Thurs June 24th- Ripping w/ Gus and Kyle- WL

Today was sick as hell!! After having a great dinner at David and Juana's last night, then working on David until 1am, I slept like a baby at the trail head for Mitch's Brew on Fox Mtn. I woke up around 9am (sleeping in for me these daze), and cruised in to the Gecko (my normal routine now) for breakfast. I ordered the Hungry Hippy- 3 eggs, tofu, veggies, cheese, and other goodness scrambled up together and topped w/ avocado, tomato, and sour cream. I stuggled to put it down, but it ended keeping me going ALL DAY!! I sipped coffee and perused the internet for a bit before heading over to Red Shreds. Once there I phoned Gus who promptly came over. We went to the Southside and rode Dirty Branches to Rad Bits. It was super fun and flowy w/ lots of corners to "roost" out of. Gus is a total ripper and has been riding a Specialized Pitch (with the P covered in a B) ever since he broke his Bottlerocket. Scary thought!! We rallied back to the shop and met up w/ Kyle who had recruited his mom for shuttle duties. We rallied to Desous after picking her up and rode Prime and Endless. It was super fun and flowy up top, ripping through fir forest, then got super steep with a ton of challenging corners to negotiate (in a bit of a scree field). It finished off w/ some jumps and more steeps, my brakes making a horrendous noise by the end of it (also moving to the two fingers per brake for short bits). We sessioned one hip jump into a loamy corner that you could brap. I got a couple cool pics of Gus on this section. While waiting for Kyle's mom at the bottom I couldn't help but notice that the terrain across the valley looked prime for a HUGE jump. Well, Kyle pointed me to a huge cheese wedge at the top where James Doerfling had build just that. There was also a road gap and jump to natural wallride in the same zone. Hmmmmmm.........might have to send it to the moon!!

We couldn't convince Kyle's mom for another lap, so we dropped her off and headed over to the Rad Bits zone and onto Freshly Trimmed, one of James' trails. It had a cool step down to hip to double to step up (wood to dirt). Then another jump, before a couple corners and a big wood step down followed by another wood hip. There was also a hip step down to step up that we timed just right and actually got a shot of both of us in the air at the same time. It was really fun to sesh some jumps w/ Gus and Kyle. The trail ended on some really ripping trail, complete w/ a good few brapper berms. Kyle had to bail, but Gus and I shuttled back up and rode Bell-E. It was really fun and flowy up top w/ some pedaling, then gave away to some jumps through the trees (and a couple bigger trannied stepdowns). We veered over and hit the Westsyde Road gap- probably the biggest jump I've hit here in William's Lake. Then we trained into the rest of the jumps on the trail (me hitting them blindly). THEN we veered over and hit Sick and Nasty- named after two lines down a super steep gully, into a g-out, then off a step up hip that is a bit of a lofter. It was "adrenalizing" to say the least!! We finished the ride off w/ some pedaling and ran into Masters and Nelly who were off on a xc ride. There was some talk of Smithers, which is north of Prince George, and their crazy amount of trails that they've been building w/ grant money. I hear there's really good food in town and they love to take in out of towner. Sounds pretty damn cool!! Now if only we can get Gus a big bike, which he says is mandatory (wow- he sent everything on his Bitch today- including some BIG stuff- Smithers must be bigger!!). Now I'm chilling at the laundromat after mowing a 1/2# burger, fries, a salad, and a margarita. I'm gonna go to David's and get a massage later, then will hopefully repeat the amazing day I had!!!

