Utah left it's mark on me...

...Literally and figuratively. My first foray back into trad climbing in over 9 months produced lots of scraped ankles and bloody knuckles in addition to other wounds like a little bleeding from my forehead. Needless to say, I was rarely graceful. The scenery was beautiful, but my climbing was not.

I climbed in three areas in Utah during the past few weeks. Bouldering in Big Bend and Joe's Valley and Trad climbing in Indian Creek Canyon.

Big Bend was a short stop for Darko and me on the way to Indian Creek. The boulders at big bend are an interesting fine grain red sandstone. Very slick and not too hard. Most of the holds were crimpy and the climbs were very technical requiring some real good footwork and delicate body positioning. In addition, the grades were very stiff. Consultation with other climbers suggested that almost two grades could be added to the Big Bend ratings to level it was other areas. Two grades might be a bit much, but anyone heading to BB should be warned that the grades are stiff, you should at least warm up on some easier climbs than you might have in other places. The area is pretty small with not too many boulders, but it is in a beautiful setting along the Colorado River and there is a nice little parking area with a kiosk. So not a destination area for sure but definitely a nice diversion on the way to Moab.

Joe's Valley was awesome. Darko and I climbed up there on four different days and I wish we had never left or at least had many more days there. The rock is sandstone as were all the ares we visited in Utah, but the sandstone at Joe's is really really hard and although it is more coarse than at Big Bend, it was still relatively friendly on the skin. My skin unfortunately was already hurting from Alabama when I arrived in Joe's and although I was able to survive without actually bleeding from my finger tips I did come pretty close on occasion. There are tons of beautiful boulders all over the slopes of the mountains that make up Joe's Valley. They are streaked with grey, blue, tan and black. There are a ton of good holds of all types on some nice big boulders. Lots of the boulders have holds on the top that make top outs not too bad. Unlike areas such as HP40 in Alabama where the boulders mostly had smooth rounded tops. Joe's Valley has a ton of boulders with a ton of problems, many of them of very high quality featuring very interesting movements. There are three main sections of boulders one up on a hillside and the other two down in canyons along side a couple roads. The roadside boulders in the canyons offer super convenient bouldering sometimes just inches from the road and they are also shaded for much of the day offer cooler temps in the late spring or early fall. The "New Joe's" section is up on the shoulder of a flat topped mountain and get great sun for much of the day. Great stuff. I can't wait to go back.

Indian Creek. It is hard to think of any place that compares to Indian Creek. Certainly nothing in my experience. There are thousands of pretty much dead vertical cracks that go for 100 plus feet up very nice sandstone that is mostly featureless beyond the cracks themselves. Many of these cracks stay the same size for many feet in a row turning relatively simple jamming techniques in to crushing endurance fests. With the dead vertical climbs even the easiest types of jams lead to difficult ratings. In fact this can be very distorting of your climbing views b/c if the easiest climbs around are at a certain grade, you start to think that climbs of those grades are easy. Which is not the case. It is also very difficult to move up in the grade at Indian Creek since the grades are mostly dependent on the size of the crack and the type of jam required by that size. Some jams are just harder than others. But since they tend to require different techniques you can't easily move up from 5.10 to 5.11 if you are feeling strong, because you might not be strong at the new techniques. Having done no endurance work for the last nine months and no trad climbing either it was a humbling experience for me. I loved the place though. there are endless climbs in the Canyon and the climbing community experience there is really cool. I am excited to go back and abuse myself on those incredible cracks in the fall.

Utah = good climbing, but I really am not interested in discussing the beer....

Finger Tips

whoo... climbing can be rough on the finger tips. The sandstone in Alabama was bad for the tips and the sandstone in Utah certainly did not help the healing process. Here are my tips before my last day of climbing in Utah.

Driving Update

I am in LA now. Chilling with Josh and Meghan and the pup Watson. Josh and I went for a run with the Watson today and then went out for a beer oriented afternoon, buying home brewing supplies for so that we can brew tomorrow, and heading to a bar called Naja's Place which was rumored to have Pliny the Younger on tap. We did manage to find the bar and they DID have the elusive Pliny the Younger on tap. Josh got a full pint of it, which was pretty cool since it came in half pints or 10oz glasses at Toronado and the Russian River Brewpub when I had it. Josh loved the stuff so it was a very worthwhile trip down through the killer LA traffic. It was made even better by our discovery of a Mexican seafood place just down the boardwalk that had 99 cent tacos during happy hour. Josh and I had 5 each and they were delicious.

