Rock and Road Recap

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10 Barrel, Phil's Trail, Smith Rock

Wrapping up MB’s field season we left South Lake Tahoe and motored to Reno and pick up our miracle trailer for towing Tawanda.

Spent a couple of days in Bend, Oregon mountain biking. Magoo and Misha had a big biking day gone bad. Though they had biked with us all summer, their pads couldn’t handle the volcanic rock.
 

Letting the pups sit one out, we did another ride that evening with our sweet night-lights. Phil’s is PERFECT for night riding.

We popped in to 10 Barrel and enjoyed a new favorite the Sinister Black Ale and chatted with a gregarious Irishman.

Smith Rockin’ should be called “Smith Cookin” for the month of August. Whoa dude. The heat was intense. We did a couple days of climbing and then could not take it. We did freshin’ up at a local pub and found another favorite brew- Cascade Brewery’s 20 inch Nut Brown.   

That’s it for now…
Later tater.

Summer Home

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Tahoe

This gallery contains 13 photos.

We finally settled. Well, for 3 months that is.  While MB was off running, crawling, and falling through manzanita, I …

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Cali Time

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Bishop, Buttermilks, Owens River Gorge, Pine Creek, The Happy's

So many places feel like home.  Perhaps, that’s because wherever we are is home. 🙂 Today, if we had to settle in one place, Bishop is in the top 5.

Not only does Bishop hosts some outstanding climbing destinations such as: The Buttermilks, Owens River Gorge, The Happy’s, Sad’s, Druids, Pine Creek, Rock Creek, …and easy access to the entire the Eastern Sierra’s, Bishop has everything else from Schat’s Bakery to Raymond’s Deli and a Kmart.

We’d been to Bishop and climbed several times before. This time we yearned for some new adventures (i.e. places unvisited).  This led us to our first MG&B Bishop misadventure:

We met some to-be new friends while climbing in Owens River.  Following their suggestion, we decided to check out Cardinal Pinnacle.  A couple days later we went to climb the West Face route. Typically, this wouldn’t be much more than just a great day climbing granite cracks and slab.

However, at the trailhead I distinctly remember commenting to MB the route appeared to have a bit of snow and perhaps even some ice.  Whatever… we’d been in Alberta CLIMBING ICE all winter (although then we had crampons and ice axes).  If in doubt I’d just pull myself up on gear.

After hiking up the wrong “trail” and traversing a large scree field, we arrived at the base of our route only 1hr later the estimated 30 min. Yes, there was snow AND ice on the route.  Since we’d already hiked to the base, WE decided to giv’er a go and giv’er I did.

Well, I never made it to the top of the first pitch and MB never left the ground (sorry babe). The good thing is I learned a valuable science lesson about the frictional coefficient of wet climbing shoes on icy rock (FYI: it’s about the same as roller skates on an ice rink)…..enough said.

Our SECOND misadventure, took us biking along dirt roads in search for a White Face Ibis.  No Ibis’s were found.  However we did see:

• Long haired Chihuahua wearing a sweater
• Blue Teal
• and dry sanitation ponds (this is where we though the Ibis to be)

Continuing with our new mantra of trying all things new we headed off to Pine Creek Canyon.  Wow!

Pine Creek VIEW SLIDE SHOW

-G

Red Rocks rocks!

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Food, Red Rocks

Our previous memories of Red Rocks included: breaking out in a heat rash, Magoo with “G.I.” issue in the back seat of the Honda, and Magoo squealing like he was being attacked by a mountain lion while we were 3/4th of the way up a 650 ft. route! By the way, we did a speedy rappel down a 100 ft. or so, we could clearly see he was fine and Misha was sleeping soundly beside him.

So really Red Rocks could only get better, right? Well, as MaryGreg and Beth misadventures go this was a misadventure of misadventures. Say what? You got it right. A double negative. Red Rocks was FANTASTIC.

Our first mis-misadventure began with an incredible Easter Sunday service at Canyon Ridge followed by a wonderful breakfast (i.e. red velvet pancakes) at Baby Stacks in Las Vegas.

Once we established our home (i.e. camping spot) for the next couple weeks, off we went to climb and Red Rocks did not disappoint.

View Full Album

 

Our only true misadventures on this trip were:

• climbing on top of the camper at 1am and 3am to fasten a loose awning during 35mph winds (3 nights in a row)
• following bad directions and getting lost
• not chasing shade well enough and trying to climb whilst not melting in 85F

Trials and tribulations…

Truck engine sputtering, sperttering, and chucking. Not good. We stopped in Gillette to get the truck looked at and stayed at the always classy Walmart parking lot. Yo, if you haven’t tried it, you should. Honestly, it’s not always so great. There is generally a very busy, loud road nearby. Sometimes a massive semi will park nearby and the engine or some such nonsense will cycle all night and keep you awake. We’ve had the occasional teenagers drag racing and “yahoo”-ing in these parking lots. The good part is you have a 24-7 bathroom available and sometimes that is imperative.

We made it to Ten Sleep through a snow storm and then the engine started sputtering, sperttering, and chucking again and then the furnace started working intermittently. NOT GOOD!!!!!

Drove an hour away for an electric heater then had to pay the big bucks to camp at an RV Park with electricity while free camping was just a stone’s throw away. Ugh. Fortunately, the truck miraculously stopped lurching and started to behave.

