Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
| Messages 1 - 8 of total 8 in this topic |
Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 3, 2007 - 03:44am PT
|
I posted earlier asking about road trip recommendations for me and my son. Thanks for all the suggestions.
We ended up going to Joshua Tree and Red Rocks. We had a great time and actually did a little climbing.
We left the day after Christmas and drove down from my mom's place in San Jose. We stayed at Susan Peplow's place in 29 Palms, which is a very nice place. Doesn't hurt that it's right outside of the park either.
As soon as Jamie saw the rocks, he got really psyched to climb. He had never been down here before. I hadn't been since before he was born.
Here he is. He really does have a right arm
I didn't really have a plan on where to climb though. It had been such a long time. I'd had some bites on rc and some of my buddies from the gym. A kayaking friend had said he might come out too. I put a message on the HV campground message board. A guy we met here suggested we climb at Barker Dam. So off we went. It was really windy at HV and I was hoping that we could get out of the wind.
We tried a couple of different problems there. I had forgotten how sharp the rock is at Joshua Tree. Ouch, my hands were already hurting and we hadn't been climbing for more than an hour. JT was also proving to be very hard on our egos. We kept getting rejected from problems in the bouldering guide. I got up one slab and was feeling pretty good about it. Then we figured out that I had just sent the down climb. Here we are on the Rambler (I think)
After lunch, we met up with some folks who were out for the day. We headed back and we all flailed on some problems. Gunsmoke was pretty fun, but pumpy. The Chube was a flail-fest. This is as close as any of us got to the top
After this session, Jamie and I were wasted and it was time to go home. The next day I was psyched to break out a rope and try some easier stuff. However, the wind and the exposure on everything we looked at scared Jamie so we decided to go for a hike instead. From the reservoir at Barker Dam, it seemed like it would be fun to head out to Diarrhea Dome and check out the Big Brown Eye.
Along the way, we stumbled upon a dead coyote. Then it lifted its head.
We saw some pretty cool rock formations too.
It was a really long way to the Big Brown Eye, but we had a good time rockhopping. We had assumed that we would be coming back to the car for lunch so we only had some Gatorade and water with us. Luckily, we made it back to the car before we bonked. That was it for us that day. Back at the house, it was nap time.
After another half day of bouldering, we were off to Las Vegas to sample Red Rocks. I had never been there before and was eager to check it out. My stepsister's husband owns a condo there so we got to sleep in beds for free.
The sandstone was much easier on my hands. No blood was spilled here. The winds had died down too, so it was actually warm enough for me to be outside in shorts. Jamie doesn't count because he only owns one pair of pants and never wears them.
After all this bouldering, I was really keen to use the rope that Santa Claus brought me. Walking back one day, we saw what looked to be a little sport area. We loaded up a bunch of draws and headed out there. There was another group of folks climbing and were OK with us hanging out there with them. They had hung draws on the route I was looking at. The most friendly of them was named Scott. He told us a little about the different routes. I've forgotten the names though. The one I was looking at was harder than I can lead so he took my rope and put up a TR for me. I got to the 4th bolt before I got stymied and tired.
By then, his friends had taken off and an easier route was open for me. I set up and started leading. Hee! It had been a very long time since I'd led on real rock. It was also a little scary. I got it in the end though.
Jamie was just counting the hours though until that evening. His big present for Christmas was a ticket to the Blue Man Group. Here is a pic of him before the show started
Blue Man was really fun and I highly recommend it. Great performance art and music. Interactive, funny, stimulating.
We had two and a half hours until the New Year though so we decided to check out the Strip. Props to Maysho for suggesting this to contrast with the rest of our trip. I haven't seen that many drunk people in a long time. Well, New Year's is amateur night after all. We got caught up in the crowd and I couldn't believe how many people there were.
Here's a pic before it got too crowded
At one point it got scary. We couldn't control where we were moving. A woman next to us fainted and her friends couldn't clear a space for her. The crowd was crushing us all. I had to put my arms around Jamie so I wouldn't lose him and also to protect him.
After that, all I wanted to do was to get back and go to sleep. We had a long ways to go still though. We got to the car by 1:00 AM and spent the next f'ing hour in the parking garage trying to get out. Too many people trying to go the same direction at the same time. When we finally got to the road, it was only another 20 min. to my step's condo.
Next day with not enough sleep, we hit the road and made it back to the Bay Area in less than 10 hours. I'm sure that many of you have done the drive faster, but the same folks who were crushing us on the street the night before were on the highway with us.
That was our trip to JT and Red Rocks. Maybe next time we'll spend more time climbing. However, I don't want to push him too hard.
Phil
|
|
426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
|
|
Nice stuff Phil
|
|
susan peplow
climber
www.joshuatreevacationhomes.com
|
|
Phil, great TR & photos! Too bad the devil winds kicked up! Sorry to hear about your tips. Sounds to me like you need to spend more time in Josh....no more 10 year breaks.
Spring is wonderful - come visit us again and bring Jamie too!!
~Susan
|
|
Cr4Zy1
Boulder climber
Hercules
|
|
I can't believe you posted the long exposure picture of me with my big lips.
|
|
Jello
Social climber
No Ut
|
|
What a great trip! With the exception of the crushing crowd scene, maybe...
|
|
Jaybro
Social climber
The West
|
|
You guys rock! Great TR. That is what it's about, among other things.
Where do you climb near Hercules?
-should have an area called the Agean stables, or something.
|
|
Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 4, 2007 - 12:48am PT
|
Jay,
We just climb at Berkeley Iron Works most of the time. My New Year's resolution is to get out onto real rock more often. That won't be hard since I only got out three times in 2006.
Funny tho my condo complex is Olympian Hills. All the streets are named after Greek gods.
Jello, it was all a learning experience. The craziness of the Strip contrasted very well with the climbing, letting us have a little conversation on what's important in life. We didn't get hurt, just a little scared.
Looking forward to climbing more in '07. Maybe I'll even get to meet some ST'ers in real life sometime.
Phil
|
|
| Messages 1 - 8 of total 8 in this topic |
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!