So for now a driving time update before a preview of posts to come:

Joe's Valley to Indian Creek to Joe's Valley to Salt Lake City to LA:
Driving Time - 25:30
Distance - 1699

Total:
Driving Time - 81:50
Distance - 5319

Whoa. Those numbers are getting up there and I have only been on the road for about three weeks.

So in the next day or so I would like write about my impressions of the Utah climbing that I experienced. I would also like to think about some goals for my trip up to Bishop in a few days. Maybe I'll add a brief run down on the beers that Josh and I have had in the last couple days and the brewing process that will take place tomorrow.

Before I wrap this up here are some notes about my drive from Joe's Valley, Utah to Los Angeles, California. The Wasatch Range in Utah is gorgeous and it was very nice to drive over while there was still some snow up in the mountains (but not on the road). Darko and I joined a private club in SLC which is what you have to do if you want to drink any beer that is not 4% alcohol or below. After dropping Darko off at the airport I managed to hook back up with Shilpa and Chelsea (who had a flight back to NC on monday morning) at a place called The Pie, supposedly the best pizza in SLC. The Pie turned out to be a takeout only place, but since it was pretty empty we chilled on the coaches and chairs and the girl enjoyed their pizza when it was ready. I was offered and accepted a piece and I am not sure whether it was the best in SLC (since it was the only one I have had) but it certainly had a ton of cheese which is my number one requirement for great pizza. When they had their fill of pizza we parted ways and I started driving down to LA at the late hour of 9:30pm. I had to stop by 10:30 to grab some caffeinated beverages.

The next hours were spent driving through Utah and Nevada and into California. And along the way I was accompanied by an old friend. Yes that's right KNBR 680 was coming in loud and clear from the Bay Area, CA all the way through Utah and Nevada and into Southern CA. I managed to cross over into CA around 3:00am after crossing swiftly through Las Vegas at 2:30am. Unsurprisingly, there was still a touch of traffic on the road at that late hour. I managed to make it to the Mojave National preserve and some free roadside camping before it became inappropriate to drive due to drowsiness.

I woke the next morning surrounded by Joshua trees and cacti. And with some extraordinary luck the Joshua trees were blooming.





The rest of the morning was a smooth cruise into LA and the only real event was the passing of two tanks being transported to the National Guard Armory in Barstow. They were loaded onto some trucks with "Oversize Loads" and I guess that goes to show that you should always check out the payloads on those suckers even though they tend to be predominantly Paul Bunyan's plumbing fittings.

More to come soon...

V6 Dyno?

Maybe it's that hard, maybe it's a bit easier, but I have photos of myself on it and that is not usually the case. So you get to see them here whether they are very interesting or not.

"Pocket Rocket" V6

Not quite out of Utah yet...

Okay not too much to say, but I got some thank yous and pictures to spread around. We opted for a hotel room in Castle Dale again last night, so I am back on the internet and posting up in this space.

Big Thank You's go out to Darko for a great partner on a great trip (probably the longest climbing trip I have ever taken), Darko's wife Cat for sending chocolate to us in Moab along with my forgotten shoes, Chelsea and Shilpa for some good campfire chilling and sharing their beer with Darko and I after we had run out of our own.

Additionally, I would like send out a huge to thank you to my friends that have invited me into their homes and fed me in the last few weeks, Joe and Mel, Pete, Melanie, Liz, Ben and Bryan and Michele. Hopefully I will be able to visit you all again soon and not just because you provided me with such delicious food.

and now the photos.....

New Joe's Boulders


Darko just missing on "Reading Rainbow" a v5


Me on "Contact" a v6 that I did get but not exactly at the time this photo was taken


End of the day at New Joe's


Landscape Arch, Arches NP


Sandstone fins, Arches NP


Darko and the Double O Arch, Arches NP


Our campsite in Indian Creek Canyon


Darko watches the moon rise from his seat by the fire.

Jeepers!

Yup it is the annual Jeep Safari here in Moab. And the town is just overrun with Jeepers. I am back in the wonderful Mondo Cafe enjoying their wireless before Darko and I hit the road to Joe's Valley for another day or so of bouldering before he has to fly home. I can't wait to get away from all the Jeepers.