William's Lake Day 3- Sun. June 21st, 2010

The next morning I stumbled into Mark and Jucinda's and had a espresso w/ them before heading to town and the Gecko Cafe (hands down the best food in WL). I met Kari and Lacey as well as Cory. We got out and rode a couple A Flo Daddy laps, then a Dog Bone w/ Colin, Kailem, and Laura. I almost died on the 40' gap jump. I had hit it previously w/ the youngsters on day 1, coming up just a touch short (no really defined landing), so I really charged off it second go. Probably a bit too hard. I got a little funky in the air and landed off the trail in some weeds. I was in the air for a LONG time!! I really wanted to grab the brakes and freak out, but I tried to hold it together as long as possible. I landed really hard, bottomed the bike out, and somehow rode away unscathed. I'll never hit it again!! Dog Bone was a crazy steep switch back trail. Kailem told me to "let it go off the wallride" in one section. I got going way too fast, pinned it through some gnar, and had to jump off the bike before flying off the trail into some rocks. Hehe!! Cory and I tried to do Snakes and Ladders, but after changing my brake pads on the top of the trail, my brake never pumped back up!! I rode most of the stunts (that were left) and all of the trail, but it was sketchy when the front tire started to push!! Out to Mark's for a sweat lodge session!! I met David and Juana (who cooks at the Gecko), another Veterinarian, Jessie, Laura, and a few others who's name evade me right now. It was the first sweat I've ever been to where they pile ALL the stones it at once (25!!!). The lodge was built underground right on the water!! Between doors we got out and jumped in the lake!! It was AWESOME!!!! We sung and meditated, and SWEATED!! Afterwards we had strawberry crisp around the fire. Then a long, deep sleep that didn't feel long enough (the sun is up EARLY, and so am I these daze!!).

William's Lake Day 2- Sun. June 20th, 2010

Yesterday I went to Desous Mtn to hook up w/ some locals. It didn't start off as planned- getting lost, then getting eaten by a swarm of mosquitos at the bottom waiting for someone- anyone to show up!! After a while of getting eaten by the voracious bugs I decided to pedal up the 5.5 KM myself. It was hot and took ~45-60 minutes. I got passed by an older couple on an enduro which only added to my misery. I made it to the top and wandered around looking for the various trails. The "frontside" trails included Sunset Blvd- which I rode first- BIG mistake. The only "double black" it was NOT. Pedaly and torn down stunts everywhere......was this some sort of sick joke?!! I ended up on some random overgrown road and picked my way though some decrepit jumps, around a house on a lake, and FINALLY back to my van. I ate a sandwich stewing for a bit, all the while getting my blood extracted by the vicious bugs. They forced me into the van. Lucky for me I ran into some local kids on DJ's and they were nice enough to drop me off on top again!! I rode Oosue, which had a cool rock drop reminiscent of Tower Of Lies, a "triple black diamond" cliff section w/ a tricky off camber root move (w/ some decent exposure), and some flowy jumps (and of course the obligatory pedal at the bottom on the xc trail). I decided to bail, but ran into a group of bikers pulling in. I turned around and met Cory (and his micro van) and a bunch of locals. They incorporated me into the back (returning from a backside lap on Soo Long) and I got to ride the Original Desous DH. It was fun, but not as good as Oosue in my opinion. I finished there w/ one more lap on Oosue w/ one other guy from up north. Afterwards, a couple of the guys took me and rode Gutterball on Slater Mtn. It was the best trail yet overall for huck factor. It had a 3 pack of jumps to start, some flowy trail, then about 15 more jumps in various configurations. There was a cool downhill log ride to gap jump over a barbed wire fence, a few cool hip jumps (I was the only one to hit the biggest one), a sweet step down to step up that was big, but easy to overshoot, and a blind 20' + step-down over a bunch of foliage. It ended in a gnarly, rocky, tight, loose gully. The dude in front of me took a good digger and scraped up his arm pretty good. Pretty damn cool trail!! Afterwards I was asking where to camp when it was suggested that I cruise out to Mark's House, the owner of Red Shred's. Seeing as I've never met him I felt a little weird, but I was assured that it was fine. I cruised out toward Chimney Lake and accidentally drove past his house (looking for a paddle on the fence). After passing all the houses and hitting dirt road I turned around and asked a couple guys working on their fence if they knew where Mark lived. One of them drove down the road to show me. I rolled up and met Jucinda, Mark's GF (?). Just then, ???? showed up and swept me away to the golf course where Mark and Kailem where swatting balls around a small local course. They were just finishing up and we went back to Mark's. It was super fun hanging out w/ this group.....they had hilarious stories of sledding, boarding, biking, life, etc. We jumped in the hot tub and had a few party appetizers to boot. I had a great chat w/ Maggie from Kimberly who was a holistic practitioner and had a bunch of interesting views on health and natural medicine. Trish had a super happy baby girl floating around the party. I retired to the van and had a good snooze. What a life!!

