My Thoughts...



Risk is essential.
There is no growth or inspiration in staying within what is safe and comfortable.

Not all who wander are lost

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Joshua Tree and Bishop


Some pics from the trip!!

Post trip moustache


and Jennys response to "post trip moustache"

The happys

More climbing in the happys

My favorite Problem in the Buttermilks called Rib Direct


The Rail problem

Bowling Pin (The reason I missed Sharma)

Ug, slab

Campsite

The Molly Dyno (V6)

Gleaming the Cube (V8)

Buttermilk Road

Joshua Tree

From Roof Romp

Roof Romp

BLM Campsite (desert)

Santanas

Summit of Ryan Mountain


Caveman

Mas Caveman


Good morning everyone! I just woke up and am sitting at a coffee shop in Westwood CA, just west of LA. The coffee place is pretty much right across from the movie theater where most Hollywood movies open; like with red carpet etc, so thats kinda cool. The location is the best thing about this coffee shop unfortunately. I am actually writing on receipt paper right now since, surprise surprise, I don't have anything else. Lets recap what's happened so far. We got to the airport at 2:15ish yesterday and had no problems with security, which was nice. Once through security, OH, the woman in front of me had a very manish suit and kinda looked like George Bush. Anyway, once through security we went to the airport Outback Steakhouse for celebratory vaca drinks.

The plane was full and Jon and I were sitting 1 row apart, me behind him. As I watch people peruse the aisle (my row is full and Jon's is not) I wonder who will sit down next to him. All of a sudden I see 2 asians wielding a baby come meandering down the aisle, and they look like they are ready to sit down. Yes. A giant smile, which had to cover the majority of my face came upon me. I was right. They sit down and as I gaze at Jon I notice that he does not look as excited as me. I wonder to myself if this turn of events will affect his decision to order an in flight cocktail.

The flight was smooth and the baby liked me; which they usually do for some reason. I think they can sense that my mind has the same # of processes going on as theirs. Anyway, I listened to music and relaxed, every once in a while scanning a climbing mag (both which I've probably read 25 times). Each time I look up I see the baby peering over the seat in front of me and cant help but think that this human is slobbering more than my dog does.

After getting bags Jon and I hop on the bus for Westwood and then walk to meet David (Jon's brother) at the hospital at which he works. PS walking around LA with a 5000 cubic inch pack on reminded me of Europe. We dropped our bags off at his place and visited with Dave for a bit followed by sushi at a place called Yamata. It looked like an old church that had been gutted and decorated for LA. Very cool place. It was also very cheap so Jon and I ordered enough to feed all of Rhode Island and went about our business. Afterward, we retired to David's for sleep.

It is now 3:43 on Sunday afternoon and I am on the way back from Jtree and writing on the back of a Carl's Jr comment card with a stolen pencil. So, we left la yesterday at 10am and really made pretty good time after we got out of the la traffic. After gassing up Jon forgot to put the gas cap back on, and since we are men (and idiots) stopping unnecessarily was not really an option. Therefore our drive was riddled with people pulling uip and telling us about it to which our response was something like "yea" or "we know, thank you". After we picked up our crashpads from Jtree outfitters (the shop was awesome and the pleople were awesome and wicked nice) we headed into the park. My camping concerns were well justified seeing as though the WHOLE PARK was full. We decided that we would deal with it when we needed and got set up to climb. After spending several minutes trying to get oriented and floundering around in the parking area a nice climber asked if we wanted input. Yes please and thank you. I think he was a jtree local and had a lot of good info. After playing on the problems he suggested we were all pretty underwhelmed. Very sharp rock and all vert or very slabby, not fun for me or us. 1 problem was pretty solid but I hadn't taped my fingers and it was shredding my right middle and ring fingers. Luckily JT is packed with rock formations for scrambling. The 3 of us spent a while just playing on those and moved to a boulder problem I was very excited about called Caveman. It was a juggy roof problem with cool huecos and toe hooks. Jon and I worked the moves until we had exhausted our physical and mental abilities. Afterward we drove a few miles to a trailhead that would allow us to summit Ryan Mountain at 5450 ft. It was a fast hike at a little over an hour. It was pretty touristy and included some strange groups of people. By the time we finished we were all starving. We found a fairly suspect place called Santanas that we settled on. 1, there was no on in there. 2, it was kind of like fast food mexican. 3, the woman working had black eyebrows tattooed on and a black line tattooed around her mouth...very nice. Seemed fine to us. Well the food was ok and plentiful so thats important. Also I think we set a trend because as soon as we ordered a ton of other people came in. Trend setters we are.

