[an error occurred while processing this directive] This is the running diary I kept on my trip, although I stopped once I got up to Seattle. I guess it is a lot of writing; it seemed like I was always on the computer typing up the day's activities. If I did it again, I probably would NOT do this aspect of the trip.
Date Location Miles
Driven		 Events
May 29 Maysville, Colorado 262 Driving, driving, driving. Nephew Dirk's birthday.
May 30 Black Canyon of the Gunnisen 231 Climbing, driving, drinking, scrambling up a gully named "SOB gully."
May 31 Black Canyon of the Gunnisen, Durango 135 Climbing, driving, drinking
June 1 Durango, American Fork 432 Bouldering in Durango, lots of driving, back entrance to American Fork. Drinking.
June 2 American Fork, Big Cottenwood Canyon, Draper 75 Climbing, playing with nephew Nick and neice Kara.
June 3 Draper, Utah 0 Playing with Nick and Kara.
June 4 Draper, Little Cottonwood Canyon 50 Playing with the kids, bouldering.
June 5 Draper, American Fork 50 Playing with the kids, sport climbing on the grey cliffs.
June 6 Echo Pass, California 400+ Draper, Pusher, Ibex, Road Trippers
June 7 Echo Pass, Califonia 300 Sand Jumping, gambling
June 8 Lover's Leap 0 Climbing
June 9 Lover's Leap 0 Climbing, Avalanche win the cup!
June 10 Owens River Hot Springs 250 Sweet hot springs.
June 11 Camp 4, Yosemite 120 Climbing
June 12 Camp 4, Yosemite 0 Climbing
June 13 I-5, Lake Shasta 400+ Bye bye Yosemite, Driving
June 14 Wilsonville, Oregon 300+ Driving, hangin' in P-town
June 15 Smith Rocks 0 (not driving!) Climbing
June 16 Smith Rocks 0 (not driving!) Climbing, Monkey Face
June 17 Bellevue, WA 200 Coming Home
June 18 Bellevue 0 Work, chillin'
June 19 Bellevue 0 Work, Chillin'
June 20 Bellevue 0 Work, chillin'



May 29, 2001

Miles driven: 262
Time of writing: 1:18am


I left Boulder today at 6pm, fully packed and ready to go. Had to stop at caffe sole of course, to fill up my thermos with some quality mojo to keep my head in the game for the evening of driving. Then, out to my bro's place in Lafayette, where my nephew Dirk had just turned three, to drop off his birthday present. He was pretty happy with the dual racing motorcycles toy that I got him.

Then, I had to meet with a client, to help him back up his computer. It only took about 15 minutes, but probably an hour total for driving off hwy 36, the work, and then back to the highway. oh well....

Down to Parker I went, to pick up Shaun's laptop. Parker is DEFINITELY not on the way - it was kind of a pain to go down there. However, I knew that I needed the laptop for a variety of missions on this trip. Luckily I scored some good coffee and Shaun's dad fixed a problem with the car. Bonus!

I finally got on 285 about 11pm. What a long time for such a short distance covered! That's ok, I had my Big Head Todd and Tom Petty CD's... saw the big cross at the entrance to the mountains on the south side of 285. Then, saw the saint of santa maria about 45 minutes later on the north side of the road. That things's pretty cool.

Almost ran into a couple of dogs at 1am, who were crossing the street in the middle of nowhere. Luckily Paul Oakenfold at this point was keeping me sharp - I avoided with ease.

So, I'm now about 60 miles from gunnisen and the black canyon. Tommorrow promises to be an interesting day.... the first real day of my trip. Here's hoping it goes well. I'm going to try and write something at the end of every day, kind of a diary/news item. We shall see how it goes.

Myke
May 30, 2001

Miles driven: 23
Time of writing: 7:54pm


Boots is incensed at me that I've pulled out the laptop at a remote campground. I deserve it; this is pretty toolish.

I woke up cold and cramped at 5:45am in the driver's seat of the pathfinder off the side of the road 10 miles west of Salida, Colorado. A quick shot of coffee from the thermos from the day before and I hit the road. I stop in Gunnisen at the "quarter-plate" diner - everyone's a cowboy except for me, trucking in with Chocos, shorts, and a bunch of maps.

I pull in to the visitor's entrance on the south side of the Black Canyon of Gunnisen at 8:35 - five minutes late. Bryan is there, waiting for me - we're both psyched to do some serious climbing today. We head into the center to talk to the ranger to get more beta.

After 2 1/2 hours of driving, the last thing you want to hear is that you went the wrong way. Well, that's what we did - the climbing is predominantly on the north rim; an 80 mile drive away. Our early morning start ruined, we head that direction.

