Scored a campsite in Rock Creek en route to Tuolumne! And what’s more – it had just rained when we arrived. Now, this may not be exciting to most. But for us, pure heaven. “Mama! Walk through the grass! You can feel the wetness on your toes!” were Ivan’s exact words after he stepped out of the van and ran around.
posted by ARR
First and foremost, all of our trips are stellar…for the record. But this one for sure is bound to be a little more special than most, as I’ve been suffering from a bit of cabin fever lately. Within the last couple month we’ve had fun plans shut down multiple times, keeping us homebound. First, our Pittsburgh climber buddies had to bail on a rendezvous with us here out west. Then we had a trip to the north rim of the Grand Canyon canceled due to forest closure because of fire danger (which also shutdown all northern AZ options). Next we had to turn back on a trip to Hueco Tanks because of apocalyptic rainfall and flooding. And, we’ve bailed on Mt. Lemmon camping & climbing quite a few times because it was just too dang hot! On top of all that the “work from home” mandate still persists, which I am not at all a fan of. Our desert adobe with pool and personal climbing gym is sweet and all (don’t get me wrong here!) but I need to get out of this place before I go crazy!!! Time to bust this joint!
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
Let me count all the ways last year was not good: lack of summer monsoons being just one item of many. No significant cloud formation even, let alone glorious drops of water falling from the sky.
….so you can imagine the excitement when this happened – the start of what is turning out to be a legit summer monsoon season. I kid you not, we heard hoots and hollers from afar when we ran out in it. (I even teared up a little bit).
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
Mt. Wrightson: 9,456 feet, 10ish mile hike via the Old Baldy trail with over 4K feet of elevation gain. Well over 100 degrees this day but we hit the trail at 5:30am to beat the heat. Our buddy John joined us (a well deserved Father’s Day morning for this father of 4). Wrightson was a first for Ivan and I. Paul and Silas did it last summer. All participants were psyched start to finish. And the ladybugs on the summit were quite the special treat.
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
posted by ARR
