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.)
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2 comments:
Ah, it truly is a tragic dilemma! Well, if it were me, I would definitely choose just one of the two to stay and project. Feeling rushed to get between bouldering sites would not be pleasant, especially if I wasn't satisfied with the amount of time I'd spent at the first place.
I checked out both Rocktown and HP40 on rockclimbing.com and I think that you shouldn't really compare camping costs since you get amenities at HP40 and you're already right by the rocks. Plus you don't have to waste more climbing time on the approach and the drive up :P (Yes, I'm lazy like that). But apart from that, you should definitely check out some of the problems and see which seem more interesting/cooler to you? Rockclimbing.com also said that the ideal time to climb for HP40 was during the summer, (though I have no idea when that is since my view of East Coast summers is terrible), so you could still make it out there before next winter again....:P
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