Sunday, April 27, 2008
The Smirking Star Strikes Back
Um... Well not really but I should let you all know that a Carl's Jr. was spotted in Grand Junction, CO just west of the rockies, and a Hardee's was uncovered in Omaha, NE. It appears that the Rocky Mountains somehow prevent the travel of thick fast food hamburgers.
Tornado Tag
I had interesting last few days despite mostly driving around and standing in line. After leaving Boulder I drove along I-76 to I-80 into Nebraska. It was very windy and raining, which made the driving less than relaxing. On top of that the prospect of camping out in the storm was becoming less attractive by the mile. I headed into a rest stop/state recreation area around 12:30am MDT, unfortunately I had passed into CDT sometime in the previous couple hours. This meant that I was losing a hour of sleep. I had found the camping spot on-line the previous day and although it turned out to be largely what I expected, I did not expect them to charge for camping since they provide no real amenities there. Well, it was already late at night and I had nowhere else to go so I just camped there and said to myself that I was sure no one would check while I was there and I refuse to pay 6 bucks for a piece of dirt to sleep on and a locked bathroom.
Well I was right; no one checked and after a few short hours of sleep I got up and hit the road again. I would have slept longer, but I tend to wake up with the sun when I am camping, and given the windy weather and bit of rain I could not go back to sleep. The weather continued to be unsettled, and I heard new reports of a tornado touching down somewhere in Nebraska that night. I have to admit that I still have not checked to see how close that tornado was to where I spent the night.
My goal for the day was to get to a brewery in rural southern Wisconsin. The New Glarus Brewery has two beers that make the top 100 list on Beer Advocate. My plan was to get there in time for the tasting which was available until 4pm. I entered Iowa fairlyearly in the morning and I was lured off of the highway to an Iowa visitor's center by a sign that mentioned wireless internet. I needed to figure out exactly where in New Glarus the brewery was located. So I drove off the highway down a very strange one lane road past a few athletic fields and arrived at a very out of the way visitor's center. I then waste twenty minutes trying to get on their internet. I signed up for some free password, giving away way more information that I should have to, and despite telling me that my new user id would work every time I entered the id it just reloaded the same home page and took me nowhere near the internet.
This made me very mad at Iowa and I drove back on to the highway cursing Iowa. Fortunately for this mid-western state I gave it one more chance on the free wireless thing. 100 or so miles down the road I stopped at another rest area to try the wireless, but this one was right on the interstate like a normal rest stop. And there were fewer silly hoops to jump through for wireless. I think I just had to look at a couple ads for 15 seconds. I located the brewery and hopped back on the freeway, singing a different tune about Iowa and their free roadside wireless internet.
I skirted around Cedar Rapids and on through a very soggy northeastern Iowa. Most of the rivers around there are at or near their flood stage and it was crazy to see some of the flooding as I went through. Lots of trees and fields half under water. There were also tornado warnings in the area as a storm cell north of Cedar Rapids followed me as I headed to the northeast on route 151. I made it up into Wisconsin and headed off of the highway towards New Glarus. I wound my way though the quite pretty (in the quaint rural way) countryside and arrived at the brewery around 3:45.
The nice woman at the gift shop desk told me that I could do a tour and a tasting and that I had plenty of time for both. The tour is an audio deal where you get a hand set and punch in the number on the wall in various places to hear a sounds bite that accompanies it. The woman failed to mention that the tour takes over two and a half hours if you punch every number and listen to the whole sound bite. I felt guilty skipping around the numbers until I heard that. My tour did not take very long as I honed in on the parts that were specific to the brewery, such as the founding of the brewery and their awesome copper brewing kettles that were salvaged from an old brewery in Germany.
After the tour I got to do a tasting of three of their beers. I got a three ounce taste of each and got to keep the glass all for only $3.50. The most interesting to me was their best seller (they sell only in the state of Wisconsin) a beer called Spotted Cow, which is a farmhouse ale aka saison. Farmhouse ales have a distinctly funky aroma and taste. Not sour but definitely funky. Not what I would expect to become the best seller for any brewery that does not specialize in saisons. I enjoyed my tastes and asked the gift shop woman's advice as to where I could buy their highly rated beers for cheap. You see I had read on their website that their prices are higher than local retailers because they can not undercut their distributor. I guess that is bad business or something. In any case, I went a block down the street to a local market and saved a dollar per bottle on the two fruit beers.
After getting my beer I headed south into Illinois aim to get to Rockford and camp in a local state park. At this point the weather turned awful, driving was really slow as the wind and rain were very intense. The storm abated a little as I got down into Rockford, where I went to the local Library hoping for more internet access. I did indeed get online where I found that this was only a lull in the storm. As such, I chose to locate a cafe where I could wait out the storm in warmth and wireless access. I did indeed find such a cafe just as the storm was ramping back up, and I waited it out in relative comfort, talking to Josh on the phone so he could inform me about the beer trades he had set up for us at Dark Lord Day.
Later, after the storm had passed I went over the park to camp and had a fine night despite the wind. I got a good amount of sleep and compared to the previous day I felt much better as got into the car to drive down to DLD in Munster, IN. Unfortunately before leaving the park I was pulled over for running a stop sign. Really I did a rolling stop while turning right at a stop sign. The speed limit in the park is 10 mph, I think I was going 15 and slowed down to about 2 at the sign. This is of course something that over 90% of people must do at that stop sign. I think the cop understood this b/c he just gave me a warning. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have been puled over in 8 years. I am glad to have gotten away without a ticket, since I can;t really afford to have to pay money for silly stuff like that.
After that I motored down to DLD and got there and parked and in line around 10:45. Now I am happy with how things went for me yesterday, but I know enough now to greatly increase my enjoyment if I should happen to attend this event again. I waited in line for about 5 hours to get my 6 bottles of Dark Lord Stout. I have no complaints about that, there were fun people around me in line and I shared some beer with them and they shared some beer with me. Through them I got to taste the current year's DL, DL aged in oak barrels, Kentucky Breakfast Stout and several other Three Floyds Brews. All in all it was a good day, I got my trades done, got 9 bottles of Dark Lord and found a secret port-a-potty where I did not have to wait in line. Sometime during the day I realized that the line I was in was only for the Dark Lord bottles and the other line were all up near the brewery. I could have walked up at any time to go get food (sausage boiled in Dark Lord, mmmm!), some of the guest beers and other variations on Dark Lord. Ah well, next time I will go armed with friends and get there early so that one of us can stand in line while the others go to get the goodies.
After getting my beer, I enjoyed a delicious sausage and hit the road down to visit Ben in Bloomington, IN. That is where I am now, and for once I am going to hang out for more than 12 hours. Ben said that this is the most beautiful time of the year in Bloomington so we are going for a hike sometime this afternoon.
I think I'll have to bring the camera on the hike so that I won't be so texty next post.
Well I was right; no one checked and after a few short hours of sleep I got up and hit the road again. I would have slept longer, but I tend to wake up with the sun when I am camping, and given the windy weather and bit of rain I could not go back to sleep. The weather continued to be unsettled, and I heard new reports of a tornado touching down somewhere in Nebraska that night. I have to admit that I still have not checked to see how close that tornado was to where I spent the night.
My goal for the day was to get to a brewery in rural southern Wisconsin. The New Glarus Brewery has two beers that make the top 100 list on Beer Advocate. My plan was to get there in time for the tasting which was available until 4pm. I entered Iowa fairlyearly in the morning and I was lured off of the highway to an Iowa visitor's center by a sign that mentioned wireless internet. I needed to figure out exactly where in New Glarus the brewery was located. So I drove off the highway down a very strange one lane road past a few athletic fields and arrived at a very out of the way visitor's center. I then waste twenty minutes trying to get on their internet. I signed up for some free password, giving away way more information that I should have to, and despite telling me that my new user id would work every time I entered the id it just reloaded the same home page and took me nowhere near the internet.
This made me very mad at Iowa and I drove back on to the highway cursing Iowa. Fortunately for this mid-western state I gave it one more chance on the free wireless thing. 100 or so miles down the road I stopped at another rest area to try the wireless, but this one was right on the interstate like a normal rest stop. And there were fewer silly hoops to jump through for wireless. I think I just had to look at a couple ads for 15 seconds. I located the brewery and hopped back on the freeway, singing a different tune about Iowa and their free roadside wireless internet.
I skirted around Cedar Rapids and on through a very soggy northeastern Iowa. Most of the rivers around there are at or near their flood stage and it was crazy to see some of the flooding as I went through. Lots of trees and fields half under water. There were also tornado warnings in the area as a storm cell north of Cedar Rapids followed me as I headed to the northeast on route 151. I made it up into Wisconsin and headed off of the highway towards New Glarus. I wound my way though the quite pretty (in the quaint rural way) countryside and arrived at the brewery around 3:45.
The nice woman at the gift shop desk told me that I could do a tour and a tasting and that I had plenty of time for both. The tour is an audio deal where you get a hand set and punch in the number on the wall in various places to hear a sounds bite that accompanies it. The woman failed to mention that the tour takes over two and a half hours if you punch every number and listen to the whole sound bite. I felt guilty skipping around the numbers until I heard that. My tour did not take very long as I honed in on the parts that were specific to the brewery, such as the founding of the brewery and their awesome copper brewing kettles that were salvaged from an old brewery in Germany.
After the tour I got to do a tasting of three of their beers. I got a three ounce taste of each and got to keep the glass all for only $3.50. The most interesting to me was their best seller (they sell only in the state of Wisconsin) a beer called Spotted Cow, which is a farmhouse ale aka saison. Farmhouse ales have a distinctly funky aroma and taste. Not sour but definitely funky. Not what I would expect to become the best seller for any brewery that does not specialize in saisons. I enjoyed my tastes and asked the gift shop woman's advice as to where I could buy their highly rated beers for cheap. You see I had read on their website that their prices are higher than local retailers because they can not undercut their distributor. I guess that is bad business or something. In any case, I went a block down the street to a local market and saved a dollar per bottle on the two fruit beers.
