Alright, since Greg asked, here's a quick write up on my last trip. I wouldn't call it a weekend, as it was only a Sat cragging trip. Anyrate.
I called around to see who was interested, and got a couple of my gumby freinds to commit. And I'm bringing the boys. Actually the one freind made a trip to Tahq with me last summer for a multipitch climb. 3 pitches with the first being a 200 foot rope stretcher. Not to much of a gumby anymore.
None the less we headed out about 730 to Big Rock at Perris Lake in Riverside county. It is primarily bolted slab, but the bolt spacing is old school trad style. To get there we take the toll road as this saves a good 20 minutes of driving. We get to the State park and pay at the unmaned hut. Drive over to the climber parking, pack up and head out.
We get about 50 feet and there's a rent a cop parked at the gate at the end of the road. Sorry guy's but you can't go that way, they're working on the dam for the next week or so.
Me: So whats with all these cars, where are they?
Rent A Cop: Prolly out fishing.
Well not likely. This area is where the climbers park, the fishermen park else where.
Dang, what to do. We had driven 1 1/2 hours, paid $5 in tolls and $8 parking. Now what?
Start walking back. We could climb that hill, mess around on that boulder. OK.
So we get to the boulder start messing around. I find a place to loop some slings for TR'n.
But we're keeping an eye on the rent a cop from up on the hill. Eventually the county Sherrif rolls in and parks next to her. Then the Sherrif checks everyone's parking decal a heads out. But wait the rent a cop is gone.
Well before I pull out the rope, lets see what happens. Some bicyclist roll past the gate. Ride out towards the rock and way out of sight. LETS GO.
Cool she's gone.
We walk up to the rock, and holy cow! Its crowded. Practically every route has someone on it.
So I jump on Africa Flake, a short 60 foot climb. But with only 2 bolts for protection, the first being 20-25 feet up. Which was actually good for me. Last climb I did, I lost focus at the crux. Well more like wasn't in the zone, but I was able to get in the zone and focus this time.
My buds and my boys all got to climb. With my older boy Jake climbing to the anchors, about 60 feet high twice in a row. The younger one only about 30 feet up. But they had a good day. My two freinds did well, with the more experinced one pulling some nice thin 5.8 face moves.
Afterwards, we just keep saying. Yup can't walk that way guys, its closed.
NOT.

Alright, since Greg asked, here's a quick write up on my last trip. I wouldn't call it a weekend, as it was only a Sat cragging trip. Anyrate.
I called around to see who was interested, and got a couple of my gumby freinds to commit. And I'm bringing the boys. Actually the one freind made a trip to Tahq with me last summer for a multipitch climb. 3 pitches with the first being a 200 foot rope stretcher. Not to much of a gumby anymore.
None the less we headed out about 730 to Big Rock at Perris Lake in Riverside county. It is primarily bolted slab, but the bolt spacing is old school trad style. To get there we take the toll road as this saves a good 20 minutes of driving. We get to the State park and pay at the unmaned hut. Drive over to the climber parking, pack up and head out.
We get about 50 feet and there's a rent a cop parked at the gate at the end of the road. Sorry guy's but you can't go that way, they're working on the dam for the next week or so.
Me: So whats with all these cars, where are they?
Rent A Cop: Prolly out fishing.
Well not likely. This area is where the climbers park, the fishermen park else where.
Dang, what to do. We had driven 1 1/2 hours, paid $5 in tolls and $8 parking. Now what?
Start walking back. We could climb that hill, mess around on that boulder. OK.
So we get to the boulder start messing around. I find a place to loop some slings for TR'n.
But we're keeping an eye on the rent a cop from up on the hill. Eventually the county Sherrif rolls in and parks next to her. Then the Sherrif checks everyone's parking decal a heads out. But wait the rent a cop is gone.
Well before I pull out the rope, lets see what happens. Some bicyclist roll past the gate. Ride out towards the rock and way out of sight. LETS GO.
Cool she's gone.
We walk up to the rock, and holy cow! Its crowded. Practically every route has someone on it.
So I jump on Africa Flake, a short 60 foot climb. But with only 2 bolts for protection, the first being 20-25 feet up. Which was actually good for me. Last climb I did, I lost focus at the crux. Well more like wasn't in the zone, but I was able to get in the zone and focus this time.
My buds and my boys all got to climb. With my older boy Jake climbing to the anchors, about 60 feet high twice in a row. The younger one only about 30 feet up. But they had a good day. My two freinds did well, with the more experinced one pulling some nice thin 5.8 face moves.
Afterwards, we just keep saying. Yup can't walk that way guys, its closed.
NOT.

