Well the summer is quickly coming to an end so this may be my last post.
After a week and a half of much-needed couch and TV time at my parents' I was excited to get back out West. My parents and I flew out to Denver on the morning of the 3rd.
We took the bus shuttle (free to students!) to Boulder and while my parents waited with all of our luggage I walked over to pick up my car. I was glad to see my car and I turned the corner, still parked where I left it a week and a half ago. I was even happier when it started. So far so good.
We stopped by my new apartment first and walked downtown (location, location!) to finally get some lunch. After a hardy lunch from Old Chicago my dad and I picked up my life from the storage unit and supplies to fix the AC in my car. A week long road-trip with barely working AC would not do.
The rest of the day was spent walking around the campus and downtown Boulder. My parents were impressed, I think. We crashed early at the hotel, both of them feeling the change in altitude.
Early next morning we were off to Rocky Mountain National Park. The ooooooh and aaaaaah did not stop the rest of the trip. Beautiful canyons and gorgeous mountainous landscapes. We drove the famous Trail Ridge Road (highest continuous, paved highway in the United States), had lunch by a beautiful lake, went for a hike and made it all the way to Laramie, WY by the end of the day. "What a cowboy town!"
Next morning's drive was not as exciting, as we made our way through Southwest Wyoming, but once we went a few hours North and could see the Gros Ventre Range things started to look up. We made it into Jackson, WY and drove into Grand Teton National Park.
One of my favorite parts of the park is that you don't see the mountains until you are driving through the park and take a turn around a butte. My parents were distracted, just having a conversation and just casually looking around the landscape as we were going around the butte. "Are you guys ready?", Confused silence. "Ready for wha..... WHOAH! LOOK AT THAT!" Made my day. The skies were clear so you could see the range in all of its glory.
We drove around, stopped by the visitor's center and went for a short hike. We stopped back in Jackson to celebrate my mom's birthday and then headed over the Teton Pass to our campsite. CAMPSITE. The first time my parents camped in over 30 years. They had a great attitude about it.
Over the night my parents had a visitor, a tiny mouse that must have gotten into the tent through a zipper that wasn't closed all the way. Otherwise, everything went smoothly.
We spent the next two days exploring Yellowstone by car and foot. We pretty much hit all the major attraction points along the roads, saw pronghorn, a coyote, tons of bison (to my parents' delight), moose and of course elk. No bears or wolves, sadly. By the end of the second day we made it to Bozeman. My favorite!
Unfortunately, this is where things went wrong. My dad's back started acting up really bad. We decided that to keep going as planned would be impossible and that they should get back to CT as soon as possible. So we changed our tickets and hotel reservations and the next day made the 10+ hour drive back to Denver.
So sad, we were just getting to the best part - we were going to go into Glacier the next day. And see more of Montana, which was my biggest point for this whole trip. But there is always next time I guess.
The day my parents left I got the best news of them all - my original advisor managed to find funding for me afterall! Diatoms and potentially Antarctica are a go! I will be a student this fall. I can't even describe how big of a relief that is. And I got this e-mail after I spent most of the day applying for jobs in Boulder.
And now I am unpacked and all set up. I found cheap/free furniture for my room and got organized.
This coming week I have a friend coming to visit, so there will be hiking and climbing on the menu. And the week after that orientation and such things start. Life is about to get busy.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
A week and a half at home.
My time in New England is almost up. I've pretty much spent a week and a half on the couch at my parents'. So lazy.
I've had a few memorable moments here though. It happened. I had the ultimate hometown experience - running into the first boy I ever kissed at the grocery store. First we made eye contact in the parking lot when I was walking towards the store and he was driving. The recognizing look. Then in the store I almost dove into the nearest aisle just to avoid an actual face-to-face encounter. Phew.
Crisis avoided.
I went hiking at the nearby Sleeping Giant State Park. My friend Ktina and I have hiked there so many times, taking the hardest trail East across the park and the second hardest trail back. I took the hard, blue trail again, remembering all the times I've been there. The first 0.5 miles of that trail is still the steepest trail I've ever hiked. It was so humid and hot I was soaked within 15 minutes. My plan was to hike across the whole park and come back on the white trail, but a thunderstorm had different ideas. Upon reaching the tower in the middle of the park I was forced to turn back and run down the easy trail to the parking lot.
I spent a day running errands around nearby towns. So many memories in so many places. I broke into laughter just thinking of some adventures, people I used to hang out with and various troubles we'd get into. It was all so long ago. Or so it seems.