After getting my beer I headed south into Illinois aim to get to Rockford and camp in a local state park. At this point the weather turned awful, driving was really slow as the wind and rain were very intense. The storm abated a little as I got down into Rockford, where I went to the local Library hoping for more internet access. I did indeed get online where I found that this was only a lull in the storm. As such, I chose to locate a cafe where I could wait out the storm in warmth and wireless access. I did indeed find such a cafe just as the storm was ramping back up, and I waited it out in relative comfort, talking to Josh on the phone so he could inform me about the beer trades he had set up for us at Dark Lord Day.
Later, after the storm had passed I went over the park to camp and had a fine night despite the wind. I got a good amount of sleep and compared to the previous day I felt much better as got into the car to drive down to DLD in Munster, IN. Unfortunately before leaving the park I was pulled over for running a stop sign. Really I did a rolling stop while turning right at a stop sign. The speed limit in the park is 10 mph, I think I was going 15 and slowed down to about 2 at the sign. This is of course something that over 90% of people must do at that stop sign. I think the cop understood this b/c he just gave me a warning. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have been puled over in 8 years. I am glad to have gotten away without a ticket, since I can;t really afford to have to pay money for silly stuff like that.
After that I motored down to DLD and got there and parked and in line around 10:45. Now I am happy with how things went for me yesterday, but I know enough now to greatly increase my enjoyment if I should happen to attend this event again. I waited in line for about 5 hours to get my 6 bottles of Dark Lord Stout. I have no complaints about that, there were fun people around me in line and I shared some beer with them and they shared some beer with me. Through them I got to taste the current year's DL, DL aged in oak barrels, Kentucky Breakfast Stout and several other Three Floyds Brews. All in all it was a good day, I got my trades done, got 9 bottles of Dark Lord and found a secret port-a-potty where I did not have to wait in line. Sometime during the day I realized that the line I was in was only for the Dark Lord bottles and the other line were all up near the brewery. I could have walked up at any time to go get food (sausage boiled in Dark Lord, mmmm!), some of the guest beers and other variations on Dark Lord. Ah well, next time I will go armed with friends and get there early so that one of us can stand in line while the others go to get the goodies.
After getting my beer, I enjoyed a delicious sausage and hit the road down to visit Ben in Bloomington, IN. That is where I am now, and for once I am going to hang out for more than 12 hours. Ben said that this is the most beautiful time of the year in Bloomington so we are going for a hike sometime this afternoon.
I think I'll have to bring the camera on the hike so that I won't be so texty next post.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Elk!!!!
So I am writing from Boulder, CO where Michele (and Bryan except he's out of town) has once again welcomed me into her home for a few days. Yesterday I didn't do too much other than hangout with Michele. This is due to the previous two days where I did a lot of stuff.
I left the Bay Area on Monday. I drove from Palo Alto up to Santa Rosa making another trip to Russian River because, frankly I can't get enough of that sweet sweet nectar. After a brief stop there around lunch time, I took off for Utah. I drove east on 80 over the Sierra Nevada, through Reno and into the great emptiness that is the State of Nevada. I don't recall exactly how long it took, but it is 410 miles across Nevada on 80, and there ain't much to look at. I did manage to find the Utah-Houston NBA playoff game on the radio and that helped pass the time, especially after the sun went down and there was nothing at all to look at.
I got myself into Salt Lake City sometime around 11:30 and headed south on I-15 to Route 6. Route 6 heads over the Wasatch Mountains to Price. I was driving on Route 6 at about 1am and I realized that there was an elk in the road. I was doing about 60 so I had little time to react. I managed to swerve to the left of the elk just missing it but leaving me closer to out of control of the car than I would like. I was very happy to successfully avoid the animal because that would have severely damaged my car and probably my body too. It would have been a very bad ending to my day and possibly even my trip. But I escaped undamaged and continued on to Joe's Valley where I arrived at around 2:30am and promptly went to sleep.
The next day I bouldered in Joe's Valley, attempting to find and climb a bunch of v6's that I had not yet sampled. I found most of them (one eluded me, I'm not sure how... it's a rock, it can't move) and was only able to climb one of them. I have various excuses for the others. I was close on some, and I am excited to try them again when I return, but others were uninspiring, and still more needed some spotters to be safe. In any case I climbed one v6 and I have several project to come back to, and that is never bad.
I left Joe's Valley that evening and headed towards Boulder on I-70. I-70 through Utah is beautiful and highly recommended by this guy. I managed to pick up another NBA playoff game through most of the drive which was great again. Around 11:30 I was exhausted and I camped somewhat illegally at a spot near the highway. I had an awful nights sleep (possibly due to my proximity to the highway) and I got up early so that I would not be found by the authorities if any came to check for illegal campers (highly unlikely in that area).
I drove to Boulder that morning arriving around 8:30. And I spent the rest of the day relaxing. Two short nights of sleep in a row did not leave me with much energy. I perused the local beer store, but for once I did not buy anything. I shared one my homebrews with Michele and her friend Amy and they both enjoyed it quite a bit, which made me happy.
That evening Michele made some calls and found me a climbing partner for today. I met up with Jay this morning after enjoying a good night sleep and we went to Eldorado Canyon just south of Boulder and did a nice multi pitch climb. We finished around 4 and headed back into town. I had forgotten how much I like multi-pitch trad climbing. With all this bouldering, I do more falling than climbing sometimes.
Right now I have just finished dinner with Michele and I am about to take off and start driving to Munster, Indiana for Dark Lord Day. I figure I'll be camping somewhere near Lincoln, NE tonight. Okay then, I will post again when I find some more internet access.
I left the Bay Area on Monday. I drove from Palo Alto up to Santa Rosa making another trip to Russian River because, frankly I can't get enough of that sweet sweet nectar. After a brief stop there around lunch time, I took off for Utah. I drove east on 80 over the Sierra Nevada, through Reno and into the great emptiness that is the State of Nevada. I don't recall exactly how long it took, but it is 410 miles across Nevada on 80, and there ain't much to look at. I did manage to find the Utah-Houston NBA playoff game on the radio and that helped pass the time, especially after the sun went down and there was nothing at all to look at.
I got myself into Salt Lake City sometime around 11:30 and headed south on I-15 to Route 6. Route 6 heads over the Wasatch Mountains to Price. I was driving on Route 6 at about 1am and I realized that there was an elk in the road. I was doing about 60 so I had little time to react. I managed to swerve to the left of the elk just missing it but leaving me closer to out of control of the car than I would like. I was very happy to successfully avoid the animal because that would have severely damaged my car and probably my body too. It would have been a very bad ending to my day and possibly even my trip. But I escaped undamaged and continued on to Joe's Valley where I arrived at around 2:30am and promptly went to sleep.
The next day I bouldered in Joe's Valley, attempting to find and climb a bunch of v6's that I had not yet sampled. I found most of them (one eluded me, I'm not sure how... it's a rock, it can't move) and was only able to climb one of them. I have various excuses for the others. I was close on some, and I am excited to try them again when I return, but others were uninspiring, and still more needed some spotters to be safe. In any case I climbed one v6 and I have several project to come back to, and that is never bad.
I left Joe's Valley that evening and headed towards Boulder on I-70. I-70 through Utah is beautiful and highly recommended by this guy. I managed to pick up another NBA playoff game through most of the drive which was great again. Around 11:30 I was exhausted and I camped somewhat illegally at a spot near the highway. I had an awful nights sleep (possibly due to my proximity to the highway) and I got up early so that I would not be found by the authorities if any came to check for illegal campers (highly unlikely in that area).
I drove to Boulder that morning arriving around 8:30. And I spent the rest of the day relaxing. Two short nights of sleep in a row did not leave me with much energy. I perused the local beer store, but for once I did not buy anything. I shared one my homebrews with Michele and her friend Amy and they both enjoyed it quite a bit, which made me happy.
That evening Michele made some calls and found me a climbing partner for today. I met up with Jay this morning after enjoying a good night sleep and we went to Eldorado Canyon just south of Boulder and did a nice multi pitch climb. We finished around 4 and headed back into town. I had forgotten how much I like multi-pitch trad climbing. With all this bouldering, I do more falling than climbing sometimes.
Right now I have just finished dinner with Michele and I am about to take off and start driving to Munster, Indiana for Dark Lord Day. I figure I'll be camping somewhere near Lincoln, NE tonight. Okay then, I will post again when I find some more internet access.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Heading East...
This weekend I managed to have breakfast with Patrick and Bridgette, hangout with my friend Zack for lunch, catch a few NBA playoff games on TV, go for a short hike with Amanda and chill with Blase for a bit too. And on top of that, Josh and I were finally able to open up some of our home brewed beers for their first taste. It was pretty darn good, nothing fantastic but certainly better than a lot of other beers I have had in the past.
Well, I am heading to Dark Lord Day in Indiana. I leave the Bay Area tomorrow and I have until Saturday to get to Munster, Indiana. After that I'll be continuing on to the East Coast for the month of May. In honor of all this moving about I am bringing back the driving updates. so here is the update since last time. The mileage is accurate but the time is an estimate that leaves out a little driving around town in LA, Bishop and the Bay.
LA to Bishop and other places :
Driving Time - 32:00
Distance - 2670
Total:
Driving Time - 113:50
Distance - 7989
Well, I am heading to Dark Lord Day in Indiana. I leave the Bay Area tomorrow and I have until Saturday to get to Munster, Indiana. After that I'll be continuing on to the East Coast for the month of May. In honor of all this moving about I am bringing back the driving updates. so here is the update since last time. The mileage is accurate but the time is an estimate that leaves out a little driving around town in LA, Bishop and the Bay.