Kamloops wrap-up and William's Lake Day 1

Well, I'm sitting at the trailhead of Hillbilly Deluxe- a trail in William's Lake, BC. I pulled in around 4:30 this afternoon after dragging myself away from Jay and Marcie's super crib. I made them a veggie scramble for breakfast and we sat around shooting the wad for a while before peeling out at ~12:30. They are some of the coolest people I've had the pleasure of getting to know better in a while!! We rode everyday- 3 laps on Rio w/ Michelle and Toby, then 3 laps of Harper w/ Ja on Tuesday. Some trail building on Jameison w/ Ja on Wed- built a sweet jump and berm on the more established trail, then ripped it. Ja was all flustered since he was late for beer bottling and ate it into the hole we dug from!! I overshot it the first go, then hit it perfect the second time. I hit the road gap solo at the bottom (smooth), then hung out at the bottom near the stream for lunch. We were supposed to get together and ride Greenstone that evening, but Ja tried to call me (I turned it off at border), so I ended up hanging out solo for a bit at the house, jumping on their trampoline w/ the tramp bike (trying no foot cans, bar spins, and one footed flatties to both sides). Thursday we rode some more Harper (thanks for the shuttles Marcie) and got some pretty killer photos of Pimpernaut (me jumping over Marcie drinking a beer, and a sweet one of me on the wood to dirt kicker). We finished off the evening by riding w/ Metro on their trail on Greenstone. It was super fun w/ lots of berm work and flowy jumps that used the natural terrain extremely well. Only one move needed some more loving (in my opinion)- the wood to dirt hip- which seemed to have logs in the wrong part of the tranny. I ended up hitting it third lap and almost eating it off the high side of the tranny. Friday I tried to leave, but just as I was saying my goodbyes, Matt Hunter called Ja to see if he wanted to ride. He didn't, but I sure jumped on the opportunity to ride again w/ Matt. He had a bunch of buddies in town- Jon-O and Michelle from Nelson, Ben (his cousin), his GF Nikki, and another buddy from Victoria. We ripped 3 laps, the last of which they ended at a sweet camp site w/ a view of the whole valley below. I sat around w/ them for a while sipping on a beer and eating chips as they cooked some "smokies" on the grill. Just before dark I peeled out and ripped the rest of Nate's Woody. Unfortunately I mistimed my braking after hitting a wood booter and ended up stacking it into a berm below. I kind of tweeked my thumb and scraped up my shoulder and back a bit. I finished off the trail a bit more reserved and headed back to Ja's where they were having a bit of a party. I choked down a couple of cold burgers and some potato salad while hanging out w/ another Ben and his wife, plus a dude I met last year at Smoke's May Long Weekend Jam. It was a glorious week full of bike talk, bike riding, good food, and great company. Thanks guys!!

