2003 December

This evening our group site is much more animated. We have a potluck, with addictive barbecue chips from John, crab dip from Oscar, brats and kielbasa from Mary and Clint, Ann’s buffalo stuffing, apple pie from Ingrid, chocolate chunk cookies from Karen, with wine, beer, and champagne from all directions. Matty and Ann, who we met climbing on Billboard join us, then Willem and Shana from Boulder introduce themselves, asking if we’ll share our fire. It’s a great mix of people, with good conversations thriving, but none of us make it the requisite 7 hours from sunset to midnight. Ann and I hear a few cries from hardier souls from our sleeping bags.

Karen and her friend John have joined us at Indian Cove group site #9. We don’t know what the crowds will be like, so we just head to see what climbs are available. To my surprise Driving Limitations, 5.8 **, is free on the Billboard Buttress. This has one set of pretty hard slab moves past the first bolt, but these can be avoided on the right. Above that it’s just fun face climbing. Then we move left to the Reverend, 5.8 **, which I lead on gear John leaves. This is one of those awkward leaning JTree cracks, but it has some quality jamming. Ann and I follow John on We Dive at Dawn, 5.8 **, which starts with a really good lieback sequence. To finish the day we move on to the Feudal Wall, where I put John on Pet or Meat, 5.10d ***. He does it with one fall, and I follow with a couple at the crux, climbing it pretty much the same way I did my last time on lead. By this time we’re losing sun and it’s getting cold, so we head back to camp.

The night doesn’t provide any rain to test our new tent, but it is comfortable and the double doors are great. Today Ann’s navigation instincts are correct, and we pass a wash I think might the right one. We do try another that is just too small before reaching the obviously correct Blue Cut Wash, where we stop and make blueberry oatmeal.

We have to rely on the route description again to pick which washes to go up. Pass side washes, take the right forks of the main wash, etc. Blue Cut canyon is narrower than Pushawalla, with some strange stacked-up rock formations here and there on the sides. Blue Cut Pass is long and gradual. On the other side the only description left in the book is, “follow the base of the mountains back to the road.” To me, the base is a wash by definition, so I just follow the biggest wash down. It does eventually take us away from the hills though, and Ann uses the GPS receiver to get a heading back toward the mountains to the car. We go cross-country until we would have to climb over the ridge to continue, at which point we go around and find the road.

After a last-minute stop at Sport Chalet for a fleece jacket we couldn’t find at REI, and an omelet at Coco’s, we pull in to the trailhead on Geology Tour road around 2 pm. Ann navigates using the trail guidebook with included 1:100,000 topos, and the GPS receiver. For a while just the book description is good enough as we ascend a major wash, but eventually we reach a turn that is not described well. Looking at the map, I suggest the turn that seems less well-matched to the description, which frustrates her but seems like the only way to continue heading west. I don’t feel certain either, but we do reach the pass with the described cable fence and view of Mt. San Jacinto. From there we head down into Pushawalla Canyon. There we see flourishing chollas and a not-so-flourishing tarantula. After a couple hours we see a good campsite, pitch the new tent, and make up some veggie chili as the light fades. Looking back up the canyon with Ann, I daydream of the Continental Divide Trail, somewhere many days of walking beyond the horizon.

To me these movies are just a means of reliving the glory of the books, and this is best of them for that. The essential events are shown, but they are far more exciting to me when I fill in all the blanks in the background story, the history of the characters, and the shape of their world. This final episode takes fewer liberties with the characters and story line than the other two. My only gripes are the small bits of unnecessary fiddling with the characters, and the awkward pacing of the ending. Not nearly enough to stop me from watching the extended version when it arrives.

Things NOT to do at your viewing of Return of the King

IMDB

It is REI day, time to make a dent in our gear list for the Continental Divide Trail and our bank account. Some of our acquisitions:

• North Face Slick Rock tent. It weighs 4 lb 9 oz, maybe half a pound more than the lightest options but with some important features. It has two poles, is free-standing, and has a door on each side. It has many of the same features as my Canyonlands, which has served me well. My only reservation is that my feet will touch the bottom when I stretch out - hopefully still OK in wet conditions.
• Nalgene Fair Share cups. These hold 1 liter and have a screw-top lid. We’ll use them as cups, bowls, and water bottles. We’d prefer something similar in a 16-20 oz size, but there doesn’t seem to be anything like it.
• Silk sleeping bag liners. I have no experience with these, but we’re hoping they will increase bag warmth and decrease smelliness and the need to wash the bags.
• Black Diamond Ice Axe. We get a 60-cm, l4 oz model for me. I plan to let Ann use mine, a 55-cm which I think weighs only 10 oz.
• Vasque Trail Runners. I try a lot of shoes on. They are generally too wide, Solomons especially. I also get a pair of SmartFeet green insoles to experiment with.

Of course we also got a lot of odds and ends like bottles and stuff sacks. We still haven’t made any major food purchases.

“Let’s split up” was a phrase oft-repeated by my new cousin Jonathan over the holidays, playing Rescue Hero. Today as we all started splitting up for our respective plans we realized the time for a family photo had slipped past. We decided to at least get some sibling pics before Ryan hit the road.

Another gorgeous day. We drive south to Temecula where some of my relatives on my dad’s side live. My cousin Dan and his wife Joan are traveling, but cousin Anabel and my Uncle Don greet us with a fabulous lunch of fresh salmon and salad. We visit Dan’s scenic property outside of town, and get a slobbery salutation from his dogs Kitt and Bondi. Then we tour the site of the new building that will house Gospel Recordings, where Don and Anabel have been working.

We wake up to clear skies, and I feel excited about getting a couple of routes in today. The whole family packs up and heads for Big Rock at Perris Lake. The gate is closed, which adds half a mile to the approach but also thins the crowds. Today there’s only one other pair of climbers on the rock.

We start on Puppy Dog, 5.6. This is a good slab warmup. Ann’s brothers both make it up, Randy’s second climb and Ryan’s first. Randy’s wife Amy has fun going up too. Ann and I also TR a route just to the right which has a really fun 5.7 or 5.8 move on it.

After lunch I lead Mind Bender, 5.9, a little hesitantly because I had trouble with one move when I TR’d it last. It goes really well though, I feel solid all the way up. Ann works out a great sequence for the reachy move on TR that makes me proud. Amy and Randy also give it a whack. Neither make it past the crux, but they both give it a real effort in too-big shoes. Amy especially seems to have good instincts on the rock.

I finish with a TR of Frontal Lobotomy, 5.10a. This also goes much easier than my last ascent. I think the cooler temperatures may have improved the friction. They also shorten the day though - when the sun dips under the ridge it quickly gets too cold to climb.

Here’s a glimpse from Christmas day with Ann’s family. To them it’s obvious what’s going on. For me it’s a symbol of the many things a family shares, bits of common identity that make them unique. As a new member of the family I don’t have the memories that fill this picture with meaning, but I have the privilege of being a part of this event where I can get a peek into their history as they remember it.

Ann’s dad, Bob Fish, made a trip back to the Congo for the first time in eight years last October. He spent three weeks in Kinshasa, where Ann, Ryan, and Randy all spent some of their school years. Here they are opening boxes of things their father bought that they recognize from their childhood. Among them are purple rolls of toilet paper, the consistency of construction paper. I can’t detect any scent, but the siblings all instinctively put the rolls to their noses.