July 11 - 17: NRG & Seneca Rocks

My next stop was one of the few states I have never been to – West Virginia. My friend M and I were going to the Chicks with Nuts trad clinic in Seneca Rocks, WV over the weekend, and decided to do some climbing at the New River Gorge on either side of it. Our friend D joined us for some climbing at the New. I got into Fayetteville in the afternoon and grabbed  couple of sites at the AAC's campground for us. Since M&D weren't going to be arriving until after midnight, I went to the store and bought some glow sticks to mark their site so they could find it without waking me. (Having taken such measures, I was wide awake when they arrived at 2am.) The campsite is still under development, but the tent sites themselves are very nice, and the wooded location kept the morning sun from cooking the tent too early in the morning.

We eventually woke up and fueled ourselves with coffee and breakfast fajitas (thanks to the leftovers from the family vacation). We picked the Beer Wall at Bubba City for our introduction to the New, since it was nearby, in the shade and had numerous climbs in our grade. We started with Micro Brew and Gilded Otter, then stepped it up a few notches with St. Pauli Girl, a 5.10b that looked intriguing and D was particularly stoked to try. He worked the bottom well and looked great, but eventually got shut down at the crux. M gave it a shot, and I thought she was going to get it, but she backed off. Pretty sure I wouldn't have got it, but it started raining, so I left a bail biner and cleaned the route. We hiked out, grabbed dinner and said goodbye to D as M & I drove to Seneca Rocks for the weekend. We arrived at Seneca House, a sweet hostel, and set up our tents, noticing we were the only folks who opted not to sleep inside. Oh well, it was a nice night to camp. 

D on St. Pauli Girl

There was a very nice rooster that made sure we didn't oversleep on Saturday. Everyone gathered at Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides before tackling the rocks with their guide. M & I worked with the awesome Kelly. We spent the morning, with its threat of rain, working indoors on gear placement (they have a cool rock wall) then headed across the road for more learning (knots, ground anchors and other stuff) and climbing (Ecstasy Junior) in the afternoon. Dinner back at Seneca House was fabulous. In the raffle, M won some alpine draws and I won a sweet Chicks with Nuts t-shirt.

Climbing Ecstasy Junior

Sunday was a perfect day for climbing, and we spent it learning how to escape the belay (among other things) and climbing Old Man's, a nice multi-pitch. The day seemed to fly and before we knew it, it was time to go :-( At least we had one more day of climbing left at the New.

Seneca Rocks
more photos from the clinic

We found D at the campsite and quickly pitched our tents and got some sleep. We grabbed breakfast at Tudor's Biscuit World (I got the politician biscuit - bologna, egg and cheese) then made the long hike to the Tattoo Wall at Bubba City. We did two long climbs, Bobby D's Bunny and Geisha Girl. Girl was about 100 feet tall with a nice view at the top, once you finally reached it. We went to dinner in Charleston, where I said goodbye to D&M as they went back to the real world and I crashed at a hotel for the night. I was glad to be in the room, because somewhere in the previous 24 hours I ate something that clearly did not agree with me. Food poisoning - ugh!

View from the top of Geisha Girl

I took advantage of having a dark, air-conditioned hotel room and slept in. I spent the afternoon performing the laundral arts and Febreezing the car, both of which made it smell much better. (The laundry was extra toxic for some reason.) I went back to Fayetteville to camp, explore and hike for a couple of days before I went to New England to visit my old workmates.

Cathedral Falls
more pix

July 4 - 11: Columbus and Hocking Hills

I finished my drive east on the morning of July 4, arriving at my sister's house in the early afternoon. We didn't do much all weekend, just hung out and made sure we had everything we needed for the upcoming trip to Hocking Hills.

After a tasty and filling breakfast at Bob Evans, we packed up our cars and drove to Hocking Hills Monday morning. We started off with a nice hike at Ash Cave, then drove over to Old Man's Cave for ice cream and more hiking. Given the amount of rain the area had been having, the waterfalls and Devil's Bathtub were looking much more impressive than last fall. Next, we checked into our home for the next few nights, a very nice lodge by Cabins by the Caves. Dinner was northern Ohio-style, with Root's shredded chicken sandwiches, Ballreich's chips and Smith's chip dip. Mmmm.