The situation with school is still very much in limbo. I wait patiently for an e-mail or a phone call, while casually browsing jobs on craigslist.
C'est la vie.
Tomorrow I get back to the mountains! Road trip with parents begins.
I've had a few memorable moments here though. It happened. I had the ultimate hometown experience - running into the first boy I ever kissed at the grocery store. First we made eye contact in the parking lot when I was walking towards the store and he was driving. The recognizing look. Then in the store I almost dove into the nearest aisle just to avoid an actual face-to-face encounter. Phew.
Crisis avoided.
I went hiking at the nearby Sleeping Giant State Park. My friend Ktina and I have hiked there so many times, taking the hardest trail East across the park and the second hardest trail back. I took the hard, blue trail again, remembering all the times I've been there. The first 0.5 miles of that trail is still the steepest trail I've ever hiked. It was so humid and hot I was soaked within 15 minutes. My plan was to hike across the whole park and come back on the white trail, but a thunderstorm had different ideas. Upon reaching the tower in the middle of the park I was forced to turn back and run down the easy trail to the parking lot.
I spent a day running errands around nearby towns. So many memories in so many places. I broke into laughter just thinking of some adventures, people I used to hang out with and various troubles we'd get into. It was all so long ago. Or so it seems.
The situation with school is still very much in limbo. I wait patiently for an e-mail or a phone call, while casually browsing jobs on craigslist.
C'est la vie.
Tomorrow I get back to the mountains! Road trip with parents begins.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Boulder II
Things are falling into place. The panic that I felt a little less than a week ago is starting to subside.
Yesterday I met with a professor, Carol, whose research I've been interested in since before I applied to CU Boulder. She was incredibly nice and we spent an hour and a half talking about her research, my background and things to come. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any extra money for another person coming in this year, but she has a lot of projects that I could start working on and apply for funding for it.
She will also put in a good word for me with the administrative lady at the EBIO department for a TA position. Hopefully that will help.
I also met one of my two roommates. I feel more and more at peace with my decision to stay in Boulder no matter what. If no TA position comes about I will stay here, so that I get residency by beginning of next year. I may already have a job here, starting the first vegan food truck in Boulder with my girl roommate. The place where I will be staying is pretty rundown. But the price and location are hard to beat. But I will have a glass sliding door to a patio! Yes!
Last night I went to the newer, fancy rock climbing gym here in Boulder. The one that Alex Johnson and Daniel Woods train at. It is as nice as you imagine - huge variety of top tope and lead walls, a great bouldering section, full gym, free yoga and cycling classes for members. Showers, towel service and anything else you'd like. And not that expensive. Same price as the one in Bozeman.
The ratings there made me feel good about my climbing - I top-roped a few 10a routes, led a 5.8 and 5.9. I haven't been so pumped from climbing in a while. Its so different from the slower pace of outdoor climbing.
Of course, compared to people I was with and the rest of the crowd there I was kind of on the bottom, but I can work my way up. I went with my CouchSurfing host and her friends and they were leading steep 12a routes. Yikes.
People in this state are ridiculously fit. When I grow up I want to be like them!
Its hot in Boulder. Mid to upper 90's. I thought I had escaped that when I left Texas!
Yesterday I met with a professor, Carol, whose research I've been interested in since before I applied to CU Boulder. She was incredibly nice and we spent an hour and a half talking about her research, my background and things to come. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any extra money for another person coming in this year, but she has a lot of projects that I could start working on and apply for funding for it.
She will also put in a good word for me with the administrative lady at the EBIO department for a TA position. Hopefully that will help.
I also met one of my two roommates. I feel more and more at peace with my decision to stay in Boulder no matter what. If no TA position comes about I will stay here, so that I get residency by beginning of next year. I may already have a job here, starting the first vegan food truck in Boulder with my girl roommate. The place where I will be staying is pretty rundown. But the price and location are hard to beat. But I will have a glass sliding door to a patio! Yes!
Last night I went to the newer, fancy rock climbing gym here in Boulder. The one that Alex Johnson and Daniel Woods train at. It is as nice as you imagine - huge variety of top tope and lead walls, a great bouldering section, full gym, free yoga and cycling classes for members. Showers, towel service and anything else you'd like. And not that expensive. Same price as the one in Bozeman.
