El Cajon Mountain

Another weekend, another heatwave. However, it did not deter us from our goal of going to El Cajon Mountain to climb. Big mistake.

Technically, it was supposed to be cooler this weekend, but definitely not enough. And it was definitely hotter than they claimed it would be.

We got up at 5:30 in the morning and packed up to head to San Diego. We got to our destination around 7:am or so.

We had a quick breakfast and started on our hike. It was supposed to take about two hours to get to the base of our climb but it took us significantly longer. There was next to no shade and it quickly got unpleasantly hot. 

Luckily, Christian grabbed our Zion hiking sticks as we jumped into the truck. We really needed them on this hike. Not just to make hiking easier but to help us to ferret out objective hazards like snakes along the trail that might be hiding under the tall grass growing everywhere along the trail.

We took a few breaks here and there where we could find a boulder to hide behind. The heat was getting to Caitlyn. She started whimpering up the trail although she didn't really tell us what was wrong. The heat and difficult hike made us all want to whimper so we did not really ask either. Close to reaching the base of the climb, Caitlyn actually threw up. Christian took her pack and we went in search of some shade for her to recover in.

We found a sliver of shade for the kids to hide in and rest at the base of the mountain while Christian went up around the mountain to find the climb. I followed up gradually and Emily came shortly after. We found the climb and decided to get something done for our troubles and climb a little regardless of the heat. We still had a good amount of water left. We eventually got Caitlyn up to where we were as well since there was a nice breeze going at the edge of the ledge we were on. Understandably, Caitlyn opted not to climb today.

The climb is called Bright Eyes (5.6). It is a two pitch climb up 220'. I wanted to come here to do a multi pitch climb. This climb has a neat chimney partway up the first pitch and Christian wanted to get a neat picture of Caitlyn doing a full body stem up the chimney. Since Caitlyn was not feeling well, Emily volunteered to do it for her sister. 

Christian climbed up to the top of the first pitch to get in position to take pictures. I followed so that I could belay Emily from above.

The climb was pretty easy overall. And we did get some neat pictures, but in the end, we decided not to continue climbing the second pitch because the heat was starting to get to the rest of us. We skipped lunch as no one had much of an appetite anyway.

Christian wanted to come here to do a sport 5.8 route called Buffalo Brothers. He decided that he was going to go up the first pitch really quick before we left. Christian and I climbed up the first pitch of the Ramp (5.5) to get to the start of Buffalo Brothers. Christian did manage to get up it pretty quick but we had a terrible time with rope drag. The girls headed back down to where they had a little bit of shade while we came down and cleaned up.

Caitlyn was feeling better but I was feeling quite a bit worse for the wear. We still had quite a way back down the mountain in order to get back to our car.

It took us nearly three hours to get back down. Christian dubbed it the "death march." We had just let ourselves run out of water before getting back to the car. We had some more stashed in the vehicle but we mostly used it to clean up a bit. We cranked up the a/c and headed over to a McDonalds to suck down some cold fountain drinks. We got some salty fries to jump start our appetites as well. By the time we rested up and cooled down, we felt good enough and did manage to get our appetite back. We had the sandwiches we packed for lunch for dinner in the parking lot before leaving.

We finally made it home around 9:pm. I was sunburnt and would be sore for the next three days. We had to take it easy for the next two days to recover from the heat exhaustion. Hopefully we learned our lesson not to push our luck in this terrible weather. It is Fall but there is no end in sight for this unrelenting infernal heat.

Birthday

My birthday was last week. We were going to go on a climb to El Cajon Mtn. the weekend just before my birthday but between the heat and Emily's injured foot, it made doing anything all but impossible.

Christian ended up ditching us to help his boss on Saturday, so that left me with the kids on our own. We didn't do much. Just took it easy and got a few things done around the house. On Sunday, the kids wanted to make dinner for me. Actually, Caitlyn made dinner and Emily made dessert.