Today I timed it out pretty good. I stopped at the Laughing Loon to try to find people to shuttle w/ but no luck. Then I went to the bottom of Hillbilly Stunts and ended up running into a family that was shuttling for a couple of birthday boys!! I got 3 laps out of the deal!! We rode HS, then onto Mitch's ?, and A Flo Daddy. I hit the A Flo road gap (pretty solid) and then onto the 40 footer (probably a bit less) which I aborted on the first go (decided to actually LOOK at it a bit too late and had to launch the bike off the wood kicker and jump off, deeply bruising and cutting the back of my leg (f'n ow!!). All in all a good bit of riding for the first day- not too gnarly, but still hit a couple solid moves. Their trails seem to be a bit over-rated w/ regards to difficulty (Mitch's was fun w/ some medium tabletops and was labeled expert- so was HS?!). I ate at the Laughing Loon while talking to my mama on Skype (pretty damn cool!!!), then drove around looking for a spot to camp. No real luck, plus one aborted mission down a dirt road that turned gnarly, forcing me to turn around in a bunch of bushes/high grasses. That pretty much brings me back to where I sit, typing in the dark w/ the sounds of some birds and frogs in the background. Hopefully Gustav calls me for some ripping tomorrow!! Otherwise I think I'm off to check out Desous Mtn. and/or the Westside Trails (Snakes and Ladders, plus a number of "extreme" steep stunted trails w/ "expert" jumps. I also want to try to hook up w/ James Doerfling while I'm here so he can show me how to ride a bike!! OK.....off to bed!! I'm beat!!

Kamloops-Rio and Jameson; June 15th, 2010

I slept like crap last night, even though I was in the most comfy bed I've slept in in a while. One part new house, one part excitement to ride new trails, one part early ass sun rise!! I was up for a while, went back to sleep, and then woke back up and was sure it was time to go, but no, it was 6:20AM. Jay and Marcie were gone already, and Ja and I munched granola and sipped coffee on his patio. We met up w/ Toby and Michelle (who I guess was a man at one point?), who was celebrating her 40th birthday. We jumped in her crazy rack having, lifted Tundra and crept a slow, steep 4x4 road up to Rio. We unloaded and I jumped on my bike to bounce around for a second. Only problem was that my chain was stuck on the frame and my forceful pedal stroke broke my chain and sent me to the ground, complete w/ gouges in the back of my leg. Great!! I put in a quick link and we took off down the trail. A couple nice lofter jumps got me going, and we stopped to session a step down road gap to hip road gap. I cased the second jump pretty bad, so I pushed back up and hit it again more smoothly (w/ some style). Then I hit it a third time behind Ja (for the camera) and totally knuckled the landing still hipped out. I over corrected and went cart wheeling into Ja. Nice. More bumps and bruises coming. The lower bit was super fun, and rocketed back and forth along a gully, with wallrides abound. We got a second run via Marcie shuttling us, and the rain picked up its intensity. We basically ripped it top to bottom. My face was super splattered w/ mud (I need some goggles!!), and my shorts were soaked w/ mud and water. We took a lunch break over at Frick and Frack's (Tandoori Chicken Wrap and Greek Salad), then chilled at Ja and Marcie's for a bit before getting really stoked (thanks Follow Me) and heading over for a night capper at Jamison. Ja was gracious enough to shuttle us, and Marcie tested out her sprained ankle for the first time (that girl can RIDE!!!). The first lap was super thin single track, slightly overgrown, and super fun. The bottom steep section was a little greasy and we both slid down the steeps w/ one foot flapping just in case. We rallied for a second lap and it was even more fun!! A little more rocky and rooty w/ a fun 20' stepdown that I hit. We passed a group filming that included the dude third in the Canadian DH series this year. We rallied back to the house, I worked on Marcie's ankle a little, and Ja and I took turns sharing pics, vids, and stories. I can't believe I've only hung out w/ these guys once....I feel like I've known them both for years!! I hope to sleep a bit better tonight, and I hope the rain chills for a bit, EH?!!

