John: Let's do (insert insane activity here) tomorrow!
Matt: That'll work.
Juliana: Whatever.
Marti: Oh no!
Marti and I spend the night in Cheyenne and head for Vedawoo. Matt and Juliana will arrive around 3 - 4 so we have time to be hardcore. We start at the Rat Brain, a formation just west of the main area. Marti leads a 5.6 crack, Kim, and I bag a 5.7, Sugar Crack, and finally a short friction 5.4, right under the rap route. We then head to the Walts Wall area. Marti leads "5.7 Cracks" (pretty hard to protect!) and I lead "Water Streak II", a 5.9+ slab route (very cool!) and then Matt and Juliana arrive. Matt's climbed a little bit but Juliana is a complete novice. We start them on the first pitch of Walts Wall (5.3) and then Cold Fingers (5.7), which Matt leads. Juliana has had enough for her first day so Matt and I do Oslands Delight, a 5.8 with a pretty gnarly crux, to close out the day. We decide to head for Fremont Canyon, a place I've never been, the next day and camp on a dirt road near the North Platte.
Matt got a flat tire while looking for a place to camp so we all hop in the brave Subaru to finish the drive. Fremont Canyon is a cool place - quite narrow for it's depth. The water goes through a tunnel to generate power so instead of the raging water of the North Platte we're climbing above a stagnant green pool. The theory of climbing at Fremont is to rap down to the river and then climb back out to the rim, about 80 feet in this part of the canyon. I choose a nice looking 5.8, Stone King, (from Harlin's guide - it's only got a handful of routes to choose from) and go down for a toprope ascent.
It's a good thing I was toproping because this sucker is HARD! Seemed like 5.9 to me. Good rock, nice jamming, big exposure. Next is Matt; Juliana crosses the canyon and takes pictures. Matt starts out just fine but is stymied by the hand jamming. I try to explain the theory of hand jams to him from afar (hard to hear with the bouncing echoes!) but he remains clueless. After many attempts and no progress I lower him back to the river level.
Now what? Well, there's a 5.10 on the other wall of the recess we started in, Greystoke, that looks a lot more doable. I move the belay. The lower part goes just fine but Matt runs out of gas at the 5.10 crux. A lot of tension and he eventually flops onto the rim. After this epic struggle, Marti and Juliana would rather play in the water instead of climbing. The problem: getting boats down the canyon. The solution: lowering the suckers on the climbing rope. There's a trail down too and Marti, Matt, and Juliana hike down and grab the boats.
The rest of the afternoon Matt and Juliana paddle around, figuring out how to steer the boats and practicing wet exits. Eventually we decide to move on and pull the boats back up (grunt!) and drive off. There are some nice places for beginners to boat on the North Platte as we drive along it but there's no time if we're going to fix Matt's tire. We find a great tire place in Rawlins and head on for Jackson Hole, camping along Granite Creek that night.
The weather turns cool and cloudy the next morning. There have been some big June storms and there's fresh snow up high. All of the rivers are swollen - tough for beginners! The Hoback is too high so we head for the Snake. We put in at Astoria Hot Springs. No rapids but lots of quickwater and waves. Also lots of wood in the water. The level is about 15,000 cfs: high but not flood stage. Matt and Juliana have fun - it's a great place to learn - but I'm in the inflatable and get pretty cold. We all take out at West Table and head to Jackson for lunch.
It's still cold and rainy so we spend the afternoon hanging around Jackson, shopping. Eventually the clouds start to lift and I convince everyone to head to Alpine Canyon. Marti and I are in the inflatable while Matt and Juliana take the hardboats. Things start out well: we run Station Creek rapid without a problem. Then Matt takes a swim. Then both Matt and Juliana take a swim in the same place (S turns). It's not the big waves but the squirrely eddy lines and whirlpools that do then in. They aren't too bothered but its getting late and the water is cold. Matt and Juliana switch to the inflatable and we head down until we spot an access trail -- this is at the top of the gauging straights. Marti is keen to get out and M & J are getting a bit cold so we pull the plug on Alpine Canyon. Matt runs to get the car (we're halfway between the two cars) and after a while Juliana heads for the other car. It takes here about 5 seconds to get a ride but Matt, on the other hand, had to run the whole way! We all converge again and head off toward warmer places: Utah!
We spent the night in Soda Springs. They have a geyser there controlled by a timer: every half hour is "eruption time". Pretty cool, though. On to Utah - we cruise by Bear Lake and on down Logan canyon. I've done the Logan once before and it was great so we have a look. Water level is perfect: high, but not too high, III. Too hard for Mat and Juliana in hard boats but fine in the inflatable. We just run the top bit: Rick's Spring to the next bridge. It's all rapids and everyone gets to have fun. We waste time shooting video and getting hero shots. Matt and Juliana are getting pretty good at controlling the inflatable.