Caitlyn made a soup of her own creation. Emily made my favorite cream puffs! We ate too many. We were all about to burst but it was tasty while they lasted!

Monday was technically my birthday. I didn't do much. The kids went to school. Christian went to work. After school, I had to take the kids to dance practice as their recital is quickly approaching. Christian came home early to make me dinner.

He made us some smoked tuna with garlic mashed potatoes. Dinner was ready when we got back from practice...very convenient!

The girls got me a new climbing harness and Christian got me a new electric skillet as I trashed our old one. It was kind of due for a change soon anyway, as we had inherited the old own from Christian's grandmother. It fell from the drying rack one day and broke one side of the legs and handle off. I tried gluing it back together but it didn't last. I never used one before but once you get used to using something, it's hard to go back to not having it!

Christian's dad came up on Tuesday to take me out to lunch. We went to the Market Broiler. He was able to visit and catch up with his grandkids after. Christian even made it home before he left to chat awhile but then Christian's dad had to take off and Christian had to scarf down some dinner really quick and head back out for a church meeting.

Labor Day and other matters

For Labor Day, we went in the morning to the Quarry to do a bit of sport climbing. Christian started off on this route called Fear the Smear (5.8). There is a very difficult start on the route and none of us wanted to give it a try so Christian did a few laps on it but he didn't like the route very much.

Afterwards, we moved back over to Schoolhouse Rock and Emily and I did Interplanet Janet (5.6).

I have sport led that one before but it is a fun route so I did it again.

Caitlyn wanted to try sport leading I'm Just a Bill (5.6) but it proved to be a little much for her. Emily and I sport led it and Caitlyn ended up going up on top rope instead. She's climbed the route before and usually does not have too much of a problem with it but she didn't like leading it and got stuck at the crux. Emily climbed it again to put the rope back on the anchor for her to do it on top rope and Caitlyn was able to get up without any problems.

Truth be told, although the routes are technically rated the same, we all agreed that I'm Just a Bill is quite a bit more difficult than Interplanet Janet. The problem is is that Caitlyn is too small to be able to pull up on the crux of Interplanet Janet whereas her size does not matter as much on I'm Just a Bill.

We left when we lost all our shade and the place became unbearably hot.

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Tuesday we had another scorcher of a day. To add insult to injury, the power went out that night and we did not have air conditioning. We actually only had a partial outrage. One line coming in was fine. The other had very low wattage so it couldn't hardly turn on a light. The air conditioning requires both lines to be working. We have had power problems since we moved in but the power company wouldn't do anything about it until the transformer up the street died completely. We lost what little power was coming in on the one line at about 1:am. Christian called into see what was going on and the city sent someone out to check it out but they didn't seem to do anything as we were still without power by morning. 

Needless to say, we didn't sleep much. Luckily, our refrigerator is on the one line that was still working so we didn't have all our food go bad. I had to call the city again to see what the heck they were doing about it. They finally sent a truck some time in the afternoon on Wednesday. They replaced the transformer and we had our power back but not before having the rest of our electricity cut for an hour or so while they fixed it. 

About half an hour after we got our power back and the last of the work trucks were pulling away, a flash flood came in. Just in time for me to go pick up the kids from school. As I was leaving, Christian ran out to wipe down the truck and take advantage of the heavy rains to clean the truck.

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On Saturday, Christian had an Elder's Quorum bbq at the park to go to. Since he's in the presidency, he had to go work at the event. I went with the wife of the Elder's Quorum President on Friday morning to buy all their supplies. All the kids of the members were invited so Emily and Caitlyn with with him to the bbq.

Christian brought Emily back around 2:00 because she hurt her left foot. She was really vague and rather evasive about what happened. By the evening, she couldn't even limp across the room and we tried once again to try to figure out what was wrong with her and what she did to her foot. She basically lied to us about the whole thing and we could not get a clear answer from her. For her to do that, I knew that she must have done something really stupid and wouldn't own up to it. I stayed home with her on Sunday and she rested her foot but as it did not get much better by Monday, we ended up taking her to urgent care after taking Caitlyn to school.

