Joshua Tree Redoux

The beginning of the new school year is upon us again. We went in for Emily's registration day We waited in line to turn in a packet of forms and take her picture for her school ID and that is about it. They did not have a schedule for her so none of the kids knew what their class schedule was going to be. They did not even have the chrome books ready to issue to the 8th graders. I am continually dismayed at how unorganized the school is. It is no wonder the school, as a whole, is doing so badly.

Caitlyn had to wait until the Friday just before the school year is to begin to find out what class she is in. She is going to be in the same class as Emily was in 6th grade so she is pretty happy about that.

We wanted to do one last thing before returning to school but I have been sick for the past three weeks, plus our oven stopped working and Christian had to order a piece to fix it. We were afraid that we would have to replace the whole thing which was going to be a pretty hefty amount. Luckily, Christian figured it out and it ended up being a fairly easy fix. The ignitor was dead. Anyway, with me not feeling well and us not knowing whether we could even afford to go anywhere else, we ended up canceling our last camping trip.

Despite the heat, we ended up in Joshua Tree, yet again for our last hurrah before school began. We went back to Trashcan rock as it is close and has shade in the mornings (at least on the west face). We climbed three routes before lunch. The first one was Eschar (5.4), a short 30' route. We sport led this one on Christian's gear. Emily did it twice!

The next one was a 40' route called Walkway (5.4).

And we finished with another 40' route called Tulip (5.6). We all top roped these last two routes as there was not always good places to put in any protection. Christian also went up Baby-Point-Five (5.9) although he needed a little help getting on the route. The start of the route was ridiculously difficult, even for a 5.9. He also attempted Bimbo (5.10a).

All in all, we had a pretty productive morning climbing but we had lost most of our shade by now and headed into town to check on a few things at the mountain shop.

Afterwards, we headed back in to the park and ended up at the east face of Left Hand of Darkness. We climbed up a 50' route called Granny Goose (5.7). It was a pretty fun route with underclings and a short off-width section. Emily went up this route twice as well. Once on top rope and then again while sport leading the route. I just top roped it but Caitlyn did not really want to do it. Christian got her up most of the way but she would not finish it and he ended up letting her down.

We still had some daylight left, so we decided to top rope Mother Goose (5.6) as well, which is a 50' route with little or no protectable areas up next to Granny Goose. After stalling on Granny Goose, Caitlyn did not want to even attempt Granny Goose even though technically, it is an easier route.

Dixon Lake and other matters

Summer break for the kids seem to be rapidly coming to an end. Emily got to go to the beach for the first time this year with the church youth group.

This past weekend, we headed down to San Diego to celebrate a couple of birthdays on Christian's side of the family. On the way, we stopped by Dixon Lake in the morning to squeeze in a bit of climbing.

The place was conveniently close to where we were headed but we had to actually pay for parking which kind of sucks but we saved gas by not having to go farther out of our way. We have not been to this area yet so that is always exciting. The place was a bit ghetto with graffiti everywhere...as most places these days seem to be where the rock is accessible to too many people. People make fun of the Riverside Quarry a lot because of how ghetto it is, but honestly, the Dixon Lake area, Ortega Falls, Mt. Rubidoux and even Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah, was not free of trash and grafiti with stories of smashing and grabbing gear from cars. This seems more and more to be the norm wherever we go now. They are even showing up in our National Parks.

The only difference in the case of the quarry is that the company that owns the land has fenced it off now to keep people from dumping in the area. This has not kept people from dumping in the area but has invited hordes of homeless people to start a shanty town there, thinking they are safe from the harassment of the police. So now, it is getting outright scary.

Anyway, back to Dixon Lake...we went to the Y Crack area.

First, we climbed the easy Chimney (5.3). Caitlyn had a little trouble at the top crux move because she is so small but eventually manages it.

Then we went to climb the Y Crack (5.7) itself. Emily got a little overly confident and decides that she wants to lead the route. Up to this point, she has only led a 5.5 and not that many at that. Christian is a little uneasy at her jumping grades but decides to let her give it a try. She does pretty good for the most part. Halfway up the route, Christian gets super nervous about some moves that she is making but she manages up without any problems. When she gets up to the Y, she starts to totally freak out. Christian has her set up some protection and lets her lower back down.

Christian finished leading the route and then both Emily and I climb up the route. I had a little trouble near the bottom but manage to eventually get up. Emily climbs back up without too much trouble and manages to finish the route. Caitlyn decides that she does not even want to attempt the route.

Christian decides on a strict program for the kids so that they are not jumping grades and freaking out because they bit off more than they can chew.

We have our lunch and continue on our way towards our family get together. We visit while the girls play with the plethora of toys Christian's mom keeps stocked up for them. The girls get to go swimming with their cousins for a while before they come back to sit in the hot tub.

