I started the year hanging out with my brother and his
family and friends, watching lots of bowl games and eating many shredded
chicken sandwiches, leftover from the New Year’s Eve party. Mmm. Between the
soreness of my muscles form spending the previous two days climbing and the all
day rain, January 1 was spent on the computer, in front of the TV, or both. Got
back on track with my half-marathon training with 4-mile runs on Wednesday and
Thursday, extra challenging because of the hills. I repacked the car and left
behind a few items at my brother’s house, so the car is a little less stuffed
and quite a bit more organized. In
other car news, I noticed I was overdue for the scheduled maintenance, so I
took car of that Friday morning before packing up the car and heading back on
the road. After a stop for some gym climbing at Stone Summit, I headed back to
Horse Pens 40 for a couple more days of bouldering. A short night of sleep plus an afternoon workout wasn’t exactly the best recipe for having the energy
to set up camp, but I managed. Thankfully, the tent gets easier to put up each
time I do it.
Chunky
After a great night of sleep and a tasty breakfast, I headed
out for some climbing. Temps were a little higher than last week. Yay! I warmed
climbing around on the Ten Pins boulders then headed over to my project. The Stranger,
to work the second half of the problem. The good news is, I was able to do more
than last week. The bad news is, I think I need to figure out a slightly
different sequence, since the move I need to do is much easier if my right hand
is on a different hold. (Being a bit taller would help as well, but that’s not
going to happen.) Close to two finger-scraping hours of trying different
things. I decided to let it percolate in my brain and come back to it later.
After lunch, I finally got one of the groove problems in the roadside area (Groove
1, V0). I got stuck on the topout the first time, but made it up on the second
go. It wasn’t pretty, but I got up. (Right calf was quite knotted the next day
from all the hanging out I did.) I climbed around a bit after that, but wanted
to make sure I had something left for Sunday. When I felt like taking a nap, I
knew it was time to call it a day. Turns out, my timing was pretty good, as it
started to sprinkle a few minutes later. I had time to get all my firewood under
my tent fly and get everything in the tent or car before the sprinkle
progressed to rain, passing the shower in the car, having a snack and working
on this entry for the blog.
When the rain slowed, I went out to start a fire. Let’s just
say it wasn’t my best effort, although the rain didn’t help. It never really
got going well, although that stupid song “Firestarter” was ablaze in my brain.
Ugh! Earlier, another camper was inviting people to join him at “Kamp Krazy,”
his campsite, for fire and socializing, so I headed on over and enjoyed his fire
and company. The rain eventually stopped and the temperature climbed to around
40, so the tent was pretty warm; I could sleep without wearing a hoodie!
It occurred to Baggy that Purvis resembles a pillow.
Morning was warm, but foggy, and as it had rained more
overnight, the possibility of climbing didn’t look so good. I took advantage of
the bad climbing weather to run seven miles for my half-marathon training,
hoping things would dry out later in the morning. They didn’t. (The run was
great, though. I did the seven pretty easily.) I packed up the camp and started
making the long journey west toward Hueco Tanks.