We were there for about three hours. We waited an hour before the nurse brought her in to question her. We spent another half hour for them to get x-rays of her foot and then another hour or so back at urgent care for a doctor to review the x-rays. The upshot of it is, she didn't break anything but we pretty much knew that it was not that bad. But she did sprain it rather badly. She got a post op shoe so that she can get around for a while. She had been only able to get around by hopping on her right foot since the incident. She stayed home that day and the next and she is getting out of PE for a week and a half. She will have to wear the post op shoe for the rest of the week to help her get to classes.

The doctor and nurses kept asking her how she hurt her foot and she finally had to admit that she fell (which she had not done up to this point). She was still pretty vague about the whole thing (even to the doctor) so we are not very happy with her at the moment.

Big Bear

After all spur of the moment trip to Yosemite, we decided to take it easy and stay local for Labor Day Weekend.

On Saturday, we spent the day up in Big Bear near Big Bear Lake. Christian had decided to put the kids on a program for their climbing and after reviewing some of the things they have done, he found some holes in their experiences and we went out to Big Bear to fill in some of those spaces.

First, we headed over to find Alpine Rock. It was a little difficult to find initially, but we finally found it. First on the agenda is a 5.0 climb called Sunflower. Christian goes up all the climbs first to make sure that it is rated properly and that there are no hazards (i.e. loose rock, snakes, etc.) Both of the girls practiced lead climbing on this route. I did not get a chance to climb it.

Afterwards, it was Christian's turn for something he wanted to work on which is sport climbing a 5.8 route called Queenie's Dish which is just to the left of Sunflower. He did a couple of laps on it. Emily and I top roped the climb.

We then moved onto Greenhouse Rock which is left of Alpine Rock. We all climbed a route called Pop's Day (5.5). Emily sport led this route which was pretty brave since there was only one bolt and the anchors. It was pretty run out but she didn't have too much trouble with it.

We had lunch and then headed back over to Tanglewood Slab for a 5.2 climb called Hi Def. After Christian went up, Emily led the route. Caitlyn sport led the route and I cleaned and walked down the side.

We were still doing pretty good on time so we went in search of Motherlode Rock-East Face. Motherlode Rock is pretty crowded. It was just crawling with rock climbers on all sides. Luckily, we were able to squeeze in so that Caitlyn could lead a route called Cap Gun (5.1). Emily got some practice belaying her sister. Christian can basically free solo most of Caitlyn's routes without too much trouble which is good since sometimes he has to go up to help her or give her instructions. Emily led the route afterwards.

By the time they were done with that, the sun was starting to get low on the horizon and it was starting to get chilly. The people next to us had finished, so we wanted to jump on that route. It was called Blasting Cap which was a fun 5.3 sport route. Christian, Emily, and I sport led the route while Caitlyn top roped it. 

It was not dark yet, so Christian also went up the sport route to the right of Blasting Cap called Wildrose (5.6) to get back up to the top to clean up all our gear at the anchors. We had quite a long day of climbing and got a lot done so hopefully we will soon get the girls up to speed on their program...especially Caitlyn who has a difficult time sometimes because of her size and because she started off fairly slowly because of her fear of heights but she seems to do pretty well these days as long as we don't push her too much and have her stick to the program Christian has set up for the kids.

Emergency Yosemite Trip

The weekend after school began, we panicked and had to take an emergency trip to Yosemite...ehem. So actually, Christian was on this climbing forum that he frequents to look up routes or to read trip reports and discussion topics. One of the climbers puts out a post about a Yosemite campground that he had paid for and reserved but due to circumstances, he was unable to go make use of and opens it up to anyone that wants it free of charge. It was a tempting thought and when no one took him up on his offer after a day, we seriously considered it. Since we didn't make it to Yosemite earlier in the summer and since we missed our last camping trip of the summer, we were itching to go. When we first entertained the idea, Christian thought that it was the 3 day Labor Day weekend. After we contacted the guy and found out that the campsite was indeed still available and accepted the offer, we realized our mistake about the weekend but had set everything into motion to make the trip.