Joshua Tree

At the beginning of the month, we headed out to Joshua Tree to do a bit of climbing. We stuck to some easy climbs near the entrance at Trashcan Rock. When it got too hot, we were going to head out to the local mountain shop to check out a few things.

We were lucky that our climbs were mostly in the shade. Our first climb was called Simpatico (5.1). Both the girls practiced leading this route after Christian went up to set up an anchor. I only sport led the route.

Our next route was just to the right of Simpatico, called Eyesore (5.4). We all followed on this route. It had a big chimney. By the time we finished that climb, our shade was quickly disappearing. We had lunch in the last of the shade and headed to the mountain shop.

Afterwards, we went for a drive out to Geology Road to check out a place Christian was interested in in taking Emily for semi-annual daddy daughter campout. They wanted to aid up bolt ladder and set up a portaledge to camp up on the side of the rock. Aid routes seem to be extremely difficult to find these days. We have been looking for bolt ladders to practice on but a lot of ladders have been chopped for different reasons. Mostly a lot of egotistical free climbers and sport climbers have chopped the routes for everyone else since they can climb it without the ladder. We found the one that we were looking for but most of the bolts need to be replaced as they are old, worn and rusted.

So, it looks like we might be able to use that one...only we have to replace the bolts first. It looks like we won't be able to do it any time soon anyway.

Over all, we got pretty lucky. It was not as hot as we had feared. The recent rains kept the air moist and we had a breeze most of the day that kept us comfortable enough. We had dinner and headed out into the sunset.

Utah - Part 3

We woke up a little later than usual on our last morning and headed back into the park. Luckily, we did not have any problems getting a parking spot still. We got our lunch and gear and hopped on the shuttle to the Zion Lodge. We planned to climb a small tower just behind the lodge. We kind of had to bushwhack it over to the tower as there were no real discernible trails going to where we needed to go except some overgrown game trails that climbers sometimes used. As we got into the undergrowth, we happened upon exactly four walking sticks lying in the dirt just waiting for us. We assumed that it was left by some foreign tourists who used them while visiting the park and abandoned them when they were done. We found them very useful and were thankful for them as we headed up through the bushes into the rocky, uneven terrain.

Our first Zion climb was to be up a nondescript tower on a route called Lodge Tower (5.5). Initially, it looked a little sketchy because although there was a bolt near the start, there was no hanger and it was not easy to find places to put initial pieces of protection. But it ended up to be pretty fun, if a little short.

When we were done, Christian wanted to try something a bit more challenging. We headed over to find a climb called Carol's Crack (5.7+). It took a lot of big gear and at some point, we ran out. Christian had ran out the pitch but still could not finish the route with what gear we brought and since there was a difficult off width up there, he was pretty exhausted. He had to come back down. When we tried to pull the rope, it got stuck on a piece of gear and Christian had to climb back up using the other end of the rope (as we had only brought one rope). He then had to go find the descent route and work his way up that, get to the top, fix an anchor and rappel back down to clean his gear so that we would not have to leave any gear behind.

The descent route was pretty sketchy. Then, as he was cleaning his gear, one of the pieces got stuck and he had a hard time retrieving it but we were able to recover all our pieces in the end. It was quite an ordeal. After all that, he had to climb back up the descent route once again to clean his anchor. On his way back down, he stepped onto a huge slab which started sliding precariously down the hill as if it was perched on thousands of marbles. Luckily, the rope he was carrying got snagged on some shrubs which kept him from falling to his death on the slab. We were back at the belay area, none the wiser. We did not hear or see anything. It was probably the scariest experience we have had rock climbing thus far...except we were not exactly even climbing at the time!

It was scorching hot and we were sufficiently traumatized to want to head directly home. On our way out of Utah, we stopped by for dinner at an Albertos. I swear it was one of the best tasting burritos that we have ever have. When you are out climbing, your body wants a lot of protein. When we are out camping for a while, any hot meal is pretty satisfying so the giant carne asada burritos felt like they were heaven sent.

We drove home into the night as usual and arrived home safe and sound in the wee hours of the morning, ready for a nice cleansing shower and a soft bed.

Utah - Part 2

It was fairly late when we got back into the Zion area. We met up with Christian's sister's family at their hotel briefly to firm up our plans. We camped at the same place we used on our first night in Utah.

In the morning, we met up with them inside the park at the visitor center and took the shuttle to the trailhead for the Narrows.

The hike was short before we hit the Virgin River. The water was pretty chilly but you got used to it pretty quickly. We started off pretty early so there were only a few other parties out near us so it was pretty nice.

Some parts of the water was only ankle deep but other parts easily came up to our waist. It had rained the day before so the water was pretty muddy looking. It is normally more of a clearer green so our pictures didn't quite look as stunning as it could have.