The ratings there made me feel good about my climbing - I top-roped a few 10a routes, led a 5.8 and 5.9. I haven't been so pumped from climbing in a while. Its so different from the slower pace of outdoor climbing.
Of course, compared to people I was with and the rest of the crowd there I was kind of on the bottom, but I can work my way up. I went with my CouchSurfing host and her friends and they were leading steep 12a routes. Yikes.
People in this state are ridiculously fit. When I grow up I want to be like them!
Its hot in Boulder. Mid to upper 90's. I thought I had escaped that when I left Texas!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Boulder
Dear Boulder Men, stop being so beautiful, I'm supposed to be focusing on important things.
Its not even noon and I've already had a super productive day.
This morning I paid for a shower for the first time in my life. It was hot and clean and a dragged it out for as long as I could to be worth $5. Felt glorious after 3 days of hiking.
I made it to Boulder from RMNP by 9am. On campus I got my picture taken for the student ID card (BuffOne). Then I popped in to talk to an administrative lady at the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and tried to charm my way into a TA position. Things can come up before school starts, so I have to wait for an email/call from her between now and the end of August.
Afterwards I stopped by the office of a professor whose research I'm REALLY interested in and I've been emailing quite a bit since I applied for school. At last, she was there! But busy, so we set an appointment for tomorrow. She seemed pretty excited to meet with me. This could be good.
So no bad news, but no good news either. Everything is still up in the air. I feel hopeful about things though. I think I made a good impression on the EBIO lady, explained the pickle that I'm in. And hopefully the meeting with the professor will go well tomorrow.
Its not even noon and I've already had a super productive day.
This morning I paid for a shower for the first time in my life. It was hot and clean and a dragged it out for as long as I could to be worth $5. Felt glorious after 3 days of hiking.
I made it to Boulder from RMNP by 9am. On campus I got my picture taken for the student ID card (BuffOne). Then I popped in to talk to an administrative lady at the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and tried to charm my way into a TA position. Things can come up before school starts, so I have to wait for an email/call from her between now and the end of August.
Afterwards I stopped by the office of a professor whose research I'm REALLY interested in and I've been emailing quite a bit since I applied for school. At last, she was there! But busy, so we set an appointment for tomorrow. She seemed pretty excited to meet with me. This could be good.
So no bad news, but no good news either. Everything is still up in the air. I feel hopeful about things though. I think I made a good impression on the EBIO lady, explained the pickle that I'm in. And hopefully the meeting with the professor will go well tomorrow.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Catching up
Okay, gotta catch up on a few days last week.
After the day spent at the swimming hole we only had one full day of climbing left. We all headed over to the Main Wall, which was a bit of a hike from our campsite. Felt good to stretch my legs. On the way we met Steve, an older gentleman (60+) from Massachusetts who was traveling around, climbing all summer and asked to tag along with us since he didn't have a climbing partner. Sure thing!
We all got to the Main wall - Frank, Brian, Steve and I and five of Frank's co-workers/friends. In minutes we had four ropes set up on a variety of routes. I led a funky 5.7 and a difficult 5.9. Others led a couple of 5.10s, which I flailed on, top-rope, but got them done anyway! YES!
Steve was the smoothest climber I've seen in a long time. He was average height and super skinny, climbing up a tough, pocket-y 5.11 with no trouble.
Shortly after noon a thunderstorm rolled in, so we decided to wait it out. 6 of us crawled into a tiny room created by a few boulders, right by the wall. Frank and his friends all work at a Wilderness Therapy organization in Utah. I can't even imagine dealing with the kind of kids that they have to supervise.
Steve headed out in the early afternoon and we stuck around for a while more to climb. Every route was super difficult for me, but I'm pretty happy that I kept trying anyway. My fingers are STILL raw from how sharp that limestone is. The climbing at Wild Iris is way more technical than anything I've ever climbed.
We got back to camp, made dinner and then... DISASTER! We are out of beer! Or any other alcoholic beverage. This is our last night all together and we are an hour (round-trip) from town. DILEMMA. Finally, once two other girls came over to our camp we decided that it was now or never - alcohol must be acquired! So we all piled into Frank's car and drove to town.
In our excitement we completely forgot that we were low on water. So the next morning, after staying up pretty late we realized that we only had a couple of liters to last us all day.
