cyberhobo

Category: Outings

  • Fossil Falls

    An afternoon at Fossil Falls provides plenty of amusement. We play with a toprope on Ride of the Valkyries, 10c, which I eventually manage to lieback my way up. Ann plays with the camera and I wander around the old riverbed. Finally I lead Eagle, 5.9, which I’ve been wanting to do for a while.

  • Suicide Rock

    Our first instinct in the morning is to relax all day and forget about climbing. But after a good breakfast at the Idyllwild Cafe we decide to at least hike up to look at Suicide Rock. And bring some gear just in case. Randy comes along and gives us a tour of his old stomping…

  • Tahquitz

    I start the day wandering around the county campground looking for Roy & Walter, but it’s almost empty. I call Roy’s cell phone, and he says they’re in sites 7 & 8. Eventually we figure out that they are in the state park campground. We join Roy, Randy, Walter and Kelly at Jan’s for a…

  • Bachelor Party, Las Vegas

    This sort of event resists documentation. There was a bachelor party. It was in Vegas. The imagination can probably take care of the rest. Ann picks me up on the strip in the morning, poorer but otherwise in pretty good shape.

  • Black Corridor, Red Rocks

    Today we’re looking for a few sport climbs to occupy the morning before I head into town. We look at Cannibal Crag and Riding Hood wall, but they’re sunny, so we head into the park again to Calico Basin. On the hike in we have to climb around a slimy green pool. Jezze dog can’t…

  • Red Rocks

    We make it to Red Rocks around 9 am, pay five bucks to get in (the first BLM fee I’ve paid), and start around the loop. We stop at all the turnouts and what routes are nearby in the guidebook. At the Sandstone Quarry there is a nice shady 5.9 route right in front Sicktion.…

  • I-15 Bivy

    After about three hours of driving we pull off on Halloran Springs road looking for a place to sleep. Amazingly, there’s a nice pullout there sheltered by a Tamarisk a ways off from the freeway. We sleep beneath more stars than sky, and wake up at sunrise.

  • Wagon Wheel

    Matt and Sophie Heason, the couple from the UK we met in Joshua Tree three weeks ago, drop by our house on their way to LAX and the end of their tour. Since we saw them they have been to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Valley of Fire, Death Valley, Bishop, and the Needles. We take…

  • Wagon Wheel Destruction

    Walter is in the front area when I arrive, staring sadly at one of our favorite boulders. Someone has made a super-hot fire at the base of it, and the rock has crumbled away. The thin foothold that starts the best problem there is gone, and the face is black with soot. Inside the rock…

  • Dihedral Rock, Joshua Tree

    Ted and I head out to hang Brownie on another hard route. The slick-walled dihedral just looks impossible from the bottom. Once I’m on it though, I seem to enter another realm of possibilites, and it feels good to squeeze the last drops of strength from my body. To my surprise I make it most…