We get to the campsite on the north side at 11:30, and quickly rack up to go do the Casual Route, (II 5.8). You descend down SOB gully to reach the base of the climb. You can guess why it's named that - tons of poison ivy, steep, and long. 45 minutes later, Brian and I start to think we may have missed the route; after all, the very descriptive guidebook says, "go up the first clean buttress as you go down the gulley." After much hemming and hawing, we decide to screw it and take this line that we see. 100 feet up, we realize that it's a crappy, crumbly, dirt and bush filled corner that can only get us in more trouble. Fortunately we were able to scramble down and retreat.

So, now the fun part - ascending SOB gully. Boots is trucking along, but I'm taking my time - a little tired from the lack of sleep the night before. Next thing I know, I don't see Boots at all. Then, I somehow lost the trail. So here I am, no water, dehydrated, and no trail(this gully is huge - plus, there's a number of mini-gullys within it). I finally found the trail after hiking the whole way out.... ended up being about 30 minutes behind Brian in getting out.

Lounge fest for the rest of the evening, and now drinking high quality Busch beer. We're shooting for an early rise and actually do a climb in the Black before we have to leave.

As a note: the walls are HUGE. It is truly quite spectacular to descend into the inner canyon. However, it is clear that routes here are not like routes in Eldorado Canyon or something like that. They are discontinuous, there are few people around to help, the guides are *sparse* in their description, and the rock quality can be intermittent. All that being said: I'm PSYCHED to do this climb tommorrow.

Myke
Thursday May 31, 2001

Miles driven:
Time of writing:
I am writing this on Saturday in Salt Lake City. My schedule's been far too packed to write.

We wake up at about 7:45am, quickly eat breakfast and head out. Brian and I decided that we were going to do Leisure Climb, a II 5.9- that was supposedly good climbing on solid rock with easy routefinding. Sounds like a good introductory climb to the Black, after yesterday's fiasco. So we head down the Cruise gulley about 8:45. There are two raps in this approach - the first is a 120 feet or so off a fixed line on the left side of the gully. The second is another 10feet. You can ascend these gullys via 5.5 climbing, if you have to. The route is located about 50 feet below the rap station, on the right side of the gully (as you are looking down the gully). It begins about 30 feet up some class 3 scrambling and continues up a right-facing dihedral that gets gradually larger and steeper. Brian led this pitch, and used our 3 big pieces in the top 30 feet. Unfortunately, that was all he had in for that distance; welcome to the Black, I guess. Pitch was about 100 feet long.

Pitch 2 continues straight up from the exit of the dihedral, this time up a left-facing dihedral that slants slightly to the right. After 60 feet or so, it opens up and you traverse up and right along a nice ledge system and belay in a corner after about 30 feet.

Pitch 3 is the crux pitch, and we really blew this one somehow. Because I ended my pitch short of the belay station, Boots had to use several runners at the beginning to minimize rope drag. The route (from the correct belay) moves up and left, around a small corner, up a short finger crack, slightly right, then left and up following some good thin flakes.

Now here is where we think we got off route. Boots continued straight up, aiming for the center of a 3 foot roof. He clipped a fixed #5 stopper in a good placement, continued up 10 feet and placed a #00 wild country friend in a *tenuous* position - the only opportunity for gear. Boots then went hardman style and turned the roof, which felt hard - probably 9+ or so. And because he had used all his long runners at the very beginning, his middle pieces caused some wicked rope drag which threatened to throw him. Passing the roof, he went another 15 feet of unprotectable face climbing and finishing on a difficult mantle onto a ledge. Possible 50 foot fall potential on a technical move with terrible rope drag - Brian Boots is a Hardman!

We traversed right and then followed a right-facing dihedral/gully/corner up and slightly left over easy 5.5 climbing. This pitch was long - probably 150 feet.

Looking up and right, we can see the chimney that's our exit. Boots however, has this eye on an overhanging hand crack that splits the face directly above our head. Getting psyched, he heads up to do it, and even sees chalk on the first hold. He puts his hand on the chalk and looks in the crack - and sees cobwebs and dust. A shame - it would have been a beautiful line. Brian goes right and runs a 197 foot pitch up into the beginnings of a chimney. When I arrive, he shows me the poor excuse for a belay anchor that he had in - the chimney was rotten as well.

I do a quick traverse and set up a better anchor, bring Brian over, and then head up a straightforward crack to easier ground. 60 feet up, I can see the exit chimney, but there's another rotten one before we get to it. I put in a piece at the base of the chimney, and then go 30 feet before getting to somewhere where the rock isn't rotten. At this point, we're pretty beat - it's been a long day. Another long pitch, probably 180 feet.

Finally, Boots does the jungle climb ascent of the exit gully/chimney. Fighting bushes and rotten rock, he puts in two pieces in 100 feet because, well, that's all there is!

I come up, and we're done! A grade II, with supposedly 5 pitches, took 7 pitches and *8* hours for us to do. It was a good introduction - we were both happy that we didn't do the Russian Arete, a III 5.9.

