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Vedauwoo – Farewell
The time has come for us to leave the wonders of Vedauwoo behind, but we can’t resist going out early to put a rope on one last climb on John’s tower, Yellow Belly 5.10c. This is perfect – hand jams, stemming, fingers, a hard lieback, all leading to a final honker of an offwidth. We’re…
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Vedauwoo Grand Loop
To close out the month we attempt a full helping of our favorite activities, setting out to traverse the whole area from north to south with climbing packs, climb with friends at the Nautilus, and return via a different route. It’s great, and exhausting! Kate and Mark introduce us to some new friends, I lead…
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Twin Peaks Scramble
Returning to Vedauwoo with a new refrigerator (thanks to Annemarie and Huntington for more help), we break in the afternoon for a quick scramble up these prominent peaks. The woods are pretty thick on the north slopes, but just open enough to be fun to navigate. Both summits have nice views, and the south one…
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Vedauwoo – Plumb Line
Quite the crew shows up for our main weekend gathering: Kate, Mark, Sean, Matt, Doug, and Liz traipse to the Plumb Line crag with us for some grovelling. I like all the short cracks I’ve climbed here, and of course I take another swing on Plumb Line itself, doing much better this time. Ann shows…
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Vedauwoo – Clamshell
No Vedauwoo season would feel right without a day spent on top of the clamshell, a giant boulder that rests against Fall Wall in the main area. Dad, Doug, and Liz join us for the fun scramble up through the tunnel underneath to the base of the wall. We’re quickly reminded we’ve been climbing cracks,…
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Green Mountain Loop
I’m nearly a casualty before this hike even begins when Dad drops the tailgate on the double barreled dog cannon and nearly scores a direct hit. Dad fires the double-barreled dog cannon Having survived that, following Dad’s cross country route to the pleasant loop around the Green mountains is a breeze. We scramble up a…
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Reynolds Hill Loop
One of the things I love about Vedauwoo is that it’s too complex for me to mentally map, and I’m always discovering new places and new aspects of places I’ve visited. I’ve been in the Reynolds Hill area many times, but never followed the creek downstream, where it enters a windy, rocky little canyon. A…
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T-Rex Departs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96029174@N00/4830700655/ We return to the site where our experiments with mobile living began in 2005, the Lakeside KOA in Fort Collins. Every time we return somewhere, even a place we’ve only been once or twice, T-Rex returns immediately to his old haunts. Here he scratches a tree that probably bears the marks of his claws…