Once in a lifetime.

I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of things. Work was ok this past week, actually had a decent room service shift last night. But it looks like my motorcycling days are pretty much over. We are in day one of a 3 day winter storm warning and the weather for the next ten days looks like highs in the mid 40's. I can ride in that though it is cold, but I have to consider it will be a bit colder on my way home.
So I am back on the bus. Kind of sucks, but at least I don't have to pay for it. And I can read. And maybe write?
Our dog is doing well. His 2nd house training seems to have worked and he hasn't gone in the house in a few weeks now. When I let him out and say the magic words, he seems to go pretty much right away. So that is good. Too bad this happened after he pissed on Katie's cds and the stereo receiver.
I have tried a few bottles of my first beer in a long time. It is a honey spruce lager. I got the recipe from the new complete joy of homebrewing. In the book, it says this is a beer that even your friends who don't like beer will like. Well, I like beer and so far I just don't really care for the flavor. Not to say it is bad, but if it was something I bought I would not get it again.
My next batch is going to be a bitter. That is a low alcohol style of ale popular in England. I like it alot, but it is hard to find it here. I am using a modified recipe out of the same book.
5 lbs dried amber malt extract
1/2 lb crystal malt
1 oz challenger hops (boiling)
1/2 oz cascade hops (finishing)
2 tsp gypsum
english ale yeast
A good thing is that it should only take two weeks (or so) from start to finish! After that I am planning a Belgian style cherry spiced dubbel. I am looking to do something similar to Unibroue's Quelque Chose. I only had that once, but haven't forgotten it.
We had some car troubles on Wednesday. We were in Boulder and stopped at Whole Foods, then the car wouldn't start when we got back in it. It seemed like we weren't getting electrical power. Katie called Dean who was able to give some advice. We were able to diagnose and fix the problem, which was that her battery was 6 years old. We got a new one and were on our way home two hours later than we would have been. But that was better than getting it towed.

Trip report.