Kamloops!! (June 14th, 2010)

I left Bham at ~ 1:30 PM after packing, buying groceries, and helping Tom ship his door. I made it through the border with only a 2 car wait and no hassling. I took a new road (Road 0) which traversed along the border and actually popped you out past the Sumas crossing. Then I made my way onto Hwy 1 (Trans Canadian Hwy) and took it past Hope, and Merrit, then onto Hwy 3 and finally 5 N. I crossed some big mountain passes, complete w/ snow and incredible looking ski terrain. The blue skies started to hint of some rain and eventually it opened up on one of the last mountain passes. I pulled up at the Bike Cafe at ~5PM (an hour early!!). I ran into Dylan Sherrard and he somehow remembered me. He gave me some directions to Harper Mountain and the Bike Ranch. I decided to go to Harper. I got lost a couple times (went the wrong way on 1, then missed the exit and had to ask for directions). FINALLY I drove out the right road. Dylan spoke of mass shuttling, but only 1 guy was in the parking lot and only 2 cars. I introduced myself, and he told me a couple buddies were going to show up and rip. One of those buddies is the legendary Kamloops local, Matt Hunter (Roam, etc). I tried not to act star struck as we bounced up the road in his Tacoma. He showed me some pics from the cabin they're building (past Whistler). It looked RAD!! We ripped a super fast flowy bit of trail, then onto some jumps. I overshot the shit out of the first one and had to E-brake before the second. I pushed back up and cased them both second go. Oh well!! We ripped a bunch more flowy trail w/ great dirt, and a few stunts that I onsighted. We loaded up my van after a round of high fives and rallied her up some semi-rough roads. We got stopped on a steep section right before the top and unloaded. We ripped some more flowy stuff (I was trying my best to keep up w/ Matt) and then onto Pimper-naut. Matt described the jumps- a 20+ footer w/ wood lip and dirt trannie, then a wood roller to gap, then some berms and a bigger 20+ ft gap w/ a slight L hip. I on-sighted all but the last big gap. I ran back up hill and hit the last 2 features smooth to the hoots of the crew. I rallied on and we rode something-wood named trail. The dirt was amazing the whole time (I always pictured arid terrain, HUGE jumps, and lots of DUST). I guess I'll have to re-think a lot of that!! I got a hold of Ja and Marcie and got directed to Frick and Frack for dinner. I mowed down a wrap, salad, and some fries before heading over to the Westsyde and their Sage St "mansion." We hung out w/ another Jay from Vancouver Island and had a great time chatting it up about various BC hot spots and crazy adventures. Sounds like a full day tomorrow full of Greenstone, Rio, and whatever else comes our way!! SUPER STOKED!! Stay tuned!!

Sedona Wrap up and MOAB!!

Catch-up:

Sedona:

Checked out Beaverhead Flats w/ Jason and Kenny. Pretty gnarly stunts (mainly jumps and stepdowns) w/ some steep natural lines. We only saw a glimpse of the total area b/c of time limitations (Jason had to go grab his girl). I hit the two upper jumps and the first 2 of the four pack, but the wind was pushing me around a lot and I wasn't feeling great on the big bike (weird going from xc to jumps). I guess Kranked 5 was filmed a little bit out in this zone.

Rode Highline w/ Kenny and Lily- still really windy, but a fun flowy trail that rose from the Red Agave resort. We ended up riding it both ways since you would have to climb out of the switchbacks on the side of Cathederal Peak. Finished up riding at Jason's with the foam pit.

Rode Flagstaff (Mt. Elden)- 2 laps down Wasabe, Prom Night (w/ Happy Ending), and Private Reserve w/ Kenny and Jason. Very fun place w/ some chunky rock gnar abound, as well as a cool step down on Wasabe, a really cool step down to step up on Private Reserve, and of course the 60' rock face that is Happy Ending. We got some pretty good shots too.....

The shuttle road is brutal and takes longer to ride down in the car than on the bike......

Drove from Sedona right to the Grand Canyon for a sunset hike along the N. Rim (away from all the tourists). There were a ton of wildflowers and some crazy looking trees. I snapped away to my hearts content and got some pretty cool shots. We jumped back in the car and headed for MOAB!!

