Another rock climbing trip on Mount Lemmon, this time with Lorien, Mike, and Laurent. Fun times!
Jason plans a yearly trip to the base of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff in the fall. We try to time the trip to coincide with the aspens changing colors, since we don’t have regular seasons here in the desert. This year we were a little late, so in addition to having few colored leaves, we came right after the first snowfall. It was a bit cold, but we still had a great time.
This was my first experience climbing outdoors. I had been to the rock gym plenty of times, but nothing compares to the real thing. The combination of fresh air and getting to choose your own routes made me realize that this is something I’ll be doing until my fingers fall off.
We went to the Practice Wall at Windy Point on August 7th (first two pictures) and followed up at Ridgeline on the 23rd. On October 23rd, we went to a place called Rabbit Tracks (last three pictures). That was the first (and hopefully last) time I got dropped by my belayer–I freefell for a good 10 feet before he caught me and the rope stretched another 5-6 feet. I hit the ground, but very gently. Thanks, Scott!
My friend Mark and I went on a road trip to Los Angeles to see Mike Doughty (of Soul Coughing fame) open for Rusted Root at the House of Blues. The next day we drove to San Diego and stayed at the Surfer Motor Lodge on Mission Beach. Mark flew a kite while I learned how to surf.
The National Forests in Arizona were closed all summer due to the high risk of forest fire. As soon as they opened, I called my buddy Jason and said, “Let’s do a hike.”
Of course, I picked Rincon Peak, which is 16.2 miles and 4200 feet of elevation gain, and also decided to do this in a day. I figured once we got into the higher elevation it would be cooler. It was, but it was still 80 degrees at the top. We ran out of water, got overheated, stumbled upon three different rattlesnakes, etc. When I got back to the car, I picked up the cooler and drank the icewater straight from the thing. Not the best planning, but it was still a great hike!
