Lazy Day, Joshua Tree

Roy and I have been avoiding climbing while Roy's wrist has been healing from a fall he took, he blames a dog... . We decided to try a little trip out to Joshua Tree to see how his wrist was improving. Being January, it was cold at night and there was plenty of reminders of the most recent storm. A quick explanation regarding the photos, since one of us was climbing, while the other was belaying. This is excellent for safety purposes, but really cuts back on the action shots.

Notice the channel from the recent rains and the frost from the cold the night before. It was very easy to decide that we wanted to be in the sun, since it was much more inviting.

Here is a view looking to our right, taken from the same location as the picture above. The sunny side was beautiful. For our first climb we did a short but steep 5.6 known as Jessica's Crack. The angle of the upper portion eases off but turns into an off width crack that can only be protected with monstrous sized protection, which of course we didn't have. This meant that we just needed to reach down inside and come up with a little more courage, or something and we managed to do the climb. Of course it's not known for being much of a challenge.

Roy on the rappel after climbing Jessica's Crack

Roy coiling the rope after the rappel

The necessary ingredients

Looking up at Lazy Day 5.7

We decided that in order to enjoy the most that the weather had to offer, we would do another south facing climb. The most obvious one that we thought would be within our capabilities was Lazy Day. We picked up our gear and headed over to the base of the climb. The weather was perfect and off we went. What I had forgotten was how unique the climbing was on this route. Instead of just straight forward crack or face, this started out with some nice crack, but soon led up to the diagonal crack, which turns out to be located on a steep section of the face. The feature making it particularly steep, being the overhang on the top side of this crack. Once I reached this location, the balmy weather became incredibly hot, oppressively hot, I was sweating buckets. Since the climb is only 5.7, I could see the move, but didn't seem to want to commit. The long I studied the rock, the more tired I got and I began to wonder if I was going to have the strength to finish. Finally I gave up on any attempt at style points and placed my knee on a ledge. This ledge had a nice sharp lip that caused me excruciating pain as I placed another piece of protection and then finally I was able to stand. The rest of the climb was actually enjoyable again, except for the residual pain to my knee. Of course Roy just scampered up and declared that it was a good route, to hard for him but good. I don't know if he says these things to try to make me feel good or make me angry and it doesn't do any good to ask.

Hey, I said I enjoyed the rest of the climb

Roy starting the rappel

Roy on rappel, just below my crux, he thought it was harder up higher.

Once back on the ground Roy declared that we had accomplished our "test" of his wrist and it was time to go home. Thinking about my knee and what another climb might do to me, I quietly agreed and we headed home, another day enjoying the beauty of Joshua Tree at an end.

Taking the kids to Joshua Tree

Jan. 2, 2010

You have to love holiday weekends, not only did I get to go out and play 2 days in a row, my youngest asked me to take her and her special friend, Andrew out to Joshua Tree for the day. Whenever any of my children ask to go with OLD Dad, I do whatever it takes to accommodate them. It's a rare treat for me and it's fun to embarrass them in public. Since Andrew had never been to Joshua Tree before, we started out with the hike to the Wall Street Mill, it has a lot of interesting things in a relatively short distance.

Here is Roy at the trail head, he has decided to be the official tour guide.

As we start out on the trail, Roy gives us some words of wisdom, I think he said something like don't pet the cactus. He might have also given us such pearls as "don't die" and "drink everyone else's water first". I don't remember them all.

Our first stop was an old ranch house, I suspect it may have belonged to Worth Bagley, but the rockclimbers call it Uncle Willy's Healthfood Store.
Here is a close up view of some of the home built bricks, a mix of adobe with a very minimal amount cement added. They just don't build them like they used to.

Next, we moseyed over to this old truck. Charlene really liked it, she said she could reach the pedals. I really don't think she liked it for it's ergonomics as much as for it's classic styling.

On down the trail, an old road we come upon this old windmill. It was used by the ranchers to provide water to the cattle. This little valley is somewhat round and has a solid basin of bedrock that has been filled in with sand. It has a nice little aquifer that the old ranchers took advantage of.

The turning of the windmill caused the pump handle to go up and down, pumping the water to the surface where it would fill a storage tank that feed a water trough for the cattle. Andrew and Roy are checking to see how much work it would take for them to fix it with the bailing wire and chewing gum they brought along.

We don't always understand what Roy is up to. We can see it's about three inches though. He claimed to be trying to remove trash from the park, something about a balloon in the tree or something.

As anyone familiar with the area knows, Worth Bagley moved to this location, thanks to an altercation with William Keyes. Just a word of advice, if you have a choice between a rifle and a revolver, choose the rifle unless you're very close.

Andrew and Charlene, looking at the grave site. I don't think they're taking this seriously enough.

The kids thought they might be in the market for an aluminum Caddy, there were only 6 built.

We finally made it over to the stamp mill. In the foreground you can see some stamps on the table. Behind them you can see the box where the ore was crushed. The ore was pulverized into a fine powder, then it was spread on the table in a thin layer and mixed with mercury. The mercury mixture was then heated in ceramic cups which caused the heavy metals to separate from the rest of the mixture. The gold, silver or whatever they were mining was then easy to collect. They would try to reclaim the mercury, although not nearly as well as the EPA would have liked and start all over again.