Since camping was kaboshed in Jtree we were given directions to some BLM (bureau of land management) land we could camp on, ie middle of the desert. We set up tents and all sat around and caught up. It was really nice and felt like old times. This morning Jon and I got up and drove into the town for breakfast. We ate at a really cool cafe that was just awesome. The food was so good! It was really the only restaurant in Joshua Tree that didn't scare the hell out of us. When we got back we tore down tents and drove back into the park. We had a place in mind to climb but since the book was written by a clown we couldn't find it (bad descriptions and black and white pictures of random rocks in the desert that all look the same). We stumbled around in the desert for a while and happened to come upon a problem that looked pretty fun. It turned out to be badass and was called Roof Romp; after scouring the guidebook. We worked it a little bit and after a few tries I sent it! Turned out to be v4 and I was very excited. We spent some more time scrambling and then returned to the car. Great time and successful trip. PS Carl's jr is awesome.

So this is a 1st. I am actually writing in a notebook! I bought 1 from Kmart (which I didn't think existed anymore) to take with me on these trips. Lets pick up where we left off. Once back from JT we had dinner at a really cool seafood placed called Malibu Seafood. So good! Right on the beach too! After, we jumped on the road for Bishop. It rained for the 1st hourish then finally cleared up. The drive was long but not too bad. We rolled into town at about 2am and turned into what we thought was our camping area. It turned out to be a very creepy something else. Maybe from the horror movie House of Wax? Upon further investigation we found our site next door. Seemed pretty standard. RVs and some tents. We found a fairly dark spot and pulled in to set up tents. A minute or so into this process we hear a very loud MOOOOO. Apparently this campground was right next to a large field of cows wielding megaphones...and apparently we had bothered them. They would not be quiet. Loudly and frequently they would moo. Jon and I were almost in tears we were laughing so hard by the end of it. I fell asleep fast , despite the ridiculously loud future ground beef.

I woke up early, ready to see Bishop and get climbing. Well technically the reason I woke up was because I thought my tent was going to be hit by a car. The only thing separating our tents from these cows was a road that people like to practice for nascar on. At about 7:45am we headed into town. PS after I got out of my tent I was able to see where exactly we were. Due to the night time drive in we didn't see that we were in a valley surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. We had breakfast at a local place called Jack's to wait for the shop to open so we could pick up our crashpads.

Once obtained we headed up to the buttermilks. It was amazing. Literally took my breath away and turned me into a giddy child. The buttermilks are known for huge boulders (the biggest up by 60 ft high) and beautiful scenery. Both were accurate. The first boulders that we saw were Grandma and Grandpa Peabody. They were huge. Also the hardest problem in the world is on Grandpa, just climbed March 30 of this year called Lucid Dreaming. It was ridiculous. It looked so hard. Awe inspiring. We spent the next 4 or 5 hours climbing there with different levels of success. The climbing was hard but really great. Mid-way through the day we met 2 people named Donnie and Jill who were climbing on the same boulder we were. We left for 20 min or so to try a problem called bowling pin (which beat my ass) and when we came back Jill asked me if I had seen Sharma? My mind was blown and I was very sad. Apparently he was climbing right near us! So cool! The best climber in the world and the guy my pup is named after was climbing right next to us! What are the odds?

After the buttermilks we went to another area called the Sads. We hiked in and didn't really find much at first. It is a volcanic rock bouldering area in a gorge so quite hard to navigate. Finally we heard a couple other people and made our way toward the sound in hopes they could send us in the direction of rad problems. It was Donnie and Jill again. Small world. We climbed there with them for a while and did a sick dyno called the Molly Dyno. Ps, Dyno means all points off (jumping). So sweet. When we were getting ready to head out Donnie mentioned something about some hot springs and offered his placed to us to crash after. Since I can't say no to hot springs we decided to go, even though they were 20 miles or so North near Mammoth Lakes. We got there via miserable dirt "road" with the concern brewing that we were going to get robbed/stabbed/raped. Once there it was worth it. Beautiful night and the water was really hot. Donnie and Jill were fun and good people. Also very generous of them to share kind of a local secret with the donkeys from the midwest. We looked at stars, talked for an hour or so and headed back to the cars. It was another 10 minutes or so to Mammoth. We finished the night with some drinks and crashed pretty hard due to a long day climbing and a long night driving prior. Now, today, we got up early and had breakfast at an awesome local place in Mammoth called The Stove. Also, Mammoth is a big ski town and at about 7000 ft elevation, so awesome. The drive back was pretty and we got right to climbing once back to Bishop. Back to the buttermilks. Another great day of it. Sent some hard stuff which I was very excited about! We also went to an area called the happys. It was more my style of climbing, (big holds, overhung, big moves) so that was really great. My favorite climbing out there, aside from the buttermilks scenery. We ate at a weird thai place for dinner and retired to our beautiful campsite. Now here I am sitting around a campfire, looking at stars and writing. Can't complain. Well except a scorpion just crawled across my leg and scared the shit out of me. Not my favorite. Time to go into my tent. Goodnight.

Well there it is. Now I'm back home with the lady and the monsters. It was a good trip but I'm glad to be home. PS we move 1 month from today.