Just a quick post, more photos later. After a few days of roadtrip, and a day of bad weather, we actually climbed stuff today. Good stuff. Hard stuff. New stuff. Even though it snowed on us. Twice.
The quick list:
-Led my first two trad pitches since last fall.
-Got my first few top rope sessions in on Heinous Cling.
-Led my hardest trad route yet.
Training pays off. Excited for more climbing, and less snow, tomorrow.
After discovering that skiing simply isn’t going to work at this point in my recovery period, I was struck Monday with an obvious question I haven’t faced in quite some time- I was at Starbucks in downtown Bend at noon, and had nothing to do. Holy shit. After a moment of shear panic, the smile crept across my face, and I sorted through some options. I went back to Smith and bouldered until I figured it out. I needed to clean out my car and re-organize, I needed some solo time to clear my head, and my hands weren’t going to survive another consecutive day of climbing. Rolling out of Smith, the bivy site was full fo screaming kids (on a Monday night, WTF?), and was no place to re-organize my car. I’ve always told myself I wanted to see the Painted Hills unit of John Day National Monument so I rolled east towards Prineville. It rained. It snowed. I started to begrudge my decision. I didn’t want to camp in the snow. I didn’t intend to drive all the way to the Painted Hills on Monday night, but didn’t find any obvious camping before then. Found a horsecamp on the approach road to the park and crashed hard.
Stuff doesn't fit so pretty after a few days on the road.
So often I’ve headed to Smith to climb, and never loked any further east. Why, when there was so much climbing to be done on the familiar cliffs? Why not, when I had no clue how beautiful the road would get just by taking a day to head out past Prineville? I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (I decided that posting the photos and entry soon enough to be relevant was more important than getting the photos in the right order):
I had a funny argument with myself on this little side trip- should I be burning more gas, when I’m not going climbing? Should I be spending more money when what I’m doing isn’t directly related to my plans at large? Posting these questions here, the answer seems laughably obvious. This trip is about being spontaneous. It is about seeing the places that I’ve never taken time to see. It is about allowing myself to wander, to find what is there for the finding, but that we never allow ourselves to see. It is about pushing my boundaries, and challenge the notion of what I believe the extents of my universe should be. I wanted to highlight a few photos that illustrate the sentiment:
I love open country.
When you aren't sure where to go next, further is usually the right answer.
It’s actually been difficult to let myself just go… yes that’s it, just let myself go, where-ever it is that the road seems to take me. But I think I’m starting to figure that out, and it sure feels fun.
” Follow your heart, you’ll never go wrong.” – Dustin.
This portion of my trip almost doesn’t really feel like the real trip. When the Navy builds a new ship, they give it a “shakedown cruise” before they order it into the fight to make sure that everything works the way it’s supposed to. Before I launch farther afield, I’m using this week to get acquainted with some of my future challenges. Obviously, I’m most curious about how my recently surgered foot will handle the rigors of camping, climbing, hiking, running, and other random adventures. I’m also learning about organizing my car, finding free/safe camping, cooking with and fixing two busted stoves, and realizing which of the volumes of stuff I’m traveling with actually makes sense to carry.
That said, my shakedown crew has been nothing short of spectacular. Dustin and I got out of Portland around 11am on Saturday morning, and started enjoying beautiful weather as soon as we dropped off of Barlow Pass. We stopped to collect firewood before the reservation at Warm Springs and I realized that my sense of time, and priority had already started to shift. It was okay not to get to Smith as fast as possible, it was great to get to stop and see historical markers I’ve never stopped for. The weekend warrior life rewards focus, but is often devoid of chance. I finally feel like I have time to breathe.
It was sunny, but still quite cold by the time we got to Smith, and with both me and Dustin being out regular climbing shape we only managed a few easy pitches. I remain indebted to Dustin for leading an unfortunately hard warmup 5.10a, because despite the cold, all the other easy lines on the front-side were taken. After climbing, we wandered back to Skull Hollow, set up camp, and got dinner going. In the dark we missed an inconvenient sign just in front of the car. Dustin had an effective solution, and we enjoyed our dinner and campfire. More than almost anything else, Dustin loves to think, and our conversations always leave me feeling richer. Thanks dude.
Sign? What sign?