Just so we’re clear. This life on the road is not all glamour. Actually, we only shower about every 3 to 5 days and it is absolutely impossible to get rid of all the pet hair.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

Why Om-ing

We got to climb this! Yeah, we climbed that one time. We hopped on a moderately rated route to find that we couldn’t even squeeze our wee digits into the crack. Grunting and cussing ensued. Don’t get me wrong. We had fun. Yes we DID!

  

The next day we attempted some other fun climbs. Well, we think they would have been fun but we never made it there. We scrambled and climbed the 5.4 scramble (HA) and never could get to the much desired starts to those climbs. We regrouped over Justin’s maple almond butter and jam sandwiches and decided to feel very sorry for ourselves. This led to driving to town to seek consolation beer and pizza. We were cheered by bartender Michael and his confessions of  embracing the shame of having Beiber Fever.

Um….yeah, this is how we wash dishes in Wyoming. In the bidet/ toilet contraption. Don’t judge.

Bad weather moved in and so we moved out in search better weather elsewhere.

South Dakota ROCKS!

Oh dear. We love it here. We’ve been to Mt. Rushmore TWICE!!!  We went to the cheesy Bear Country USA animal park. We’ve climbed and climbed some more. Oh dear.

Then why must we go? The wind started blowing 50+ miles per hour and we can’t climb no mo’.

Here are a few of our favorite things while in SD.

South Dakota VIEW SLIDE SHOW

Ok, now that you’re done looking at the pictures… yes those climbs were SCARY!  It wasn’t the height or exposure but the unprotected 40ft run-out nature of climbing in the Black Hills.  All in all we planned to be here for only about two days but stayed nearly an entire week.

Climbing near Mt. Rushmore was a nice cragging experience and a good place to get a feel for the style.  Now Climbing in Custer State Park (aka the Needles) was altogether something else.  The routes ranged from 140ft single pitch or longer 3 or 4 pitch routes.  Some sport routes, some trad routes, while others claimed to be mixed.  This was a great place to test your nerves and ability to not fall.

Lastly, when you see us next please remind us to tell you about our wolf attack!  It’s true.  We were attacked by a REAL Timber wolf.

NOTE:  Thanks to Bill and Cori (whoever you are) for all the beta.

Colorado again

So…..we never made it to California. Again. Why? MB decided to take a job back in Colorado. The irony is we are camping in a state park a mere 23 miles from our house. Dudeman!

Shortly after we got back, one of our closest friends became seriously ill.  We were so thankful to be around to spend time with he and his family.

According to NOAA, the month of June was the warmest on record! We thought we weren’t going to make here because we didn’t have air conditioning. We and the furry crew were not happy campers.  Another confounding factor – Colorado suddenly went up in flames. We were nearly driven out by the smoke and heat. MB had a severe allergic reaction to the smoke and could barely hike at work because she was unable to breathe.

We had to put the whole situation in God’s hands because we definitely thought we had made the wrong decision moving back to Colorado.

Long story short, MB’s job and people she works with are amazing. After 2 weeks, we were able to find an air conditioner that worked with our camper (thanks to redneck ingenuity). The fires abated by the beginning of July and MB was literally able to sigh with relief.

We did two lovely trips to the mountains to get away from the heat and smoke.

• Fraser for mountain biking
• Monitor Rock for rock climbing.
• Highlights: Momma moose with triplets!!!! in Rocky Mountain NP

Interesting side story: while at Monitor Rock, a man walked up that we recognized. It was Curt from Salt Lake City who we met while in Greece. He had also showed up in Idaho at the beginning of June. Seriously Curt, quit stalking us. 🙂

I-da-hoe

The chores were done and so we headed to the City of Rocks, ID to meet up with friends from Colorado.

The “City” is a fine-fine place with beautiful single and multi-pitch routes on granite domes.  You gotta love a place that is notorious for sandbagged routes and slabby runouts…ahhh yeah.

City of Rocks VIEW SLIDE SHOW

Again, not wanting to leave another spectacular place we NEEDED to get moving if we were going to make it to California.  Alas, a few things transpired near the end of the week to set California into another delay.  Which you’ll HAVE TO READ THAT IN THE NEXT POST!

Mo-town

When we say mo-town we don’t mean that funky vibe with music, rhythm and soul. We mean Salt Lake City “Mo-town”.  All of our summer gear (aka the Yeti’s) is locked up safe at my Mom’s house. So we had the daunting task of ditching all the winter gear and replace with summer gear.  Apparently, you need a lot of footwear for a Canadian winter.

 

A visit to Mom’s would be remiss without a few chores that prove why we no longer desire to live in a house.  A 8ftx5ft square box on wheels has enough upkeep, let alone an entire house with a yard!!

Once the gear was sorted we were able to mend a few camper items, climb with my brothers family, become reacquainted with old Friends (Thanks to Steph & Ron for nights full of laughter and great BBQ’s), and find a few unwanted ones (4 to be exact in Mr. Magoo’s ears!!).

When in SLC there are three things you must do: Climb Little Cottonwood Canyon, Hike in the Wasatch, and sample the local brew pub (yes you heard me.. brew).

Hiking in SLC: WORD OF CAUTION- IF you plan to hike more than 1 mile in a 4hr period, DO NOT go with birders.

Climbing in LLC: WORD OF CAUTION- The fully exposed routes face due south thus get VERY hot in the mid afternoon.

Local Brew’s in SLC: SLC is not as backward as you think.  There are some fine breweries and tap houses around town (Desert Edge, Squatters, Bayou) and NO you don’t need to be a member!

SLC VIEW SLIDE SHOW

When it was time to move on there was a small revolt by the fury crew.

Animal Anarchy VIEW SLIDE SHOW