So we hustle back to camp, pack up, and head to Durango. We roll into town about 9:30, and meet up with Boots's friends, Colin and Dodger. I should mention that as of 9:30pm, we had eaten two PB&J's and a powerbar all day. So we were famished. Well instead of eating we went out and ordered pitcher after pitcher after pitcher. I finally crashed out at Dodger's place.

Myke
Friday June 1, 2001
Miles driven: 432
Time of writing:
I am writing this on Saturday in Salt Lake City. My schedule's been far too packed to write.

Woke up a little slow this morning. Brian and I hit a local diner for some great grub, and then went to the Turtle Rocks area for a little bouldering. Thanks Climbing magazine article for the beta! A fun place, and quite a bit cooler since it's in the trees. We goof around for a bit, take a few problems down, and then decide to hit the road. We decide to do the LONG push today, going from Durango to American Fork, Utah. My left arm has a nice sunburn from the drive.

I made a collossal mistake on the drive in. Running into traffic on I-15, I diverted northeast to take the back entrance to American Fork. Adding an hour on the drive, at least it was a pretty view.

We camped just above the reservoir in the canyon, down a dirt road. What a crappy campsite - we had to go like 7 miles up this road to find a spot. The bad part is that all these hosers on atv's kept on flying up and down the road at high speed until midnight. We were up drinking of course (18 cube of Busch) but the canyon was basically a dust storm. Everything was dirty.

Myke
Saturday June 2, 2001

Miles driven: 75
Time of writing: 10:15pm


Woke up a little slow this morning, then packed up and cruised over to Big Cottonwood Canyon. We did the easy sport deal, heading up to S-curve wall and running up a few 5.9's. Of course this completed our trifecta - big wall in Gunnisen, bouldering in Durango, and sport climbing in Utah. Yeah!

Boots bailed about 2pm, to head out to San Jose. I dropped down to Draper and met my sister in law Katherine and my 3 year old nephew Nick and 1 year old neice Kara. I had to stop off and pick up a present for Nick - one of those giant red plastic baseball bats. He was pretty happy about it. Spent the evening playing with those guys, watching the Av's blow game 4 (Roy, damn you!), and checking my email for the first time since Tuesday - about 150 messages. Yuck.

Anyways, off to bed.

Myke
Sunday June 3, 2001

Miles driven: 0
Time of writing: 10:48pm



Spent the day playing with my nephew, Nick, 3 1/2 years old, and my neice Kara, 1 year old. Daddy came home from a trip (he's a pilot) today, and Nick said, "Uncle Myke's here, and he's a lot more fun that you!" We played baseball and football, went to the pool and played fumble drill, (that's a hard game). Then my bro hit me up for mowing the lawn - the dirtbag.

Myke
Monday June 4, 2001

Miles driven: 50
Time of writing: 9:19pm



Woke up to having Nick jump on me again and again. What a way to wake up. Played more baseball, and then cleaned out and reorganized the pathfinder. Did a little work on the laptop this morning (remember, this is a business trip), and then planned the afternoon. I headed up to the Black Diamond main operations center, to check it out. Not much really.

Got some good beta though from a guy at the retail store for bouldering in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I headed out there and did some neat problems - even did a V3! Pretty happy about that. I met a cool guy named Robert who's a U. of Utah who seemed to know the area pretty well, so we worked a few problems. Then a couple of other guys came over and started bouldering with us. I'm not sure why, but potheads always seem to be able to crank. These guys are clowning around on V5's and doing V7's first time no problem at all. Pretty cool to see. The rock in the canyon is some really nice granite - not as frictiony as boulder canyon granite, but easier on the hands. The rocks we were climbing on had these drilled holes where explosives were placed - they were blown off the mountain 1 1/2 centuries ago. Apparently this granite was used for the temple in downtown Salt Lake. The result is that you end up using these smooth circular and deep holes as holds. Gives new meaning to "manufactured" I guess.

Came home, did the rest of the lawn, read a few stories to Nick, and then watched pro motorcross. My brother Kris asserts that there is no harder professional sport out there than motorcross. I don't know about that.

Myke
Tuesday June 5, 2001

Miles driven: 50
Time of writing: 7:36pm


Woke up quick, at about noon. Just thought that I had to be in Compton soon. I gotta get drunk before the day begins, before mother starts bitchin', about my friends.

Sorry, too long in SLC. Woke up early, again to Nick jumping on my bed. Nephews are great.... Eric Jacobson, formerly of Boulder, came over at 9am and we headed down to American Fork to meet Colin from rockreation and two of his buddies. We went to the Grey Cliffs, did a 5.10a, a 5.9, 5.11b, and a 10a that seemed decidedly harder. The 11b was pretty sweet - on the far left side of the cliff. A bouldery start gets you to steep climbing up higher, with a finish of sloper madness. The rock, American Limestone, has pretty good friction and an amazing number of deep horizontal pockets that are perfect for hands. The wierd thing is that I noticed that a few of the footholds are polished like gym footholds, they're so smooth. A strange combination, I guess.