This all happened Friday around lunch time. It was difficult to prepare for the trip as I had already agreed to take dinner to someone that evening. Luckily, I still had a decent stock of camping foods. We threw what we could together, got a couple of hours sleep and hit the road. The kids slept in the car for the most part. I managed to doze off a little towards the end of our journey but did not get a whole lot but it was more than Christian got.

We arrived in Yosemite after the sun was up and headed directly to our climb. Our goal was to get to the Monday Morning Slab in the Glacier Point Apron area. That actually turned out a bit harder than we had expected. It was not exactly where we thought it was and ended up hiking around a lot on some steep uneven terrain.

Christian had to take off several times scouting out the area. He finally found it but he was pretty tired by then, having very little sleep, driving all night and then hiking and scrambling all over the place looking for our climb.

Unfortunately, as we headed over in the direction of our climb at long last, Emily took a pretty bad tumble. She basically wasn't paying that much attention to what she was doing and was grumpy from the heat and everything so she tripped on a rock, twisted her ankle a bit and did a face plant into the rocky terrain. She got a bloody nose and a bad scrape and gash on one of her shins plus some other more minor scrapes and bruises. Caitlyn and I were just ahead of her so we did not see, but Christian was right in back of her and watched the whole thing. He was pretty freaked out because she could have really hurt herself and had to have a long talk with her about her attitude and paying attention to what she is doing. We found some shade and let her recover a bit while we decided what to do next.

In the end, we continued on our way. Neither of the girls ended up doing any climbing even though we picked out the climb particularly with them in mind. We planned to climb a two pitch route called Monday Morning Slab, Right Side (5.4) which was 415 feet up a right facing corner. The first pitch is actually only rated at a 5.2 while the second pitch was rated at 5.4. We had originally had hopes that Emily would be able to lead the first pitch of the route and maybe Caitlyn would sport lead that part of it but it was not to be.

We had lunch, found our exact route on the slab and headed up. Christian went up, I followed and expected Caitlyn to come up after me, but she ended up just hemming and hawing and in the end, we just left her to her own devices. Christian had to climb back down to clean his gear and by the time he got back up to the top of the 1st pitch, it was getting late. We had not yet checked in to the campsite. We wanted to make sure that we properly checked in with the rangers so that the guy that paid for the campsite would not get a fine for not showing up. Of course, the rangers would not let us check in as we did not have a picture ID to go with the name the site was registered for even though we had all his registration information. We set up at the campsite and put all our food in the food lockers. Left the kids with food and water and a walkie talkie to contact us and headed back up to the slab. We did not come all this way to play tourist or sit around at a crowded, noisy campsite.

We hiked from the campsite back over to the start of the climb this time. There was a group of four already on the route. The girls really missed out because the view was spectacular. The climb was easy but fun. We got back up the first pitch without any problems. The group climbing ahead of us stopped at the top of pitch one and rappelled back down so we had the second pitch to ourselves.

We got to the top of the pitch just as the setting sun hit half dome in the background. It was beautiful. We rappelled back down and let the girls that we were on our way back. We got back down to the base of the climb as we lost all daylight and had to use the moonlight or our headlamps to get us back down to the campsite. We had to walk through some crowded campsites to get to our climb so Christian decided to take a more "peaceful" route back. Especially, in light of the fact that we had to listen to the loud speakers blaring from Curry Village on and off practically all day. Why that is even allowed in a National Park is beyond me. In the end, it was a very round about way to get back. I am surprised that Christian could find his way so well in the dark but I was utterly exhausted by the time we did get back. 