Darko and I had a good last day climbing. Not as much hard climbing as we might have hoped but we did climb some fun stuff and do a good number of pitches. This was helped by doing quite a few laps on toprope of the few climbs we did lead. This was followed up by a great campfire in our fabulous campsite by the creek. The atomoshpere at the campfire was greatly improved by the presence of our new friends from NC, Shilpa and Chelsea (who will both have to excuse me since I am sure I just spelled their names wrong). By this time Darko and I have said pretty much everything we have to say to each other. And the presence of some new friends injected new life into conversations composed largely of comfortable silences.

Well it is about time to hit the road, and as I promised earlier there will be some pictures coming once I get to LA in a couple days. I'll try to give some quick hits on the photos and not bury them in text.

A few days in the Creek

So, when last we spoke I was sitting in a hotel room enjoying free wireless and anticipating some sweet bouldering in Joe's Valley later that day. Well, I did get some super sweet bouldering in with Darko up at the New Joe's section of Joe's valley. I got on a few cool problems and sent just about everything I tried except for a v6 called Planet of the Apes on which I blew the hard mantle top out after sticking the crux. I managed two v6's (Contact [taking maybe 30 tries and using possibly the worst beta ever] and Pocket Rocket [in three tries]) and two v5's (Self Service and another I can't remember the name of, both flashed) along with some other easier stuff. That made 3 v6's and 3 v5's in a day and a half of bouldering.

The weather was perfect with coolish temps but warm sun and a crisp breeze. It was fantastic. I'll have some pictures up at a later date.

We then busted back down to Indian Creek, picking up some supplies in Moab along the way. So, now three days later we are back in Moab on rest day after climbing a fair amount in the last two days. I think this is a much needed rest day for me since I have climbed 7 days in a row until now. We climbed not too hard the last two days. I led a few 5.10 cracks and got to top rope some slightly harder stuff. Yesterday I started off leading Generic Crack a 5.10- hand crack. It was pretty fun and I did two more runs on top rope to help build some endurance. Mostly we have just screwed around having fun and learning to appreciate the style of climbing in Indian Creek.

As I said we are resting today and then trying to send some 5.11s tomorrow. I have my eye on a route called Scarface which I might be able to get. It'll be fun either way.

Today we are heading up to Arches NP to hike around and check out a national park I haven't yet visited. And of course it is only about 3 miles outside of town. After climbing in IC tomorrow we'll head back up to Joe's Valley where I will try to send some v7's and maybe get back on Planet of the Apes. Darko will also be trying to send some v4's and v5's or at least the specific one's he was working on Monday, I have photographic proof that he should get the v5's since his fingers are just above the finishing jug in the picture. Some time on Sunday we'll drive on up to SLC, maybe fit in some bouldering at a place called Little Cottonwood Canyon and I'll drop off Darko at the airport before turning south and heading to LA.

My next update will probably come from LA and should include photos, so look to hear from me again around Tuesday or Wednesday next week depending on how long it takes me to shower all the caked-on dirt off myself.

Interweb? Why...yes.

So I am sitting in a hotel in Castle Dale, UT. Where is that, you might ask? Pretty far from anything much except some excellent bouldering in Joe's Valley. Mmm, some super awesome hard sandstone with cool features. The rock is not as rough as at HP40 and there are more positive features. Why am I here when I was supposed to be climbing cracks in Indian Creek? Well...

Darko and I left Boulder on Friday morning and drove over the Rockies through a little snow. On the way we saw several Big Horn Sheep along the side of the highway. We decided to stop by a bouldering area called Big Bend on the way into Moab along the Colorado River.



We bouldered there for a few hours until sunset. I don't know if it takes a while to get used to the rock there (fine grain sandstone) or if the grades are just really really stiff. I suspect the later.



After the sun went down we headed in to Moab for some supplies before continuing down to Indian Creek.



Darko and I found a spot to camp and hit the hay. The next day we got up to cold cloudy weather. Neither of us was feeling very gung ho so we just went for a walk to the bathroom, and once we were there we decided to head up to nearby cliff to check out the climbs and see if it would be too cold to climb up there in the shade.



