Busy as usual. Recently we’ve been doing a lot of stuff with family, friends, chillin at home, and on the road climbing. Here are a few pictures of some things we’ve been up to in the last few weeks. By the way…we might have some big sends to report in the coming weeks. April and I are very close to our summer projects. Stay tuned…
posted by pjv
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.
Here are a few pics of our new ride…
This Memorial Day we had a long 4 day weekend off from work so we decided to pack the Subie with 4 adults, 1 dog and a crapload of gear and zoomed the 12 hours to Bishop, California. It was myself, Paul, my sister Holly and her boyfriend Joe (who will also be staying with us for the summer), and lil brown dog Morgan of course. Also, please don’t let me forget, our Sherpa Courtney who also joined up for the trip. He drove himself and met us there and was sweet enough to stash 4 of our crashpads in his vehicle. Thanks Courtney!
Thursday evening we hit the road and made it to Barstow, CA around 3am. We were aiming to stay at some KOA we saw on a map but somehow stumbled upon this rundown campground in a ghost town. Really! Calico Ghost Town: It’s an old deserted silver mining town that was re-vamped for tourism back in the 50’s. As we were setting up camp (at 3am) and nice little old ranger drove up to our site. Tainted by the strict rules of Hueco, I automatically assumed he was here to a) yell at us for coming into the park so late, b) yell at us for letting Morgie run around without a leash on, and then c) yell at us cause we didn’t drop our money into some pre-pay drop box or something. However, to my surprise this kind man did none of the above. He actually commented on Morgan being a “fine looking animal” and said to don’t worry about paying him until the morning, after we get a good night’s rest. Ahh, this was going to be a good trip. 🙂
We awoke around 7am, ate breakfast and decided to have a look at the ghost town. Our campground fee included entry into the town, so we said why not. It was actually pretty cool. Then it was off to Bishop.
Got into Bishop late afternoon on Friday and chilled a bit in town. Then we headed up to the Buttermilks and found ourselves a stellar camping spot overlooking the Peabody boulders with the snow-covered mountains in the background. Absolutely beautiful.
The temps were rather mild – much cooler than usual for this time of year – and there was rumer of some high winds that were due to rip through town the next day. Well, the winds started picking up right around the time we were trying to cook dinner Fri night. Pleasant gusts at first….then kinda annoying gusts….then really annoying gusts. We all ate about a pound of dirt that night with dinner.
Exhausted from all the driving, and anxious to get away from the wind, we all hit the sack somewhat early. By this time, however, the wind was already ripping through the mountains like a bat out of hell. Now this wasn’t just the kind of wind that if you try hard enough, you’ll eventually fall asleep and tune it out. Oh no. Not this wind. Ooooohh no sir. As I am laying wide awake in my sleeping bag, trying to ignore the snow-globe of dust that was the inside of our tent and drowning out thoughts of how much dust could one actually breathe in before it made one sick, plugging my ears with my fingers to both a) gain some relief from the loud howls of wind and b) keep the dust out, and did I forget to mention getting wacked in the face every 10 minutes by the ceiling of the tent as it heaved and flopped and hoping, almost praying that the next gust wouldn’t tear a gaping hole through the flimsy nylon walls, …..I am wondering to myself….wow, this must be exactly like how it is on Everest!! Except just replace the snow with dirt!
After 3.5 hours of this nonsense, Paul said “THAT’S IT – we’re moving to the car.” I’m not sure how, but Paul and I and Morgan managed to squish into the back end of the Subie. Cramped? VERY. But boy, once we closed those doors, it was like being in an airtight vault. I never slet so sound.
The next morning we all awoke, brushed off the dirt, and made our way to the Happy Boulders. Our original plan had been to spend the entire trip up at the Buttermilks, but the wind had only temporarily let up and the temps were dropping. The Happies were calm and cozy. This was a first-time bouldering day for Holly and Joe and they did great! Noteworthy sends of the day go to Courtney on the highball classic Heavenly Path v1, Paul on Pappachubby v8, and Joe on Corner v0 (who loved it so much he repeated it!).