From the Wall Street Mill, we headed east to check out some of the mining areas. Even if we don't find gold in them thar hills, we get some great views.

Did I mention that I liked the views?

Towards the end of the day, we decided it was time for "something completely different". We headed over to Intersection Rock and were just in time to see a couple climbing Overhang Bypass. Of course we're not just looky loos, we were on our way up to introduce Andrew to rockclimbing. We went around the corner to the left for something a little less spectacular.

Charlene, always one to make the most of the situation found a great little escape from the wind.

I led the climb, Right Ski Track 5.3 and then brought up Andrew and Charlene. Here is Charlene on the finish to the climb. Since I was doing the belaying, credit for this shot goes to Andrew.

Note how close the road and parking lot are, needless to say it's easy to get spoiled by the approaches to the climbs in Joshua Tree.

Andrew is just starting the rappel back down to the start of the climb. By this time the sun is going down and the wind has picked up. I was getting cold, but not as cold as Andrew, he had suffered frostbite on his face and this smile was frozen in place. Soon we were all back down on the ground and headed for home in the nice warmth of the car. I don't know how soon the kids are going to want to go out with OLD Dad, because they had a full day this day. Hey kids, thanks for coming!

With Albert & Kevin at Suicide Rock 11/11/2009

I got an e-mail from my friend Albert asking if I was going to have Veteran's Day off work. I checked and was finally able to confirm that I did and answered him. By that time he wasn't sure that other plans hadn't been made for him, but at the last minute (more or less) we agreed that we were a go. Roy suspected that I would try to hurt him like the Captain Hook climb, so he said he was busy and couldn't go. How can a retired guy be busy?

On the Veteran's Day we met bright and early in Beaumont and carpooled up to Idyllwild. It didn't look like very many people were climbing at Suicide, only one other car, so we parked and got ready for the hike. Of course Albert and his son Kevin had said all along that they wanted to climb at Suicide. We made the hike and soon were at the base of the Weeping Wall. For a warm-up I thought we'd climb Surprise, 5.8. Everyone was excited to go and soon we were geared up and ready to climb.

Kevin is ready to go

Albert is getting ready to go

Looking down the first pitch

Soon I'm on my way up the first pitch. Since I have done this climb already this year, I try to go on some variations and on this face, you can pretty much go anywhere with out getting into trouble on this first pitch. While at the belay I spotted one of the two climbing parties we would see all day.

Climbers by the dead tree

Looking up toward the top of the rock

Soon Kevin was heading up the rock. He moved right along and was up to the belay in no time.

Kevin telling me how the climbing on the first pitch was for him

Of course once Kevin was up, it was time to bring up Albert. Old dad showed that he still had it in him as he also motored up to the belay.

Albert about half way up the first pitch

Albert near the end of the first pitch, looking like a friction master

Even though the ledge was big, I wanted to get moving, maybe because it was a cool day. This was the first time I've climbed with a jacket since last winter.

Looking down from the second belay

The second pitch has the crux move on it and it was fun to try and do it just a little differently than my previous climb. After I reached the belay, then Kevin came up. He slowed down just a little for the crux, but not much.

Kevin telling me about the second pitch, he enjoyed the problem solving

As soon as Kevin was situated, Albert came on up, making short work of this pitch just like the first one.

Albert checking out the crux

Albert at the crux section

Albert climbing the crack near the end of the second pitch

Soon I was off again, leading up the third pitch. I didn't have much opportunity for variations on this pitch, but it was still fun. Soon I was up on top and Kevin was on his way up. He got stalled on a step out of the large groove and had to continue up the groove to the belay. He was a little hard on himself for not going the exact same way I went, but now he has a reason to come back.

I think that Kevin liked the climb

Albert climbing out of the groove

Albert near the top

Albert finished the climb and we headed over to the descent. Soon the rope was threaded and Kevin was rappelling down. We quickly made our way down, with stops to check out Paisano Pinnacle and Insomnia. Once at the base we had a light lunch and then headed over to the North end of the rock, since Albert wanted to look at The Flower of High Rank, one of the most beautiful climbs in Southern California.

Kevin on the rappel

The Guillotine flakes

Once we arrived at the north end, we checked out the Flower and then started to decide which climb we wanted to do. There was another party on Yours which had been my first choice, so with a little encouragement from Albert, I decided to try the Guillotine (Roy knew he didn't want to go). With great trepidation I started up. I made sure to put in plenty of protection and despite my lack of confidence, I managed to make the climb. There were no style points awarded.

I'm laybacking on the first major flake

Placing protection at the base of the second major flake

Lots of laybacking on this climb

Kevin on the slab at the base of the climb

Kevin laying away

Kevin problem solving

After I made it to the belay, I brought up Kevin and then Albert. Neither of them seemed as worn out as I felt. The temperature was falling by this time and even with my jacket on I was getting chilled. We made use of the new rappel anchors and soon were on the ground and headed back to the car. As usual, it was another great day of climbing.