Also had an interesting conversation with Eric about starting up an SLC verion of climbingboulder.com. This may be the first step towards us branching out to other areas. Somehow along the way, I hurt my right foot or something. As the day progresses, it just aches more and more all around. I can't seem to figure it out - it's not the ankle, so not an ankle sprain. I'm icing it right now, and hoping this doesn't put a serious cramp in my plans.

Tommorrow: meeting with Pusher and then heading out to Lake Tahoe.


Myke
Wednesday June 6, 2001

Miles driven: 391
Time of writing: 11:47am the next day.


I woke up early, said goodbye to Nick, Kara, and Katherine (Kris left early that morning for another trip - he's a Delta pilot). Headed up to Pusher/Cordless/S7 world headquarters. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. It's just this little office and garage in an industrial area of Salt Lake City. The people were cool though - I met and talked with Boone Speed for a while. He convinced me to go down to Ibex on my way west. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a tour of the facilities for insurance reasons. Bummer.

But I was impatient to get on the road, and I-80 was 2 miles away. So I hopped on it and headed west across the great salt desert. Pretty lame driving. Anyways, I crossed into Wendell in Nevada, headed south to Ely, and THEN west over to Ibex. I think I added about 300 miles on the day than if I had headed straight south and then west from Pusher.

While on the road, I passed a few people on bicycles that were really loaded up. What the hell, might as well.... so I stopped and waited for one to pass. We ended up talking for a few minutes. Turns out they're doing a bike trip from San Francisco to Boston. Makes me feel like a wimp for taking a car.....

Rolled into Ibex about 5:30pm. The timing was perfect, as there is a large wall just west of the boulders. At 5:30, it had just gotten in the shade. This place is sweet! Tons of boulders, and one of the chillest atmospheres I've ever been at. When I rolled in I met a guy named Mike who had the R&I miniguide, which helped out a bit. Turned out he's on a road trip too, similar to mine only two months longer - nice! We may hook up in the valley, we'll see - definitely a nice guy though.

I did a number of V0's around, and a few V1's. My right foot was really hurting for some reason, so I used that as my excuse as to why my sending abilities were so poor. It was one of my better excuses.

Mike, took off to Bishop, and I set up camp and had a delicious dinner of cheese, rice, beans, salsa and tortillas, washed down with high quality Busch beer. It was really cool to be the only person there. Totally quiet, save for some birds and etc. The desert is neat when you're in the shade...

Set up the tent and went to bed. Sleep was fitful however; the moon was incredibly bright - it woke me up a few times. Secondly, the wind picked up and blew around the tarp underneath the tent. Talk about annoying. Still, I'm super happy I camped there. If I head out to the valley again, I'm definitely going to go to the south and stop at this place. I'd recommend it to anyone else too; it's on US 50 going west through southern Utah, about mile marker 40 or 41, or something close. On the south side of the road a few miles, you'll see a big sheer rock cliff come into view and dirt roads with signs that say Ibex well. Head towards that cliff and have some fun.

Stellar place.

Myke
Wednesday June 6, 2001

Miles driven: 391
Time of writing: a few days later.


Woke up, had a healthy breakfast, tried a few problems and bailed from the main place. I don't know why, but I was feeling pretty weak on the problems in the morning. I ended up leaving about 9:00, which I think was a good time. The boulders are targeted by the sunrise, and it warmed up fairly quickly.

Instead of hitting the road though, I went farther in, driving on this dry lake bed. Talk about fun! It felt like driving a boat over a really smooth lake - the color and texture extends forward a long ways, and there's no road. I headed up to this place where you can climb this boulder and then jump off into steep but really soft sand. I did a little sand jumping (got the beta for this from the R&I guide, again), and finally hit the road for some serious driving.


Too many hot and uncomfortable hours later, I arrived in Farron, Nevada. Unknown to most, this is home to the Naval Fighter Weapons School. If you know me, you know why I tried to gain access to the base with my dependent military id card. Yeah, so the guy at the gate totally didn't buy it, and I left with no souviner

Continued on, and arrived at Lake Tahoe. This lake is huge! I didn't realize the enormity until I was actually upon it. It was nice, but I headed for the real priority - gambling! Headed into a casino and saw that the Av's game was on. Nice! Sat down and watched some hockey, saw those goons the Devils take their frustration at not being as good as the Av's out at the end of the game. Poor...

Lost a bunch of money at the tables. I'd never seen the dealer get blackjack three times in five hands; now I have. Since I'd lost money, I didn't deserve a room. So I headed up and over Echo Pass looking for Lover's Leap. However, I couldn't find it in the dark, so I ended up camping at the sno-park at the top of the pass.

Myke
Friday June 8, 2001

Miles driven: 18
Time of writing: a few days later.


In the daylight, it's super easy to find lover's leap. You get to the town of strawberry, take the road just east of the lodge heading south, take your first left, and you're at the camp site. I rolled in early, and started looking for a partner. I met Richard and Sarah from Cammoor, Alberta, Canada. They had one of those old-school brown vanagon's with the extendor top - the ultimate road tripping vehicle. They were climbing together that day, but the next might be an option.