Sunday we got on the rock earlier and grabbed an easier line to warmup on while waiting for my good friend Kelly to join us. We’ve been working out together for over a year, but only gotten to share a rope a few times. Not surprisingly it was equally enjoyable to get to spend another day climbing with her as trying to keep up with her in the morning workouts. We worked a number of climbs in the ShipWreck gully area, and much to my surprise, and some concern, I was able to lead More Sandy Than Kevin (5.11a). This surprised me not only due to the lack of protest from my foot, but also the fact that I haven’t climbed regularly in two months, and had only run two laps on the route during my last day at Smith [insert link]. I also appreciated the encouragement from my friend Pat, who had come down to enjoy the day, as he had been there for my previous attempts. I’m looking forward to climbing with Pat again this coming weekend.
Back in the thick of it, on More Sandy Than Kevin (5.11a). Photo: Danica Yates
Dustin getting the goods.
Spent, but with plenty of daylight, the Kelly and Dustin were clamoring to hike, so we cleaned up our gear and headed past the Marsupials to check out the Lower Gorge.
A guy couldn't ask for better companions.
Smith has so many fantastic areas in such a small area…
In the theme of taking the time for new things, we took a right turn uphill just after leaving the Gorge, into yet another part of Smith that I had not explored. In addition to his ample intellectual abilities, Dustin also has a youthful curiosity about him that often inspires unexpected adventures. Above the Lower Gorge area, we found an old irrigation canal, with a tunnel leading under the Burma Road and hills just east of Smith. Not surprisingly, Kelly was more than game to see where this new line went, so we headed into the dark. Still in the tunnel ½ mile later, we found a slowly growing pool of water at the bottom. Dustin said “I’m instigating that we go further, it’s only ankle deep…”
Down the rabbit hole...
Another ½ mile later, still in the tunnel, and within sight of the exit, we were wading through hip deep water, freezing, and giggling like school girls. Once out of the tunnel and on dry ground, we stopped regretting having carried long underwear around in our bags all day and started feeling the screaming barfies in our feet. We all changed into what dry options we had, and started looking for a new line back to the park. We ended up on top of the Marsupials ridge, then along the backside of Smith for a stellar sunset, then over Asterisk Pass, and back at the cars only 10 minutes after our target time of 6pm. I couldn’t have planned a better adventure, or better partners to share it with.
Still giggling, and stoked to have long underwear post swim.
“Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they will turn out.” (www.xkcd.com)
First off- a huge shout out to all my Portland friends that made last Friday at Amnesia Brewing an incredible night. I am so honored to have so many wonderful people in my life. There was no small sadness for me in saying goodbye however, knowing that I won’t be able to continue to share experiences with all of you. I’m not sure where I will land, maybe Portland again, maybe not, but I look forward to continuing to carrying the lessons and shared experiences forward with me as my experience unfolds.
The blog has been quiet, mostly because life has been intensely loud. These posts are a little out of order due to the fact that the time of events happening, time available for blogging, and availability of internet don’t always line up. Even just recounting the myriad of events, people, and activity in the last week leaves me feeling exhausted. I spent most of last week working at the commons as planned. We finished installing ductwork for the heat recovery ventilator, insulating wall panels, and installing roofing details.
After 3 years of working in HVAC, I finally actually DID something tangible.
Evenings were filled with seeing people and last minute errands as I struggled to clean out my living space and organize my gear. Doubly huge thank you to my good friends Colin and Danielle for hosting my ridiculous amount of stuff in their basement while I am traveling. As much as I enjoy planning and sorting and purging, by Friday I was thoroughly exhausted.
I must really like this bed to put in the work to move it.
My room for the last 15 months, now empty... an amazing place to call home.
I'll be sad to see this bike sell, but excited to upgrade. Funny how my bikes always look the best right before I sell them...
After celebrating Friday night, I was up early to finish a few last details before leaving town, and then headed out to Smith Rock. Despite a hangover, lack of sleep, and the effort of moving, I was undeniably amped to roll out of the Portland rain and into the Central Oregon sun.
Somehow this all fits in my Jetta?
Yup! Time to roll out...
Okay, now on to more posts about interesting stuff…
Unfortunately, the icy whiteout at Mt. Bachelor isn’t the reason I’m not skiing today. One months isn’t enough recovery time to ski after my foot surgery.
I met an old friend while climbing at Smith yesterday and she mentioned she was skiing today. Emboldened by my recent successes in rock shoes, we rolled up to the mountain together- but I hadn’t even tried on my ski boots. We geared up at the car but by the time we hit the ticket window, pain was already pulsing through my foot. I left my friend to ski the ice alone and was desperate to get my boot off by the time I made it back to the car.
Surgery 1. Skander 0. We’ll try again in a week or so…
stickthefeeling 