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fo_d
Jun 29, 2003, 11:42 PM
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I can t really give the report right this second but I wanted to give everyone a place to start. I'll do the complete report tonight. We had much larger turnout than I was expecting and had a really great time.
Ok, heres some:
The good, damn we had a lot of people, I'm guessing 40-50 people, lots of kids and lots of rock. mid day Sat. i was walking down the trail back to the cliff, I was 100-150 yards from the cliff and I could see the whole group in different stages of climbing the rock and all along the base of 200 yards of cliff line, it was all our group. We had a blast climbing together, setting top ropes, leading and belaying. Not all of the climber are members of rc.com and some visit rc.com but aren't members so many people learned about our site this weekend. Night time around the fire and the slacklines was great and night climbing was unbelievable with a sky full of stars.
The bad, As has been mentioned we got rained off about 4:pm Fri. and night climbing was put off till Sat, and a lot of climbing time was lost that day. When we were back at camp and it started to downpour i went to my car to put on a rain poncho and as soon as i got it on it stopped raining then when i took down the hood later it started sprinkling again and when i put the hood back on it would stop, so the group insisted that i keep my poncho on the entire evening and Sat. afternoon when it tried to rain i had to go swimming in my poncho :oops: .
The ugly The only real dark cloud in our weekend was the park rangers at Blue mound S.P. and the rock county deputy sheriff. Thurs.night a ranger stopped by our camp fire where 10 of us were talking in normal voices and said we were too loud and would have to keep it down or we would be kicked out of the park, we knew there would be problems Fri and Sat night when our numbers would be at least doubled. So Fri night we were enjoying the fire (maybe 30-40 of us) talking in normal voices and drinking a few beers (not supposed to have alcohol in a S.P.) the ranger and the camp host came to our site with pretty bad attitudes and told us we were too loud and if we didn't quiet down they would call the sheriff, we assured them we would try to keep it down and they left, one minute later the deputy rolled by and went to the camp hosts site, a few minute later the cop came to our site and after slamming his door (to let us know who was in charge) he ask for the leader of the group, I stood up and gave him all the right answers and he got in his car and started to leave but abruptly stopped and reversed back to where he was, got out of the car and started yelling at my daughter said she called him an a$$ hole (I didn't doubt that) he started back toward his car and apparently she said it again and he was back in her face, it took me a few minutes to get rid of the cop and about half the group went to bed the rest of us stayed at the fire till the wee hours. The park staff responded badly in several other way throughout the weekend but somehow no one went to jail or got kicked out of the park but beware if your hair is different or if you are different you probably will be treated poorly by the B.M.S.P. staff
Les
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jaylaka
Jun 30, 2003, 1:31 AM
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i'll start. (disclaimer: this is totally piecemeal and just our perspective, so take turns, y'all. :D )
my three year old son cole and i were the first to arrive and the first to leave. we made the 6.5 hour drive from southern wisconsin without incident on wednesday, and met up with duskerhu and fo_d early thursday afternoon.
the good: great climbing, (including an child-friendly approach and layout!), cool weather at night, sunny during the day, awesome folks to climb with all around :D i think cole and i both made some friends on this trip, so it was cool.
the bad: it downpoured friday as we were leaving the rocks and i had neglected to totally secure our rainfly (i swear it was clear skies when we left!) so some stuff in our tent was drenched, but it was all good. but the rain passed, as long as les kept his poncho on with the hood up.
the ugly: pretty damn hot on saturday. 8) my son spent the better part of the day finding "caves" that were shady and cool to explore. i joined him for awhile and it wasnt' so bad. and we found out that not every asshole with a badge appreciates being called on it, either. :wink:
but all in all, i am SO glad we came out. cole and i had a wonderful time, on the rock and off. and i want to see some of the pictures that y'all took too! so post up. and keep in touch, especially if you're going to be at devil's lake to climb, we'll show you around.
jen
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rocksolid
Jun 30, 2003, 1:58 AM
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Thanks Les and Dann for organizing everything!
