More Squamish Photos

Here are a few of my faves from our recent trip to Squamish BC. If you squint and cross your eyes a little you can almost see the cougar as it strolled past our tent. I have no idea why I was so shaky trying to take the shot...

Photos

Theres so much written that i have yet to post here, but we do have about 3,000 photos. So I'm going to burn a post on just pictures from all over our trip. These are in no particular order, and realize they may not be the best shot, but its what we have sized and ready in this little cafe at the moment. Enjoy!


Guanaco ("won-NOK-oh"), relative to the camel and llama, pacing the truck.



Armadillo. Funny little creatures.


I called and called, but no passengers arrived for this train.


The Moreno Glacier, which movs about 3 feet a day and calves icebergs constantly.


An afternoon crowd gathers at the observatory.


The road winds through some amazing territory.


This is a funny story you'll read about later. Our truck "Molden Oldie" acting up. Molden was abused heavily and yet he managed to get us around.


The colors all around were constantly beautiful.

Cooper, Cooper, Party Pooper!

Well, our little friend has returned several times, now. We've got a positive ID--it is a Cooper's Hawk. Not surprisingly, this is one of several breeds known as a Chicken Hawk... This biggest bummer about the visits is not being able to let the chickens roam freely. Now we must supervise their yard time, and learn to speak [or at least understand] "bird"... On 3 occasions I have observed distinct behavior and vocalization changes in all the other birds, and as such shuttled the girls into their pen... within minutes the hawk has appeared, but always too late. "Cooper", as we've been calling him/her, is also a juvenile, and apparently their first autumn on their own is when they are the hungriest. But there is NO way I'm letting him near my girls. We've got many ideas on hawk-proofing the yard so they can get out more, but with everything else going on right now, it' going to have to wait, unfortunately.

In related news, Foxy Brown started laying eggs a couple weeks ago, prompting me to take a day out of the bathroom remodeling to build an addition to the chicken coop. Now we have two nest boxes, and in fact, Delilah is sitting in it right now, quite possibly laying her first egg...

This is a photo of Foxy's first... it's pretty darn big for a first egg... definitely bigger than Francine's first.

So now I must go check the nestbox... if Delilah has laid an egg, there will be another post soon! :)

Hummingbirds

Tons of hummingbirds at this great little shop we found in Escalante, Utah. Several feeders attracted them all evening. It was a great show.

More Creatures We Have Met

Instead of posting again, we simply updated the creature menagerie. Check out the new lineup.

Red Rock Canyon

The rock shapes are amazing

We’re here in Red Rock Canyon, and have been for 5 days. It’s a great place, with tons of climbing, perfect weather (most of the time) and some neat “attractions” nearby. The campground is situated just outside Las Vegas, between town and the Red Rock Canyon National Park. We’ve been to this park several times in the past for climbing, and always had great fun. Once you get used to the dramatic weather patterns (high winds mornings and evenings, with cold nights and hot days) you can find places in the park at almost any temperature you want.

To whet our appetites over the weekend when crowds were higher, we stayed out of the main park circus and hiked into the Calico Basin where some shorter, easier climbs exist. Hanmi continued her mojo by working a fun 5.7 for a while, learning how to deal with tricky placements without a solid stance and managing rope drag. I got a small meal of a mild 10 that had a “boulder start” – which means all the climb was in the first 5 moves. Red Rocks is notorious for the some climbs being a bit light, meaning the higher numbers are still easier compared to locations elsewhere. However, earlier in the week it was raining and snowing (sometimes without hitting the valley floor, which made for great curtains of rain that simply disappeared).

Hanmi rocked up Tonto

Yesterday, just to get a workout, I coaxed Han out to the front side to a short (45ft) crag called the Magic Bus. There, I ran up and down all the climbs, TR’ing ot leading whatever and even down climbing. They were 8’s and 10’s but they all felt rather easy, with some aesthetic moves on otherwise Smith-like faces. I got my heart pumping but they weren’t the best routes of the trip.

Hanmi has her mojo back.

Las Vegas! Casinos! Every visit, we stop at the “Red Rocks Casino” and play a few games. The first year we made a few dollars, but this year was a bust. We skipped the weekend and hit it on the Sunday night, which was low energy and nobody at the table had any good streaks. Some dude next to us proceeded to lose about $1500 - he wasn’t in a good mood. I was content to lose what I brought, knowing that I could make it up when I get back.