Late next morning we moseyed over to the closest crag to get just a little bit more climbing in. I led a really fun 5.8 that required stemming between 2-3 walls. There was a group of women climbing next to us, ridiculously. I have never heard a more polite and supportive group of people, in a nauseating way. "Nice clip!", "Those quickdraws are sooooooo pretty", "omg you are climbing so well today". BARF.
Brian and I concluded that they must be a support-group of some sorts. No normal human beings talk like that.
We walked over to our second climb and BAM! Thunder. Back to camp, where Frank quickly set up a tarp and good thing he did because it started hailing like crazy. The three of us huddled together under the tarp. The temperature dropped at least 30 degrees in less than 30 minutes. Crazy!
About ten minutes passed and the storm was not letting down. I was freezing so I made a run for the safety and warmth of my tent and the guys ran to Frank's car, which was already packed so it didn't have space for one more. Curled up in my tent I was warm at last and took an hour-long nap while it continued to hail. Finally, we came out of hiding. The ground was soaked (yay for wildfire safety!) and covered with a inch-thick layer of snow/hail. Climbing for the rest of the day was out of question, we had no water left and nothing to do in camp. So Brian and I decided to pack up as well and head back to Lander, where we could camp at the city park.
I hate packing up a wet tent.
Now the challenge was to make it out to the main road. My badass 4-wheel drive Subaru had no problems, but Frank's VW Rabbit couldn't quite hop its way out of muddy ruts. We spent almost an hour pushing his car out and putting down small rocks behind and in front of his tires to give more traction. Once on the main road we said our goodbyes and headed into Lander.
The City Park in Lander allows free camping for up to 3 nights. AWESOME. I wish every city would do that. It was 80 and sunny once again by the time we made it to town. We set up our tents on the lush grass and walked around downtown before passing out early in the evening, exhausted.
The next morning I was woken up at 6am by a Zumba class starting in the park. I guess camping there has its disadvantages after all. Being woken up by Latin-inspired techno music is hardly my favorite. Brian was woken up by a park worker driving right passed his tent in a Gator, dragging a hose behind him.
We got coffee and started on our 5-hr, most boring drive through Southeast Wyoming to Ft. Collins, CO. I swear, as soon as we crossed the Colorado border the scenery became interesting!
After the day spent at the swimming hole we only had one full day of climbing left. We all headed over to the Main Wall, which was a bit of a hike from our campsite. Felt good to stretch my legs. On the way we met Steve, an older gentleman (60+) from Massachusetts who was traveling around, climbing all summer and asked to tag along with us since he didn't have a climbing partner. Sure thing!
We all got to the Main wall - Frank, Brian, Steve and I and five of Frank's co-workers/friends. In minutes we had four ropes set up on a variety of routes. I led a funky 5.7 and a difficult 5.9. Others led a couple of 5.10s, which I flailed on, top-rope, but got them done anyway! YES!
Steve was the smoothest climber I've seen in a long time. He was average height and super skinny, climbing up a tough, pocket-y 5.11 with no trouble.
Shortly after noon a thunderstorm rolled in, so we decided to wait it out. 6 of us crawled into a tiny room created by a few boulders, right by the wall. Frank and his friends all work at a Wilderness Therapy organization in Utah. I can't even imagine dealing with the kind of kids that they have to supervise.
Steve headed out in the early afternoon and we stuck around for a while more to climb. Every route was super difficult for me, but I'm pretty happy that I kept trying anyway. My fingers are STILL raw from how sharp that limestone is. The climbing at Wild Iris is way more technical than anything I've ever climbed.
We got back to camp, made dinner and then... DISASTER! We are out of beer! Or any other alcoholic beverage. This is our last night all together and we are an hour (round-trip) from town. DILEMMA. Finally, once two other girls came over to our camp we decided that it was now or never - alcohol must be acquired! So we all piled into Frank's car and drove to town.
In our excitement we completely forgot that we were low on water. So the next morning, after staying up pretty late we realized that we only had a couple of liters to last us all day.
Late next morning we moseyed over to the closest crag to get just a little bit more climbing in. I led a really fun 5.8 that required stemming between 2-3 walls. There was a group of women climbing next to us, ridiculously. I have never heard a more polite and supportive group of people, in a nauseating way. "Nice clip!", "Those quickdraws are sooooooo pretty", "omg you are climbing so well today". BARF.
Brian and I concluded that they must be a support-group of some sorts. No normal human beings talk like that.
We walked over to our second climb and BAM! Thunder. Back to camp, where Frank quickly set up a tarp and good thing he did because it started hailing like crazy. The three of us huddled together under the tarp. The temperature dropped at least 30 degrees in less than 30 minutes. Crazy!