LA to Bishop and other places :
Driving Time - 32:00
Distance - 2670
Total:
Driving Time - 113:50
Distance - 7989
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Storming the battlements
Today my one and only long term project fell. The Lost Keys traverse (v6) at Castle Rock State Park is a bouldering problem that I have been working on since last summer. I first got on the problem with Tero and Jen in August. And went back to it several times since, making increased progress each time. The last time I went out there was in February and I managed to make the crux move but fell trying to make the next move which is not hard but requires some care.
Today, I went up to Castle Rock around noon, and strolled over to the Indian Rock area to warm up. I got in a few good warm-ups and loosened up my sore back a little bit. I went right down to the Lost Keys boulder after that to get right to it. First try I made the crux move as a bit of a dynamic throw and wasn't able to stick it. Second try I had a foot dab but made the crux move static and finished the problem. So I needed to do the climb without the dab. On my third try I hadn't rested enough, but on the fourth try I stuck the crux and climbed carefully through the finish to finally complete my longest standing project.
Now I am left without a long term project that really motivates me. I am happy to have completed this project (very happy) but I need to find another project that inspires me to keep coming back and that remains just out of reach but engages me even in my failure. Hmmm... any suggestions, oh faithful readers?
Today, I went up to Castle Rock around noon, and strolled over to the Indian Rock area to warm up. I got in a few good warm-ups and loosened up my sore back a little bit. I went right down to the Lost Keys boulder after that to get right to it. First try I made the crux move as a bit of a dynamic throw and wasn't able to stick it. Second try I had a foot dab but made the crux move static and finished the problem. So I needed to do the climb without the dab. On my third try I hadn't rested enough, but on the fourth try I stuck the crux and climbed carefully through the finish to finally complete my longest standing project.
Now I am left without a long term project that really motivates me. I am happy to have completed this project (very happy) but I need to find another project that inspires me to keep coming back and that remains just out of reach but engages me even in my failure. Hmmm... any suggestions, oh faithful readers?
Thursday, April 17, 2008
How did that happen?
Almost a week without posting and suddenly I am in a new city. I am going to have to keep better tabs on myself. Ah well I didn't do anything too interesting in the past week. Let me check the last post and see where I left off... Whoops. I was still in Bishop. Damn. I've got some summarizing to do.
So I left Bishop on Saturday after an interesting night around the campfire in the Pit. I realized from talking to the folks there that I am merely a Junior dirtbag at this point. There are much more intense than me in terms of staying put and living out of tents and stuff. I am moving around too much, staying with friends too much and certainly showering too much to be a real dirtbag. I'll have to work on that.
I grabbed some stuff at the bakeries in Bishop and jetted down to LA in a mere 3.5 hours. Very good time considering the fact that I wasn't even really speeding it's just that there was almost no traffic (relative to the areas). I pulled in to Josh and Meghan's place and took a shower before we headed over to a bar called Lucky Baldwin's for their Barleywine/High Alcohol/Belgian Beer Fest. Oddly strange name for a Fest and not much of a festival either. They did have some interesting brews on tap though, and I was able to have another glass of Pliny the Younger from Russian River. Josh tried some Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine from 2000, and despite being 8 years old it was still too hoppy for his tastes. Meghan enjoyed the Collaboration not Litigation and Watson generally caused havoc to napkins everywhere.
That evening Josh and I had an Allagash night opening up bottles of Odyssey and Curieux both barrel aged belgian beers. The Odyssey impressed and the Curieux did not, but was passable nonetheless.
The next day we had planned to go rock climbing, but it was too damn hot in LA, like mid 90's. So we ended up taking my suggestion and heading up into the mountains north of LA for a hike with Watson. We went to a place near Horse Flats and hiked down to a couple waterfalls. It was up over 6000 feet where we parked the car and so there was not only cooler air to be found (like almost 25 degrees cooler), but there was also some snow still on the ground in shady places.
On Monday I hung out and did my state taxes, and in the evening went to get some pretty decent buffalo wings in Westwood with Jen. After dinner I went over to Josh's place, where, along with Josh's buddy Jon, we sampled some of the beers that I had brought across the country from the Portsmouth Brewery in NH. We tried the Imperial Pilsner, the Imperial IPA and the Baltic Porter. They were all quite good, although the IPA was not of the type that Josh prefers. I think the Baltic Porter may have been an exceptional porter, but since I am not really in to porters I don't think I can really comment from an informed standpoint.
Tuesday I hung out with Watson when packing up the car with some beers for trade at Dark Lord Day, and trying to fit a good portion of the homebrew in there too. Later I got this song stuck in my head.
Yesterday, I said my goodbyes and hit the road, heading north to the Bay Area, and failing to convince my silly friends to ditch their silly jobs for an afternoon, I headed right through SF and rolled up to Santa Rosa to visit the Russian River Brewpub by myself. I was psyched to get up there right away because they are releasing their barrel aged and spontaneously fermented beer now. These beers only come out once every two years in somewhat limited quantities (not a limited as the ones I picked up at Alesmith) Beeradvocate.com lists these brews as being some of the best in the world, with several of them making the Top 100 list.
I was able to try the Compunction which was not bottled so it was the first thing I asked for. I also tried the Supplication which I had been told was amazing. They were both fantastic in my opinion, very interesting complex sour beers with the sour being part of the character of the beer rather than a dominating force. I look forward to trying some more of it when the bottles that Josh ordered online are cracked open sometime this summer.
I also got a couple growlers filled up with some of my favorite beer from RR. Pliny the Elder and Salvation. I brought the growlers back down to Redwood City for Patrick and that is where I am now. Yesterday evening Pat and I cracked open the Salvation and drank quite a bit of it. (Note to self: do not allow Patrick to take charge of refilling your glass.) And brilliantly we also decided to go for a run while Bridgette watched American Idol. It was a long run and Pat runs quite a bit faster than some of the folks I have been running with recently. It was okay though, I was able to keep up, but I was reminded that Pat is a much better athlete than me and even when he is out of shape he is very strong.
Today I have been very lazy, catching up with my NBA playoff coverage, and just generally unwilling to get back in the car after driving so much yesterday. I used Pat and Bridgette's scale to see if I have lost weight, since I think that I have lost a bit. I came in at 171 pounds on their scale, which is about a 4 pound loss from my normal 175. I am not sure why I lost weight other than my diet not being so replete with the fatty fried foods I crave normally. Their scale also has a body fat measuring feature, and I came in at 41.1% fat. I am not sure that the scale is too accurate though. (wink) In fact I would be willing to debate whether or not you could possibly have a live person who was 5'10 171 pounds and 41% fat. I mean the bones and essential organs have to weight more than 59 percent of your body right? With a frame of 5'10 and a weight of 171, I don't think 41% fat could work.
So I left Bishop on Saturday after an interesting night around the campfire in the Pit. I realized from talking to the folks there that I am merely a Junior dirtbag at this point. There are much more intense than me in terms of staying put and living out of tents and stuff. I am moving around too much, staying with friends too much and certainly showering too much to be a real dirtbag. I'll have to work on that.
I grabbed some stuff at the bakeries in Bishop and jetted down to LA in a mere 3.5 hours. Very good time considering the fact that I wasn't even really speeding it's just that there was almost no traffic (relative to the areas). I pulled in to Josh and Meghan's place and took a shower before we headed over to a bar called Lucky Baldwin's for their Barleywine/High Alcohol/Belgian Beer Fest. Oddly strange name for a Fest and not much of a festival either. They did have some interesting brews on tap though, and I was able to have another glass of Pliny the Younger from Russian River. Josh tried some Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine from 2000, and despite being 8 years old it was still too hoppy for his tastes. Meghan enjoyed the Collaboration not Litigation and Watson generally caused havoc to napkins everywhere.
That evening Josh and I had an Allagash night opening up bottles of Odyssey and Curieux both barrel aged belgian beers. The Odyssey impressed and the Curieux did not, but was passable nonetheless.
The next day we had planned to go rock climbing, but it was too damn hot in LA, like mid 90's. So we ended up taking my suggestion and heading up into the mountains north of LA for a hike with Watson. We went to a place near Horse Flats and hiked down to a couple waterfalls. It was up over 6000 feet where we parked the car and so there was not only cooler air to be found (like almost 25 degrees cooler), but there was also some snow still on the ground in shady places.
On Monday I hung out and did my state taxes, and in the evening went to get some pretty decent buffalo wings in Westwood with Jen. After dinner I went over to Josh's place, where, along with Josh's buddy Jon, we sampled some of the beers that I had brought across the country from the Portsmouth Brewery in NH. We tried the Imperial Pilsner, the Imperial IPA and the Baltic Porter. They were all quite good, although the IPA was not of the type that Josh prefers. I think the Baltic Porter may have been an exceptional porter, but since I am not really in to porters I don't think I can really comment from an informed standpoint.
Tuesday I hung out with Watson when packing up the car with some beers for trade at Dark Lord Day, and trying to fit a good portion of the homebrew in there too. Later I got this song stuck in my head.
Yesterday, I said my goodbyes and hit the road, heading north to the Bay Area, and failing to convince my silly friends to ditch their silly jobs for an afternoon, I headed right through SF and rolled up to Santa Rosa to visit the Russian River Brewpub by myself. I was psyched to get up there right away because they are releasing their barrel aged and spontaneously fermented beer now. These beers only come out once every two years in somewhat limited quantities (not a limited as the ones I picked up at Alesmith) Beeradvocate.com lists these brews as being some of the best in the world, with several of them making the Top 100 list.
I was able to try the Compunction which was not bottled so it was the first thing I asked for. I also tried the Supplication which I had been told was amazing. They were both fantastic in my opinion, very interesting complex sour beers with the sour being part of the character of the beer rather than a dominating force. I look forward to trying some more of it when the bottles that Josh ordered online are cracked open sometime this summer.