So I decided to hike up to the boulders a 5 minute jaunt up the trail to the cliff. The bouldering was nice - I was really surprised that nobody else the entire time I was there joined in. It's pretty limited - probably 30 problems or so, but the rock is nice. There was this one that looked sweet, but since I'm a sissy, the 20 foot topout intimidated me too much.

Lover's Leap is one big cliff, averaging probably 400 feet high, and probably 2000 feet long. I'm walking, sans partner, when this one route catches my eye. I remember thinking, "what a sick line" - dead vertical for 350 feet, without varying probably more than 5 feet to the right or left. Hike up there, and there's a guy at the base of the climb. "Looking for a partner?" "not anymore." This is how I met Paul, a local, and did this route. The name? "The Line." Very appropriate.


Since the line was taken, we went over to Psychadelic Tree, a 2 pitch 5.9 40 yards to the right. Paul led, and I followed. Nice first pitch, save for a few big (3'x5' but thin) flakes that felt SUPER loose. I mentioned that at the belay, and Paul told me about how three years ago it was even mungier, and some guy pulled a block out on lead and cut his arm clean off. Then he asked if I wanted to lead pitch 2. Uhh, nah, that's ok. Pitch 2 follows straight up climbing to about 30 feet below the exit. There is the supposed tree that was used to exit for the first ascent and many subsequent ones. This tree was probably healthy then, but looking at the sucker now, it just doesn't look fun. A lot of the branches have been broken off. Instead we opted for the crack/roof finish. Just as fun, but not nearly as psychadelic I guess.

The line had opened up by this time, so we headed over there. Paul led the first pitch, a 120 foot route that follows a crack in a small left facing corner. I think a better description is that it is a face climb protected by a crack. I should mention something about Paul at this point. Nice guy and all, first. However, his rack consisted of 7 stoppers, 2 tri-cams, and probably 30 cams. No joke. Double set of aliens, a full set of tcus, and then doubles with singles of 3 and 4 camalot. Biggest rack I've ever used. Plus, he gave new definition to sewing up a crack for me. For 120 foot pitch, probably 16 pieces. I do have to say he was quick leading despite that.

I led and linked up pitches 2 and 3, which turned out to be 200 feet and change - Paul simul-climbed the last five feet or so with me. What a blast - 190 feet up the pitche, and THEN you turn this 5.7 roof. Intimidating to be that far up, but I placed the pro and went. Yeah baby!

Finished up the day by climbing a variation on a route called pop bottle, an easy 5.6 climb. Paul had to take off, and I went back to camp. Ended up hanging out with two guys from Tuskee and the Canadians. I love camping and meeting new people. Just shooting the shit around the fire...

Myke
Saturday June 9, 2001

Miles driven: 1
Time of writing: a few days later.


Woke up to news that Sarah (the Canadians) shoulder was hurting, so did I want to join Richard in climbing Traveler's Buttress? Hell yeah! :-) This is one of the 50 north american classics, and rightfully so.

Rack was standard, with a few people telling us that you need #3 and #4 to protect the crux offwidth. Turns out you don't. I took the first pitch, this 50m stretch of steep 5.7 climbing with one of the route cruxes - a short offwidth section about 40m up the face. I don't know why, but it sketches me out more psychologically to be up high on the pitch to face the crux. Stuck a hand jam, placed a #2 camalot, and went for it - yeah! The belay ledge is super - you could have a kegger up here. Great climbing; you could protect the whole thing with stoppers alone, and it just keeps going and going. Superb!

Pitch 2 is the crux; an imposing section of offwidth about 25 feet up that continues for 20 feet before turning into a hand crack. However, it turns out it's a decoy - you don't go into the offwidth at all. Just to the left is a seam that allows a couple of choice finger locks and grows into a great finger/hand crack. Richard led it, cranked, rested, and then sent the rest of it. I did it without taking with a pack on, but seriously pumped. There's about 60 feet of this perfect sustained hand crack up a steep face. Stellar!

Pitch 3 starts just around the corner to the right. I was a little pumped from P2, so Richard led this. You face climb up an easy ramp before turning an exposed arete to the left. And when I mean exposed, I mean YEEHAW-exposed! You turn this corner to have the wind just howling at you. On this face there's a couple of good hands and one good foot. You place your right foot there and then a BIG stem left to a flake system. Look between your legs, enjoy the view, and then reach far left for a great hold to pull yourself across the chasm. Cruise up face climbing that's more great fun. My favorite pitch on the climb.

