apAdventures

A quick recap here on some notable moments from this spring’s fun…

posted by ARR

Outside Joshua Tree National Park, CA this spring.

posted by arr

We had another birthday recently. Is it just me or are the birthdays ticking by at a faster and faster rate??!!!!

Silas is now 7. SEVEN! And for his 7th birthday he wanted to go to Joshua Tree and do 7 climbs (no doubt the idea coming to him from Linda’s 35 route attempt on her 35th birthday back in February). The trip was a success…well, wait a sec…I’m not going to sugar-coat it here people. The presents did travel well without being peeked at or destroyed, the cake assembled beautifully and tasted delicious, and the seven climbs were ticked. The not-so-fun parts were it being INCREDIBLY windy all day Saturday (not just breezy or even gusty, but that super annoying dusty desert wind that blows crashpads and small children away and hair into your mouth and dirt into your eyes and grains of sand into your ear canals such that you just want to yell at the wind! Or your kids. THAT kind of wind!), and burned pizza. No, really burned. Really, really, really burned pizza. Pizza that we had been looking forward to feasting our dusty wind-blown faces into after a long, tiring, angry at mother nature kind of day…cooked over the campfire in our sweet little dutch oven. The birthday feast! Burned. And then add to that two kids that were amped up a notch higher than usual, exacerbating the frustration of the whole day. Not one of our best days out climbing for sure.

At the end of that fine day, with wild kids finally asleep in their sleeping bags and Paul and I sitting outside the van, looking at the big beautiful full moon with cups of wine in hand (cause as all desert climbers know, the blasted wind of course stops when it’s now too dark to climb), Paul says to me “April, this is why parents don’t do this.” (referring to the day’s drama). We sat quietly and pondered that thought a moment. And then broke into hysterical laughter.

It’s October and all Joshua Tree camping is full. Standard protocol: BLM land outside the park.

But then we snag an open campsite the next morning! Score! (Note, this is the calm before the storm, literally about 5 minutes prior to the wind just suddenly kicking up and then remaining at full-throttle for the entire day)

Climb #1

Little brother follows

Ivan has declared that he’s only doing 4 climbs today. Hmmm, wonder why? haha

Forgot to snap a pic of climb #2, so onto climb #3. Yes, we’re getting as much mileage as we can out of this boulder since it’s the only one in all of Joshua Tree with actual holds on it.

Climb #4. Yeah slab climbing.

And climb #5, which is a proper guidebook-documented V0 boulder problem. Nice Silas!

Calling it quits early for the day and moving on to dinner and birthday party celebration. The pizza baking in the dutch oven.

Dinner…which was essentially just salad. Take a gander of the burned hot mess on the corner of the table

Cake! Time to turn this party around!

…and then mother nature digs a little deeper and blows the candles out! Grrr. Completely unfazed, he goes ahead and makes a wish (the cake is a solar system, by the way)

Silas opening Ivan’s card

Homemade with love

A very exciting gift. The biggest magnifying glass ever! Thank you grandma and papa!

We give up on the wind and head indoors. This is the big gift – Paul’s rock collection he had as a child (well, half of it that is. The other half will be saved for another small boy later)

I love these photos

Their socks are completely knocked off right now

The next morning: a movie on the computer paired with the favorite gifts of last night – the rock collection and a book on gems and minerals. Silas is SOOOO into rocks right now.

Building the psyche that this day will be a little more fun. This is the day of Silas’ actual birth so how can it not be!

Looking good….

A fun little find on the approach

Tying in

On belay

Little brother waiting patiently for his turn

Climb on!

Climb #6, done!

View from the summit

Ivan’s turn

The rest positions these kids find on their climbs cracks me up

Ivan summits!

And finally, the big climb #7. We offered up the option of Silas doing the previous climb twice to finish out the 7, but he wouldn’t have it. He wanted to do the big one, “the one parents do.”

Go for it buddy. …it’s only a 5.10a 😉

A little tug from dad through the crux…

…and…

…he’s got it in the bag!

Belle Campground, where we camped, in the background

Send!!

I love this photo too – the climax of the trip. Paul and I often refer to what we’ve dubbed the “misery-to-joy ratio” for moments such as this. When hauling the whole family around to do what we do, a high degree of misery must sometimes be endured. But all it takes is that one moment of pure joy to make the whole experience worth it. This is exactly one of those moments. What a perfect birthday.

posted by arr

The Birthday Girl: Linda
The Mission: 35 pitches in a day (for her 35th year of awesomeness on this planet)
The Support Crew: Her fiance Ty, friend Cat, and Me, Paul, Silas & Ivan

Joshua Tree, California

First stop, The Hemingway area

Ivan is confident in Linda’s hardcoreness

Silas is psyched on J-tree’s endless supply of fun play areas

Ty and Linda scope routes and Cat hydrates while Paul tries to remember what the heck an ATC is

Linda rockin’ the trad

Next stop, The Real Hidden Valley

Linda banging out routes on The Thin Wall

My cute boys observe

Silas studies the guidebook

…and then can’t take it anymore. He needs to climb too so Paul runs back to the van to grab his gear. If the kids are psyched to climb, we jump on it! 🙂
Meanwhile, Linda still crushing in the upper left of the photo.