About ten minutes passed and the storm was not letting down. I was freezing so I made a run for the safety and warmth of my tent and the guys ran to Frank's car, which was already packed so it didn't have space for one more. Curled up in my tent I was warm at last and took an hour-long nap while it continued to hail. Finally, we came out of hiding. The ground was soaked (yay for wildfire safety!) and covered with a inch-thick layer of snow/hail. Climbing for the rest of the day was out of question, we had no water left and nothing to do in camp. So Brian and I decided to pack up as well and head back to Lander, where we could camp at the city park.
I hate packing up a wet tent.
Now the challenge was to make it out to the main road. My badass 4-wheel drive Subaru had no problems, but Frank's VW Rabbit couldn't quite hop its way out of muddy ruts. We spent almost an hour pushing his car out and putting down small rocks behind and in front of his tires to give more traction. Once on the main road we said our goodbyes and headed into Lander.
The City Park in Lander allows free camping for up to 3 nights. AWESOME. I wish every city would do that. It was 80 and sunny once again by the time we made it to town. We set up our tents on the lush grass and walked around downtown before passing out early in the evening, exhausted.
The next morning I was woken up at 6am by a Zumba class starting in the park. I guess camping there has its disadvantages after all. Being woken up by Latin-inspired techno music is hardly my favorite. Brian was woken up by a park worker driving right passed his tent in a Gator, dragging a hose behind him.
We got coffee and started on our 5-hr, most boring drive through Southeast Wyoming to Ft. Collins, CO. I swear, as soon as we crossed the Colorado border the scenery became interesting!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Well shit.
Shocked, enraged, lost.... those are just some adjectives that describe how I felt when reading an e-mail from my Grad School advisor informing me that the funding for the project I was supposed to work on did not go through. Now if I want to go to CU Boulder I need to cough up $30,000 and that's just for tuition. And I'm supposed to sign a lease next week!
Taking out a loan for that much money is silly. Not for a Master's degree, not when I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with it.
The only hope would be finding a TA position with a different department. I've been on the waitlist for that since May. I probably won't find out for sure until next month.
What to do now? Try and find a shitty job in Boulder, or Bozeman, or elsewhere?
And yesterday started out pretty well! We went to the Horsetooth Reservoir, just 10 minutes outside of Ft.Collins to go for a swim. And swim I did. Alone. My friend stayed behind, sitting in the shade by the car, reading. So I called my best friend, thousands of miles away, so that I wouldn't feel so lonely.
After saying goodbye to Brian I headed West out of town, to Rocky Mountain National Park! I will be hiking here for the next few days before heading to Boulder. The drive here was incredible. This area of Colorado is just stupid pretty. Steep, rugged mountains everywhere! And I may possibly live just an hour drive from here.
I found a sweet Forest Service campsite just 10 miles outside the park, set up my tent and headed over to the nearest Visitor's Center to get some info on the hikes I wanted to do. That's when I checked my e-mail and got the bad news.
Oh, and I started out yesterday morning by giving a reference for one of my crew members from Texas. I felt like such an adult! And by the end of the day I was reduced to sobbing in my tent like a little kid. Damnit!
This morning I went for a 14-mile roundtrip hike to Lawn Lake. Luckily, I started pretty early in the morning and missed the thunderstorm that rolled in less than an hour after I hiked back to my car. It was a beautiful hike along Roaring River. Saw about seven marmots. This place should be called Rocky Marmot National Park!
The lake was beautiful and made all of my worries melt away, even if for some time.
This park is super busy. The hike that I did is not one of the most popular, yet I saw a ton of people, especially on the way back. Tons of Colorado cars in the parking lot. People trail-running. Which makes me think that since its the weekend people from the Front Range area just come here to hike and trail-run. Unlike say Yellowstone or the Tetons, which are big "destination" parks.
I took a drive on the main road that gets up to around 12,000 ft, but it was so cloudy and stormy that I didn't get to see much. Except gorgeous elk with big racks! Yes!
I realize I haven't written about the few days leading up to this. Stay tuned, I will write more.
Taking out a loan for that much money is silly. Not for a Master's degree, not when I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with it.
The only hope would be finding a TA position with a different department. I've been on the waitlist for that since May. I probably won't find out for sure until next month.