It was actually quite nice so we made our way back to the campsite and scoped out a climb in the guide book that would not require us to drive out of the campground (the road was a little rough). We headed up to climb a tower on a nearby ridge, but when we got up there Darko was feeling kind of crappy and there was a party already on the climb. They suggested we try the route on the next tower over. We took their advice and headed over. Since Darko wasn't doing to well I took the lead. It was supposed to be pretty hard and it was. The route was a balancy arete climb that lead of the left edge tower in this photo.



I almost got it without falling, but I always struggle with arete climbs and this was also my first time on Wingate sandstone. I wasn't sure which footholds would hold my weight in certain positions. I got pretty close to making the moves, but it is hard to tell what the holds around the corner of the arete look like when you can't lean around to look without falling. Enh. In any case, I made it to the top without too much trouble and it was very cool to be on the summit of a tower.







After that climb, Darko was still not feeling awesome so we called it a day and headed back to the camp for a beer.



The sun managed to find a way through the clouds around sunset and Indian Creek was just beautiful.



The on Sunday Darko felt even worse, in fact he threw up on the walk to the toilet. I suggested that we just head out to Joe's Valley (about 2:45 away) and do some bouldering since it was supposed to rain in IC for the next day and a half anyway. Bouldering wouldn't put any pressure on D to climb hard or belay. So we headed out to Moab and then on to Joe's Valley.

We managed to get here just in time to look at the boulders before it started snowing. We ate a little lunch in the car before driving down to town to find a place to sit out the snow. But on the way down the canyon the snow thinned out and even stopped completely. We decided to head to another section of Joe's Valley. And oh my lord was it sick. Really nice rock and so much of it perched up on the shoulder of a flat topped mountain. Darko managed to climb a few fun problems including a one-move-wonder v4 and a super classic v3. I managed to send a v5 and a v6 during the few hours we spent up there. It did snow on us a little but it was mostly just flurries and the rack stayed pretty dry.

We did eventually retire down to the town of Castle Dale where we got a hotel room for the night. And it came with free wireless! Sweet.

So today we'll head back up to Joe's Valley and climb until our finger tips can't take it anymore. Hopefully there will be some sweet sends before we have to give up. The weather looks super prime and I might even be able to get some go photos too. After we finish up today we'll be heading back to Indian Creek for the rest of the week.

Driving Update:

Boulder to IC to Joe's Valley:
Driving Time - 10:00
Distance - 632

Total:
Driving Time - 56:20
Distance - 3620

No "ing" just Boulder.

So I've been chilling in Boulder since my long drive from Indiana. Hanging out with Michele and Bryan, enjoying Tamale Pie, frisbee tossing, coffee shop lurking, and some fine Colorado beer.



Michele and I went on a run today. Guh. I have not run much recently and I don't consider a 50 minute run to be short like she does. The combination of hills (which are relatively lacking in RI) and the thinner air combined to reduce me to walking part way through the run. It was right after we ran up a set of stairs in the hillside. My lungs sent some very serious messages to my brain and I had to drop out of a run until they recovered a bit. I managed to finish in good form though and my legs seem to still be working despite the effort.

Tomorrow, Darko and I take off for Utah. Unfortunately the weather looks iffy so we might have to go somewhere else to find good climbing conditions. Maybe Vegas, or Bishop. Darko mentioned The Valley (Yosemite for those of you who aren't climbers), but that seems a little absurd. Oh well I am sure we'll find some dry rock somewhere.

Famous Lines...

We all know the famous lines, The Maginot Line, The Mason-Dixon Line, The Line in The Sand, but recently I've been investigating a far more insidious line. One that most of the population never sees and never even suspects. That's right... The Hardee's-Carl's Jr Line.





A few days south of RI I encountered the first sign of Hardee's and their nefarious "Thickburgers" and throughout the South I have been seeing the smirking star wherever I go. Of course I am used to seeing that leer out in California closely accompanied by mention of the "Six-Dollar Burger" a thick burger that is like what you would pay six dollars for in a fancy restaurant. (Like Chili's or TGIFridays you know... "fancy" places) Of course, the ironic beauty is that since the name was so cleverly applied to this product inflation has pushed the price of the Six-Dollar Burger to nearly (you guessed) six dollars! Certain combo meals including this item are over 6 bucks, and I am guessing that most of the "fancy" places include fries for no extra charge. So what will they do with the Six-Dollar Burger? Keep the name for the sake of nostalgia? Start calling it the $8.95 Burger?