effn rent-a-cops! HA!

Great TR Gmburns. About halfway through, I noticed how well written it was, so it was cool to see that you want to be a writer. Dostoevsky is a favorite of mine, too.

Well, I'm injured now. (Which probably explains why I'm so psyched to be reading nicely written trip reports.) But I'll be sure to post when I start climbing again in a month or so.

But post up people. It doesn't have to be super exciting for an injured climber trying to get his fix.

Thanks, man. If you ever need a partner for the Gunks, I'm back from summer break in late August. I have no permanent partners here yet, so if your regular partners bail and you need someone, let me know.

Nice to hear someone else doesn't want the cubicle life. When you said you want to minimize your possessions, you hit the nail on the head. To many people own to much stuff to enjoy life to it's fullest.

One nice thing about relocating every few years, you sort your stuff and get rid of things that you kept "just in case."

Eman

Our Mistake

Today we tried a new climb at the gunks; Bloody Mary (upgraded to 5.7 in the new Dick). I took P1, a super nice crack, followed by a little traverse and then straight on up to a tree with rings and slings. My husband had the honor of P2, a 5.6 with two roofs, right on top of each other. P2 starts off with a 30 foot traverse to the left, then straight up under the first roof. Pull roof 1 and then traverse right to pull roof 2. Mitch did an amazing job leading the 2nd pitch and I really enjoy seconding it. So far so good. Great climb, loved by all. In fact, we wonder why it's not a 3 star classic.

Anyways, we rap off instead of doing P3 and walk over to another climb. I am racking up and I notice that we are missing 4 pieces of gear (cams). Turns out, Mitch never cleaned the anchor. Since it was a light turnout here today, I was certain the gear was still up there. So up Bloody Mary again, this time reversing the pitches; Mitch on P1 and me on P2.

Mitch flew up P1 (worried that we were going to have to rap in the dark) and I took the sharp end on P2). I have never had so much fun in my life. leading that pitch was so much more fun than following. I don't care what Dick says, it's a 3 star in my book. So Mitch's mistake turned out to be a great thing; I loved leading this climb.

So that's our weekend warrior report. We are up at the gunks every weekend, so I am sure there will be more to follow.

I am shrinking from my tallest height of 5' 3", why?

Mitch is 6' 2" and he also liked P2.

Yeah, this will be my first real purge. When I went off to grad school in Scotland a decade ago it wasn't the same. I hadn't started life yet. But now I've started, and it's time to redirect. I plan on keeping only the stuff that is important (family stuff, art, personal items of value) and things that would be dumb to get rid of (computer monitor, books, etc). I have a place to store the stuff (I think). The rest will either be sold or donated. It'll be a fresh start.

BTW - my blog on climbing.com starts up this month. I just have to send my first post, bio, and some pics to Luke and he'll get working on it at some point in the next couple of weeks. My style on climbing.com will be different than my style on my personal blog. I kind of knew I needed to shake things up a bit, but your comment above helped to push me over the edge. Thanks for that. I'll let you know when the first post is up.

Good luck with the new blog. Hope it does what ever you want it too. Mine, I plan on focusing on South East Asia. We'll see how it goes.