Assessing the day’s progress. I think she has something like 19 routes to go at this point, and it’s late afternoon.

Decision made to push on and see how far she can get

Final stop, Trash Can wall for some easy climbs that she can run up quickly

…the sun is waning…

…and she calls it a night. Decision made to party with friends versus push on in the cold and wind and darkness. Here we are huddled in the warm van feasting on chips & salsa, fresh salad, stew, bread and birthday cake.
Total pitches climbed: 24
Total amount of agave spirits drank that night: LOTS

The next morning we rise to sunny skies despite a threatening forecast

We light a campfire, fix up some french toast

and then the promised forecast moves in

We hike and play around on the boulders a bit after breakfast

…as the storm approaches

And then the wind and rain engulf us and we all run top speed back to our vehicles, soaking wet and laughing hysterically. What a birthday adventure!

posted by arr

Last week Paul had a conference to attend near Dana Point, CA so we decided to make a small family road trip out of it. Silas got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time…or any ocean for that matter. He was terrified at first (I think the sound of the waves scared him), but warmed up to it fast until we couldn’t keep him from bolting toward the water every chance he got. We stayed in a campground on the beach – quite relaxed and surfer-like. And then swung though Joshua Tree on the way home for some bouldering.

Silas’ first day at the ocean. Poor baby isn’t impressed.

Later that night at the beach – warming up to it.

Ok, maybe this could be fun

Squeal!!!!!!!!!!!

This is fun mama!

And so is this!

Makin’ a break for it – back to the waves

with Dad

Silas’ second day at the beach.  Certified beach bum.

Paul’s conference location.  Whoa.

Rides of the conference attendees.  Whoa.

Relaxing at a restaurant on the coast in Malibu

The view from the restaurant

Life is good

Joshua Tree, CA.  Grabbing mama’s sunglasses while she’s busy climbing

Silas stretching his chubby legs amongst the Joshua Trees

Paul making quick work of Chili Sauce, aka The Moffatt Problem, v7

My turn

Silas under The Headstone

My baby

The Meadows Boulder

Wrapping up the trip with a J-Tree sunset

posted by arr

Here are the rest of our pictures from our J-Tree and Yosemite trip. Thank you Dale for taking such rad pics with your sweet digital camera/fisheye lens.

Desert driving, climbing boulders, hiking rock, fireside ghost stories, joshua tree forests, gushing waterfalls, El Cap awe, sore legs, big smiles…..the list goes on and on. This is *the* official trip report for our first Sportsmobile camper van adventure, with special guests, Dale and Tans from New Zealand.

The first destination on our roadtrip tick list is Joshua Tree National Park, California. We leave Sunday late afternoon from Tucson, Arizona and gave Dale and Tans their first taste in desert highway driving – a long thread of cars stretching out before us, as far as the eye can see. The Sportsmobile is purring like a kitten (Paul says ‘lion’). We’re riding in style with legroom to spare. This is the life! 🙂 We pull into Joshua Tree pretty late and are worried about not finding a campsite. The month of March is considered the busy season, but we’re already feelin’ lucky on this trip and miraculously land a sweet site.

The following morning we have ourselves a nice cup of coffee and breakfast and then hit The Ouback for some bouldering. This is Tans’ first outdoor climbing experience and she does awesome – sending the layback crack Trout Chow (v0) and flashing the stellar West Face of Dino’s Egg (.9). Woo! We all finish off the day having fun jumping around on the Flintlock Dyno (v0) on the Chuckawalla Boulder and then back to the campsite to celebrate with yummy food and beer.

Next destination on the tick list is Yosemite National Park, California. We’ve picked a great day for driving because it’s cloudy and lightly raining on almost the whole journey up north. We arrive at Yosemite Valley at dusk, but alas, because of the rain (snow, at the higher elevations), the massive monolith El Capitan is unwilling to show its sheer face. Here in the high country, March is the off-season and we practically have the entire place to ourselves (relatively speaking – if you’ve ever visited the Valley). We celebrate our arrival with homemade pizza.

The waterfalls are absolutely gushing this time of year and we’re eager to check them out. Our first hiking pick is Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. Because of the snow at the higher elevation and rockfall danger, the Mist Trail is closed (a direct link between Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls along the water’s edge), thus forcing us on a long, roundabout hike to get to the top of the amazing Nevada Falls, with which we are rewarded with stellar views of Liberty Cap, Mount Broderick, and Half Dome along the way. There is no such thing as a bad hike in Yosemite. Nine miles later we’re back at camp, munchin’ on spaghetti and garlic bread and sippin’ on wine, celebrating Tan’s Birthday! (the celebration just never ends on this trip).