Whatever happens it is clear that Hardee's and Carl Jr can not exist in the same place. They are like matter and antimatter, surely any town to have both would be destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion. But this begs the question "where is the line?" Could Mr Hardee not manage to cross the Rockies, and his bastard son Carl filled the resulting void of thick burger suppliers? Or is the line farther east? Did the mighty Missouri River prove an insurmountable obstacle?

Likely we will never know the answer to these questions on the origin of The Line (unless someone were to do a simple internet search, but where is the fun in that?) But in my travels across the country I will endeavor to find the current geography of the line. So far the last Hardee's I saw was in Kansas City, MO. I have heard rumors of Carls Jr in Golden, CO, but these are as yet unsubstantiated.

So if you my several readers would like to help my in my quest to define The Line feel free to contact me with any relevant sightings from around the country.

Other less well known but no less insidious lines: The Helman's/Best Foods Line and the Von's/Safeway Line.

Oh, Bama. What fine rocks you have...

I gotta say that Horse Pens 40 was an awesome bouldering experience. The style of climbing is pretty specific. I could only climb close to my limit (grade-wise) by finding problems that were outliers from the norm. However, I did manage to climb some classics and some pretty hard (for me) problems too. And, oh man, is this place an awesome bouldering destination sheerly for the convenience factor. 10 minutes off the interstate you get camping literally seconds from the boulders, if you buy firewood it is delivered to your campsite every evening, there are hundreds of boulders and problems all within a five minute walk from one end of the area to the other, and on top of that there are are hot showers for no additional charge! Just fantastic. If it were free I'd never leave.

Ah, well...

Maybe I would have had to leave, I am sure I would have had to go to the hospital after wearing my fingers down to the bone trying to hold onto the wonderfully friction-y sandstone. As it was, in only two days of climbing I was very tender in the tips.


I drove through the rain from the Triangle on Friday (March 7th) and got to HP40 about an hour before dark, in fact it was an hour sooner that I thought I would, although this was only b/c I crossed into the Central Timezone much farther east than I had anticipated. I registered at the Country Store and paid my camping fees of 10 bucks a night for three nights.



So I rolled in on Friday night and set up camp before dark, after immediately running around the boulders scoping out problems and uselessly losing skin fingering holds. After tearing myself away from the rock since I didn't have any time to warm up I managed to fit in dinner before it started raining forcing me into the tent. Well it was cold that night and I woke up to...





Yep, some nasty Alabama Snow.

So I walked around that morning brushing snow off of problems I thought I might want to try later if it got nice out. I thought the day was going to be a total loss, so I went back to bed around 11. I crawled out of my sleeping bag a bit later around 12:30, and I'll be jiggered if all the snow wasn't gone, and the boulders dry.

So I saddled up and hit the boulders for the next day and a half with a few campfire visits in between. There were a lot of friendly folks from all over the east coast and I managed to climb and hang out with a lot of different groups. I mooched spotters and extra pads on some of the problems that were not what I considered safe for me by myself.

It was a great time and I can't wait to go back. There is a problem called Permanent Scream that I needed more skin and a good rest in order to finish, and I didn't have time for that.

I managed to successfully send a bunch of cool problems highlights were, Uniball V3, Bum Boy V4, The Wasp V2, Crisifix V5, Getcha Some V6 and Redneck (softish) V7. This was probably some of the hardest bouldering I have ever done. I was also rejected by a large number of problems that I will have to get stronger to finish. I nearly finished a problem with the awesome name "Never Trust a Mustache" but somehow I failed to reach a good hold even though I thought I was done. I had some interesting falls on that one cause my heel was cammed in a crack holding my foot on the wall while the top part of my body fell away from the wall. I can usually manage to land on my feet, but not with this problem.

Bum Boy is on the left end of this boulder. There is not a lot to hold on to up there.


On Monday morning I shredded the last of my skin, took a shower and busted out of there to visit my friend Ben in Indiana before he took off for Texas. But that is another (brief) post...

Just like that!

Boom.

I'm in 'Rado. Not that anyone calls it that. Here's your updated driving summary for today.

