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trip photos

i forgot to mention that photos are up from the driving part of the road trip. i'll go back and add captions later.

major change of plans

i've had a big change of plans, i was going to be doing the driving trip for most of the summer but after meeting this couple riding from bakersfield to bozeman mt on a tandem for their honeymoon I really want out of the car. the speeding ticket on the way home confirmed that this needs to be a riding summer.

so the short is i'm back in reno and getting ready to ride until the 8th of july or so. i'm flying to ny city with my dad the 10th to the 14th and then I've got to start packing for the move to portland. my working plan right now is that I'd like to see the grand coulee dam up north on the columbia river, there's a woody guthrie song of the same name that i'm really into of the same name. i'll see how far i get before i run out of time and have to ride back.

on the road again

bishop is a pretty boring place during the week, i checked out all the parking lots at the gorge and there were no cars. i think i'm going to be headed up to yosemite today. maya, who works with joe, told me i should go hike half dome, it's supposed to be really pretty.

with charles in the gorge

charlie and i camped out at horton creek, you guested it, the free campground. we hit the upper gorge for most of the day doing one 8 that went up a crack in a dihedral. it was one of the funnest climbs i've ever done. normally i'm used to looking down and seeing rock dropping down in front of you--it's kind or reasuring--this one i'd look down and just see emptiness and charlie standing way down there in the middle of the v.

climbing in the owens river gorge

i went up to the central gorge this morning hoping i'd be able to meet up with someone and get some climbs in. i got a belay first thing in the morning from this team of asain kids who were flying up 5.11s on the great wall of china (it seemed kind of funny at the time). i felt a little peer pressure to get on something a little harder than a 5.9 so i hopped on a 10a, i made it up it but man, that wasn't a good route to warm up on.

after a quick nap a little later in the morning i hooked up with a party of three dotcomers spent the day climbing with them. we flew up some 8s and 9s, it was a great because they were right about the level i wanted to be climbing at.

charles came down to bishop that evening hang out and climb tomorrow. while i was waiting for him at shat's bakery i got to talking with the old guy who calls himself the sierra phantom. he could tell a story, said he'd spend most of 50 years living up in the sierras. said he'd been in national geographic, reader's digest, and a bunch of other news sources. i'm not sure how much i belive but i'd like to do a little research on him.

sitting around in bishop

this turned into a total sitting around day, i got a note up a wilson's sports looking for a partner. then i just sat around working on the computer.

i got an email from joe saying that he'll have sunday and monday off so i'll try try to get a hold of him.

climbing in the alabama hills

yesterday i didn't do much at all. went out for breakfast, then got some coffee and sat around. i met a newly wed couple riding from bakersfield, ca to their home in bozeman, mt for their honeymoon.

went up to the alabama hills in the afternoon to look around and see if i could meet up with some people to climb with. ended up running into another couple from montana, nate and heidi were heading out but said they'd meet me this morning if i wanted to climb then.

i hooked up with them around 10:00 and we got on a couple of 7s and 8s then one 10b. before nate lead the 10b he asked to borrow a couple of draws. he was grunting pretty good the whole way up and when he got down, i made some kind of remark like "boy i don't know if i'll make to to the top of that". "you better make it up there, your draws are at the top and i'm sure not going back up". i got my draws back and had a blast, it was a good crimpy face climb. i'd love to spend a week climbing in the alabama hills.

they decided they wanted to go for a swim in the afternoon and i since they were leaving the next morning just figured i'd head up to bishop, try to meet up with some people in the gorge.

summit day

at 05:10 i woke up and started throwing on clothes trying to get ready. at all the ranger station when i got the permit they told me not to leave anything in the car that had a scent to it food, chapstick, dishes. when you're camping out of the back of your car that's just about everything. so at the time it seemed like a good idea to just park a little way down and walk up, hopefully catching a ride up to the trailhead. not it'd been at least four years since i'd been up the portal road to the whitney trailhead so i wasn't too sure how far it was. if this is starting to sound like foreshadowing that's because it is.

i parked the truck a little before 06:00 and hiked almost 5 miles up the road to the trailhead. the only two cars that drove by ignored my extended thumb. i kept thinking it was always just a little bit further. by the time i realized where it was it was too far to walk back to the truck and have a shot at the mountain. i arrived at the trial head around 08:00, most people start around 03:00 or 04:00.