On to the Weber: standard Henefer to Croyden run. The river is over 1000cfs, really trucking. Just a few inches clearance under the bridge. This time it's hard boats: Matt and Marti then Juliana and I. Matt swims once but does OK. Juliana is nervous - the waves are pretty big - but everything is cool and we continue on past the bridge a bit. Would have been nicer in lower water but what can you do?
That evening Matt and Juliana wipe out the Red Lobster (Matt has this thing for "all you can eat" places) while Marti and I visit Jay Lepreau. The cars become separated just past Provo and Marti and I camp without finding Matt and Juliana.
The next morning there's still no sign of Matt. Nothing to do but start driving. We leeave a message with Gretchen in Nebraska and then proceede to Price. We find Matt and Juliana hiding in the first motel in Price - right next to where we told Gretchen to have them meet us. Back together, we headed for the San Rafael. Not much to say about this trip: no rapids, lots of water, lots of scenery. A rest day! The only problem was Matt's car: it kept stalling and seemed to be getting worse and worse. We limped into Green River and spent the night in a decaying motel (everything in Green River seems to be decaying except Ray's Tavern).
Since the San Rafael was up, I hoped the Muddy would be up too. The biggest problem was that Matt didn't want to take his car on the dirt roads in its current condition. Since it was the weekend, I decided to take a chance on hitching the shuttle and we headed out to the put in.
When we got to the river we were immediately attacked by thousands of biting flies. They were everywhere and slapping them was completely futile since for every moment you stopped to slap one place you would get bitten everywhere else. The only thing to do was to get in the water as fast as possible. The water was about a foot deep - pretty low - but Matt and Juliana jumped in the hard boats and Marti and I went off in search of a ride at the take out. The water had obviously been much deeper the day before - we should have comer here earlier!
There were a bunch of people hanging around at the take out but everyone had a lame excuse for not helping us. We switched to plan B: find a slot canyon hike and wait for the boaters at the take out. The main problem was that it was hotter than hell and we didn't have the sun lotion! We drove up the road a bit and looked for a hike called "Ramp Canyon". The directions in the book didn't make sense and we didn't have a map so we just started heading down a gully waiting for it to slot up. Unfortunately, that never happened. We tramped about an hour through a very unremarkable shallow canyon until cliffed out at a (dry) waterfall. We headed out of the canyon for a look around and saw absolutely nothing worth hiking to in the vicinity. Bummer. We slogged back up to the car and headed for the take out.
Nothing to do but hike up the river a bit. The flies were better than at the put in but still pretty bad. About 1/2 mile up we gave up and immersed ourselves in the water to hide from the sun and bugs. Matt and Juliana soon arrived and Marti and I boated back while they walked a bit. They had really enjoyed the chutes (narrows that last over 5 miles) but the had to portage a bunch of rapids that were too shallow and were chased by bugs everywhere the tamerisk grew along the shore. They were pretty wasted! We had to go back to the put in to grab the inflatable (it was waiting in case Marti and I find a ride) and the flies are even worse - we didn't even bother rolling the boat up properly. Back to Green River again!
The next day Matt and Juliana wanted to take a day off on their own around Moab. Marti and I looked at the Price river but there was not enough water so we decided to go slot canyon hiking near Little Wild Horse canyon. The next canyons after LWH are "Ding" and "Dang", as named by our guidebook. The hike was fine but the canyons were not nearly as cool as LWH. The narrows were short and the sun was almost always on us. We hiked through to the backside of the reef, cut across on an old road, and down the other canyon. We had to wade a few pools on the way down but nothing too hardcore. A nice hike but too hot for midsummer. When we arrived in Moab at our rendezvous we got a message from Matt that they had moved on to Grand Junction to fix the car. They didn't get to do anything in Moab at all: the car was in bad shape. A dealer in Grand Junction offered to fix it fast and they took off. We drove through Castle Valley after a short, scenic hike up Negro Bill and watched the sun set on the Titan. We met Matt and Juliana at their motel and we relaxed in the pool that evening.