Indiana to Boulder, CO:
Driving Time - 16:30
Distance - 1104

Total:
Driving Time - 46:20
Distance - 2988

Also 3 towns named Bowling Green in the last two days....

Nashvillians

So I am pretty sure that today I passed through a place called Nashville in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. The one in Indiana boasts a "Little Nashville Old Opry House." Go figure.

Howdy!!

Well, I come and gone form Horse Pens 40. I met some cool people, climbed some cool rock and slept in some cool snow. Well not in it, more... under it. The tent kept me dry. It was a good visit and I am already excited to go back and thinking about when that might be. More to come later when I have more time to write about my experiences and post a few photos.

I am in Bloomington, Indiana right now visiting with my friend Ben. However, he has a flight to catch in the morning so I must head to bed soon so I can be out by 8am. So a travel time update is all I have time for.

DC to NC:
Driving Time - 4:20
Distance - 276

NC to HP40:
Driving Time - 9:30
Distance - 590

HP40 to Indiana:
Driving Time - 7:30
Distance - 506

Total:
Driving Time - 29:50
Distance - 1884

Oh NC, you saucy minx!

Good day today. I did some internet research in the morning and then spent some time figuring out the fuses in my car. After that I rolled over the to place BA rates as the best beer store in the Triangle area. I managed to trade some beer with one of the guys working at the store. I gave him a Hop-15 from Port Brewing and an Alpha Klaus from Three Floyds for a Sexual Chocolate from Foothills Brewing Company. There were only 500 bottle of Sexual Chocolate made so it was quite a score I think, and the guy I was trading with was very happy to get something from Port Brewing and Three Floyds which are a bit out of the way and have somewhat limit distribution scopes. A perfect trade, both sides were very pleased.

After that I went to Pep Boys to get sunglasses and more fuses for the car. While I was there I found some cheap nylon brushes for cleaning climbing holds. Then I rolled over to Umstead State Park for a short trail run (see photo).

This evening I visited with Melanie a friend from URI ultimate. We hung out at a pretty good bar in Raleigh with a bunch of her work friends. We each had an awesome soft pretzel with dipping sauce (I had spicy mustard.) and I was able to have a Bell's Two Hearted ale on draft. Quite a good beer for an American Pale Ale. Melanie and I then headed over to a place called Big Easy where armed with a buy one get one free card we each had an awesome bowl of seafood gumbo and only paid 11.25 for the two of us.

A very good day in NC, and tomorrow I head for Horse Pens 40 and my first climbing of the trip. I may not post for a while but when I do there should be plenty of climbing tales and hopefully a few photos too.

You're Always on My Mind...

Yee Haw!!

So, I left a wet but sunny DC yesterday and headed into the South. Now I have been to NC a few times before for various reasons, but tomorrow I head into states that are completely new to me.

After hitting the road relatively early I made few good decisions to avoid some DC rush hour traffic and got going pretty well. After a smooth ride and some chilling at the Barnes and Noble (where I purchased Nietzsche's classic philosophical novel, Thus Spake Zarathustra after debating whether or not Sun Tzu's Art of War could be applied to rock climbing) I finally met up with my friend Liz W. whom I had not seen for several years. She was excited to see me since apparently no one (of her friends I guess) comes down to NC visiting or otherwise. We went to play disc golf at a nice course on the outskirts of the UNC-CH campus. Disc golf proved to be a great time for catching up with friends. There is a lot of time walking around chasing after your disc and it is easy to chat the whole time. I had a great time despite totally sucking for about half of the time. I am out of practice for sure. My days of disc golf proficiency are long in the past.

After disc golf we met up with Liz's boy Jared and a couple other friends to have a beer. After pre-gaming outside the Whole Foods-like store Liz, Jared and I headed over to a nice belgian beer bar place and had a quality dinner. (Goulden Carlous Triple at the pregame and GD Hercules Double IPA with dinner)

Today I am going to an auto store to try to replace my blown out radio fuse. Yep that's right blew out the fuse when the Honda needed jump start #1. Hopefully I will keep that number low. Gah, I hate that I have turned out to be so dependent on the little beep that used to let me know when I left my lights on. I have an issue with turning on my lights during the day without realizing it, and the beep helped remind me when I did it. No more and I am proving incapable of merely remembering to turn my lights off.