I also got a couple growlers filled up with some of my favorite beer from RR. Pliny the Elder and Salvation. I brought the growlers back down to Redwood City for Patrick and that is where I am now. Yesterday evening Pat and I cracked open the Salvation and drank quite a bit of it. (Note to self: do not allow Patrick to take charge of refilling your glass.) And brilliantly we also decided to go for a run while Bridgette watched American Idol. It was a long run and Pat runs quite a bit faster than some of the folks I have been running with recently. It was okay though, I was able to keep up, but I was reminded that Pat is a much better athlete than me and even when he is out of shape he is very strong.
Today I have been very lazy, catching up with my NBA playoff coverage, and just generally unwilling to get back in the car after driving so much yesterday. I used Pat and Bridgette's scale to see if I have lost weight, since I think that I have lost a bit. I came in at 171 pounds on their scale, which is about a 4 pound loss from my normal 175. I am not sure why I lost weight other than my diet not being so replete with the fatty fried foods I crave normally. Their scale also has a body fat measuring feature, and I came in at 41.1% fat. I am not sure that the scale is too accurate though. (wink) In fact I would be willing to debate whether or not you could possibly have a live person who was 5'10 171 pounds and 41% fat. I mean the bones and essential organs have to weight more than 59 percent of your body right? With a frame of 5'10 and a weight of 171, I don't think 41% fat could work.
Friday, April 11, 2008
I am STRONG...
My skin is not.
[WARNING: MONSTER POST]
Today was one of my best days ever bouldering, but my finger tips are pretty beat up and I am going to have to cut my trip up here a bit short and head back to LA tomorrow morning after picking up some bread at Schatz. If I were to try to climb tomorrow I would need to tape all four tips on my left hand. And it is pretty hard to take yourself seriously as a climber with your whole hand taped up. As you know it is all about image with me.
(Scroll down for pictures now if climbing details tend to make your eyes glaze over...)
I climbed at the Sad boulders today and explored some stuff farther up the canyon from the last time I was there. My car was the only one in the parking lot this morning, I guess everyone fled the rising temps and went up to the higher elevation areas. I hiked in staying high on the east rim of the canyon to avoid the cramped caves and passages of the canyon center. I descended down to the canyon floor around the Molly boulder. I tried the Molly problem last time I was at the Sads, but it is very hard for me. I stared at the problem a bit as I walked by making angry faces at it. Since I had such a good day climbing after that I may have to make this a ritual when I climb at the Sads. Hike in, curse out Molly that heartless b*tch, and climb hard. Sounds like a plan.
I wandered further up canyon looking for the Sad Parrot area. The first problem I found in that area was The Fang on the Birdcage boulder. The fang was a very obvious feature and I had bee looking in the guidebook at a problem to the left of the fang called Feeding Frenzy v7. I was unable to resist and walked up to the boulder and checked out the holds on Feeding Frenzy. Oh they looked so good. Jugs and Heel Hooks and Slopers, Oh MY! It looked very cool and if the boulder was removed from under the problem it would be awesome. It not something you'd really fall on for the most part, but it is difficult to avoid on certain moves. The moves and hold looked to be right up my alley, fitting my strongest style of climbing. But, at this point I had not warmed up yet so I had to walk around the corner to the Sad Parrot boulder. There were a few fun problems there to warm up on and I managed to climb a few of them before giving up and running back down to Feeding Frenzy. There was a v4 traverse that I tried a few time and failed on but I gave up when I felt a whole section of holds creaking as I climbed through them. I felt that was a good sign it was time to try FF if I was ready to rip holds off the wall.
I set up my pad and began to work the moves on FF. The start is relatively easy with huge holds to start on and a long reach from an undercling to a good jug rail. On my first try I got both hands on the jug rail, but when my feet let go of the start holds I swung off the holds. I figured that would be easy to fix so I moved on to try to work the other moves. After a while and a bit of reworking/rethinking I managed to determine a semi-convoluted sequence that would allow me to climb from the jug rail to the finish without hitting the rock below. It involved using a decent pocket six inches lower than a really good one because I could not reach an important hold from the good pocket, and also a really strange upside-down toe hook with a heel cam.
So having figured this out I went back to the start with every intention of sending the whole rig. Unfortunately I swung right off the jug rail again. And again. And again. In the end I had to use a hold I have not even considered yet to prevent myself from swinging wildly when my feet left the start hold. I am not sure why I hadn't considered it, there was plenty of chalk on it! The first time I tried to use that hold I was too confused as to how to use it and I wasn't able to do the crux moves that came after. However, on my next try everything felt great and I didn't fumble around at all, sticking the long move and then bumping to the good hold without having my feet cut. I then engaged the very strange reverse toe hook/heel cam and moved through to the finish, sending my first v7 in Bishop. I was so stoked I let out a little "whoo" of celebration. Nothing like my pig squeal from that video though.
After basking in the post-send glow on top of the boulder for a while, I went in search of more rock to climb. I headed over in the direction of the Ice Caves to try a problem called Erotic Terrorist a v6 that had been recommended to me by Linda and Kenny. I arrived to find a couple from Montreal hanging out in the cave. Ben and Claudia offered to add their pad to mine and give me a bit of a spot too. They loaded me up with beta for the problem which I appreciated. Especially the part where Ben said, "...and after that it's all huge jugs to the top." I always like hearing that.
So, armed with advice and a safe landing zone, I grabbed the start holds and started climbing and much to my surprise I kept going all the way to the top. My first v6 flash. Sweet! It was a very fun climb too. Totally my style just like FF. I even managed to get knee bar in on this one. Somehow my best climbing is done on knee bars. I guess I need to buy a knee pad, get out to Rifle and start sending 5.13s.
After those two sends I was on pretty good high for the day. I chilled out for a bit and got to watch Claudia work on Beefcake a v10. It looked burly and she looked very strong. She didn't manage the send today, but she is linking big sections and I would guess that she'll get it before she leaves as it seems to be her big goal for their stay here. I am assuming that Ben is very strong too, but he has a sprained ankle and is not able to climb or even walk yet. Hopefully he will be healed up before they get to Joe's Valley, because that place rules.
I played around a bit on Mothership Connection (v4) trying to get to the big pocket without letting go of my fingerlock under the boulder, but that wasn't happening and I didn't really like the holds before the big pocket so I went over to try Chizam (v5). I was trying Chizam with my gym slippers on and they were not staying on the foothold when I made the first throw to a sloper. After wasting several burns on those shoes I put on my Katanas aka "The Sendin' Shoes" and sent the problem in two more tries.
After that, I followed Ben and Claudia over to a slightly highball v5 called Strength In Numbers. Now, SIN does not have a good reputation in my mind. I mean the problem is classic with really cool moves to a stimulating finish. However, my friend Kenny pulled a pulley tendon in one of his fingers on the climb and hasn't been able to really climb hard since (5 months?), and SIN is also the climb that Ben hurt his ankle on. Claudia only intended to try out the start moves, which are a bit long and dynamic between good holds. I also gave the start moves a try and managed to climb up to the scary part without too much trouble. I think I could have flashed the problem but I gave it up due to the lack of copious padding and ample spotters. Maybe I'll finish it next time I am out there with a whole crew.
After that I bid adieu to Ben and Claudia and I headed back towards the car intending to find an unnamed v6 problem on a boulder called Hidden Roof. It was not easy to find at all as the name would suggest, and I am pretty sure that I was one of the few folks motivated enough to try to find it. The reason I believe this is that I was checking out the moves on the problem and I found a bird nesting in one of the holds! Not just a nest, mama bird was in there sitting on some eggs. So, I left as quickly and quietly as possible and headed out to the car. It was too warm to climb any more outside of the caves, so I packed it in and headed down to town where I am once again lurking in the Looney Bean Cafe.
Taking stock of my finger tip skin, I realized that climbing tomorrow was a losing proposition, so I am ending this trip on a high note.
Hah! Tricked you! Here's the climbing talk I want everyone to read. I had my best bouldering day so far today. I climbed a v5, flashed a v6 and climbed a v7. I don't know if I am getting stronger or finding problems that suit me better, but I am sure holding out hope that it is more of the former than the latter. Okay, now for more pictures from my hike up to the Druid Stones.
Above is the view of the hike up from the (low clearance vehicle) parking spot.
Below: Some of the Druid Stones.
More Stones.
A view of Bishop and smoke from a wildfire fire to the north.
A view of Bishop and the White Mountains in nice light.
Desert Wildflowers.
Another shot I may love or hate. I haven't decided yet.
Let me know what you think...
[WARNING: MONSTER POST]
Today was one of my best days ever bouldering, but my finger tips are pretty beat up and I am going to have to cut my trip up here a bit short and head back to LA tomorrow morning after picking up some bread at Schatz. If I were to try to climb tomorrow I would need to tape all four tips on my left hand. And it is pretty hard to take yourself seriously as a climber with your whole hand taped up. As you know it is all about image with me.
(Scroll down for pictures now if climbing details tend to make your eyes glaze over...)
I climbed at the Sad boulders today and explored some stuff farther up the canyon from the last time I was there. My car was the only one in the parking lot this morning, I guess everyone fled the rising temps and went up to the higher elevation areas. I hiked in staying high on the east rim of the canyon to avoid the cramped caves and passages of the canyon center. I descended down to the canyon floor around the Molly boulder. I tried the Molly problem last time I was at the Sads, but it is very hard for me. I stared at the problem a bit as I walked by making angry faces at it. Since I had such a good day climbing after that I may have to make this a ritual when I climb at the Sads. Hike in, curse out Molly that heartless b*tch, and climb hard. Sounds like a plan.