The next morning we face a momentous decision: how to celebrate Juliana's 21st birthday. Matt's keen to go climbing again and I've been telling everyone about Independence Monument in Colorado Natl Monument, one of the more mellow desert spires. Matt's car is ready around 11 and we head up to the monument. This is all pretty crazy: it's 100 out and we're going to bake. Fortunately, the route is mainly on the shady side. I've been fiddling around with the approach theory on this climb: I've rapped in from the overlook (too high! couldn't make the bottom of the cliff even with a 350 foot line!), hiked in the trail from above (takes too long!), and contemplated hiking up the trail from below (hot! long! Yuk!!). This time I choose a new theory: rapping right from the road where the cliff is short. No problem except it's a free rappel and Juliana gets really spooked. This is her second rap and she has serious acrophobia. Fortunately she keeps moving in spite of her fears and we're ready to start hiking. The unpleasant side of this approach is hiking down a loose talus slope covered with cacti until you reach the streambed below. Matt and Juliana are in sandals and I'm worried someone will wind up with a foot full of spines but we luck out. Once in the streambed it's about 15 minutes to the base of the route - not really a bad way to approach the rock.
Otto's route was put up over 60 years ago by John Otto, the first superintendent of the park. He chopped steps and set thick pipes in the rock so folks could get up the spire without climbing skills. The pipes are now gone but the pipe holes and steps remain, making what would have been a very hard climb fairly easy - mostly moderate fifth class with just a few hard (5.8) spots. Marti's sure Juliana will want to back off once we get a ways up but she has no problem at all with the first pitch. Fortunately all the belay ledges are really huge so she's not bothered too much by the exposure.
The second pitch is the first crux: a short, slightly overhung offwidth with pipe holes offering a reasonable alternative to grunting up the bowels of the crack. My nephew Brad named this the "humad toilet paper" pitch in honor of the butt-cheek-like rock on the right of the crack. I've done this enough to cruise it, unlike my first attempt which had me cowering for a long time due to lack of big gear. This didn't give Matt or Juliana any problems: they had the upper body strength to cruise through on the pipe holes.
There's a nice little sheltered alcove at the top of this pitch. We surprised Juliana by pulling out balloons, presents, and strawberries to celebrate her birthday. We couldn't keep the candles lit but otherwise the party was a huge success (and a complete surprise!); certainly her most unique birthday party.
A short scramble leads to the third pitch: face climbing with a short blank spot at the top. This gave Juliana more trouble than the earlier pitches but eventually we all arrived at the base of the last pitch. The grand finale is an easy slab (with chopped steps) leading to the overhanging mushroom that caps the rock. There are steps in the overhang but it's still the toughest part of the climb. This pitch gets the sun all day and the rock was almost too hot to touch. I led in good style - it's very gunksish! - but Marti had a hard time and whispered to me that Juliana was never going to make it. Too bad Matt and Juliana heard her whispering! Juliana was pretty gripped but with a tight rope she was able to cruise through the overhang. Even Matt was gripped. When he asked me to take his weight for a rest I razzed him about being able to do 40 pullups (I can do one, on a good day ...) and not needing any help on a pitch with such big holds! I was nice, though, and let him hang and collect his wits. Soon we were all on top, enjoying the view. Matt and Juliana were very impressed with their accomplishment and we lazed around on the summit, taking pictures and enjoying life.
The descent was uneventful - I lowered Juliana so she wouldn't have to rap down. We hiked down the trail to Matt's car - a long and hot grunt. We were out of water and a really nice guy watering his yard filled our bottles for us (the trail goes behind a subdivision for the last 1/2 mile). We were all impressed with how nice everyone in Grand junction was. Another night in Grand Junction.
Off to the Arkansas river for some boating. I waste a good part of the day by driving through Aspen (big mistake!) but we finally arrive at the put in for Browns Canyon around 1. The water is WAY high: 3000 cfs. No chance of letting Matt and Juliana paddle by themselves so we start out with Juliana and I in the inflatable and Marti in a hard boat. Everything goes by really fast. The first few rapids are pretty washed out: just big waves, no rocks. The Zoom Flume features huge water: at least 6 or 7 foot breaking waves. No problems, though, and Juliana is impressed. Down Staircase and then disaster: Marti flips. We watch her try a few rolls and then she starts to swim. Although we're close by, it's very hard to do anything in the turbulence. Marti is having trouble getting up for air with all the waves. Then, Juliana and I flip! Oh no!! Fortunately, we're able to jump back into the inflatable quickly and get back to Marti. We are swept into House Rock: a huge boulder splitting the river. Marti hits it dead on but pushes off safely with her legs. Finally, after at least 1/2 mile of swimming, we get Marti on shore. We then chase down both the paddle and boat and the excitement is over. Marti is picked up by some friendly rafters and gets a free ride to the take out (only another 5 minutes away). That's it for the day: one epic is enough. Matt has to miss the excitement. On to Denver.