Rise and shine campers! Today is the El Cap day! Our goal: To hike to the top of El Cap; about 3000 feet elevation gain; about 18 miles of walking. It’s early, we’ve got our daypacks ready, and we’re rearin’ to go. We start off toward Camp 4, where the Yosemite Falls trailhead awaits. Slow and steady, we burn our way up the never ending switchbacks up to the top of Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in the U.S., the 5th tallest in the world. It’s gushing full force with the springtime melt. Breathtaking. The next photo snapper we see is a BOBCAT!!! No kidding – right on the trail – just chillin’ – well, kinda not – he’s pretty pissed to see us we think so we keep our distance. He heads downhill and we head up. We’re chugging along again, up, up up. Just around the next switchback, just around the next switchback, and finally we reach the top. We all chill for a bit and refuel with some PB&J sandwiches. We’re feeling pretty darn good and looking forward to the next part of the hike: a straightforward 5 mile, rolling walk through a wooded forest, gaining only about 500 more feet of elevation, which will gently place us on the top of the massive El Capitan. Sounds easy, huh? Well, not quite. We start off into the woods and immediately begin walking over patches of hardpacked snow. A little snow – no big deal – we’re well equipped. We tromp on. The little patches start turning into bigger patches, and then bigger patches, until we’re eventually walking through neverending 3-4 foot deep hardpacked snow. Throw in an occasional post hole here and there, leaving us knee (or sometimes thigh) deep in the icy whiteness, and you’ve got a few bummed looks of despair that we may not be able to make it to El Cap. After about 45 minutes of this we get to a signpost almost buried in the snow. El Cap this way…4.1 miles. Uh oh, wait a sec. We’ve been hiking for almost an hour and have only traveled about 1 mile! Oh no, we’ll *never* make El Cap at this pace. The snow is slowing us down way too much. And to top it all off, the old footprints we’d been following through the snow…keeping us on trail…now turn off down another trail at this point. We look into the dark, snow-filled woods at where the path to El Cap should lead, but is invisible due to the snow. Consensus everyone: “No Thanks.” We turn back. El Capitan has shut us down.

We quickly turn our despair around with deciding to go check out Yosemite Point. As I said, there is no such thing as a bad hike in Yosemite. We reach the precarious vantage point and are blown away with the breathtaking birds-eye view of the entire Valley floor. I can only sum it up with one word: Wow. All smiles, we cruise back down to the valley floor and fill our bellies with some great food at the Yosemite Lodge.

Our remaining stay in the Valley is quite relaxing. We tool around the valley floor shops, shower!, sip on drinks at the Ahwahnee Hotel, check out some boulder problems, stare in awe at a bivy tent on the El Cap face, and rest and recuperate with good food, good stories, and good company.

It is now time to turn this roadtrip back toward home. We decide to pass through Joshua Tree again on the way back and *totally* luck out with finding a campsite. It is our final night on the road and we celebrate the good times had with a nice fire and a slideshow with all the pics we’ve taken on the trip.

We get up early in the morning and hit the road again, eager to get to Tucson at a reasonable hour so we can have time for some evening chillin’ at the house. This roadtrip might be coming to a close but the fun is not. We’re all still buzzing from the amazing sights we’ve seen over the last week and discussing our favorite parts, dreaming of when we can return and/or what adventure we will embark upon next. The more places one sees, the more one wants to see. A healthy greed, we all agree.

posted by arr

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a month now that Grit and Manu arrived here from Germany. Time flys when you’re having fun and now their trip is coming to an end. Manu left for home last week. And Grit is on a final solo tour of more Joshua Tree and Bishop and will head home next week. I think I can speak for them both in saying that they indeed had a great visit. They climbed it all: Hueco Tanks, Joshua Tree, Bishop, Red Rock Canyon, Priest Draw, and even some local Tucson climbing at Milagrossa Canyon. Their tick lists are amazing. Paul and I were fortunate enough to be able to squeeze out some time off from work to join them climbing at a few places. And we all had great times just chillin’ here in Tucson – bouldering on the woody, drinkin’ Tecate, cooking good food, watching climbing videos, and just plain hangin’ out. Paul and I, yes, are a little bit bummed that the Grit/Manu visit is nearing its end. However, at the same time we are still psyched. Psyched because we know the fun is going to pick right up where it left off. Next spring. We have another Fontainebleau, France trip in the works….and guess which two Germans are going to be there….

Awe yeah. 🙂

We took Grit and Manu to Joshua Tree last weekend. It was sweet. Check out the video.

AKA “The Coolest Girl We’ve Ever Met”

Normally I’m psyched to detail the weekend events and list the highlights of all the amazing things we got to see and do but unfortunately we had to end last weekend with a sad goodbye. Grit, our new friend from Germany is heading home very soon and our trip to Joshua Tree California was the last weekend adventure April and I got to enjoy with her. We had a great couple of days in J-Tree, visiting with friends, climbing routes, bouldering and hanging out.

I remember driving out of J-Tree after saying goodbye, looking in the rear view mirror seeing Grit walk away with her crashpad. How sad…actually…it wasn’t long until we started talking about ideas for a trip to Europe and plans to visit with her again. We’ll just have to make Grit jealous and show how much fun we’re having at Hueco by posting pics and trip reports so she decides to move back to the U.S. ha ha. WE’LL MISS YOU GRIT!