Moab:

Rolled up and camped on the LaSal Mtn Loop Rd. Pulled off some random dirt road and crashed. Woke up to a truck and trailer approaching. I jumped up front and still half asleep drove into Moab. We stopped at Poison Spider Mesa and tried to pull some of the droves of people away from the pay shuttle and into our van. No luck. Then onto the Moab Cyclery. Super cool shop that has a TON of solar panels on the roof. We got some Hammer Gels, a map, and lucked out w/ Nat and Aaron (from Whistler). Aaron wanted to ride, but Nat wasn't up for Porcupine Rim. Lily and I rode 2.5 miles out and back on the Slickrock trail while they did the practice loop. Then we rallied down to 191 and dropped the car off at the bottom, and back up Sand Flats Rd to LPS. I hadn't ridden this trail and within 10 minutes Aaron and I lost Lily- we checked out The Notch (a techy section up high) while Lily plunged herself down LPS. Aaron and I waited for Lily but she never showed. By the time we realized what had happened we took off to catch her. We never caught a glimpse of her. I had a flat that took 2 tries to fix, but other than that we ripped the trail hard. And were still 1.5 hrs behind her!! We rallied back to town after Nat picked us up, and ate some yummy food at the Moab Brewery. The 3.2 beer actually got me a buzz (just add in dehydration and empty stomach). We got dropped off at LPS, hung out for a while, then they took off and we jumped in the back of the van.

Next day we went to Chile Pepper bike shop, ran into Wendy (whom I had ridden with ~8yrs ago), and met Dan and Dallas. Dan and I chatted about doing Hazard County, Kokopelli, UPS, and LPS. He was a little concerned about Dallas whom had only ridden a mountain bike a couple times in his life. Dallas decided to go for it. We dropped the bottom car on 191 again, and the two Utah boys piled into the back of the van. Hazard County took an hour to get to. We drove down Spanish Valley Hwy, watched the shuttle van behind us get pulled over for passing a slow car that we passed too, and wound our way up the LaSal mtns. There were patches of Aspen trees, wildflowers, and various plant life as we ascended away from the red sandstone cliffs of Moab.

We clamored out of the van, got on our bikes and did the initial climb up to the top of Hazard. I thought we were screwed when Dallas ate shit within a few minutes of the DH. But he kept plugging away, dirt stripes and all. Believe it or not, he smoked his MTB buddy the WHOLE DAY. I cringed as he inched his way down gnarly slickrock sections......somehow finding the correct balance of brakes and body position. Kokopelli was a wide open ripper 2 track w/ some water bar jumps and LOTS of wildflowers. UPS and LPS were just AWESOME......winding along the edge of a mesa with a very precipitous drop off.......sometimes the trail would get within a couple feet of the edge....just long enough for you to force yourself NOT to look. There was a little grinding up the ridge of Porcupine Rim and this is where Dallas showed his first weakness, but only momentarily. We ripped down Porcupine Rim....pounding through the never ending rock ledges and loose baby heads. It never seemed to end....always wrapping around another corner, exposing a ribbon of red rock and dirt that kept putting a smile on your face. We finished up and headed into town to grub at Zak's. Lily and I ate the pizza buffet and stacked a mound of pizza crusts worthy of a day of riding that we had just finished. The boys gave us a ride back to the top and we ended up crashing out high in the LaSal mtns.

Next, Lily and I rode Amasa Back. We drove out Kane Creek and parked 1/2 mile from the trailhead. We rallied up the road for a second and onto the trail. It opened up with a waterfall rock section and then across a sandy wash and then gradually climbed up through sheer rock walls before topping out on the mesa. We rode along the rim for a bit, then got onto Rockstacker near the power lines. We started to ride it, realizing we were going the wrong way, but it was cool and had a number of moves that were probably better to preview. We backtracked on Rockstacker and then onto Jackson's trail (previously unnamed) which wrapped us along the edge of a cliff on flowy trail. We got some great pics. Unfortunately the creek was flooded at the bottom and we had to do a harrowing hike-a-bike to make it back to the parking lot. We finished the day off by driving down 191 to the Big Bend boulders and poking around. We were both pretty spaked and didn't really have much mojo for the rock.