I wandered further up canyon looking for the Sad Parrot area. The first problem I found in that area was The Fang on the Birdcage boulder. The fang was a very obvious feature and I had bee looking in the guidebook at a problem to the left of the fang called Feeding Frenzy v7. I was unable to resist and walked up to the boulder and checked out the holds on Feeding Frenzy. Oh they looked so good. Jugs and Heel Hooks and Slopers, Oh MY! It looked very cool and if the boulder was removed from under the problem it would be awesome. It not something you'd really fall on for the most part, but it is difficult to avoid on certain moves. The moves and hold looked to be right up my alley, fitting my strongest style of climbing. But, at this point I had not warmed up yet so I had to walk around the corner to the Sad Parrot boulder. There were a few fun problems there to warm up on and I managed to climb a few of them before giving up and running back down to Feeding Frenzy. There was a v4 traverse that I tried a few time and failed on but I gave up when I felt a whole section of holds creaking as I climbed through them. I felt that was a good sign it was time to try FF if I was ready to rip holds off the wall.
I set up my pad and began to work the moves on FF. The start is relatively easy with huge holds to start on and a long reach from an undercling to a good jug rail. On my first try I got both hands on the jug rail, but when my feet let go of the start holds I swung off the holds. I figured that would be easy to fix so I moved on to try to work the other moves. After a while and a bit of reworking/rethinking I managed to determine a semi-convoluted sequence that would allow me to climb from the jug rail to the finish without hitting the rock below. It involved using a decent pocket six inches lower than a really good one because I could not reach an important hold from the good pocket, and also a really strange upside-down toe hook with a heel cam.
So having figured this out I went back to the start with every intention of sending the whole rig. Unfortunately I swung right off the jug rail again. And again. And again. In the end I had to use a hold I have not even considered yet to prevent myself from swinging wildly when my feet left the start hold. I am not sure why I hadn't considered it, there was plenty of chalk on it! The first time I tried to use that hold I was too confused as to how to use it and I wasn't able to do the crux moves that came after. However, on my next try everything felt great and I didn't fumble around at all, sticking the long move and then bumping to the good hold without having my feet cut. I then engaged the very strange reverse toe hook/heel cam and moved through to the finish, sending my first v7 in Bishop. I was so stoked I let out a little "whoo" of celebration. Nothing like my pig squeal from that video though.
After basking in the post-send glow on top of the boulder for a while, I went in search of more rock to climb. I headed over in the direction of the Ice Caves to try a problem called Erotic Terrorist a v6 that had been recommended to me by Linda and Kenny. I arrived to find a couple from Montreal hanging out in the cave. Ben and Claudia offered to add their pad to mine and give me a bit of a spot too. They loaded me up with beta for the problem which I appreciated. Especially the part where Ben said, "...and after that it's all huge jugs to the top." I always like hearing that.
So, armed with advice and a safe landing zone, I grabbed the start holds and started climbing and much to my surprise I kept going all the way to the top. My first v6 flash. Sweet! It was a very fun climb too. Totally my style just like FF. I even managed to get knee bar in on this one. Somehow my best climbing is done on knee bars. I guess I need to buy a knee pad, get out to Rifle and start sending 5.13s.
After those two sends I was on pretty good high for the day. I chilled out for a bit and got to watch Claudia work on Beefcake a v10. It looked burly and she looked very strong. She didn't manage the send today, but she is linking big sections and I would guess that she'll get it before she leaves as it seems to be her big goal for their stay here. I am assuming that Ben is very strong too, but he has a sprained ankle and is not able to climb or even walk yet. Hopefully he will be healed up before they get to Joe's Valley, because that place rules.
I played around a bit on Mothership Connection (v4) trying to get to the big pocket without letting go of my fingerlock under the boulder, but that wasn't happening and I didn't really like the holds before the big pocket so I went over to try Chizam (v5). I was trying Chizam with my gym slippers on and they were not staying on the foothold when I made the first throw to a sloper. After wasting several burns on those shoes I put on my Katanas aka "The Sendin' Shoes" and sent the problem in two more tries.
After that, I followed Ben and Claudia over to a slightly highball v5 called Strength In Numbers. Now, SIN does not have a good reputation in my mind. I mean the problem is classic with really cool moves to a stimulating finish. However, my friend Kenny pulled a pulley tendon in one of his fingers on the climb and hasn't been able to really climb hard since (5 months?), and SIN is also the climb that Ben hurt his ankle on. Claudia only intended to try out the start moves, which are a bit long and dynamic between good holds. I also gave the start moves a try and managed to climb up to the scary part without too much trouble. I think I could have flashed the problem but I gave it up due to the lack of copious padding and ample spotters. Maybe I'll finish it next time I am out there with a whole crew.
After that I bid adieu to Ben and Claudia and I headed back towards the car intending to find an unnamed v6 problem on a boulder called Hidden Roof. It was not easy to find at all as the name would suggest, and I am pretty sure that I was one of the few folks motivated enough to try to find it. The reason I believe this is that I was checking out the moves on the problem and I found a bird nesting in one of the holds! Not just a nest, mama bird was in there sitting on some eggs. So, I left as quickly and quietly as possible and headed out to the car. It was too warm to climb any more outside of the caves, so I packed it in and headed down to town where I am once again lurking in the Looney Bean Cafe.
Taking stock of my finger tip skin, I realized that climbing tomorrow was a losing proposition, so I am ending this trip on a high note.
Hah! Tricked you! Here's the climbing talk I want everyone to read. I had my best bouldering day so far today. I climbed a v5, flashed a v6 and climbed a v7. I don't know if I am getting stronger or finding problems that suit me better, but I am sure holding out hope that it is more of the former than the latter. Okay, now for more pictures from my hike up to the Druid Stones.
Above is the view of the hike up from the (low clearance vehicle) parking spot.
Below: Some of the Druid Stones.
More Stones.
A view of Bishop and smoke from a wildfire fire to the north.
A view of Bishop and the White Mountains in nice light.
Desert Wildflowers.
Another shot I may love or hate. I haven't decided yet.
Let me know what you think...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Pretty
The druids were cool looking and I am excited to get back up there some day to actually climb. My photos are uploading slowly and I need to exit the cafe in 7 minutes so here is one shot from the hike to tide you over.
It's my blog and I'll post if I want to...
Random photo from the Buttermilks yesterday.
This band is good for everyone. I mean who doesn't love accordion, horns and crooning. If you like to watch rock climbing with your music try this video for a couple of Beirut songs over top of some good Tejas bouldering.
If you are not into accordion and horns, maybe you like Sweedish rap with an electronica twist.
This band is good for everyone. I mean who doesn't love accordion, horns and crooning. If you like to watch rock climbing with your music try this video for a couple of Beirut songs over top of some good Tejas bouldering.
If you are not into accordion and horns, maybe you like Sweedish rap with an electronica twist.
...And on the 41st Day He Rested.
Whoo. This is the 41st day of my road trip. That is the longest time I have been out on the road by a factor of about 3. It will be interesting to see how I feel after two or three months, because right now I can hardly believe it has been that long. I don't miss home yet (not that I have one anyway), nor do I feel any need to get back to a "normal" life. I should probably work a bit harder to meet up with partners for my various climbing trips, but it has been just fine so far. I have stopped myself from climbing some high/more scary stuff b/c of a lack of spotters, but that has not prevented me from having fun and occasionally sending some stuff.
So I am back in the Looney Bean enjoying some wireless interweb and flush toilets. This morning I lazed about in the sun eating my breakfast of granola and (rehydrated) powdered milk. I recently tried to explain why I eat granola with powdered milk, since I don't much like powdered milk or granola. Here is the explanation, since I don't have a cooler (and don't want one) powdered milk is great cause it doesn't go bad and doesn't take up too much space. It doesn't taste great but it is not disgusting when rehydrated properly. I like cereal but I am not much of a fan of granola in most cases. However, I am fine with the combo of powdered milk and granola because neither one ruins the other. The powdered milk would ruin my cereal experience, but since I am eating it with granola there is nothing to ruin. And granola would ruin my regular milk and cereal experience, but with powdered milk... See? Makes perfect sense to me.
After breakfast today I drove up into the mountains west of Bishop to see how high I could get before I was stopped by closed roads. I tried driving up to South Lake first and encountered a road closed sign at about 8100 feet. So I parked the car and went for a run up the road as far as I could make it. I must say it was more of a jog for a while since I was heading distinctly uphill at an elevation for which my lungs are not prepared.
I went up the road for a couple miles, at least I hope it was couple miles since I ran for about 24 minutes up hill. I passed several patches of snow covering the road and a truck sized snow blower working on clearing up those snow patches. I finally had to turn around when I encountered a plow working on a stretch of road that was covered with a couple feet of snow. I stopped running the first time my foot sank into the snow up to my ankle. Running shoes are not the best for post holing. (the video in the link is guy I know from Bay Area ultimate, funny since I found it just by doing a google search for "postholing")
The downhill run went faster than the way up. Shocking, I know. Although I felt bad cause the giant snow blower had to stop and back out to let me through since I couldn't get around him. I got back to the car in 21 minutes.
Nice Face, Loser.
I next tried to get up to Lake Sabrina but was again stopped by a road closed sign just past Aspendell (like possibly #1 on my list of place to live). This view was as close as I would get to the mountains today:
Later I am planning to head up to a bouldering area called The Druid Stones. There are supposed to be some good boulders and good views up there. I have never been b/c there is a substantial hike involved in getting up there and I have never had the time or partners interested in going up. I figure it might be a fun hike for the afternoon just to go check it out.
Tonight I plan to camp back at the Pit b/c in the interests of saving my finger tips a bit I will climb at the Sad boulders tomorrow. The rock there is not has harsh on the skin as the Buttermilks. So camping at the Buttermilks and driving down to the Sad boulders is kind of a waste of time/gas vs. the two dollar cost of camping at the pit. I think it might be more cost effective to save the gas money, especially at $3.63 a gallon for the cheaper stuff.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
First Two days in Bishop.
Guh. Man I love the Buttermilks, but they do not love me back.