It was a perfect weekend for climbing and camping. I had a great time! :D :D :D
Craig
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minnesotatrad
Jun 30, 2003, 3:10 AM
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I had a great time at the gathering. There were lots of new people that I got the chance to met.
The Good, It was loads of fun to get out to the cliff and have everyone sharing there ropes with each other. It was also fun staying up until 5 a.m. and then getting up to climb that same day.
The Bad, Nothing to much was bad on this trip. The only bad I can think of is having the sheriff come and tell us to keep it down.
The Ugly, Les swimming in his ridiculous rain poncho. All the talk about donkeys. And my "dad" explaining the donkeys to me.
I am glad to have gone with all you folks. It was great to meet so many new faces.
Keith
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corpse
Jun 30, 2003, 3:28 AM
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I thought Les "swimming" in his raincoat was cute. Of course, he was afraid to go in the deep water (over his, ahem, waist).. But I don't blame him, so was I!
It was a good trip though - looooong car ride for me though with the 9 and 6 yr old girls in the back seat bickering :-) for 9 hrs.. I think I was the farthest traveller from the Chicago area??
I don't think the Sheriff incident was THAT bad - to me, a good party is when the cops show up.. It's just when ppl get hauled away does it turn into a "bad" thing. It REALLY is funny seeing a "respectful" law enforcement man get all worked up by some teen :wink:
I had some fun on the slackline too - although I didn't quite "walk" it. Me and the girls are going to set one up in the backyard for some practice though.
I'll post pics as soon as I get em off the camera.
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fo_d
Jun 30, 2003, 3:28 AM
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:shock: :shock: :shock: He didnt really explain the donkey did he???? :shock: :shock: :shock:
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minnesotatrad
Jun 30, 2003, 3:33 AM
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No he didn't ever explain the donkey thing. And it was kind of funny watching the sheriff get all rilled up over Anne.
Keith
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rocksolid
Jun 30, 2003, 4:02 AM
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Donkeys??? Should I even bother asking what you guys are talking about... :?
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fo_d
Jun 30, 2003, 4:09 AM
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ummmmmmmm :oops: I guess you had to be there, no you don't want to know but maybe next time we climb i can try to explain or if you climb with kurt ask him :lol: :lol: :lol:
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corpse
Jun 30, 2003, 4:12 AM
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ok, some pics!! w000t I think I'll be the first to have some ready.. Although I'm sure Les' @ the crag will be better.
Haleigh (my 9 yr old) on the slackline
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/halo%20on%20the%20slackline.jpg
Paris (my 6 yr old) on the slackline
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/paris%20on%20the%20slackline.jpg
a group pic (they were gettin mad about the flash, musta been the beer and darkness)
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/some%20group%20pics.jpg
couple scenery pics
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/some%20scenery%201.jpg
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/some%20scenery%202.jpg
a pear cactus blooming, with a green wasp? in it - hard to tell in the pic, but was pretty nifty.
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/haleighs%20blooming%20pear%20cactus.jpg
heres a corridor from the top of the crag.. a cool walk down, and very appreciated in the heat! and a fun walk down if ya ask me.
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/corridor%20in%20the%20rock.jpg
(I think being closer would have yielded a MUCH better picture, to get that flash workin)
haleigh and kali at the top of the above corridor
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/haleigh%20and%20kali%20in%20the%20corridor.jpg
here's me - haleigh zoomed in on this pic (turn and smile dad!)
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/corpse%20smiling%20for%20his%209yr%20old%20(photographer).jpg
a nifty crack I snapped a pic of.. it's really pretty narrow, and I have no idea WHY I took the pic, but it looks pretty cool..
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/cool%20crack.jpg
here's a pic of cole - I think he's meditating for his next climb :wink:
http://www.langerperformance.com/corpse/bluemounds/cole.jpg
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duskerhu
Jun 30, 2003, 9:26 AM
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HOLE-LEEEE BUCKETS did we have a good time!!!
