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.