimneying, and some overhang. All the climbs had something interesting. One had a run-out section where I thought it shouldn't, but then I found an awesome jug just at the top of one's reach at a particularly balancey move. It knocked the whole grade down and made the climb full of laughs. Not knowing any names, we talked of it being named "Faith" for that one move. We may have been influenced by the ridiculous number of Christian evangelical groups singing, babbling and handing shite out in Tempe the night before.
Malo had a good time as well, finding a little stinkbug to chase around. He decided to eat it, and of course it sprayed him full inside the mouth. He spit it out unharmed, then gagged and foamed for a while. I washed his mouth out and told him to lay down. He was a bit less inquisitive after that. Overall though, we're keeping a closer eye on them out here. We found a white scorpion while gathering wood and there's howling animals at night. So, after some extra food and a bit of cojoling, both doggies are snoring away in the tent as I write.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
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. :)
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. :)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Tollhouse Rocks
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.
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…
Monday, April 09, 2007
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.
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
Saturday, April 07, 2007
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
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
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