What to do now? Try and find a shitty job in Boulder, or Bozeman, or elsewhere?
And yesterday started out pretty well! We went to the Horsetooth Reservoir, just 10 minutes outside of Ft.Collins to go for a swim. And swim I did. Alone. My friend stayed behind, sitting in the shade by the car, reading. So I called my best friend, thousands of miles away, so that I wouldn't feel so lonely.
After saying goodbye to Brian I headed West out of town, to Rocky Mountain National Park! I will be hiking here for the next few days before heading to Boulder. The drive here was incredible. This area of Colorado is just stupid pretty. Steep, rugged mountains everywhere! And I may possibly live just an hour drive from here.
I found a sweet Forest Service campsite just 10 miles outside the park, set up my tent and headed over to the nearest Visitor's Center to get some info on the hikes I wanted to do. That's when I checked my e-mail and got the bad news.
Oh, and I started out yesterday morning by giving a reference for one of my crew members from Texas. I felt like such an adult! And by the end of the day I was reduced to sobbing in my tent like a little kid. Damnit!
This morning I went for a 14-mile roundtrip hike to Lawn Lake. Luckily, I started pretty early in the morning and missed the thunderstorm that rolled in less than an hour after I hiked back to my car. It was a beautiful hike along Roaring River. Saw about seven marmots. This place should be called Rocky Marmot National Park!
The lake was beautiful and made all of my worries melt away, even if for some time.
This park is super busy. The hike that I did is not one of the most popular, yet I saw a ton of people, especially on the way back. Tons of Colorado cars in the parking lot. People trail-running. Which makes me think that since its the weekend people from the Front Range area just come here to hike and trail-run. Unlike say Yellowstone or the Tetons, which are big "destination" parks.
I took a drive on the main road that gets up to around 12,000 ft, but it was so cloudy and stormy that I didn't get to see much. Except gorgeous elk with big racks! Yes!
I realize I haven't written about the few days leading up to this. Stay tuned, I will write more.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Wyoming II
The next day I woke up around 6:30 am, as usual. Started coffee and made myself oatmeal. Frank didn't get up until at least an hour later and proceeded to make an amazing eggs and bacon breakfast. Show off! He made our backcountry-esque morning routine look bad.
We climbed all day. I led anything 5.9 and under and the guys led a couple of 10s and 11s. I top-roped my first outdoor 10b! It took a little flailing, but I got it done.
The next day we climbed in the morning and then headed to Sinks Canyon to cool off in the local swimming hole. To get there we had to hike 1.5 miles along a pretty big creek. After some uphill walking we finally got to our destination - a pretty large pool of water that had a natural slide leading to it! So awesome!
The guys ran up and went down the slide right away, but I was being a chicken since the water was so cold. Eventually I figured I'm only at a place like this once so I better take advantage of it. So down I went. It was so much fun that as soon as I got out and ran up and went down again. It was about 25 ft from the water, with the last 6 ft or so free falling.
There were quite a few people there, for how far of a hike it is. Mostly high school kids. After about an hour Frank's co-workers showed up as well. There were 5 of them climbing in the same area as us. They brought a big watermelon, which they proceeded to chop open with a machete. Baseball style. One person threw it and another girl chopped it in half. Pretty damn funny.
The breeze was pretty chilly so we headed back down into town and re-supplied on water and groceries. Glorious day.
We climbed all day. I led anything 5.9 and under and the guys led a couple of 10s and 11s. I top-roped my first outdoor 10b! It took a little flailing, but I got it done.
The next day we climbed in the morning and then headed to Sinks Canyon to cool off in the local swimming hole. To get there we had to hike 1.5 miles along a pretty big creek. After some uphill walking we finally got to our destination - a pretty large pool of water that had a natural slide leading to it! So awesome!
The guys ran up and went down the slide right away, but I was being a chicken since the water was so cold. Eventually I figured I'm only at a place like this once so I better take advantage of it. So down I went. It was so much fun that as soon as I got out and ran up and went down again. It was about 25 ft from the water, with the last 6 ft or so free falling.
There were quite a few people there, for how far of a hike it is. Mostly high school kids. After about an hour Frank's co-workers showed up as well. There were 5 of them climbing in the same area as us. They brought a big watermelon, which they proceeded to chop open with a machete. Baseball style. One person threw it and another girl chopped it in half. Pretty damn funny.
The breeze was pretty chilly so we headed back down into town and re-supplied on water and groceries. Glorious day.
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