Alright, today I am hunting for fuses, rare beers, cheap movies and interesting photo subjects, before meeting up with Melanie after she gets off work. And then tomorrow I am off to Horse Pens 40 in Alabama. I have made the decision to skip Rocktown and I will be really pumped to try to make it back some time.

Heading to NC!

Driving time update before I leave.

New Jersey to DC:
Driving Time - 5:45
Distance - 329

Total:
Driving Time - 8:30
Distance - 512

A DC bouldering discovery

Well I found a place in DC with tons of bouldering potential. I mean I have seen gyms with less potential than this place. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that someone would object to climbers chalking up holds all over the FDR Memorial. Maybe we can get the Access Fund on this...

If you support the troops....

keep off the grass.

Any Beer is better on Cask.

This post has nothing to do with the title. I just got back from a great dinner catching up with Babin and Jack, who invited me to many frisbee tourneys that I had to refuse until such a time as I am earning money again.

It is raining now but the last two days here have been really warm like low 60's. Whew. So I spent the day wandering around the memorials and monuments being a tourist and trying to take some good pictures in the awful light from the relatively uniform overcast sky. Here are a few, and the rest can be found here.
Along the Potomac


Corrosion


Ghosts in the mist?


In line:

Surprise!

So last night Pete and I went out to search for food, and our wanderings led us to Georgetown. After we parked and walked down to the main drag we were thinking about what kind of food we'd like to eat. Pete looks around as we are crossing the street and says "hey there's pizza right over there. How's that sound?" "Sounds good to me."

So we walk into this place and the greeter asks us if we would like to be seated downstairs in the Birreria. We were like "Oh, hell yes." So as we are being led down to the bar, the guy says "we were just rated the #11 beer bar in the country" and so I ask who did the rating and he says BeerAdvocate.com. And right about then it started to feel very promising.

We get down stairs and are seated at the bar directly across from the largest cooler. They had big selection of bottles and a decent number of taps, about 12 or so including one cask beer (which was my first choice of course). Pete and I had an extremely enjoyable evening of beer and pizza. Pete has a Rochefort 8 and a Goulden Carlous Triple while I had The IPA that was on cask (I can't remember the name), a TenFidy Stout from Oscar Blues Brewing and the Duchess DeBourges (probably not spelled right) a Flanders Red. The bar tender was nice and friendly and certainly knew his beer. The pizza did not live up to the beer, but I would be willing to give it another try. We got a bread plate with roasted elephant garlic which I ate a lot of and I am guessing it was a little too much, b/c I got to smell it again this morning from a source I wouldn't have expected.

I had a nice day of tourism today in our nations capital. Took a few photos, which I will share soon. The weather was practically hot, I was wishing for shorts at one point. But now it is raining and I am heading out to meet up with Babin and Jack for dinner.

Apropos of Nothing: Walken Rules!

Slightly Conflicted

I am having a hard time deciding what to do at the end of this week. I ought to be leaving Raleigh, NC on friday to drive west for some bouldering in Georgia and Alabama. The drive should be around 8 or 9 hours so I am not going to get much time to climb on Friday. I am not sure whether I should just go straight to Horse Pens 40 in AL and skip Rocktown in GA or stick with my original plan of hitting both. On the one hand going right to HP40 would maximize my time in one area and give me the best chance of working on a project and it would let me fully explore HP40. It also simplifies everything since you camp right next to the boulders, there is no approach time and there ought to be lots of folk there I could hook up with for spotters and extra pads. However, I do want to visit Rocktown, the camping is free there (as opposed to 10 bucks a night at HP40) and the rock is supposed to be very interesting. However there is a bit of an approach, nothing that would bother me in the slightest except for the comparison to waking up right next to the boulders in HP40. Also the road up to Rocktown is supposed to be long and bumpy. It almost seems silly of me to pay for camping at HP40 for any days that I won't climb there but if I am taking the car up the road to Rocktown I ought to spend more than just one day up there.

Maybe I should just focus on one of these areas and come back next winter. They are both supposed to be very cool so I am thinking that I can't go wrong with any of my options as long I don't waste time that I could be climbing.

Ah well, not a real tragic dilemma after all. I am sure anyone who is reading this will have little sympathy for me trying to decide how I should spend my intermission.