I am chilling in a coffee shop in Bishop right now. I was going to camp up at the Buttermilks so that I wouldn't pay to camp or drive anywhere, but the weather forecast was for lows of 28 in town and wind gusts up to 30mph. I wimped out and have retreated down to town and camping at the Pit. The Pit is at about 4800ft so around 1500ft lower in elevation compared to the Buttermilks, so I am hoping for warmer weather and a bit less wind.
Yesterday I drove up from LA and got to the Buttermilks around 12:45. I immediately jumped out of the car and was blown over by the wind. I got back up, grabbed my pad and spent the next few hours getting beaten down by the climbs I tried while simultaneously being frozen by huge wind gusts and clouds covering the sun. I found a few climbs that I could make some progress on, but nothing that I actually sent. I also found some that rejected me completely i.e. Green Wall Center.
I finally gave up, and headed down to the Happies getting there around 4:45. I went to find Rave a v7 which I decided I could not do at all. The holds are too slick for me. I may need to get a lot stronger for that one. I also tried Gleaner v6 (some other dude) for a little bit and got pretty well shut down, although I was able to pull off the ground so that was a step up from Rave.
So I packed up and went up to Action Figure for another try. Maybe the afternnon I sacrificed to the problem was not a total waste, because I walked right up and sent it on my first try of the day. I was pretty psyched. I was totally unsure what to do next, so wandered around the corner and saw another problem that I had tried back in November called Little Country Girl v6. I had seen a video of some dude climbing it on-line so armed with that information, I attempted to figure it out. And much to my surprise I actually made progress. I figured out all the moves sometime just as the sun was going down. And I managed to just barely miss the finish a few times, before promising myself "one last try" before I had to leave due to failing light. And it almost never happens this way, but I did indeed send it on my last try. I hit the last hard move, got my left foot up, and snatched the final jug catching it with my finger tips. I took a held my breath and bumped my hand deeper into the jug, before breathing a sigh of relief. So that was 2 v6s in 2 hours. A pretty good day for me despite getting pretty well beat down by the Buttermilks.
Today I went back for more abuse at the Buttermilks. I took my sweet time getting ready this morning and finally left the car at 11:00am. I headed over to the Checkerboard area. My oh my does Checkerboard look super amazing. I would love to get on that but I'll need more strength, more spotters and more pads. So I warmed up in the Chess area sending a v0 or two. Then I headed over to Painted Cave v6. This problem is really cool and I made some good progress on it getting to the second to last hold. But I ran out of energy, needing lunch badly, and the sun made the sloping finishing holds a little too slick. So packed up and headed back to the car after ogling a few more problems in the area.
I ate lunch at the car and lazed around on my crash pad, before heading to the Get Carter boulder down the hill. I was there to try Seven Spanish Angels v6 and Get Carter v7. I got out of the car and it was way windy. I walked around the boulder checking out the problems and I was too cold. The wind sapped my motivation. I sat down against the boulder away from the wind and nearly dozed off. I got up to get back in the car and go somewhere else, but as I walked by SSA I felt up the start holds and said "f*ck it!" I grabbed the pad and threw them down, put on my shoes flailed away. I actually managed to make the first move much to my surprise. I kept going and took a nice tumble onto the pads. I gave it a few more trying and made it to the last move but I was unable to work up the courage to set up for the final dyno with no spotters. The last hold I could reach was good but not that good and I knew I could pop off it at any moment. I tried Get Carter but was completely mystified by the start. I bailed and here I am at the Looney Bean accessing the interweb. Tomorrow is a rest day for my muscles and finger tips. I am sure I'll be back here. And I will surely go for a run or a hike or both.
I am chilling in a coffee shop in Bishop right now. I was going to camp up at the Buttermilks so that I wouldn't pay to camp or drive anywhere, but the weather forecast was for lows of 28 in town and wind gusts up to 30mph. I wimped out and have retreated down to town and camping at the Pit. The Pit is at about 4800ft so around 1500ft lower in elevation compared to the Buttermilks, so I am hoping for warmer weather and a bit less wind.
Yesterday I drove up from LA and got to the Buttermilks around 12:45. I immediately jumped out of the car and was blown over by the wind. I got back up, grabbed my pad and spent the next few hours getting beaten down by the climbs I tried while simultaneously being frozen by huge wind gusts and clouds covering the sun. I found a few climbs that I could make some progress on, but nothing that I actually sent. I also found some that rejected me completely i.e. Green Wall Center.
I finally gave up, and headed down to the Happies getting there around 4:45. I went to find Rave a v7 which I decided I could not do at all. The holds are too slick for me. I may need to get a lot stronger for that one. I also tried Gleaner v6 (some other dude) for a little bit and got pretty well shut down, although I was able to pull off the ground so that was a step up from Rave.
So I packed up and went up to Action Figure for another try. Maybe the afternnon I sacrificed to the problem was not a total waste, because I walked right up and sent it on my first try of the day. I was pretty psyched. I was totally unsure what to do next, so wandered around the corner and saw another problem that I had tried back in November called Little Country Girl v6. I had seen a video of some dude climbing it on-line so armed with that information, I attempted to figure it out. And much to my surprise I actually made progress. I figured out all the moves sometime just as the sun was going down. And I managed to just barely miss the finish a few times, before promising myself "one last try" before I had to leave due to failing light. And it almost never happens this way, but I did indeed send it on my last try. I hit the last hard move, got my left foot up, and snatched the final jug catching it with my finger tips. I took a held my breath and bumped my hand deeper into the jug, before breathing a sigh of relief. So that was 2 v6s in 2 hours. A pretty good day for me despite getting pretty well beat down by the Buttermilks.
Today I went back for more abuse at the Buttermilks. I took my sweet time getting ready this morning and finally left the car at 11:00am. I headed over to the Checkerboard area. My oh my does Checkerboard look super amazing. I would love to get on that but I'll need more strength, more spotters and more pads. So I warmed up in the Chess area sending a v0 or two. Then I headed over to Painted Cave v6. This problem is really cool and I made some good progress on it getting to the second to last hold. But I ran out of energy, needing lunch badly, and the sun made the sloping finishing holds a little too slick. So packed up and headed back to the car after ogling a few more problems in the area.
I ate lunch at the car and lazed around on my crash pad, before heading to the Get Carter boulder down the hill. I was there to try Seven Spanish Angels v6 and Get Carter v7. I got out of the car and it was way windy. I walked around the boulder checking out the problems and I was too cold. The wind sapped my motivation. I sat down against the boulder away from the wind and nearly dozed off. I got up to get back in the car and go somewhere else, but as I walked by SSA I felt up the start holds and said "f*ck it!" I grabbed the pad and threw them down, put on my shoes flailed away. I actually managed to make the first move much to my surprise. I kept going and took a nice tumble onto the pads. I gave it a few more trying and made it to the last move but I was unable to work up the courage to set up for the final dyno with no spotters. The last hold I could reach was good but not that good and I knew I could pop off it at any moment. I tried Get Carter but was completely mystified by the start. I bailed and here I am at the Looney Bean accessing the interweb. Tomorrow is a rest day for my muscles and finger tips. I am sure I'll be back here. And I will surely go for a run or a hike or both.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Horse Flats and some steeps too...
As I mentioned a post or two ago I recently went bouldering with my friend and first climbing teacher to a place called Horse Flats near LA. The drive was pretty short and I am not sure I understand why there are not more people going here. Maybe there are not enough extremely hard problems up there. Whatever, we had a great time, and since I have none with which to write this post since I am heading out to Bishop in mere minutes, you all will have to suffer through a largely photographic post.
(Two notes: You can get to my photo website, which includes some shots that don't make it on to the blog, just by clicking on any of the photos on my blog and then navigating around the site, Second I have opened up the comments to anyone, but if you are posting a comment please put your name in there so I know who is talking to me. I welcome comments from anyone on any of the subjects I address.)
Okay, on to the pictures...
There was a lot of rock scattered through a lodgepole pine forest that was a pleasant surprise so close to LA.
Dan "Even My Butt Likes Granite" Arnold relaxing at the end of the day.
(Two notes: You can get to my photo website, which includes some shots that don't make it on to the blog, just by clicking on any of the photos on my blog and then navigating around the site, Second I have opened up the comments to anyone, but if you are posting a comment please put your name in there so I know who is talking to me. I welcome comments from anyone on any of the subjects I address.)
Okay, on to the pictures...
There was a lot of rock scattered through a lodgepole pine forest that was a pleasant surprise so close to LA.
Dan "Even My Butt Likes Granite" Arnold relaxing at the end of the day.
Monday, April 7, 2008
We like-a the Juice...
Josh and I have had a few drinks since I got down to LA with a trunk full of beer. Here is a list of the beers we have sampled.
Moonlit Sessions - a very nice dark lager from Port Brewing
Serpent Stout - a rather muddled imperial stout from Lost Abbey
Struiselensis - a fine sour brown ale from Struise
Interlude - a very interesting buttery sour ale from Allagash
Troegenator - a tastey but plain dobblebock from Troeg
Choklat - an unbelievably chocolaty stout from Southern Tier
Pliny the Younger - Triple IPA from Russian River (need I say more)
Pliny the Elder - Double IPA from RR my favorite beer
The Abyss - a complex and robust stout (Deschutes)
Nugget Nectar - a super tasty double amber ale from Troegs
Shark Attack - a super sweet (not in a good way) double red ale from Port
Firestone 11 - a super complex barrel aged blend of beers (great stuff)
Gift of the Magi - A disappointing Beir de Garde with Brett from Lost Abbey
Double Bastard - I still don't know what it is aside from really good (Stone)
Collaboration Not Litigation - Good but I wish it was straight RR Salvation
Pannepoot - a nicely spiced Belgian quad maybe a little thinnish (Struise)
J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale - a superb English Barleywine (1998)
Some of these were way better than expected, others were very disappointing. So far Lost Abbey has proved to be disappointing for both Josh and I and I would say the the Struise brews have been a bit less than I expect from my experiences with their other brews. The Moonlit Sessions was a pleasant surprise, but i think that was mostly b/c I wasn't expecting much from something described as a lager. And the J.W. Lee's was fantastic a very nice find for us when I spotted these bottles of beer from 1998 in the wine section at a Whole Foods in Maine.