And I never imagined we'd have so many people... Last year I think we had like 17 people; 7 of which were kids, 5 of which were less than teens... This year we had to be pushin' well past 50 people not including the misc. kids that we brought along.
A good portion of those folks were friends from our local gym (Vertical Endevors in St. Paul) who were there because of one person... Our group "social butterfly" kurt. kurt spred the word at the gym and told of our website here and the "gathering" we were putting together and got quite a few people out there. Thanks kurt, nice job bud!
Anyhow, I'm going to try to list all the folks who showed up at this gig but I guarantee I'll miss some... Hey, I'm gettin' old and have a crappy memory, especially when I party all night... :shock:
So, if YOU notice that I've missed someone who came with you or was in your group, add them to your post or PM me and I'll add them to my list. Here goes... RC.commers first (and people they brought) and then the VE-ers...
fo_d/Les and family; Anne (the sherrif basher), her friend Michelle, and the always entertaining Matthew.
duskerhu/me Dann and daughter Kali.
corpse/Tom and daughters Paris and Haleigh from the Chicago-land area.
jaylaka/Jen and son Cole from the Janesville, WI area.
jhattan and Laura from Nebraska.
j_magnuson/Josh.
kurt/Kurt and Chris.
pelliott/Patrick and wife Tammy, and kids Shannon, Katie, and Sean.
el_capitan/Sung and Karen.
rocksolid/Craig.
gymclimbfreak/Tim.
superfly/Jackie and "crew" of which I remember Jake? HELP Jackie!
drifter/Nick and??? (I for got your buds name).
minnesotatrad/Keith and Dad #1 Dolf.
mewalrus/Matt.
phatires/Matt and harvey/Terry.
robinmotion/Rob and Jen.
craigclimber/Craig and wife Kathy and bro Todd.
astro-man/Chad and Mike & Mike.
There were quite a few VE-ers who attended and some of then are mentioned above with RC.com members (I won't re-mention them here). I will surely miss some here as there are a few I don't know or didn't have a chance to chat with. Maybe kurt can help me fill in the blanks there. Here are the ones I remember or know of...
Stuart and daughter Abbey
Carmen
Laurie
Bill and Warren
Tim, Rousey, and Ben (there was a young woman with you guys and I don't know her name???).
Daniel (and I don't know the names of the 3 or 4 friends Dan brought either; sorry).
Andy on his Harley
I know i've missed some folks here... That's only a reflection of the fact that my memory is shot and I'm bad with names... Please forgive. I'll add my trip reflections in another post at the end of the line.
Thanks everyone for coming and making this a FABULUOS Gathering! These things are part of the reason I climb.
duskerhu
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gymclimbfreak
Jun 30, 2003, 1:06 PM
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Well Thank you Les and Dann for setting up and organizing such a cool weekend. It was a total blast. I can't really say that there was bad or ugly, well i suppose the weather friday night was bad, perhaps even ugly, but the bacon abuser takes the cake for being the most entertaining part of the weekend. I wasn't there to experience it, but THANKS @$$HOLE will forever take on a new meaning . The weather was totally cool, minus the fact that it was very hot saturday, and I ran out of water and gatorade. I have to agree that if it wasn't for Les and Dann this thing wouldn't have been as cool. I met a lot of totally cool people, some are even crazy enough to drive like 6 to 9 hours to come see us. Glad they showed up. It was a pleasure meeting everyone from the site that I haven't already met, and the ones that I didn't even know existed. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have the photos scanned in from my dinosaur, and I can get them on the site.. we'll see how they turn out. I would have to say the coolest thing I got to do was night climbing. Thanks Les for setting that up, next time I'll hike in the camera and the tripod for some timed shots. Now I'm going to go back to bed and try not to sleep on my sunburned parts. It's worth it in the end.
Thanks again everyone for making my first gathering a memorable experience.
Tim
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el_capitan
Jun 30, 2003, 3:58 PM
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Thanks for a great trip everyone. We definitely need to get together like this and climb more often. And I did get a hold of the guy who found my gear and I'm meeting him today to pick it up so all is well. Thanks for all your help getting it back. I'll be thanking you again when I'm on the tower in a few days!