The next day, Matt and Juliana take off for Nebraska and we're back with the family. Old age and cunning have triumphed over youth and strength: poor Matt is wasted from too much vacationing but I'm ready for more.
Eric and Jay want to go have their kind of fun so we head for Water World. The place keeps getting bigger and bigger! At least Jay's old enough to do almost anything there. Fun, but I get seriously sunburned (I did get the kids greased up, though!).
It's Friday and I succeed in talking Dave Fay into some climbing. The weather looks a little iffy so we head for Boulder Canyon where there's plenty of stuff I haven't done yet. The initial goal is Cosmosis, a great 5.9+ dihedral that I've been wanting to try for years. Although it's usually Dave's role to haul my sorry ass up hard climbs I can't do, this time I get to play the honcho. Cracks! Stems! This takes cunning, not strength! I fly up, ethics intact, and get some hero points. Next we head to a different rock for Dementia, a 10a dihedral. It's occupied so I try a bolted face just to the right. Some very strange knob climbing, maybe around 5.9+?, and I'm eventually up. Dave follow and makes me look good again. Dementia is free and I'm again in the lead. Seems quite easy if you're a stem-meister and I get one more hero point. While waiting for Dementia we see a familiar face strolling up the trail: Mark Abbott and Dorie arrive to watch the action. Mark's injured and can't climb but we have a nice time chatting.
After a short lunch Dave and I head for Flagstaff for bouldering. We're back to the standard arrangement: Dave buzzes all the boulder problems while I make excuses about being weak and wimpy. Still fun, though. That's it for the day and I head back to Denver.
The next day is the Fourth of July. The plan is a big family picnic. I manage to talk everyone into going to the Pumphouse campground in Gore Canyon so we can kayak and picnic at the same time. I make three runs through Little Gore canyon (class II) and everyone except Grandpa gets a turn. Grandma gets to take Jay on her lap with me in the inflatable. Eric hitches a ride with a fisherman but gets bored with fishing and has to hitch a ride with Alan and Doug in the inflatable. Eric disagrees frequently with their lines in the (small) rapids and complains about their lack of paddling skills but he lives to tell the tale in spite of them and in the end and we all have a nice time. Mark Abbott is with us too and seems to like kayaking - maybe he'll acquire a new sport.
That evening we see fireworks at Cherry Creek. I pack up and head back to Connecticut the next morning to be a Haskell nerd for 3 weeks while Marti and the boys stay in Colorado.
While back east I managed to keep in shape by catching Rogers Rock in the Dacks and Cannon in New Hampshire. The highlight (?) was the death of the green Subaru (RIP) in the parking lot of the Radison Inn in scenic Paramus, New Jersey (All hail to Lal and Jane for bailing me out!!). But after three weeks I was ready to head back west.
The adventures started with a return to the Arkansas with Eric and Jay. I hadn't taken them boating at all except for Lower Gore and wanted to go somewhere fun with them. The water was much lower (about 1000 cfs) than last time and I felt Browns Canyon would be fun for Eric with me in the inflatable. We put in while Marti and Jay shuttled and headed on down. Eric was a little nervous but everything was going well and I promised I wouldn't tip over. We eventually arrived at the Zoom Flume and I got flipped by a diagonal wave halfway down. "Dad! You said we wouldn't get flipped!". Fortunately it was a short swim - Eric got out into the eddy at the base of the rapid and I got the boat to shore a little bit below. We were soon back in the boat and had no problems with the rest of the run. When we reached Hecla Junction Marti and Jay met us and I decided that Brown's was too much for Jay so we would run the 3 miles from Hecla to the bottom of the canyon. There's only one real rapid: Siedels Suckhole. We portaged that and went bombing down through many small rapids, passing lots of rafts. Jay made rude gestures (at least, rude for 5 year old kids) at the rafts as we passed by and yelled "Ha Ha". Fortunately he's young enough the rafters thought he was cute. We found some good surfing waves and Jay started naming the rapids for me (I remember "Cartoon Network" but not the others ...). When we reached Marti and Eric it was getting late so we headed back to Denver again.
One of my goals was to get Eric up into Rocky Mountain National Park for a day of alpine climbing. I decided to try Notchtop via the Spiral Route (5.4). This has a fairly short approach and a cool summit. The biggest problem was convincing Eric to get up early - I wanted to leave Denver around 5am. We eventually reached an agreement where he went to bed in the back of the car and instead of waking him up in the morning I would just start driving without rousing him from sleep. Mark Abbott joined us in Broomfield and we were soon at Bear Lake.