When we got back, the girls said that the ranger came by a couple of times to check to see if the person who registered showed up yet or to check on them since their parents were not around. We actually just missed them when we got back. Apparently, they were not that concerned though as they did not come by at all when we were there. Emily finished setting up our tent for us and they explored the campsite a little and just hung out to do some reading and stuff. The girls had waited for us for dinner so we heated up our late dinner and then turned in to bed.

The next day, we packed up our site and headed out. Since it was Sunday and Emily could not do much hiking anyway, we decided just to take it easy and look around.

We looked around near El Capitan but got swarmed by gnats and mosquitos. It was pretty terrible. The only place we could get any respite was next to our car which was just off the road where there was fumes and gusts of wind from the passing vehicles.

We got quite a few bug bites from this little excursion.

Since that wasn't working too well, we ended up heading up to Glacier Point. We wanted to check out the area on one of our previous visits but could not as it was closed for the winter. We figured it was as good a time as any to visit the tourist area since summer vacation was over and the crowds of tourists were down to a minimum due to the plague scare.

It was still pretty crowded but I guess it could have been a lot worse. We wanted to take some pictures off the diving board which sticks out over Glacier Point but there was this nasty slutty couple  monopolizing the area taking pictures of themselves and being obnoxious. We waited around a bit but could not take it any more and left. It was getting pretty crowded by this time. In fact, if we were to have arrived during this time, we would not have even been able to even get a parking spot.

We fled the area to find somewhere more peaceful to have lunch before having to start the long journey home.

Even with a couple of traffic problems here and there, we got back in time for a late dinner and to clean up for school the next day.

School Starts

A couple of things happened this last week. Of course, school started back up for the girls. Caitlyn got Emily's former 6th grade teacher so she was pretty happy about that. Emily finally got her schedule for her classes this year and ended up getting stuck with Spanish as her elective this year (she did not choose it) and she was not overly thrilled about that.

The girls also started going back to their Polynesian dance classes which we had taken about a 6 month break from. But they kind of had to hit the ground running as they did not have their recital back in June like they were supposed to. At some point they had postponed it until the end of summer because of personal family issues but because of everyone's vacation schedules, there were not a lot of lessons going on and not a lot of students attending the lessons so basically, no one is ready for the recital still.

The recital is now set for mid October but our girls have not learned any of the new dances so, they will only be partially participating. Their dance teacher had invited them to join the Jr. Wahine group this year. They will be dancing with the older girls now. Most of them are in high school although, some were in jr. high as well. Caitlyn is a little young and small to be in this group but it would be too difficult to separate the girls so they will end up moving up together.

The Keiki group, which was huge when we stopped going, now consists of one lone little Keiki. Emily and Caitlyn has agreed to dance one number with her so that she doesn't have to dance by herself. There is one other Keiki but she has not shown up much over the summer and they have not gotten a hold of her yet to see if she will continue to dance or not. 

Emily and Caitlyn will dance the Keiki Tahitian number with the youngest Keiki that has been the only one attending lessons regularly. Originally, their teacher wanted just Caitlyn to dance with her but Caitlyn won't dance without her sister. They were originally going to send one of the more experienced Jr. Wahine's to dance the number with her but she was not happy dancing with someone she is unfamiliar with. Anyway, Emily and Caitlyn mostly learned the dance after all of two lessons, which is partially why we are happy the girls are moving up to the next level. The lessons were a bit slow for them when combined with much younger and inexperienced girls.

The girls will also do one number with the Jr. Wahine group as they just started a new Maori Poi Ball routine. The Jr. Wahine dances are quite a bit more complicated than they are used to but since no one has quite learned this routine yet, they are not feeling quite as overwhelmed with this one. In fact, they are 2 of 4 girls that can actually manage some of the more difficult moves. The other 5 girls has not yet learned them.

Emily and Caitlyn has also managed to learn the Samoan Sa Sa routine that the older groups are doing but I think that they will not be able to perform this number due to the lack of outfits available but they are reviewing their options now and we will know for sure shortly.