Road Trip Day 4: Smith Rock

We arrived at Smith Rock in the middle of the night, only being able to guess at where the cliffs were. We couldn't see anything. After scouting around for a campground, we found a place at the Bivouac campground about 8 miles from the park entrance, pitched our tent, hunkered down and got ready for an awesome day of climbing to come.

There were giant, quarter sized, stink bug type beetles all over the campground, but no mosquitoes so it turned out nice.

Smith Rock!

Russ playing around on the base of To Bolt or Not To Be: 5.14a, the first 5.14 climbed in America on record. Note the lack of...anything to haul yourself up with.

We did several climbs on Cinnamon slab and got nice and toasted in the sun, had a quick shady lunch and headed over to the nearby gorge to find a crack to climb. We ran into a large group of French people who were just starting the climb (the only other people in the gorge, climbing the only climb we were interested in, the odds.)

It ended up being a horrible sketchy bust, so after that little fiasco, we washed our hands and feet in the river and decided to head out to the Oregon coast that night instead of the next day.

We made lunch in the car and we located a free campground just outside of Coos bay on our phones, set the GPS and headed out through Mount Hood National Forest and down some really narrow, windy roads that got a little scary after dark.

Seeing as how the day of climbing went mostly without a hitch, we should have known we were in for some sort of epic to make up for it.

oh yea, cliffhanger.

Day 4: Battleship and a campfire

Approaching battleship

 More (imposter :) ) lady bugs. They were this thick on all the rocks, it was near impossible to find a place to sit.

 The Grand! and Middle Teton

This was one of my favorite view points of the whole trip. 

We decided to forego sleeping on top of table rock (which ended up being a great idea, seeing as the wind rocked our worlds that night)

I finally had enough of being salty and gross, so an improvised shower took place. What you don't see is 3 feet upstream, this is all running straight out of a glacier. In other words, it was criminy cold! But felt sooo amazing.

Our last night at camp, we found a little geocache with a bunch of notes in it. We had a great time reading them and then hunkering down for the night.

Day 5, we woke up early and high tailed it out of there. Everyone fell asleep in the car with wet boots and pants after fording a river. 

It was an amazing trip, one that I hope to repeat again!

Memorial Day

Russ and I had to work all through Memorial Day weekend except for on Monday. Luckily for us; Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all rainy and not ideal for being outside, so we didn't feel like we missed out on too much.

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Monday, we skipped town and went down to Pocatello (wild and craziness right here) we had a little lunch, did a little climbing, almost stepped on a not so little snake

Just looking at these pictures gives me the heeby-jeebies. *shudder* Snakes are interesting creatures, they give me the creeps but they are also so cool, the way they move looks liquid. 

On the flip side of the animal spectrum, 

I've been slightly obsessed  interested in all things that cuddle. Luckily, Russell isn't too put out by enabling my pet store habit. Yea, I'm one of those people that lie about looking for a dog just so I can hold the puppies. Is that really so bad?

Bouldering Comp

Today, Russell took me on a date to I.F. where we stopped by the fabric store where I got some amazing fabric for a maxi skirt (What can I say? I'm a fan of staying cool and not having to shave my legs in the summer) and we stopped by a Mongolian Grill for lunch. 

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After we got back into town, we stopped by Stix and Stones to check out the bouldering competition and Russell made a last minute entry. They awarded prizes to the first places in each of the three categories (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) and then pulled names randomly. Russ won a nice locking carabiner and had a ton of fun. So, all in all, it was a win.

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We also got to hang out with Jeanette for a little bit because she came into town, which is always a blast and a half. 

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Then, we got called to work at Regional Rock Walls.

It's been a busy day!!!

Wanderlust

As Russ and I were talking, we (I) decided that we should go be climbing bums and just get a motor home of some sort and go camp and climb and run amuck for a summer.

When suddenly...

Be still my fluttering heart! Right? I found this beaut on Craigslist  down in Pocatello. 

Yea buddy, that's a bed, and $3000? A steal! 

As I pose this idea to him, he is going back and forth between accounting homework and practicing tying a double bowline on a bite through his belt loops.

I just need to catch the climber in him at the right moment instead of the accountant/business major and present the idea then.

Until then Fozzy (oh yea, I've already named it)

Wish me luck.

St. George, Zion, fire and crack

Zion, Zion, lovely Zion. Beautiful Zion...

 We stole the opportunity (Thanks Civil Rights Day!) to take a quick trip to Southern Utah and get our hands on some gritty sandstone cracks.

 We loaded up our car with gear and good company, trail mix and hopes for sunlight and warmer weather.

There was absolutely no disappointment to be had (aside from a mishap on a 5.8...more on that later), the sun was gorgeous, the cracks were perfect and the weekend went by all to fast.

This weekend, I realized that: I could really get into crack climbing. I was jittery just taping up for the first time. I also realized that I am in no way ready to lead climb anything above a 5.5 (Yay for 5 foot off the ground freak outs)

We climbed, we hot tubbed, we bon-fired (hello high school, nice to catch up again) and I even got to do a little bit of off roading! 

My absolute favorite part of the weekend, aside from all the beauty we saw, and climbing my first crack; was just how legit excited Russell was when he came down from leading a climb called The Headache. I can't help but smile when he gets that stoked on something.

We can't wait to get back out and for the weather to start warming up so we can go on more adventures, I'm pulling for Moab and some Canyoneering/Climbing. Whose game?