i had plenty of time to think on the way up, the walk on the asphalt had really taken the spring out of my step and i wasn't sure how far i was going to make it. i started telling myself that i'd hike until 13:30 and turn it around if i wasn't close. it was beautiful country and on the whole i was feeling pretty good.

the trail is 11 miles to the summit with the last campground at mile 6, 3 miles of switchbacks up to summit ridge and another 3 miles to the summit. about 1/4 of the way up the switchbacks i find a fellow named greg chilling out on the rocks. "which way you going? up or down?" "not really sure yet" he replied. i told him about my whole 13:30 plan and it kind of intrigued him. up the switchbacks we went and i finally started passing a couple of people who were headed for the summit.

at around 13:30 we hit the summit ridge. earlier in the day another hiker had told me about mt muir, another 14,000 ft summit on the ridgeline, but 2 and 1/2 miles closer. he was a bit vague on how to get up it but it was on tiny map that came with my permit. not really wanting to go back empty-handed i mentioned it to greg.

greg was into it so we started trying to find a line up onto the top of it. we did some scrambling and 45 minutes later were on top of it. until we looked to the left and saw that we'd picked the wrong spire. at this point we were both huffing pretty bad and no intention of scrambling down, hiking over to the other side and then hoping that we could find a way up what seemed like a 4th or 5th class climb (this is a reference to the yosemite decimal system of rating terrain. 4th class indicates hands and feet are needed with ropes optional. 5th class being ropes required (unless you're some crazy solo climber)) from the 3 sides we'd been able to see.

i hiked with greg down to his camp, he fed me a top ramen and gave me a tylenol--which at that point i really needed--and i started bombing down the hill. i was trying to make sure i'd get down before everyone else, i really didn't want to walk all the way back down to my truck and i figured with a sob story like that someone would give me a ride.

wayne wadell was that kind soul. it was his 52nd birthday and he'd come to climb mt whitney. he was interesting character, a huey door gunner in vietnam, a lead rocket booster testing team leader for the ill-fated west coast space shuttle program, and now a going to school for a degree in theater. my favorite story was how in a cowboy hat like mine he left los angles, ca on a monday and arrived in huntsville, al on a thursday hitching rides from truckers. said he averaged 40-something miles-per-hour the entire way.

oh also during the hiking i drank some snow water. greg and i have a bet going on whether or not i'll get giardia. check back in about 5 days and see if i'm complaining.

hanging out in lonepine

today i was heading back to the campground and noticed two kids with really big packs and a really big black rotwiler. i asked them if they needed a ride, turned out andrew, christina and dude (the dog) were doing the pct. they were trying to get up to horseshoe meadow maybe 20 something miles out of town. not having anything else to do and feeling like i really need to pay back the rides i got in wyoming last summer i said sure, plus joe lane (1999 pct alumni) would have kicked the crap out of me if he heard i didn't.

i dropped them off and since i still didn't have anything better to do went for a hike. man let me tell you that's some pretty forest. an hour or two later i headed back to the campground and started trying to get ready for whitney tomorrow morning.

in lone pine

i went south through mojave. took some pictures of all the mothballed airplanes. it was a real trip, right behind some random strip mall were near 100 planes of all types and airlines.

worked my way up 395 from there. the next morning i stopped at some random campground to look around and the only other guy in the parking lot was wearing climbing shoes and a helmet. curious because he was by himself i asked if he was rapelling. turns out he was solo aid climbing. i walked down into the volcanic gorge a little later and found him almost ready to start. i sat there watching him for almost two hours and i've got to tell you, it's the slowest kind of climbing i've ever seen. i talked to him when he came down to clean the first half of the route. he told me about the climbing in the alabama hills (near lone pine and mt whitney) and a little bit about aid climbing theory. i took a ton of pictures, they'll be up here real soon now.

in lone pine i stopped at one of the sporting goods stores and bought the climbing guide. it had directions to the blm's free "climbers" campground. i got a permit hike to the top of mt whitney and went up to the campground to relax.

this morning i woke up early and the wind was blowing worse than the day before. i didn't really have everything ready and since the permits are free for walkins i decided to try it again tomorrow. untill then.

plans

i'm going to end up staying in slo for another day. it's a very cool town, lots of very cute girls, i've almost run into a couple of things while gawking at them.

today i finally got around to looking at a map and realized how far south i am. that previous bit about going to see my grandmother first it out. i'm going to hook up with 395 and try to do the potal at mt. whitney. i've got some time so getting a permit shouldn't be a problem. after that i'll go north to bishop, i don't see much point in planning beyond that.

