I have not written in awhile, other than a rude rant that I took down within hours. If you read it, you know what I mean, and I apologize. =) Life is weird, ya know?
I feel quite adrift lately, as though I am just floating along and nothing really notices me. I am sure this will past. Some of it is apparently hormonal, I am getting older. But regardless, I have to get away from it.
I had a truly lovely, nay, Magical day last Saturday, the day the Rapture had been said to be coming on, 05.21.2011. The fun actually started the night before, as it was Dan's 30th birthday, so my husband, the biking viking and a whole crew from Team Skuld and HDH and little ole me went out to celebrate. Started with some dinner and beer at O'Sullivan's and the Kerry steak I had was Really YUMMY. Then on to another bar; overall the night was a Lot of fun, I even got to dance a bit, in downtown Escondido no less. crazy. ha. And we stayed out till after 1am, having a great time with everyone. Got to meet some new people too. It did mean we got a bit of a lazy start on Saturday, but no biggie, there was no schedule to keep, just a day trip and the day lasts until almost 20:00 now, so no worries.
Had a nice lazy wake up at 9am, and was pleased that the world had not ended - quite yet. There was a bit of confusion on the time for the pending rapture though and the day was young in our timezone. We slowly got ready and headed out to Joshua Tree National Park, with me driving [my car gets such better MPG, and no off-roading was required]. Since I love to drive, it really was a fun way to start the trip. There was mellow traffic and pretty views and nice company along the way.
We were hungry, so stopped in JTree for a bit of lunch. We picked the Saloon, since I really wanted hot food, not salad from the veggie place. Well, the food was good, but the service was SOOOOO slow. Really - almost as bad as a visit to Mozey's another weekend [should write about that fiasco soon too I suppose]. The fries really hit the spot though, so seeing as we were not in a hurry, it was no harm done in the end.
Then on into the park itself. I love that entrance, fun stuff to look at. Paid our fee and both of us exclaimed at how the campgrounds were full. WOW. Lots of people in the park. Good thing it is such a large park. We went first down to the Hall of Horrors area, parked and hiked through the stickers trying to find the Real Hall of Horrors, and a particular bouldering problem David really wanted to try. While the bouldering guide may show a lot of climbs, its maps are not the best. HA! So, we actually ended up at the LHMFP area initially. David tried a few things there, and I watched the oh so happy swallows zooming and squeaking above the rocks. ZOOOM! Despite the trek through stickers [the trail faded quite a bit in spots!] it was still a great area to walk about in, as there were very few others and it was so very peaceful and beautiful.
I especially enjoyed the myriad of flowers that abound there, I was busy watching my step so I got a good view of all the flora. Tiny white circles on the tight ground cover, bright yellow blooms in various sizes and shapes, HOT pink cactus blooms and these odd little alien-pod looking purple blooms. No, I did not take any pictures, I was too busy hiking and enjoying the day. I am just not that much of a picture taker usually, although I am trying to change that a bit, but so far, I always forget.
We found the Real Hall of Horrors near the Jane's Addiction area shortly after, and it was well worth the wait even with having to pick all those stickers out of my socks. There is a traverse that goes across the inside of this corridor on the crack, and that was awesome to watch David on, even got a pic. The shade was the other star in this spot, and the sad tableau of three tiny dead baby birds on the floor near the entrance, complete with a torn nest nearby. I gently placed them in the nest and covered them with the rest of the nest pieces and sprinkled chalk over it. They could not have been there long, poor little things.
There were also a lot of little rodent bones scattered about, something I found along the edges of almost every large rock we walked near. We hiked on away from that area after David did the traverse a few times, it was too hard for me though, not enough feet, too much arms. Out in the open were a few more boulders and on our way over to them we stopped for a few minutes and watched a guy solo this 60 ft climb called the Exorcist, it is a 5.10a, but still, no rope? I admit I was a little nervous watching him. =)
The next was SideKick Boulder, it's only about 12-15ft high, but had an easy downclimb off the back edge and a few climbs up the front. So of course David did them, and I watched, and debated, and then finally, with a bit of trepidation, slipped my hiking shoes off [I had ditched the socks by now, as they were just sticker magnets] and pushed my warm footsies into my climbing shoes. With much encouragement from behind me, I approached the climb, a 5.9 I think, and gave a little mumble, something about where the heck do I hold on? He showed me, and I started, and came right off. Then, he showed me the foot placement and encouraged me again and I stepped up and did it! I climbed up the whole thing and topped out. There was a mad scramble with my hand for one hold, but I got it and managed to only get a little scrape. No broken nails even. YAY! David did give me a tiny boost, but I think it was more to my confidence than to push me up physically. =D The route I did is the right-most one in the picture I linked to.
I was quite proud of that, I have rarely climbed outdoors, and I really enjoy it. As we walked back toward the parking lot, checking out a few things on the way, we saw a lovely rattlesnake, just nosing around the bushes. Startled me a bit, but we stayed back and the snake never even rattled at us. We drove back toward the park entrance and stopped at Intersection rock for another jaunt about. We moved on to a little area with a climb David had wanted to do before, False Hueco Boulder, but needed a spotter for. If you pop off there is a strong chance to go bouncing down the rock it starts off of. I was able to protect him from falling backwards the one time he popped off, and otherwise got to enjoy watching him conquer a gnarley overhanging couple of problems. There was even a cool spot under it to relax in the shade after. Nice.
David got to play with one of his toy RC cars in the parking lot, which was hilarious when the wind picked it up and it landed like a turtle, spinning as he tried to get it back up without walking over to it. hehehehe.
Then we drove on out, I noticed in the later afternoon light that the road there sparkles, as though there are a million tiny diamonds embedded in the road, that added to the magical quality of the day. =) On a whim, we decided to take the 243 toward Idyllwild and come back that way. It was gorgeous, and as I turned a corner, hitting a bump that caused me to slow, a white-tailed doe bounded across the road ahead of us. She looked at us and then bounced down and away from the road into the trees. The rest of the drive was peaceful and we made it back home by 21:00. Still no end of the world, instead, just a sleepy night and memories of a beautiful day in the sun in JTNP.
Labels: climbing, daily life, jtree