This face climbing reminds me a bit of the third flatiron in angle and character, though perhaps a 10 degrees steeper. Lover's Leap is characterized by these slicing dikes that criss-cross the face - think basically ledges. Sometime's they're small, only sticking out an inch or less. This section and the last pitch, a 200 foot fun-fest, had ludicrous 5-10 inch dikes all the way up. It was like walking up a ladder. A great finish though for a fantastic route. If you're comfortable leading 5.9, I'd say this is THE route to do at the Leap. Richard and I hiked down, met Sarah, and had victory brewskies. Heh heh... After some relaxing, I packed up and planned to head out. About 4:55, somebody rolled in and said that the Av's game was starting in 5 minutes. Holy Crap, it's game 7! I sped down to the lodge in strawberry, ordered a beer, and started watching.

It was pretty funny. Nobody was watching the game or even interested at the beginning. By the end, probably 20 people were around cheering the Avs on. Met some neat climbers, talked to the bartender a bit (also a climber), and tried to ignore this jackass to my right who didn't know anything about hockey but kept on trying to talk to me. It was pretty sweet to see Ray Borque lift the cup. Made me proud to be from Colorado.

By the end of the game, I was tired and figured that driving wouldn't be a good idea, so I headed back up to the Leap, threw down a tarp and the bag and fell promptly asleep.

As a note, I should say Lover's Leap was great. I was planning on spending a day there, and it ended up being three. The attitude is extremely relaxed and nice, and I met and talked with a ton of diffferent climbers - in the bar, around the campfire, parking lot, etc. Plus camping is free and there's no bears. If you're going to this area it's definitely worth a stop.

Myke
Sunday June 10, 2001

Miles driven:
Time of writing: a few days later.

Woke up in the leap super early. Cleaned up, ate breakfast, and then went for a little bouldering. I nailed this probably V1+ problem that had confounded me earlier.

Headed out and over a few passes, down 89 getting to highway 395. I had never been through the Sierras. These mountains are gorgeous! I saw so many road bikers and fishermen on the roads and the beautiful mountain streams next to them, respectively. It made me pretty bummed that I didn't bring my fishing pole. Dop!

Got to check my email today - 86 emails since Tuesday. Ack! I had to bribe this diner in this tiny town on 395 to use their phone.

A lot of people had told me about these hot springs all along 395. I decided to delay going into Yosemite for a day and check them out. So I headed past the entrance for Yosemite and went down to the hot springs about 10 miles past mammoth. Directions: Look for the GREEN church on the left side of the road as you're traveling south. Take a left there and go 1.3 miles, before hanging a left at a kind-of Y in the road where the left fork is dirt. Go 1.0 miles and take a right. Go about 200 yards, and you'll see water streaming across the road. Stop and check it out.

Now I've seen mountain hot springs before, but NEVER anything like this. These things had concrete bottoms, drains (to empty the pool and allow cleaning), piping with hot and cold water, plus control valves to allow as much hot or cold water as you desire. It's hilarious, because you're really in the middle of this huge prarie area. Plus, the view is spectacular. I gotta give props to the people who built these things; it's enormously creative and industrious.

Shared the pool with some losers from Santa Cruz who were incapable of any type of meaningful conversation. They left though, and just me and this one other guy. I ended up having a fascinating conversation with this guy named Sato. He grew up in Japan but came here for college and ever since (he's 58). We had a very enlightening conversation about culture, Japan and America, and life between the two. It left me with a serious desire to visit that country for a while. I had thought that before I did I should learn a fair amount of language, to make the trip better. However, Sato impelled upon me the suggestion that it would actually be smarter to no little to no Japanese.

It was DEFINITELY worth it to check these out. There's probably 10 of these things all pretty close together. Camping is illegal supposedly, but there was three tents at our place and we had no troubles at all. Awesome hot springs with a great view is really nice.

Myke
Monday June 11, 2001


Woke up at the hot springs and beat a fast path to Yosemite. I stopped in Tuolome meadows for breakfast and saw these three guys with serious facial hair at a table. So, I headed over to eat with them. Turns out they were hiking the pacific coast trail, south to north! Seriously comical on how happy they were to be eating food from the store up there rather than trail food. All three were nice guys too - one of them actually graduated from CU in december.

Kept on going down to the valley. HOLY COW. I had never been to Yosemite. I had no idea that the area would be this spectacular. Gorgeous walls, stunning rivers, and green everywhere.

Hit the valley, and head to Camp 4, the climber's camp. There's room, $5/day, so I grab a place and set up shop. Now just got to find a partner. There's a message board, so I stick up a little note and my climbingboulder.com business card.

I do a little work and a little sightseeing, and head over to the villiage to pick up some food. Who do I run into but Andy Wellman from CU. Turns out he and Ben Hoyt are in the valley. A little while later back at camp Ben Beezley (Ben #3, as he's known to some) shows up as well. So it's a little boulder reuinion in the valley. Suddenly I have partners - sweet! Ben just finished climbing Zodiac, and Ben finished something sick. Andy's in preperation for doing Tangerine Dream, so he's busy.