We have a lot of beers to go through in our cellar and we probably will for quite some time. Some of them will have to become nicely aged just because of the back up. We have over 115 beers in Josh's closet. It ought to be a while before we pay from any beer that is not pretty highly sought after.
Moonlit Sessions - a very nice dark lager from Port Brewing
Serpent Stout - a rather muddled imperial stout from Lost Abbey
Struiselensis - a fine sour brown ale from Struise
Interlude - a very interesting buttery sour ale from Allagash
Troegenator - a tastey but plain dobblebock from Troeg
Choklat - an unbelievably chocolaty stout from Southern Tier
Pliny the Younger - Triple IPA from Russian River (need I say more)
Pliny the Elder - Double IPA from RR my favorite beer
The Abyss - a complex and robust stout (Deschutes)
Nugget Nectar - a super tasty double amber ale from Troegs
Shark Attack - a super sweet (not in a good way) double red ale from Port
Firestone 11 - a super complex barrel aged blend of beers (great stuff)
Gift of the Magi - A disappointing Beir de Garde with Brett from Lost Abbey
Double Bastard - I still don't know what it is aside from really good (Stone)
Collaboration Not Litigation - Good but I wish it was straight RR Salvation
Pannepoot - a nicely spiced Belgian quad maybe a little thinnish (Struise)
J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale - a superb English Barleywine (1998)
Some of these were way better than expected, others were very disappointing. So far Lost Abbey has proved to be disappointing for both Josh and I and I would say the the Struise brews have been a bit less than I expect from my experiences with their other brews. The Moonlit Sessions was a pleasant surprise, but i think that was mostly b/c I wasn't expecting much from something described as a lager. And the J.W. Lee's was fantastic a very nice find for us when I spotted these bottles of beer from 1998 in the wine section at a Whole Foods in Maine.
We have a lot of beers to go through in our cellar and we probably will for quite some time. Some of them will have to become nicely aged just because of the back up. We have over 115 beers in Josh's closet. It ought to be a while before we pay from any beer that is not pretty highly sought after.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
There's a hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza
So. Making beer is kinda fun. Yesterday, Josh and I (with assistance from Meghan and Jen) bottled our first homebrew, which is supposed to be a golden Belgian Ale. It used a yeast modeled after the type used in the Trappist monasteries of Belgium.
The beer brewing procedure is not to hard or complex. In short, you take some malted barley, extract the sugars to make a sugary water and then boil it with some hops for flavor. Then you take the sugar water, add yeast to it, and cover it up to let the yeast convert the sugar to alcohol. And BOOM... beer.
The longer explanation is that you take your malted barley, grind it up a bit, and the put it in boiling water to steep like tea. This pulls out the sugars into the water and then the water is drained into a boiling kettle. This sugar water is now the base of your wort or unfermented beer. You boil the sugar water for 60 minutes or so adding a small amount of hops at various stages. Hops added at the beginning are for adding bitterness to the beer, partway through hops are added for flavor and body, and the final hop addition is for aroma. (I may have messed up the different purposes here, but the three different additions are certainly true).
Once you have completed the boil and added all the hops your wort is essentially complete. The wort is cooled and transferred to a container for primary fermentation in a process that leaves most of the hop sediment behind in the boiling kettle. Primary fermentation begins with the addition of yeast. The container is kept in a cool place and ideally will be temperature controlled for the best function of the yeast. After somewhere between 3-7 days primary fermentation is complete and the beer can be transferred to the secondary fermentation vessel. This transfer again removes the wort from the sediment at the bottom of the primary fermentation vessel. Secondary fermentation continues for 5-7 days and when the yeast is tired and running out of sugars to convert to alcohol you can move on to bottling your beer.
The bottling process involves adding a priming sugar to the beer and then putting the beer in bottles and sealing them with a cap. The remaining yeast in the beer converts the sugar to alcohol and releases carbon dioxide in the process producing the carbonation in the beer. About two weeks after bottling your beer is ready to drink. This means that the Holy Bucket Ale from J.E. Watson Brewing will be ready for consumption on April 19th, a day that may or may not live in infamy.
The beer brewing procedure is not to hard or complex. In short, you take some malted barley, extract the sugars to make a sugary water and then boil it with some hops for flavor. Then you take the sugar water, add yeast to it, and cover it up to let the yeast convert the sugar to alcohol. And BOOM... beer.
The longer explanation is that you take your malted barley, grind it up a bit, and the put it in boiling water to steep like tea. This pulls out the sugars into the water and then the water is drained into a boiling kettle. This sugar water is now the base of your wort or unfermented beer. You boil the sugar water for 60 minutes or so adding a small amount of hops at various stages. Hops added at the beginning are for adding bitterness to the beer, partway through hops are added for flavor and body, and the final hop addition is for aroma. (I may have messed up the different purposes here, but the three different additions are certainly true).
Once you have completed the boil and added all the hops your wort is essentially complete. The wort is cooled and transferred to a container for primary fermentation in a process that leaves most of the hop sediment behind in the boiling kettle. Primary fermentation begins with the addition of yeast. The container is kept in a cool place and ideally will be temperature controlled for the best function of the yeast. After somewhere between 3-7 days primary fermentation is complete and the beer can be transferred to the secondary fermentation vessel. This transfer again removes the wort from the sediment at the bottom of the primary fermentation vessel. Secondary fermentation continues for 5-7 days and when the yeast is tired and running out of sugars to convert to alcohol you can move on to bottling your beer.
The bottling process involves adding a priming sugar to the beer and then putting the beer in bottles and sealing them with a cap. The remaining yeast in the beer converts the sugar to alcohol and releases carbon dioxide in the process producing the carbonation in the beer. About two weeks after bottling your beer is ready to drink. This means that the Holy Bucket Ale from J.E. Watson Brewing will be ready for consumption on April 19th, a day that may or may not live in infamy.
Vengeance will be mine!
Well I have a had a lot of fun in the past several days in and around LA. I went bouldering outside at two different location less than an hour and a half from LA. (Of course there are plenty of locations that are roughly in LA and are still over an hour and a half away) I also drank some good beer with Josh (although some of it was slightly disappointing), and yesterday we bottled our first homebrew. Also yesterday, Josh, Meghan and I sampled some typical Vietnamese food in the Little Saigon section of greater LA under the direction of our culinary guide, Jen. I enjoyed it very much, but I have been told it is not "great" Vietnamese food so I have decided to describe it as typical. In any case it was delicious and went far beyond the most common Vietnamese dish in America, Pho. I have some pictures to post from the second bouldering trip, and I want to describe the beer brewing process from my layman's viewpoint since I have been asked about it several times.
But before I do that I would like to throw up a few thoughts about my last trip to Bishop, because I am going back on Tuesday and I will stay there through Saturday. And this time I AM OUT FOR VENGEANCE!!
Well, not really, but I would like to climb a bit better than I did last time. On my last trip (March 27th-30th) I was there for about three full days of climbing. I wasted one whole afternoon on a climb called Action Figure that is fully within my abilities, but involves a relatively low probability move to stick two of your fingers as deep as you can into a small pocket. I got very close to sending the problem but I am pretty sure that in the end I was defeated because I put some tape on one of my fingers to protect the skin when it was inserted into the pocket. However the tape probably made my finger enough wider that I was never able to get the fingers deep enough into the pocket. Frustrating to say the least. I may try to go back and send it this time around, but then again I might stay away so as not to waste any more time on it. We'll see.
Other than that one semi-wasted afternoon, I was climbing with some folks who are not quite as motivated as me. I have a lot of energy at the crags and I always want to run around and get on as many different problems as I can. This was a much more relaxed pace than I set for myself, but I failed to take advantage of it and get lots of good photos. Instead I managed to climb a few good problems over the course of the trip, but I tried fewer than I might have otherwise. I successfully sent three v3s, the ultra classic Ironman Traverse v4, a less classic but popular v5 called the Anti-Hero Roof, and a v6 called Royal Jelly (I linked to a video of that send [successful climb] here) . Not too bad for me but certainly not up to the mini-rampage I went on at Joe's Valley.
So I am getting excited about the return and trying to decided on some good climbs to aim for. I think I want to stay mostly at the Buttermilks, for two reasons. One is that the area is a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the volcanic tablelands. The other is that it is at a higher elevation so I might find a bit cooler temps there. I am hoping I will find some groups of other climbers around so that I can get a spot on some of the higher problem I am aiming for. If not I will just climb some stuff closer to the ground.
But before I do that I would like to throw up a few thoughts about my last trip to Bishop, because I am going back on Tuesday and I will stay there through Saturday. And this time I AM OUT FOR VENGEANCE!!
Well, not really, but I would like to climb a bit better than I did last time. On my last trip (March 27th-30th) I was there for about three full days of climbing. I wasted one whole afternoon on a climb called Action Figure that is fully within my abilities, but involves a relatively low probability move to stick two of your fingers as deep as you can into a small pocket. I got very close to sending the problem but I am pretty sure that in the end I was defeated because I put some tape on one of my fingers to protect the skin when it was inserted into the pocket. However the tape probably made my finger enough wider that I was never able to get the fingers deep enough into the pocket. Frustrating to say the least. I may try to go back and send it this time around, but then again I might stay away so as not to waste any more time on it. We'll see.
Other than that one semi-wasted afternoon, I was climbing with some folks who are not quite as motivated as me. I have a lot of energy at the crags and I always want to run around and get on as many different problems as I can. This was a much more relaxed pace than I set for myself, but I failed to take advantage of it and get lots of good photos. Instead I managed to climb a few good problems over the course of the trip, but I tried fewer than I might have otherwise. I successfully sent three v3s, the ultra classic Ironman Traverse v4, a less classic but popular v5 called the Anti-Hero Roof, and a v6 called Royal Jelly (I linked to a video of that send [successful climb] here) . Not too bad for me but certainly not up to the mini-rampage I went on at Joe's Valley.