Sunday morning the group split up into our own mini-adventures: Myself, Paul and Morgan headed toward the Buttermilk boulders. Joe and Holly went up into the mountains in search of the white stuff (both are crazy addicted snowboarders/skiers). And Courtney also headed up in elevation to solo traverse this ridge he was eyeing.
For Paul and I, no big sends, but wow did we get on some classics boulder problems – including Saigon (v7) for me and The Checkerboard (v8) for Paul.
Joe and Holly found some of their beloved snow, and I’m sure rolled and frolicked in it to their heart’s content.
Courtney, however, got shut down on his adventure. Not by the ridge, but by a nasty headcold that was creeping upon him. Too much dirt in the lungs for that boy. Oh well, nothing a little hard whisky can’t fix (compliments of Courtney’s friend Linda who met up with us later in the day). Thanks to Linda and her whiskey, we all got a little wild as the night rolled on – cooking up massive amounts of fahitas and chillin’ to the good ‘ol Dr. Dre of course.
Monday morning we all rolled out of the tents, packed up and headed into town to have breakfast at the Bishop Grill. A quick stop for some Eric Schaat’s Bakery treats, big cups of coffee, and then we were back on the road headed home. All in all, a great trip indeed.
Our friend Courtney has been unable to enjoy the sport of rock climbing for a long time due to some horrible wrist pains. He took a big step today, went in for surgery…what came out is pretty crazy. Check out the piece of bone or cartalidge that they pulled out. Hopefully it won’t be long until he is back in action, climbing, training, and enjoying his passions without nagging wrist pains.
Happy Birthday to April!!! I got crazy and made an applesauce spice cake lastnight. Wow! It came out awesome. Now we’re off for some Hueco climbing. ha ha. Just can’t get enough.
My parents are here! We spent the day in Mexico shopping around and had lunch at a great resturant. Many thanks to our friend Gina. She recommended the resturant “La Roca” and told us how to get there. It was awesome!!!
This year’s Christmas and New Years was spent with April’s family and friends in Marathon, NY.
We couldn’t have asked for a better trip:
* Watching Joel, Holly and KT show off their stuff snowboarding on the backyard rail and jump
* Snowboarding at Greek Peak with the fam
* More snowboarding at Greek Peak
* More snowboarding at Greek Peak with Paul’s new snowpants
* More snowboarding at Greek Peak with Paul’s new snowboard boots
* And also, more snowboarding
* Spending time with baby Carley (our neice)
* Meeting awesome new friends, Dale and Tans here visiting from New Zealand (COME VISIT US IN AZ!)
* Chillin’with April’s lifelong friend Jenna, meeting Kate, and laughing out asses off to the point of tears in Applebees all night (our apologies to all those within earshot…yeah, we were kinda loud)(COME VISIT US IN AZ!)
* Firewood stacking – good & wholesome backwoods hard work. Awe yeah
* Crackling woodfire in the stove
* Snowy, icy country roads
* Sledding down the driveway
* The smell of a REAL Christmas tree in the house and a homemade blueberry pie in the oven
* Biscuits and gravy
* Pumpkin soup
* Winter walks in the snow
* And best of all, a house packed full of dear family and friends on Christmas day: Mom, Dad, Michelle, Tom, Carley, Joel, Holly, Joe, KT, Peggy, Sonny, Dale, Tans and the 5 dogs, Copper, Dixie, Layla, Hazel and Achilles. It’s times like these that really make us miss the east and our awesome families.
I promised I’d put a picture of KT’s awesome artwork up on our site today. Today? Wow, it’s late, like 1AM late. I’m trying to do a million things tonight before we leave for J-Tree tomorrow but one thing I couldn’t forget is showing off the amazing wedding gift that KT gave to April and I. Sorry for the bad quality for some of the pics. but it was really hard to get the lighting right inside our house at night. To fully appreciate the work that went into this creation you have to see it with your own eyes! Thanks Katie!