It's really funny to talk to these guys. They have their own specialized lingo and attitude on a lot of stuff. They drink gin and tonic out of cans of old milwakee and in Gatorade concentrate cans (you can twist the lid shut!). They talk about adventures on the big walls. I'm a climber, but a lot of the lingo is foreign to me even. heads, rivet hangers, back-cleaning... I've got a bunch to learn. Moreover, they're super cheap, eat cheap food, and are generally valley rats. But they're loving it.... and that's what's important, I guess.

Myke
Tuesday June 12, 2001


Ben Hoyt and I had discussed doing Nutcracker, a five pitch 5.8, the night before. However, he disappered into the night about 9:30, saying only that he was going to simul-climb nutcracker naked, barefoot, with no headlamp and nuts only, with this other guy(5 beers under his belt at the time too) I woke up in the morning and he was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, instead of being found in a pile naked with another guy at the base of the climb, they hitched a ride to a party elsewhere in the valley. He returned and we headed off to climb Nutcracker.

Actually, I went bouldering first in the morning. It's really amazing, being here. Just a short jaunt away from camp 4, there's nobody around at all... but all sorts of bouldering. It was extremely peaceful, with a soft valley floor, tall pines all around, and these enormous blocks of polished granite to challenge you. Part of this trip is to have some private time to myself.... this was one of them. Really neat.

Anyways, Ben and I head to Nutcracker. He leads pitch 1, this 5.8 hand crack that goes up and right up a slab. He put in 3 pieces in 100 feet. Welcome to the valley, I guess. So I cruise up - easy climbing, and the route is really fairly shallow angles... it compensates by forcing you to friction on this smooth, smooth granite.

Following Ben's example, I speed up pitch 2, this corner/ledge system. We belay on a great chill ledge, where we meet this girl named Robin. They are ahead of us, a 3-person party is ahead of them, and a 2-person party ahead of them. Basically a giant traffic jam. Bummer. Pitch 3 is Ben's, and he follows Robin up. The start of the climb is a big step off the great ledge to a small foothold about 3 feet to the right. Do this airy move, and then it was fun flake moves for a long while.

Pitch 4 was mine, and quite interesting. Our modified rack consisted of yellow and red aliens, a .5, 1, and 3 camalot, stoppers, and about 5 quickdraws, oh and one red tcu. Ben used the #1 and a quickdraw for the belay, so I headed off. This pitch ended up being about 100 feet long and sustained. By the end, I had 0 quickdraws, the #3, NO free carabiners, and stoppers. I basically had to run it out bigtime because I had so little stuff. The guy with Robin at the belay thought it was, "strenuous 5.8." I don't know if it was that hard, but being pretty slabby and me running it out that much.... it would have been a bloody slip, slide, and roll if I'd fallen. Oh yeah, and we were climbing on an 8.1 mm rope. Ben assured me it was ok.

Fortunately those folks let me clip into their anchor (with a borrowed locker, as I didn't have crap). Ben led pitch 5, which included this sweet mantle move which was the crux. I followed no problem, and then cruised up 60 feet of race-the-belayer. At the top... my first Valley Climb!

Just chilled out for the rest of the day, mostly. Did a little bouldering, but that's about it.

Myke
Wednesday June 13, 2001


Woke up kind of late and hooked up with Ben Beezley to go climbing. Another guy, Jonas from CU (mech eng.), went with us over to the jam crack area. I led this route, a 5.7 - and fell! This granite is really slick; my hand jam just plumb slipped out and I fell. Felt pretty stupid about that.

Jonas led this 5.10d finger crack to the left. I did it, taking at the crux - I could've had it though - again I slipped! Stellar finger locks the whole way up a slabby but really smooth face. Then I onsighted a 10c finger crack to the left of that. Really sweet climbing - I was happy. I was really impressed, climbing with those guys - they're super solid and relaxed for the whole climb, it seems. Fast too.

These old guys were aid climbing above the jam crack area - even hammering in pitons, believe it or not. (They were aiding a 5.9 finger crack - practice I guess) Then, these hose bags actually knocked off some rocks. This area is popular, and there was probably 10 people at the base. They could have killed somebody! This tool called "A friend of a friend" fell like 5 feet away from me, as well. It's a sharp tool the size of a nut tool, used for removing friends that have walked deep into the crack. Well, if it almost kills me, it's booty in my book. I pocketed it. We finished with this 5.8 flake that was really fun, and then hiked back to camp 4.

I meant to beat a quick exit, but I kind of got caught up in the chill atmosphere of camp 4, and just sat around for a while. Finally got motivated, packed up, and hit the road. Of course, I had to stop at El Cap meadow and hike in to the base. I have now been to the base of The Nose. Next time I want to see the top.

From there, I drove up to Lake Shasta, arriving about 1am. Slept in the driver's seat of the car next to a quiet-looking house. It sucked.

Myke
Thursday, June 14

This was another long day of driving. I pushed up to Portland to meet my friend Jenny. I got up there about 3pm, and we spent the day hanging out, driving into Portland for dinner, and then prepping for the drive to Smith Rocks the next morning. So, a pretty relaxing day overall.