As some of you have already heard, our trip was pretty much a bummer due to lots of rain. We left Colorado early Sunday morning and started driving east. The speed limit is 70-75 the whole way, so we made pretty good time though it was overcast and rainy here and there. That is until we hit Missouri and the skies opened up. I think we had the windshield wipers on high for 3/4 of the state.
We would have been there in less than 13 hours if not for this rain. As it was, we made it in around 13.5 hours. Still not too bad.
Monday we planned to go to Elephant Rocks in south central Mo. We woke up and it was raining. Instead we went to Upper Limits, which is where we started to climb a few years ago. I am glad I don't climb there anymore. It has definitely gone downhill.
Tuesday we planned to be off. It rained. We went to Terrene for dinner which was excellent. It was nice to see some of my old coworkers. It is also nice to know that I am remembered so fondly there.
Wednesday we planned to leave for Jackson Falls in Illinois. We woke up to a bit if rain, but the last weather report we had seen said it should stop shortly and then have only a 20% chance of showers on Thursday.
So we left. We got there and pretty much everything was wet. We went to the rainy day roof area and even that felt pretty greasy. We ended up just walking around and checking things out.
Before we left I was a bit worried about how our dog would handle being out there. I was worried we would be a bit timid with the access to the canyon as it is a bit technical. I thought it might take alot of encouragement from us to get him to cross a creek on rocks. As it turned out, that was all for naught as he went right down the dog walk access and jumped into the creek. It turned out even better than that as he clearly loves the outdoors and was having a blast. We had him off his leash and he would be running huge circles around us through the woods, jumping over fallen logs and the occasional four foot cliffs. At times he would disappear for a minute but he always came back when we called him, out of breath and panting hard.
We headed back to the campground and set up the tent. I tried to get a fire going but had a really hard time with it as everything was wet. A few hours later I finally managed to get it going pretty good. We went to sleep around 8 I guess. What else are you going to do when it gets dark?
We woke up around 11 because we heard a car door slam and I saw a shadow outside our tent. It scared the crap out of us. I checked things out and everything looked ok. It took me forever to get back to sleep and I slept very poorly that night. The next morning I talked to the guy who had come from Quebec and just happened to get in late. I felt kind of silly then.
I left dog with Katie and took the roped access into the canyon. All of the bouldering was still wet, but some of the climbing looked pretty dry. So we got the rope, walked down, and started looking for something. We found a dry area and decided (somewhat foolishly?) to do a 5.10c without any warm up. I led it and did it with maybe 3-4 takes as my arms just got so pumped out. Katie then followed and cleaned it on top rope. As she was climbing I felt a few rain drops. When she got down we felt a few more. And a few more. We packed it up and decided to head back to camp.
We drove to the general store and got some food. We got back and I decided to try and make a fire before it was raining too hard. While I was out looking for wood it started pouring. I got back to the tent soaked and sat inside wet and miserable. I finally got up to get some dry clothes and got my phone to hopefully call someone to check the weather.
I called my mom who said we now had a 90% chance of rain on both Thursday and Friday with showers Sat morning. Reasoning that it would be at least Saturday afternoon until stuff was climbable, we decided to pack it up and head back to St. Louis, and possibly back to Colorado the next day.
That night I went to bed early and I was pretty miserable. I was thinking about how long it had been since we had been there, how excited I was to get out there, all the training I had been doing in the gym and at home, all of the time and money I had spent on stuff just for this trip... I felt like I was going to cry. But then my mind started working. What if we just hung out there Friday and then maybe went to erocks Saturday and Sunday, leaving Monday as we planned? Or what if we went to erocks Sat and then got up early Sunday and went to Jackson Falls, staying until sundown Monday and then driving back overnight?
I went and talked to Katie who was still up watching tv. It turned out that she didn't have work until 6pm on Tuesday, so we decided that we would go to erocks Saturday, and then Illinois Sunday and Monday, come back to Stl Monday night, and then leave early Tuesday morning to get back in time Tuesday evening. I went to bed feeling alot better about things.
Friday we did a bunch of nothing. Drove around in the rain. Blah.
Friday evening it was starting to clear and we saw patches of blue sky. Erocks dries off quickly as it is pretty exposed, so we knew we would be good for Saturday. We got up and headed down.
We went to check out a new sector there we had never gone to before. Since the whole park is pretty small it is maybe a 15 minute walk to anywhere from anywhere. We warmed up on a V1 and then started working a V4. We both got pretty close, but neither of us did it. We then headed to another area and a problem I had tried last time we were there, also a V4. Again shut down, though I did get farther than before. By now our hands were screaming due to the coarse granite, so we decided to head back to an area near the entrance. There were a few problems we had tried there last time, but hadn't been able to do. Though the hardest was a V2, they felt alot easier and I finished them all off. We went back to the picnic area near the parking before deciding to call it a day and save some skin for Illinois.
The next day we got up around 6 and left around 7. We got there around 10 and the entire campground area was full! We took the rope down into the canyon, but it seemed that everything we had intended to do already had people lined up waiting to climb. We headed back and I took the roped access up and got the crash pads. We started at the OBD area and did a few easy warm ups. We both did Jennifer Anniston, a V2. I did Chamber Music, a V2 that felt impossible last time we were there. Though I did try, I was unable to do anything more difficult in the area.
The Yosemite slab area lies under a cliff face and was still getting some runoff and was soaked. We headed to the reefer madness area and both did Wolverine Problem V2, Ghetto Life V1, and Alpacca V1. I did a fun high ball called Heroics V2. I discovered that I kind of like high balls. We decided to call it a day and headed back. We waited maybe half an hour and got a nice camping space. I was able to get a fire going easily this time and we had a nice hot meal for dinner. We slept alot better this time.
I got up in the morning and made a fire to make some hot tea. Katie got up and we packed up the car so we could just come back after climbing and go.
We took the north access this time. It looked like it would take us near where we wanted to go, but I think it was more out of the way than the dog walk. The trail was alot less maintained and hard to follow at times.
We headed to the Mr. Jimmy area and got on Big Wall Greg's Chicken Shack, a 5.6. This was my first outdoor lead. Katie tried it but chickened out (ha!) and came down at the third bolt. This time she did it. It is a fun and pretty easy route. There are a few moderates in that area, but we decided to head back down to the 10c from the other day.
On the way we stopped and I led The Sophomore 5.9. The book said 5 quickdraws plus anchor but we only saw three bolts. The first was about 18 feet off the ground, the second maybe 6 beyond that, and the third 20 or more beyond that with another 15 or so to the anchors. A bit run out in other words. Later I found out it is supposed to take 3 QD plus trad gear. But it was easy, huge jugs for the most part. Katie followed on top rope.
We continued walking to Group Therapy, the 5.10c. I led it and I am happy to say that I was able to send it! I was pretty pumped again and had to take a long rest at one point, but I did it. I was pretty psyched! Katie followed on top rope.
We headed farther south to Spleef peak and Katie led Blue Spark 5.8 and then Master Marley 5.10a. I led both after her, and flashed both. Master Marley is one that I had really wanted to do, and I was happy to do it! The hardest part is the somewhat scary beginning, but once you gain the arete, it is smooth sailing.
We walked down to another route we wanted to do but it still felt wet and by now it was late in the afternoon. We decided to just head back to the car and get back to stl.
We left the next morning at 5:02, made it home around 4:30. 12.5 hours. Not bad. I really wish we had all the time we planned to climb. I feel like I could have done something harder but we didn't really have the time to try. At least we got to climb at all.
I feel for me as a bouldering trip it was not successful as I didn't do anything more difficult that I thought I should be able to do. As a sport climbing trip it was great though and a huge confidence boost. It made me think I should join the BRC or Movement instead of the Spot so I can sport climb also..
Despite not doing anything more difficult on the trip, I climbed in the garage yesterday and sent the left start to problem k, problem 2 in 2 tries, problem 4 in 2 tries, and problem 5 in 3 tries. I have been working on these for months now and was able to do them all in one day.