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harvey
Jun 30, 2003, 4:14 PM
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I am just writing to say thanks to all for the great weekend. It is because you are all great people that this sport is so much fun. I really enjoyed my first group gathering for climbing, and I must say that I really wish we had more of them. I am new to the RC.com site as of the moment I got home from the trip, so I am still trying to find my way around so if I am doing something wrong let me know. If I had to pick some of my best highlights for the weekend it would start with watching a 3 year old (Cole)climb a 5.5 (Ivy Right), 2nd would be the night climbing, 3rd would be meeting all the great people (even you anne) :D. If I had to pick something bad it would be DAMN did I get sunburned, and that it is back to the factory today for me.
Terry
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astro_man
Jun 30, 2003, 6:25 PM
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Hello All
I'd like to thank everyone for a great weekend. I really appreciate the warm welcome Mike, Mike and I received. I had a great time climbing at Blue Mounds and hope to do it again soon.
Chad
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fo_d
Jun 30, 2003, 7:37 PM
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:D :D Welcome to Rockclimbing.com Chad & Terry, glad yall had a good time.
Les
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karma274
Jul 1, 2003, 4:55 AM
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I'm really suprised to hear that you guys had trouble with the park. The only thing I can figure is that they didn't like your large group. When I've been there in the past with some friends we've had some admittedly debaucherous/alcohol induced times, although there were only like 5-7 of us and we weren't loud, so who knows. Management may have changed. The rangers actually remembered a buddy of mine and said hello when we stopped in the station. Who knows what was up.
Anyone sample the bouldering out there? The big boulder in the quarry has a few problems on it, and the big jumbled up blocks down from the quarry and on the edge have some cool stuff. And further up the trail towards the interpretive center there are some more short problems that are also fun.
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fo_d
Jul 1, 2003, 6:52 AM
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We didn't have nearly as many people last year but i'm sure we were at least a bit louder, at least while we were on the slack line, this year they had it in for us from the beginning, they didn't even bother with the polite request to keep it down, and its obvious they called the cops before they came to warn us because the cop came in just minutes after they talked to us. We were probably louder than we thought we were but no one was out of line or rowdy, the park staff completely blew it IMO. I will ask them if we can avoid this situation next year by getting the group site but if they can give any assurances i'd rather be in the regular camp sites. The campground host's completely blew it, it seems maybe they were afraid of us and possibly pre judged us. Anyway it didn't ruin the trip but it bothered me maybe a little more than other people.
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duskerhu
Jul 1, 2003, 1:57 PM
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Well, I'm going to guess that our problems with the ranger (just one specific female Amazonian ranger) were a relative anomoly... Based on my experience and conversation with another ranger on my way out of the park.
After climbing Sunday, I went back to Patricks site where Kali was playing with the Elliott children to get her and go. She wanted to go swimming and also stop at the office for a souveneer that I'd promised her on the way in. So, I took her swimming and then we stopped to see the American Bison lounging in the field near the swimming area and then we stopped at the store/office.
When I walked in (also carrying my site card to turn in), I immediately new there was a different ranger presence in the park... I was cheerily greated by a woman ranger behind the desk who I remember seeing at check-in every other trip to Blue Mounds. She'd always been very nice in the past and seemed to genuinely respect and care for climbers and this meeting was NO different.
Handing her my site card, she asked "Checking out?" I replied with a yes. She looked at the card and said "Oh, you had the site with all the Rockclimbing.com folks. I hear you had some problems the other night?" I replied with something along the lines of "Yeah, I suppose we're infamous now, huh?" She chuckled a bit and concured.
I decided I'd ask to see what the deal had been... I told her that I knew we'd had quite a few people around the fire that night and we may have been at a low rumble but it wasn't like we were obnoxious or "out of hand" or anything. Why did that ranger call the sheriff right away instead of just coming over and saying "Hey, you guys are being a bit noisy. Can you please hold it down?" I said that we'd been there on a number of occations last year and had good sized groups around the fire (although no where near the size we'd had Friday night) and never had any problems. The rangers used to just drive though the loops and check to make sure everything was going fine before. I even admitted that, even knowing the rules about alcohol, we'd had a few casual beers around the fire without a problem in the past.