We ended up eating at the pasta joint (delish) and crashing back out in the LaSals.

Lily was kind enough to allow me the honors of Hazard County solo, and I ended up rallying it HARD with only a couple of quick sops (once to help a guy out w/ his blown shock). I dropped 5k ft in just under 2 hrs. I was in the zone!!

We rallied over to the Wall St. zone on Potash Rd and met up w/ Julia and Leah. I led up the 5.8 classic "30 seconds over Potash," to start with and it definitely was a little funky with my sweaty, greasy, out-of-the-car self wigging out on my crappy gear placements. Thankfully I wasn't the only one to find it hard. Next, I led a 5.10c sport route- "Nervous in Suburbia," and walked it compared to the much "easier" 5.8 we "warmed up" on. The girls got a little worked on the long moves between holds, and I ended up cleaning it. Next I led the 5.9 Little Thailand on the road cut. It looked super easy from the ground, but all the holds were slopey, and pointed in the wrong direction. Still, you never really had to pull all that hard.

Then we caught a family with a bunch of routes on TR and I did a 5.10 slab that was pretty sparse. Lily did a 5.8 and was glad to go out on a send.

Next day we headed over to the "secret" swimming hole. Well, actually we tried to spend the night there, but that only lasted until 1 am when a sheriff clicked every light he had on our van. We tried to play dead, but he demanded someone out of the car. He let us go after running my license. We drove out and crashed past Porcupine Rim trail again. The swimming hole was PACKED (even w/ a 25 min approach and multiple stream crossings). There was a waterfall that you could jump off of, and a stream with mini waterfalls to relax in- if cold water is your thing. We lounged around for a while in the shade, then I finally convinced Lily to jump off the cliff- even if it was the small part. I went off the larger drop a couple of times- barely touching the bottom each time.

Afterwards, we decided to go to Arches National Park and climb Owl Rock (5.8). Lily had a hard time with it, and had to take off the pack with our sunset beers. I watched as the sun sunk behind the rock, spectators and all, as Lily made her way to the top. In my haste to get down I neglected to retrieve a cam that Lily couldn't get out. I remembered this when I was back in town. DOH!! I know what we're doing in the AM!! We drove out Potash Rd and camped in a legit campground (pay?!!).

Well.....we still haven't paid for housing/camping. Lily got up at 5:45 and woke me up. We quickly jumped up front and peeled out before anyone could demand our money!! Off to owl rock!! We ate granola and sipped french press coffee as the sun came up. Then onto the "juggy" and weird 5.8. I think I need to have a little "gear removal clinic" with Lily b/c the piece came out w/o a fight!! We finished it off and decided to go climb Corkscrew Summit at Fisher Towers. We met a few people from Brazil and one woman from Argentina who had just finished it up. "Classic" was all they had to offer. We hiked up and realized a couple was just starting up the climb. I chatted w/ Brian as he made his way up the first pitch. Then I met Christina at the first belay. They were from NY and were out for a few daze. They planned to climb Fine Jade the next day. We met back up at the top of the chimney pitch and I watched as they reached the summit one at a time. They were funny (Bronx humor I guess) and were comically elbowing each other as they climbed. It was fun to overhear. They offered to wait for us to summit so we could be sure to reach the ground w/ only 1 rope (no mention to the contrary in the guide book). They napped on the sunny ledge as Lily and I took turns wigging out on the sidewalk to belly flop. Basically, you walk unprotected from the belay along a narrow sidewalk until you run into the "diving board." Brian wiggled under the diving board and didn't do the belly flop, but Christina, Lily, and I did the committing flop onto the rock protrusion. After wiggling awkwardly to get on top of this rock anomaly we worked our way around the delicate rock peak, clipping a few pitons along the way. The summit is probably one of the most unique anywhere. Just enough room to stand up and maybe turn around.....with hundreds of feet of exposure on each side. Wahooooo!!!