(Beer Bar post coming soon after a day of being a tourist in our nation's capital.)

Whoo....

Quite a day today. I left Mel and Joe's house around 10 to drive down to Washington DC. The night before I had made a careful study of the route to DC so that I could avoid the horrible tolls crossing Delaware. They charge 7 freaking dollars to drive across 11 miles of their tiny little state. Total BS. RI is free and it's almost 40 miles across ole Rhody. In any case, I tool drastic measures heading west to Harrisburg on route 78 and then south on 83 to meet up with 95 around Baltimore. This reduced my tolls for the whole trip to $1.45. Bingo!

However, I made my first gas price mistake of the trip. Gas in Jersey was 2.95 or so but I foolishly did not fill up and just drove on into Pennsylvania with half a tank. I ended up paying 3.25 a gallon in PA. I only added 6 gallons in the hopes of finding cheaper prices in or around DC. Gas is cheaper here but not by too much.

It also appears my parents had been holding out on me in my childhood. Route 78 goes right through Bethlehem, PA which is where my Uncle Butch and his family live. However when I drove through there on 78 there was a sign for Waffle House! And we had never been to Waffle House there. Seems like a horrible case of parental neglect, depriving my sister and I of Waffle House. In fact, keeping us ignorant until reaching adulthood might be criminal. My parents are fantastic in most ways, but sometime there are oversights that can not be explained by rational waffle-eating people.

In addition this route allowed me to visit the Troegs Brewery in Harrisburg (there should be a sideways ":" over the o in Troegs, but I am not sure how to do that in this program.) Troegs brews some good beer placing their Nugget Nectar at #30 on the Beer Advocate Top 100. The Nugget Nectar only comes out once a year in February and I figured that they might still have some available since we are barely into March. Well I got to the brewery slightly before 1 with only a few wrong turns. I had a couple samples of their beer (Troegenator Dopplebock and Nugget Nectar) while I perused their merchandise (which would have been more attractive had I ever tried their beer before) and bemoaned the fact that they did not sell six packs or singles. Well the very nice girl who runs the retail store told me where to find six packs at a bar down the street. And although I felt a little bad about having two samples and not buying anything, I went down the street to find Troegs beer in volumes that would fit in my car.

Once the beer was successfully purchased I was on my way south to DC. I was almost to the Beltway in Maryland when some kind of accident blocked all four lanes of traffic on 95. I pulled a U turn on one of those police turnabouts after sitting at a dead stop for about ten minutes longer than I should have. I managed to navigate off interstate to reach the Beltway and I got to Pete's place in short order.

I immediately offered Pete one of my Troegs brews (Nugget Nectar) which he greatly enjoyed, and of course I chose not to let him drink alone and had one myself. After a little catching up we decided to head out to find some food, but I'll cover that in my next post: Unexpected Beer Bar. (also a driving time/distance update)

Jersey is not a hellhole

So I have had a great visit with Mel and Joe in Jersey. Gonzo is sleeping on my foot as I type. Today we ate Mel's waffles for breakfast, walked Joe's sister's dogs and Gonzo, and then headed over to Joe's parent's house where we hung out watching basketball and having a delicious dinner. Good fun was had by all.

In any case, it was laid back but not super interesting to anyone else. So I will present my new addition to this blog a running total for mileage and time in the car for my travels over the next few months.

RI to New Jersey:
Driving Time - 2:45
Distance - 183

Total:
Driving Time - 2:45
Distance - 183

First leg...

Yesterday was my launch day. I was mostly packed up on friday so I got up and went to have breakfast with Amy and Alex. Amy made a delicious egg scrabble in which the eggs were nearly overshadowed by the red and yellow peppers. We had a good long chat after which I left so that they could go line up in the rain for the Obama rally.

I got back home and packed up the car,
had some lunch, said goodbye to Mom and Dad

and hit the road. I had a full tank of gas and the drive to New Jersey is not very long so I made it without stopping. I got an enthusiastic welcome from Gonzo

and it appeared that Joe and Mel were not too disappointed to see me either.


We went out to dinner and the retired back to their house for cookies and Arrested Development.

In the next couple days I will try to outline my plans and goals for the next two months of road tripping. In short climb hard in new places and visit friends that have been too far away for too long. Long version to come soon...