So I am getting excited about the return and trying to decided on some good climbs to aim for. I think I want to stay mostly at the Buttermilks, for two reasons. One is that the area is a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the volcanic tablelands. The other is that it is at a higher elevation so I might find a bit cooler temps there. I am hoping I will find some groups of other climbers around so that I can get a spot on some of the higher problem I am aiming for. If not I will just climb some stuff closer to the ground.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Mirror, mirror on the wall...
where am I the fairest of all?
In the past few weeks I have been at opposite levels of relative attractiveness in different settings. Earlier this week I went to the special release of some barrel aged beers from a brewery near San Diego. There was a crowd of about a hundred folks there, mostly guys. After I had been there for a while, I took a look around and I realized something. These guys made me look GOOD. I mean there were a few in shape guys there, but for the most part... um.... not looking too hot. Yup. At a special beer release I am an Adonis.
At a climbing area on the other hand, I am just one of a large number of very fit young men running around in various states of undress. So no need for me to resort to plastic surgery or dieting. I just need to pick my spots if I want to be the best looking guy around.
Unfortunately beer drinker's gatherings tend not to attract very many women so my relative attractiveness there just goes to waste. And although there are a good number of attractive ladies out at the climbing ares there are never enough girls to even out gender ratio. This leads to stiff competition for the attentions of the few available ladies. Good thing for me that I am not interested in that type of competition. Not cause I am not interested in any of the women, but more because that blatant competition is not cool for the ladies who are targeted by it. Ah well maybe someday the ladies will find me.... ;D
In the past few weeks I have been at opposite levels of relative attractiveness in different settings. Earlier this week I went to the special release of some barrel aged beers from a brewery near San Diego. There was a crowd of about a hundred folks there, mostly guys. After I had been there for a while, I took a look around and I realized something. These guys made me look GOOD. I mean there were a few in shape guys there, but for the most part... um.... not looking too hot. Yup. At a special beer release I am an Adonis.
At a climbing area on the other hand, I am just one of a large number of very fit young men running around in various states of undress. So no need for me to resort to plastic surgery or dieting. I just need to pick my spots if I want to be the best looking guy around.
Unfortunately beer drinker's gatherings tend not to attract very many women so my relative attractiveness there just goes to waste. And although there are a good number of attractive ladies out at the climbing ares there are never enough girls to even out gender ratio. This leads to stiff competition for the attentions of the few available ladies. Good thing for me that I am not interested in that type of competition. Not cause I am not interested in any of the women, but more because that blatant competition is not cool for the ladies who are targeted by it. Ah well maybe someday the ladies will find me.... ;D
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A boulderer's Worst Nightmare
well... maybe not if you are old school. And I am sure if any old school climbers read this (which they won't) they would get all in a huff and complain about how wrong I am and how I don't know what I am talking about and "gym climbers... blah blah blah."
Yesterday between trips to various breweries I managed to stop by a classic bouldering/ trad climbing destination called Mount Woodson.
And hey it is damn cool. There are tons of boulders there and it is sweet high quality granite too. Unfortunate it is all virtually featureless. Face climbing is pretty much limited to aretes and some thin slab stuff.
Now because there is so much rock there a good number of cool slitter cracks scattered across the boulders covering the hillside. But these tend to be tall and somewhat intimidating for a lone guy with a crash pad like me. I have plans to go back equipped with a partner and some trad gear in addition to pads and hopefully that will be more fun. But I still think it is the modern boulderer's worst nightmare to walk up a hillside with so much rock and so few holds. (aside from maybe living in Florida where there is no rock at all).
Yesterday between trips to various breweries I managed to stop by a classic bouldering/ trad climbing destination called Mount Woodson.
And hey it is damn cool. There are tons of boulders there and it is sweet high quality granite too. Unfortunate it is all virtually featureless. Face climbing is pretty much limited to aretes and some thin slab stuff.
Now because there is so much rock there a good number of cool slitter cracks scattered across the boulders covering the hillside. But these tend to be tall and somewhat intimidating for a lone guy with a crash pad like me. I have plans to go back equipped with a partner and some trad gear in addition to pads and hopefully that will be more fun. But I still think it is the modern boulderer's worst nightmare to walk up a hillside with so much rock and so few holds. (aside from maybe living in Florida where there is no rock at all).
Barrel Roll...
Yesterday, I managed to get my hands on a couple of the rarest(recent production) beers around (obviously there are plenty of homebrews made in lower quantities). About a month ago Josh got wind of a special beer release down at Alesmith Brewing in San Diego. The beers being released were barrel aged versions of their Imperial Stout (Speedway), Barleywine (Old Numbskull), and Scottish Ale (Wee Heavy). These beers were brewed in 2006 and aged in oak barrels until just before their release yesterday. Since Josh works and I was around and not doing too much from day to day, I decided to drive down solo and pick up some of these beers. The official release time was 1pm, but if you showed up earlier you got a ticket with your position in line written on it so that you didn't have to stand in place for several hours. I left a bit later than I planned to get down there, but I made very good time down 405 and 5 to get to San Diego around 11:40. This garnered me a ticket with number 59 on it.
There was a number of guys hanging out in the parking lot drinking some beers (there were even a few women there too). I had brought some beers down to trade, but there wasn't much of that going on so I just chilled out, read a book and ate some lunch while waiting for 1pm to roll around. Once the time came, people began to gather and get their beer in a pretty orderly way. While standing in line I heard tell that they were only releasing 180 bottles of the Speedway Stout. Which put me solidly in the good position since there was a two bottle per person limit. I waited my turn an got my bottles. Sweet!! I checked the hand-numbered bottles and discovered that the were only 235 bottles of Stout
produced and 208 bottles of Barleywine.
I knew that they might only be releasing 180 of them but I had no idea that that was the end of them. I am not sure what I was thinking, but man, seeing those low numbers really brought it home that these were some rare beers I had just bought. I mean when I picked up the sexual chocolate in NC I was psyched b/c it was one of 500 but I was now holding several beers that were each one of less than half of that total.
After acquiring these rare brews, I headed around to a couple of the other local craft breweries (Stone and Port/Lost Abbey) which are also some of the best in the world. I picked up a couple of their seasonal beers at each place. The Russian Imperial Stout from Stone, the Serpent Stout from Lost Abbey, and the Moonlit Sessions Lager from Port. These breweries are not separated by too much distance and it was easy to swing by both of them on the way back up to Josh's place in LA. Stone looks very cool; they have a big restaurant attached to the brewery and quite a lot of cool gear available in their shop. I guess the logo helps.
There was a number of guys hanging out in the parking lot drinking some beers (there were even a few women there too). I had brought some beers down to trade, but there wasn't much of that going on so I just chilled out, read a book and ate some lunch while waiting for 1pm to roll around. Once the time came, people began to gather and get their beer in a pretty orderly way. While standing in line I heard tell that they were only releasing 180 bottles of the Speedway Stout. Which put me solidly in the good position since there was a two bottle per person limit. I waited my turn an got my bottles. Sweet!! I checked the hand-numbered bottles and discovered that the were only 235 bottles of Stout
produced and 208 bottles of Barleywine.
I knew that they might only be releasing 180 of them but I had no idea that that was the end of them. I am not sure what I was thinking, but man, seeing those low numbers really brought it home that these were some rare beers I had just bought. I mean when I picked up the sexual chocolate in NC I was psyched b/c it was one of 500 but I was now holding several beers that were each one of less than half of that total.After acquiring these rare brews, I headed around to a couple of the other local craft breweries (Stone and Port/Lost Abbey) which are also some of the best in the world. I picked up a couple of their seasonal beers at each place. The Russian Imperial Stout from Stone, the Serpent Stout from Lost Abbey, and the Moonlit Sessions Lager from Port. These breweries are not separated by too much distance and it was easy to swing by both of them on the way back up to Josh's place in LA. Stone looks very cool; they have a big restaurant attached to the brewery and quite a lot of cool gear available in their shop. I guess the logo helps.
Posting Binge!!!
Okay I have time and more important things to avoid today so I'll be posting plenty. I need to do a beer summary for the last week or so. A review of my trip to Bishop. Maybe a few thoughts about my next week or so and when/where I'll do some climbing. Also I have to post this:
Royal Jelly, V6 on the Beekeeper Boulder, Pollen Grains, Bishop.
In my defense, I don't normally make much noise when I climb, usually only a few screams of frustration here and there. Unlike a lot of folks I don't tend to let out a yell when I hit a hold, but more when I miss a move. And that is what happened here, I thought I was going to miss that finishing hold and I began to scream about it in anticipation, but then it turned out I hit it just right and held on. And yes this boulder problem does not top out, or at least it can but the finish is high up over some rocks and on lichen-y rock that is not climbed often, making it even less appealing than the high finish over rocks already is.
Royal Jelly, V6 on the Beekeeper Boulder, Pollen Grains, Bishop.
In my defense, I don't normally make much noise when I climb, usually only a few screams of frustration here and there. Unlike a lot of folks I don't tend to let out a yell when I hit a hold, but more when I miss a move. And that is what happened here, I thought I was going to miss that finishing hold and I began to scream about it in anticipation, but then it turned out I hit it just right and held on. And yes this boulder problem does not top out, or at least it can but the finish is high up over some rocks and on lichen-y rock that is not climbed often, making it even less appealing than the high finish over rocks already is.
Update on the Smirking Star
So I am in LA again and here is a quick update on the search for the Hardee's/Carl's Jr. division line. Several Carl's Jr. were spotted in and around Salt Lake City, Utah. I think this means that the dividing line for the Smirking Star is the Rocky Mountains. However, further investigation is still needed on this issue and I will not relax my vigilance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