Myke
Saturday June 16, 2001 After waking up and a healthy breakfast of Peanut Butter M&M's, we headed to the canyon. It turned out being a pretty chill day, as we cruised around the whole canyon before going up to the Monkey Face wall. There is a 5.7 A1 (bolt ladder, probably A0) to the top of this dramatic feature. We started on the western face variation, which adds a 5.8 and a 5.5 pitch. The first pitch was a blast - about 110 feet of nice finger/hand jams up corners and ramps. Unfortunately Jenny had a pretty tough time with it. Since there was a party behind us, we decided instead to rap off and try something else.... but damn, I'm coming back to do that route.

We spent much of the day just chillin', walking around, watching people do the 140 foot free rappell from the top of the monkey face, some really slow people going up the aid section, and checked out a bunch of other areas. This was the weekend, and I was amazed at how swamped the place felt - moreso even than Table Mountain is sometimes.

After some waiting, we got on this 5.7, cinnamon slab. I led it, 80 feet, really popular, and prepped to do this 5.7 sport pitch just above it. As I'm belaying Jenny (and she is halfway up the climb), this guide starts up a sport route right next to her. He cruises up to my anchors, clips them with a sling (while removing me from one of the anchors until I said something) and then cruises up the same climb that we were about to do! If his partner had been fast, it would have been better. As it were, we had to sit on the belay ledge for about 15 minutes until this beginner passed us. I made they knew they had just taken our line - they both apologized, but that's pretty poor for a guide to do such a novice move. They let us use their 70m rope for the long rappell from the top of pitch 2... but they're still losers. :-)

By the end of that climb, it was pretty late, and we were hungry. So, first stop is the old store just as you leave smith rocks park.... home of 'world famous huckleberry ice cream'. Of course we had to stop and get some - it was pretty dang good. Then La Siesta's is in town and is a requirement to check out if you're a climber. Super cheap (we split the "Mike's Special Burrito" for $7.50, and it filled us both up), and absolutely AWESOME salsa makes it a must-do. Their margaritas leave a little to be desired though - I'd pass on them.

Another night of camping under the stars - we were surprisingly tired for climbing so little... but we had hiked around basically the whole park.

Myke
Friday June 15, 2001

We woke up at 8am (late start) and hit the road down to Terrebonne. Uneventful, except that I wasn't driving - SWEET! I'd had enough driving for a while lately... We roll in and hit Redpoint, the climbing store, and find out where "the grasslands" are (thanks Pete Franzen for the beta). They gave us a free map, which saves much on camping costs - aka free.

Set up camp, and then cruise in to Smith Rocks. This place is pretty sweet - a lot smaller than I had envisioned, as well. There are multi-pitch (4-5 pitch) stuff here, but for some reason is feels quite a bit more intimate than Eldo. The girl I was with, Jenny, was still getting back into climbing, so we started off easy and did Jetê (5.8) and a 5.7 just to the right. She had the "Climber's Guide to Smith Rock" by Alan Watts, so that was our beta. This book is actually one of the better guides I have seen - lots of photos, and some good 'character' in some of the descriptions and a great deal of interesting history.

Just around the corner was this sweet looking 5.10b arete, the name of which eludes me right now. Some other guys were doing it, and then leaving the draws up. I asked if I could use their draws and they willingly agreed. I think arete climbs are one of my favorite types - this one had great holds on the edge, as long as you stayed far left of the edge. If you tried to look around the corner too much, the hold angle fell off and you were left with slopers. I onsighted that, which made me feel good - I felt solid on all of it.

We did another 5.7, and by then it was about 8pm, so we called it a day and cruised back to the campsite. There, we were confronted with the reality of the most egregrious excess of food purchases that I have ever been involved with for any type of camping trip. We ate our fill that night, consuming probably 1/10 of the food we had brought for that day and the next. I guess that's what you get for going to the grocery store when you're both hungery. An example is the 5 liter box of Franzia wine (aka "Box o' Fun") that we probably had 1/2 a liter of....

The wind was blowing, so we put the fly on the tent - for the first time this trip! Again, I had to marvel at what a badass tent the North Face Peregrine is... it's pretty sweet. The wind no longer was a problem.

Myke
Monday June 18, 2001

I have to do *some* work on this trip, and today's the day. Some computer work, and then out to my brother's place to mow the lawn and chop wood. What kind of vacation is this??

Myke
Tuesday June 19, 2001

More work.

Myke
Wednesday June 20, 2001

More work. I *hate* dealing with crappy computer applications that make me do stupid repetitive things over and over because they're trying to 'help' you by automating crap and you have to override them. Dammit.

Myke
Thursday April 4, 2002

After this I traveled to Jackson Hole to see my buddy Ben Pascal, and then out to the Wind Rivers before coming home. Check out the photos for that part of the story.

Fantastic Trip!

Myke [an error occurred while processing this directive]