Funny enough, the casino has a huge bowling alley and I played two games (159, 147) just to burn time while waiting for Han. The lanes are new and slick, but their ball selection is weak. I didn’t find grips or weights matched to really feel solid. By the end of the second game though, I thought climbing and bowling might be good combinations – both working the arm and fingers. I felt it.

Plan F is a more exciting line than Ragged Edges

The doggies have been having a great time. Their scrambling skill to the cliff bases is at an all-time high. Malo is hitting higher-angled stuff than ever, and Ellis can almost climb whatever we point her towards. On the ways home, they always get excited and climb best, whether up or down – they know when the food times are. Malo loves his full-body, balanced harness. When he feels me get ready to haul him, he leaps into a superman pose, holding it until he lands.

Yesterday we put them in the doggie daycare “evaluation” so that we could simply drop them off whenever we want. It worked out pretty well. Malo has a strong pack-animal sense (but certainly not Alpha-minded) – he holds his own when animals prod him. Ellis had a bit of separation anxiety but got over it (we were told). There were some fun dogs there, a friendly Boston Terrier and a huge black Great Dane stood out.

Ragged Edges is a great crack.

We’re spotted a ring-tailed cat, a few desert hares and one small coyote. We haven’t seen the desert tortoise rumored to be in the vicinity of the campground, but with these crowds I’m sure it didn’t stay long. So far, only one tourist has asked us about “this climbing thing” – pretty good. The dog celebrity continues, with people fawning over Ellis’s ears and Malo’s um, charm.

Today we went over to the Ragged Edges wall – which has some shorter classics. The route “Ragged Edges” itself is pretty great. There’s “Plan F” which we all thought was a good climb. Hanmi lead “Tonto” which she tells me is pretty easy. The routefinding was tricky though, which caused a bit of rope drag. She had to downclimb and pull some pieces. She has become quite a leader and while always progressing through the grades, is getting great experience with all the nuances about rope management and trad belay/rap stations.

We climbed with a great fellow Loren, who needed partners for his trip and was glad to take a “slow day” with us. Originally, we planned to split up and I’d climb a multipitch with Loren, but Han felt good enough to join in. So, we brought the whole family and just cragged 1 or 2 pitches. Thanks again, Loren. We’ll meet up again to do “Chicken Eruptus” soon!

Multi-pitching with Loren

Creatures we have met

This bird was always around us while camping in outside Prescott, close enough to feed. He is a happy-looking bird. The Grey-headed Junka.

These soldier ants were fun to watch while they carted off every crumb we dropped. They also hurt a bit when they bite. They don't let go!

Little lizards are everywhere on the rocks. They sometimes follow you up the climbs, trying to pump up and scare you off.

These woodpeckers made crazy screeches and checked all the trees around us each morning - again in Prescott, AZ. Acorn Woodpecker.

A wild turkey outside Williams, AZ. Didn't move fast from us or anything, and it was certainly big.

Desert hares live all around the campground in Red Rocks. They're pretty neat when they tilt their ears back and try to hide.

This was a spectacular encounter, a ring-tailed cat. This guy down-climbed 5.8 about 160ft to leave some upper climbers and run right into me. He kept an eye on the doggies, but his standard local meal made an appearance next...

These mice came out to check our packs and weren't shy. There were several all over the place, and seemed to be able to climb anything. They had some great climbing moves. I'm sure the peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches beckoned, but I ate 'em! Sorry guys.

A Western Diamondback Rattlesnake greeted us late one day, guarding our gear at the base in Zion. He put everything we did into slow motion as I tried to collect the rope up from around him...

Wild burros roam the desolate areas of Northwestern Nevada.

Mule Deer roam everywhere in the western mountains.

This creature appears every morning in it's strange blue shell. Only after the temperature reaches about 60deg does it come out and start screaming for toys and food.

Arizona

Camp hosts are a bit touchy here. [Striped-Tail Scorpion]

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.

Great, solid climbs hide in these spires.

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.

Both the chimney and the roofs are bolted and fun

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.

We spent most of the day all over this

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!

Parking is a breeze

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.

Build fire, play cracking fire MP3