Eric did well on the approach hike and was duly impressed when the rock came into view. We left the main trail and Eric had fun kicking steps up a small snowbank on the way to the base of the rock. We reached the bottom of the face and started up the ramp leading to the easy rock on the left edge. This is easy scrambling but Eric wasn't happy with the slick rock and loose debris. He changed into his climbing shoes and felt a lot better as we soon reached the platform where the route starts.
The plan is for Mark to solo while I belay Eric. We stash some gear (approach shoes, mainly) and head up. We're not gone for more than a few minutes before the marmots pull my shoes out from under a rock and start chewing away. Eric finds this quite amusing and I climb back down and stick everything in my pack. The climbing is easy and fun: big holds, solid rock. Eric wants to lead so Mark belays while I solo next to him to consult about nut placements. He does a fine job (although a bit slowly!) and we're at the meadow that leads right to the notch gully. We stay roped up as we hike along through the wildflower-studded tundra. Eric's in a good mood. We finally reach a good ledge a pitch below the notch. Looks like the crux (I've never climbed up this route, only down). Mark thinks he can solo off right while I take a direct line on Eric's belay. Pretty hard stuff, mainly because the top of the pitch is wet. Takes a while but I finally reach tthe base of the notch. Eric does fine following but drops a camalot. Yikes! Meanwhile, Mark's route dead-ends and he returns to the base of the pitch.
The weather is starting to get funky - cloudy and cold. I waste a lot of time trying to throw a rope to Mark and finally bring him up. We're just a few minutes from the summit of the spire but distant thunder convinces us to head down. I've always descended the same way we came up but Mark suggested the West Gully. OK - fine by me - I can't fine a rap anchor for the spiral route. We climb out of the notch and surprise: we're not on the rolling, flat tundra. We're on a very exposed knife edge quite a ways from the easy stuff. I stay with Eric and we take it slowly. The climbing gets too hairy to go unroped and we decide to give up and try a rap anchor we had passed by. Actually, it's mighty hairy just getting to the anchor! On down. Mark first. Eric raps next and does a great job dealing with the loose rock, overhangs, wet spots, and other funky stuff. I join the gang on a small ledge - the next anchor is a small horn right under flowing water. This goes all the way down so I lower Eric first. When I reach the bottom I tell Eric to start heading down the steep loose gully while we pull the ropes. As I'm standing there lecturing him on how safe it is (he thinks it's *awfully* steep) the rock I'm standing on kicks loose and rockets down the gully, smashing from side to side all the way down. OK - I can see Eric's point. We take it slow and easy down the gully. A few steep spots but not too bad. It starts raining. Eric says "Fine Scottish Weather": he's actually having fun. On down to the base (Mark lost a glove to the marmots) and down the trail. Eric got to do a few short glissades, keeping him happy. We even took a really cool picture of the mountain shrouded in rain and fog. This was Eric's first real alpine climb. We figured he had an authentic alpine experience:
Last day of the trip: Eldo! Lots of folks join us: Alan and Sarah come down from Fort Collins; Dave Youkey and Cynthia stop in later. We start at the Milton boulder and take Jay and Becca up the slab on the back. Good route for the kids. No problem for Jay. Becca runs up but is very gripped about being lowered. Eric is on strike after the Notchtop adventure; he plays golf with Grandpa in the morning and plays with Fauna (Sarah's guide dog) the rest of the day.
I've never been to Peanuts. I warn Sarah that we might get into an epic on unknown rock but she's game so Marti, Sarah, and I head up while Alan looks after the kids. Dave and Cynthia also appear and we have a nice time chatting with them as we climb. I start by setting up Layback (5.6), a short but sweet crack climb. Everyone cruises this (except Dave - he's not climbing) and I start up "Star Wars" (5.8). This climb is way cool! Really good hand jamming in a dihedral is the crux with some easier crack climbing below. Marti has no problem and she stays on top to lower me down. Dave and Cynthia have to take off so it's just Sarah left to climb. She has no problem with the lower part but the hand jamming is too much for her. She tries valiantly but eventually has to back off.
We all hike down and now it's Alan and Becca that get a turn. We head for the Whale's Tail and do the 4th class slabs facing the Wind Tower. Alan and Becca climb side by side and Alan has a hard time keeping up. Once we get near the summit, though, Becca looks down the vertical cliff on the back and gets gripped. She won't go down the steep side so Alan and I work here back down the slabs. She eventually moves onto Alan's back while he raps down and soon we're all together again. Time to leave Colorado: Grandma and Grandpa have arrived and we all go for dinner in Boulder. We drive out to Julesburg that evening and then on to Nebraska for a dudefest with Matt and Juliana. That's about it. Long drive home from Nebraska to Connecticut. Back to work. Back to school. No more fun!