On Tuesday, some of us went ziplining and all of us enjoyed Jd's lasagna for dinner. We all hiked Cedar Falls in the morning and found ourselves with a bonus creek crossing. After we fashioned some semblance of a bridge, we all made it across. Jk, Jd and I went to Rock House next, while the kids went gem mining. We all got in a round of (not particularly well-played) putt-putt in the afternoon and fed some goats before a storm blew in. We got back to the cabin to discover we, along with most everyone else in the area, didn't have power. Fortunately, we had a grill and my camp stove so we could make dinner - chicken and steak fajitas. We didn't get power back before we left the next morning, but it didn't really but a damper in the fun. A good time was had by all and we're looking forward to next summer's vacation.

more pix

May 31 - June 17: Climbing in the Red and hanging in Louisville

After saying goodbye to J in DC, I drove to the Red and to meet with D and K from the Chicago meetup for a long weekend of climbing at the Red. On Friday, we went to Muir Valley. Seeing that the parking lot was fairly empty, I joked, "Did we miss the notice that this was take your toddler to the crag day?" We rolled up to the Land Before Time Wall and what do we see - toddlers! Apparently, this was the first time they got to pee outside, which the boys seemed to be fans of and kept wanting to do it, but their mother told them they wouldn't need to pee again for at least another 45 min. After one of them got into the kids full body harness, he declared "I think I'll climb after my nap." The parents nixed this idea. We did a few climbs,  then went to Bruise Brothers. Had fun putting up Send Me on My Way then another group let us climb on the 10.c (Working for the Weekend) they put up while they climbed on Send Me on My Way. We ended early and had another fabulous meal at the Rockhouse. Later, I had a snack of pizza at Miguel's after T arrived.

On Saturday, we went to Fortress Wall for some trad climbing after stopping off at a spring for water. T led an easy pitch and then went to set up a top rope on a harder route. It wasn't as easy as he thought, abut eventually he and D figured it out. However, there was lots of loose rock near the top of the route, which D knocked off when setting up a directional. One went whipping over my head while I was off using the facilitrees (fortunately, I still had my helmet on) and another bounced through T's legs. After well all made it up whatever that route was, we moved over to Bedtime for Bonzo, a multi-pitch 5.6. D led the first pitch, then we all followed. T led the 2nd pitch, which had a couple of interesting moments, but he made it. The view was great from the top, but none of us brought the camera. Oops.

K on the first pitch

D & T on the first pitch

We went back back to Bruise Brothers because the forecast called for rain. This turned out to be a good call, because it started pouring, but we stayed dry. I took a nice lead fall on Stay Off the Radio Jeff.  We waited until the rain stopped then hiked out, fairly cooked after three days of climbing. It did not appear to have rained at Miguel's as the tent was dry. Said goodbye to my friends and drove to Louisville to hang with M&L and deal with a cold that I felt coming on.

The cold I felt coming on arrived in force on Monday morning. Ugh. Oh well, at least it wasn't food poisoning. When I wasn't blowing my nose, I climbed at gym, enjoyed being indoors and celebrated M's birthday on Wed with friends.

Went back to the RRG on Fri night with M&L, stopping in Lexington for dinner at Hugh Jass Burgers. Mmm. M&L had rude awakening when setting up their tent - the air mattress that someone borrowed last year was put away wet and was now gross and the tent, after 15+ years of service, has seen better days. Fortunately, they were able to get a room at Miguels. We met up with J&A and some other folks and hit a new area for us on Saturday (Crossroads) and got on some nice climbs. The day ended a little early, since the last climb we wanted to do had a bunch on angry bees on it. We climbed at Muir on Sunday. A bit of a scary moment when the belayer (using an ATC) next to us thought she was going to pass out; J rushed over, had the climber go in direct and then got him on belay. I got caught in rain again, only this time I wasn't in a sheltered area, so I cleaned the route in the rain. The rain stopped, so we rolled the dice and waited for a climb to open, but it started raining again. As the rock was now going to be too wet even if the rain stopped, we hiked out, getting absolutely soaked. Not fun.