She said that The Amazon Woman (my description) was "relatively new and very gung-ho about her job and that she'd been teaming up with the "campground hosts" and really did not care for the "climbing crowds" that often come to the park. She also said that she (The Amazon Woman) liked to park the car and walk through the loops instead of driving like the other rangers and she kind of sneaks up on people to see if they are drinking.
She didn't know why she called the sheriff but thought she might have thought she'd have a problem with us so had the sheriff there to prevent that. Apparently this ranger likes to try to keep everyone "In-Line." Anyway, she ended with the thought that we probably just unluckily picked a weekend for our gathering when this woman happened to be on the late shift. She also said that about half the campers they have on a yearly basis are climbers and the climbers they get are generally "good people" and that just about everyone brings some type of alcohol camping... She'd even had a beer with the "campground hosts" on occation.
Anyway, I felt better after Kali and I left. I hope I never have to go back there and find The Amazon Woman on the night shift again 'cus I just might give her a piece of pro... Like a #10 hex upside the head! It would certainly be worth the $14 or whatever that piece would cost to replace (after I'd ruined it on her rock-hard skull).
Hopefully no other climbers have to deal with her at Blue Mounds.
duskerhu
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rrrADAM
Jul 1, 2003, 3:00 PM
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Looks like I missed out this year... Last year's was fun, and you are great people.
Les, did you do the slackline, and "pass the package" ???
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northshorebuds
Jul 1, 2003, 4:22 PM
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people that go out of their way to bust others, i bet that person smiles once a week, that is lame :twisted:
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j_magnuson
Jul 1, 2003, 5:34 PM
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Thanks again to Les and Dann for all the organizing they did (and for the handling of the cops!).
The Good: Nice weather (with the exception of Friday afternoon), great rock to climb, good people, learning a bit more about TR setups and gear placements.....the list goes on!
The Bad: Not getting in my first trad lead (Ivy Right was definately "do-able", I think?) and leaving before the night climbing (though I did make it to a nice little cajun restaurant for dinner so it wasn't a total loss).
The Ugly: Park Rangers, offwidth top-outs, a cactus spine in my hand, and the buffet at the Asian Inn.
So.....what weekend are we looking at for the fall gathering?
Josh
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rocksolid
Jul 1, 2003, 7:00 PM
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Hey Josh - there are a few gatherings coming up over in Wisconsin. One is in August and the other is in September. Check out this link:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23385&postdays=0&postorder=asc&topic_view=&start=0
Craig
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kurt
Jul 1, 2003, 9:46 PM
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Registered: Apr 23, 2003
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Good? It's all good....
Bad? Who's bad?
Ugly? Well, after leading crazy crack on Kanaranzi butress Sunday afternoon, I left some gear for people to use and went down to L butress to look for some new stuff.
Anybody seen a mess of slings? 4-4 foot (three red and one blue) and 3-2 foot (one green and two purple). They are missing their home and I know they probably feel very alone and scared to be in a strange place.
To those that have them, they like warm showers after climbing and sleep well if coiled together. Little Johnny (the 2 foot green one), needs a little extra encouragement on small trees, so please be gentle.
There is a huge reward for the safe return of these slings! PM me or email me soon as you get a chance........
Kurt, AKA "dad"
"The spaceship IS coming."
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mewalrus
Jul 2, 2003, 1:21 AM
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In reply to: So.....what weekend are we looking at for the fall gathering?
How about summer gathering 2.2!!!
Anyone interested in the North Shore this weekend?
I know of a great free campsite, its doesn't have hot showers but it also doesn't have Rangers or neighbors to bug you. :-) Another plus is that you can hike from camp to some of the smaller crags.
Come on, you know you want to go, so drop whatever other boring plans you have for the 4th and go climbing.
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