The canyons around and above the river were still quite stunning. We hiked several miles in, taking a smaller side canyon to stop for lunch and then continued on our way for a bit. It was starting to get pretty crowded and the Pierce's were getting tired so we decided to head back.

Christian couldn't resist doing a little bouldering here and there with our oldest nephew but he only had some water sandals on, so it was not quite so easy.

The younger cousins made little boats out of driftwood, sticks and leaves for sails and followed them down the river. It started getting super crowded by the time we made it back out of the Narrows and we were pretty glad to get out of the crush by then.

The Temple of Sinawava shuttle stop was also swamped when we hiked back out. We used the facilities and tried to cleanup a bit, having snacks and things while we waited for the shuttle. It was not that late still so we decided to check out the Weeping Rock.

By the time we got back on to the shuttle and back to the visitor center, everybody was pretty hot and tired. The Pierce's went off back to town for dinner and back to their hotel while we stayed and had our dinner in the park before heading in for another evening ranger program. This time the program was on coyotes.

Since it was not so late yet by the time we headed out to find our camping spot, we decided to try out one of our nicer camping areas. This was an entrance to one of the climbing areas outside of Zion (which is how we heard about it). We nearly had the place to ourselves but another vehicle arrived after we had set up. We were a little apprehensive about them as I did not sleep too well the night before at our usual campsite because of some other obnoxious campers across the way but it turned out fine. Only, I still got bit up by mosquitos here.

We headed back into the park early the next morning to meet up with the Pierce's and to head up to Angel's Landing. 

The hike was moderately rigorous but a lot shorter than I remembered. It is only 2 miles up a paved trail and then up the "wiggles"...a series of 21 sharp switchbacks.

The switchbacks took you up to Scout Lookout. Half of our party did not get much beyond this point as they didn't care for the exposure of the narrow sandstone ridge that takes you up the rest of the way up to Angel's Landing. There are chains that take you along the way but we were still nervous about our girls hiking up with the shear 800' and 1200' drops either side of the ridge to Angel's Landing with so many other tourists pushing through, so we had them put on their harnesses in case we needed to secure them but we didn't quite need it. Most of the other tourists were fairly well behaved but it only takes one to cause an accident and there were definitely more than one that we didn't trust around us but we kept all the kids between us. Christian went out in front and I held up the rear.

We lost two more of our party a little farther up. So in the end, it was just our little family of four and one of the older nephews.

We made it to the top without incident. The view, as always, was beautiful.

We did not stay too long. After resting for a few minutes and enjoying the view, we headed back down to rejoin the rest of our party as it was quite crowded at the top anyway.

On the way down, we ran into Christian's sister who had dropped her younger son back off with her husband and headed back up to get up to the top. Christian went back up to the top with her and the rest of us continued back down. This time Austin stayed up front while I held up the rear.

We had a snack while we waited for Christian to come back down. When our party was all together again, we headed back down. The kids went to cool off in the Virgin River while we had lunch and cooled our hot feet.

The whole hike took us considerably less time than we had anticipated, so we headed out to see the Emerald Pools afterwards. Although, the silt in the river started to settle a bit after the rains, there was  not enough water in the pools to speak of. We hiked down where the lower pool was supposed to be and some of the kids got to play in the water spray from the upper pool. That was about it.

There was still time in the day and we didn't want to waste it. Our girls went to get their jr. ranger badges as they had finished the program the day before.

Christian's sister wanted to go on another hike with us but the rest of her family wanted to bail because they were hot and tired. She told them to go back to the hotel but because she insisted on coming with us instead of spending her vacation time sitting in a hotel, her husband wanted to stay and be supportive and was going to make the kids stay and hike too. They all argued about it for way too long while we sat around feeling uncomfortable. In the end, everyone stayed. We hiked up to the an overlook near the bottom of the Watchman.

It was pretty hot and everyone was a bit cranky for one reason or another so although it was a beautiful hike, it was not quite so enjoyable. The younger nephew did not even bother lacing up his tennis shoes and so by the time we went back down, he had a blister on his foot and his older brother ended up carrying him back down most of the way.

The kids played in the river again and the Pierce's went to get their car. We went to get our dinner and by the time we got back and started dinner, the Pierce's were more than ready to leave and get back into town for their dinner. We had our dinner next to the river and left shortly after. We opted to skip the last evening ranger program as it had a stupid title and we didn't want to waste our time...something about zombies. Not sure where they were going with that but we resented the gimmicky way they were advertising for it and decided to pass on that one.

We left the park by way of the Mt. Carmel tunnel. It was not a pleasant drive as we had some problems with some of the other drivers that were being total idiots. We almost just went home that night but we had planned on doing a little climbing on our own the next day before leaving Zion altogether. It was a difficult decision but in the end, we decided to stay. We found the best spot to camp thus far outside of the park. We will definitely use this campsite again in the future.