I spent the next two days drying out the gear, then M and I went back to the Red on Tuesday night to meet J&A, who were there for the week. We stopped for dinner in Lexington at Sidebar Grill. Delicious fried pickles. Wednesday was hot and humid, 90+ degrees and 90+ humidity, not great conditions, as even the rock was sweating. We managed to get up a few routes at Chica Bonita, The Shire and The Gallery, but it wasn't the best climbing day. There was rain in the forecast on Thursday, so we went to Bruise. It didn't rain until after we got there and stopped at some point. The rain soundtrack apparently was just what A needed, because she was on fire as out rope gun! After we climbed everything in that area that was dry, we hiked out and just made it back to the shelter when the skies opened and more rain came down. Dinner at Rockhouse tasted good - love the chips and guac! J&A stayed and M and I went back to Louisville, since she had to work on Friday. We were back down on Friday eve, for some more climbing. We spent Saturday at Chica Bonita, where we climbed several routes and wasted a lot of time looking for a 10b the guidebook said had sweet holds. We never found it. After our hike, we did a few more climbs, including the nice Baby Blue Eyes; I am looking forward to doing that one again. M took the honors as our rope gun, with five leads, three in the 10's. Sweet!  On Sunday we did a trad clinic with Torrent Falls, which was awesome, right up to the point where we got rained on. T and stayed another day and did a few climbs at Tectonic and Johnny's Walls. T did his first 10 leads and took his first lead fall. A fine day of climbing was capped with delicious nachos by L when I got back to M&L's house.

Loaded up for a day of climbing
more pix

May: Friends, Family and Baseball

Sweet home, Chicago, at least for a little while. Had a good time catching up with all my Chicago peeps and playing with A's dog G. Unfortunately, he had hurt his leg a few days earlier, so our games of fetch were limited, but got better as time went by. The weather was perfect for baseball, and I needed to get in shape to play in a tournament over Memorial Day weekend, so I met up with my baseball peeps as much as possible. C and I started the month off with a nice game of catch at Winnemac, followed by dinner at Byron's Hot Dogs. Gotta love a place that has Green River on tap.

In addition to playing lots of baseball, I got together with my climbing gals for a night of climbing and eating. And then there was eating at all my favorite neighborhood places which I hadn't been to in months. Mmm. Baseball, climbing and eating, yeah, that's pretty much the life! On a more practical note, I unpacked my car and left behind most of the winter gear. It's nice not having the car so packed, but I wouldn't exactly call it roomy.

G, hoping to get packed into my car

After one last baseball practice, I got back on the road and drove to Ohio for Mother's Day, hanging out with my mother and sister for a couple of days before driving to Atlanta to visit my brother and his family. I picked up some of the stuff I had left there over the winter that I wouldn't be needing until the weather got better. I was supposed to meet some friends for bouldering and bluegrass festival at HP40, but the forecast called for rain so we skipped it. Not getting to climb was bad enough, but then I got food poisoning that same weekend. Ugh. Fortunately, the illness was short-lived and I was recovered enough to meet with my friends B&S from college, participate in the annual lunch at the Chinese restaurant to celebrate the last day of school, and eat some of J's delicious lasagna before I had to leave town on Thursday.

Pierre and Chunky

My baseball team, the Chicago Gems, was going to play in the EWBC's Memorial Day tournament, so I started the drive to Baltimore on Thursday morning, in the hopes that I'd miss DC-area holiday weekend traffic on Friday if I only have to drive the last few hours. The highway in North Carolina had  beautiful displays of wildflowers, which made the drive more pleasant. My plan worked, as I had to get through minimal traffic on Friday before settling into the tournament hotel. I headed over to the batting cages to take some swings then came back to hang with my teammates as they arrived. The Boys were very excited to be sharing a room yet again with their friends B&C.

The Boys with their friends B&C

It was great seeing all my baseball friends (both on my team and on others) and playing baseball all weekend. The women's baseball community may be small, but it's a lot of fun. I got a pretty good workout in just from laughing as we were hanging out at the Green Turtle Sunday night.

Chicago Gems at 2013 Baltimore Tournament
more pix from May

After the tournament, I hung out for a few days at my friend J's place in DC. Of course I took advantage of being in the one area in the US that has Nando's and enjoyed a couple of lunches. We also checked out Chupacabra, which had recently opened just down the street. Mmm.

May was a good month, but there was no outdoor climbing. It was time to get back on the road and touch some rocks.