slo update

went out climbing with roger this morning. we went a few miles north to this place by the ocean (i don't have the guide with me, otherwise i'd put the name). it was good did a few 5.8s an 5.9s. i didn't really want to push it much beyond that, they seem afraid of overbolting here, runouts of 20 ft were pretty common.

the folding bike is shot, i finally got around to looking at it this afternoon. the fork is bent and front axle seems bent. i'm going to call dahon and see how much money they want to send me a new fork. my knee on the other hand is on the mend, it's finally scabbed over and other than when i first wake up in the morning doesn't hurt.

i think tomorrow i'm going to head down the coast a little, find a place to camp for a day kind of enjoy the cool beach air, after that i'm headed north.

san louis obisbo

i camped at a state park on the coast south of salenas (spelling?). it was my kind of place, cheap, only $1.00 per person per night. i got going early, headed south for san luis obispo.

sometime during the morning i noticed a message on my voicemail, my thai friend called saying she wasn't able to get her visa. i was pretty sure she'd be able to get it so this was a bit of a surprise. in san luis obispo i got on the internet at the public library and sent out some emails.

at this point there was no hurry and a little coffee sounded good. at the 2 dogs coffee shop i started talking to a guy with two quick-draws an a sling (that's climbing gear) for a book bag strap about the local climbing. he drew me a map to the the climbing shops and gym and off i went in search of a climbing partner. at the granite stairway one of the employees roger offered me a driveway to park in and pointed me up to the climbing wall at the calpoly campus. i set out on the folding bike, that until then had been stowed in the back of my pickup. on the way back some fluke of fate sent me flying over the handle bar of my bike causing a nice patch of road rash on my knee and hands. i made out a lot better than the bike, it's not rideable, i'm still walking it off.

farther south

left san jose tonight, headed south on the monterey highway then picked up highway 1 along the coast. picked up a hitchhiker, mike, south of monterey and drove him down to his house. i feel like i need to pay back a couple of the rides i got last summer. he was a pretty cool guy he'd gotten stuck here because of september 11th then fell in love with the place, sort of like i did in portland.

i'd been planning on heading north up the coast to oregon until i got an email from my friend in thailand saying that she'd find out on the 4th if she got her visa. if she gets it she'll be arriving in la on the 5th from there we'll probably cruise around ca doing some touring and climbing, if she doesn't get it i'll probably head through the sierras to bishop through reno to portland.

san jose

i'm over in san jose visiting my burningman friend chris.

yesterday i had dinner with one of the daughters of the family we stayed with in jordan. rula her husband khaldoon and their two daughters (who's names i can't spell) are living in south san jose. i stopped in for a very nice dinner on saturday. got a couple pictures that should be up on the server once i find a bit of bandwith.

into california

steve gingold had been talking about going to see the hives for a couple of weeks and when his extra ticket became available i decided to jump on it and go with him. we separate cars to sacramento then carpooled into san francisco. the opening bands (rainning music? and mooney suzki?) were horrible, they were totally into themselves, loud and sucked, any one of which by itself would have been excusable.

the hives were pretty good i think they put more time into rehearsing their rockstar kicks and microphone tricks than into playing but it was still fun. the lead singer either played the role (maybe it wasn't acting?) of a rockstar in such an over the top manner that there was bound to be some animosity. saying it was a hostile crowd would be a bit of an understatement. watching the lead singer argue with the crowd was the best part of the show: "i was told in advance that san francisco is a tough crowd. also i was told that it will be two days, no less than 48 hours, before you realize that this was the best show you've ever seen". the jeers increased at this point, a full beer was thrown and he reminded the crowd that "you all bought tickets, say what you want, it's money in my pocket". when he told the crowd "san francisco i love you but you need to fuck off" it was the highpoint of the show. strangely i was the only one cheering.

steve dropped me off back at my car and i drove on down the road a ways before pulling off on the side of 80 in the middle of a bunch of truckers.

this morning i woke up and headed down to oakdale to see some relatives. since i didn't announce i was coming it wasn't really a surprise that none of them are around. i think i'll hang out a little longer to see if my grandmother shows up, if not i'm thinking about going into yosemite for a day or two. i've got time on my side at this point.

leaving tomorrow

i've put it off a couple of days but tomorrow i'm hitting the road. i think i'll head over to see my grandmother in the central valley of california, then it'll be over to the coast and up through santa cruz to oregon. more to come.