For our 1 year wedding anniversary we decided to start a new tradition that we will now refer to as, The Anniversary Hike. This first annual anniversary hike took us to Yosemite National Park. Following is a brief summary and 1, 2, 3, sets of photos, from the amazing things we saw and did on our trip.
Thursday September 29th:
Flew from Tucson to San Francisco via Las Vegas. Won $23.00 on the airport 25 cent slot machines. Spent $23.00+ on airport food. Arrived in San Francisco at about 1:30AM.
Friday September 30th:
Drove into downtown San Francisco and walked along the Embarcadero from the Bay Bridge to Pier 39 (San Fran. Bay waterfront). Highlight was the Sea Lions. Drove out of downtown San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge to highway 1. Visited Muir Woods (giant redwood forest). As the sun started to set we drove from Muir Woods to Muir Beach so April could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was just like the movies: the sun was setting, the waves were crashing, we were walking hand in hand, barefoot, and all of a sudden as we climbed up on some boulders to get a better view of the ocean April says, “Dude, this beach reeks!…Oh God, it’s a dead rotting Sea Lion.” We quickly did a 180 and continued our love stroll the other way. After the sun set we started our drive to Yosemite National Park. Stopped for some “Chillin’ at da Holiday Innnnnnnn.”
Saturday October 1st:
Woke up late and arrived in Yosemite Valley at about 1PM. Threw on our hiking shoes and grabbed our packs. Paul says, “Let’s do Glacier Point, I think it’s only 4.7 miles one way.” As we started out, the first trail marker showed the distance to Glacier Point as 8.2 miles. Hmmm? Must be that means 8.2 miles for the round trip, right? No……we were going to Glacier Point via the Panoramic Trail, not the Four Mile Trail. Paul then says, “Ok, let’s do a little math. At a a speed of 2.0 mph (pushing it, with a 3200 ft elevation gain) we could potentially knock off this 16.4 mile hike in about 8 hours putting us only 2 hours in the dark (with headlamps). April says, “Do-able, lets go.” The hike was amazing, the views were spectacular, the temperature was perfect. The hike takes you past Nevada and Vernal Falls, and a hidden, several hundred foot waterfall that neither of us had seen before. You get views of Half Dome first from the back side, then the side profile, and then right at the end you see the front side. At a brisk pace we were back at the car by 8:15PM, just in time to get wine and pizza (thanks to our 3 miles of trail running, heh heh).
Sunday October 2nd (Anniversary Day):
Woke up semi-late, with plans of a nice breakfast, leisurely stroll through the village and a short hike. As we lay in bed we get the map out and start looking at options. April says,”Whoa, there’s a trail to the top of North Dome!” Paul says, “Let’s do the math.” Next thing we know we are on our way up Yosemite Falls trail heading to North Dome…another 16 mile day…we’ll save the nice breakfast for tomorrow. 🙂 Again, the trail is amazing, the views are spectacular and the crisp fall weather is perfect. We make our way to the summit of what we think is North Dome (turns out North Dome is the next bump over, probably a half hour more). Hauled the wedding cake up with us and ate it with front row seats looking straight on at Half Dome.
On the way back we stop at the Yosemite Falls junction and decide to hike out towards a generic sign that said, “Overlook.” We get to the cliff’s edge and notice stairs heading down to the top of the waterfall. Yikes this is a little risky for “hikers.” The steps continue down and down until we get to a point where a handrail leads around a corner. The handrail ends above the 2000 ft. void, yet for the brave soul who ventures to the end of the handrail (April), another handrail continues around the next corner with stairs for your feet no wider than 6 inches. “I can’t believe this is a ‘hiking’ trail!” The exposed staircase leads us to an amazing observation deck. As if that little adventure didn’t top the hike, later we had to deviate from the trail to avoid a bear and right before dark we saw a burning red sunset cast on the rock walls of Yosemite Valley. We were back at the car by 7:00PM and enjoyed a fancy dinner at the Mountain Room restaurant all slimy and grungy. This Anniversary Hike will be hard to beat.
