Bishop and Sedona bouldering

Ken just got me some shots from our trip to Bishop a couple months ago that are pretty cool. Here ya go.

Danny climbing a tall problem at The Buttermilks.

Me starting up a tall face at The Happy Boulders.

Topping out.


Also, Ken sent me a couple shots of the Tony's bouldering at Grasshopper Point last Saturday. It rained alot the few days before so this was the only problem dry (the reason for only having photos of this one problem). Ken and I went there the day before (on Friday) and Ken grabbed the first ascent of this line with me almost nabbing the second as I kept falling on the last jump move to jugs. Great Problem! Add it to the list of great new problems going down there.

Tony C. the the first crux big throw on "The Beast from the East" V8ish.

Tony D. setting up for the big jump move to the jugs, the second crux, on "The Beast from the East."

Elden Lookout Road run this evening

I ran the Elden Lookout Road this evening and vowed to get some photos up there. I had heard it was real pretty because of the fresh dusting yesterday. Here are some shots I took along the run.
Mt. Humphreys from the Shultz Pass Road on the drive up.

Looking up Mt. Elden from part way up the Mt. Elden Lookout Road.

Nice grove of Aspens.

Aspens with frost on them (hard to see).

Nearing the summit.

Looking over at Mt. Humphreys from the summit of Mt. Elden.

Summit of Mt. Elden. Great place to be.

Nice loop run in Sedona

On Sunday I got to up the ante a little bit and go for a longer run. I had been running 20-30 miles a week the last few months and the longest run of each week had been 10 to 12 miles. The long run I planned for Sunday was 15 miles (it ended up being about 17 or 18 miles instead) and I was excited to be out on the trail for a few hours (it ended up being exactly 3 hours).


Here are a few photos of the trip down to Sedona and then I'll give you a full trip report for the run.

View from my driveway in Flag at sunrise (worth taking a picture of...I never get up this early!).
Stormy morning and still snow on the ground from a snow storm weeks ago.

I had to get a quick shot of this scene at Slide Rock State Park as the sun shot through storm clouds.






Another shot at Slide Rock.


View from the Midgely Bridge parking lot where the trail started.



Another view from the Midgely Bridge parking lot.






Midgely Bridge and Red Rock Pass sign (I still never purchase a pass because they can't enforce it down here like they can in other places. Stickin it to the man!).

So here is the story on the run. I started at Midgely Bridge in Oak Creek Canyon at 9 am. I followed the Jim Thompson Trail for 3 miles of nice views and saw a few other trail runners. From the end of the Jim Thompson Trail I ran throught the Brins Mesa parking lot and onto the Brins Mesa Trail. This trail has a nice climb for the first mile onto a big flat mesa with excellent views of the surrounding red rocks and spires and then descends 2 more miles through a really nice red sand and slickrock wash and Alligator Juniper forest. This is some of my favorite landscape in Sedona! I really enjoyed that part of the run because of the silence of being "out there" on the trail. No other people, mountain bikes, jeep tours and helicopters (jeeps and helicopters are very popular with tourists). Speaking of...at the end of the Brins Mesa Trail I met up with Forest Service Road #152 and followed that for many miles of Rental Cars, Jeeps and even got buzzed by a helicopter. Welcome back to the world of machines. Even with the vehicles around, the dirt forest service road was pleasant (I am in Sedona after all). Near the end of the road I ran toward Thunder mountain and was reminded of Susan and I trying to scramble it a couple weeks ago and what a fun adventure that was (we still have to get to the top of that thing). At the end of the dirt forest service road I ran along Dry Creek Road (paved) for a mile or so until I could escape onto trails again. Ahhhh! From here I followed Thunder Mountain Trail and then the Teacup Trail for 3 or so miles with views of Thunder Mountain and Sedona spires to the left and the city of Sedona to the right. At the end of Teacup Trail the run took me past the cool looking sink hole "Devil's Kitchen" (a favorite of the jeep tours, blech!) and Morning Glory Spire. After the Devil's Kitchen I followed the Jordan Trail for about a mile and then finished back on the Jim Thompson Trail for 3 last miles where I gave away my last bites of food to a tired old lady hiking. Nice thing to do but I paid the price not having any energy to cunsume near the end of the run. A great run and I am excited to start linking more long runs down there. We are very fortunate to have so many great trails to run during the winter months!

Looking sharp after the run.

Crazy week

Howdy.



It's has been a while since my last post. I have been really busy. Here is what I've been doing...



Let's see...last week I got some nice runs in down in Sedona and up in Flag. The nicest run I did was from the Huckaby Trailhead, using the Margs Draw and Broken Arrow trails, to Chicken Point and back (about 10 miles). The run was on some of the best singletrack in Sedona with sections of slickrock and great views.






I also went climbing in Sedona near Grasshopper Point. We found an amazing wall there with big potential for really hard boulder problems many years ago but we didn't really have the psych or the vision to send them. We only succeeded on a few of the 25 or so lines with the easiest good line being in the V4 or 5 range. Well, I finally got some other strong boulderers psyched on the place and we have been down there a few times in the last week ticking off more lines. We have sent some amazing problems up to about V9 with many, many other problems in the same range up to super hard ready to go down. I will try to get some photos up so you can see the beauty of the place. It is cool, right by the creek and big trees but surrounded by desert and Sedona red spires.

Our house is probably the biggest story from last week. With all the snow and freeze/thaw action that happened in the last few weeks our ceiling in the kitchen and guest room started leaking heavily. It got so bad so fast that I had to hold the guest room ceiling drywall up with my climbing stick clip (a weird extendable pole used for climbing).

We contacted our landlady who is 92 and has only one eye (no joke) and never leaves her house to let her know that we need repairs pronto and she was anything but helpful. I felt kind of bad for her because of her age but she was so out of touch and confused (she didn't even know if her insurance covered stuff like this). We (I mean Susan who was amazing in getting stuff taken care of) had to do almost everything as far as calling people and rolling things along. The whole ordeal has been over a week now and we were finally able to use our kitchen (it was sealed off for 4-5 days because of mold and water) a few days ago and Susan, who was big time affected by the mold, is starting to breath normally again. It was rough for her for a while! It would have been drawn out for weeks longer if Susan didn't crack the whip on Meda (the landlady). We still don't have the ceilings totally finished but we are starting to function like normal home dwellers again. What an adventure.

Luckily we had plans during the middle of the leaking ceiling fiasco to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico for three days to visit Susan's friend Aundrea. It was a fun trip. On Saturday, we went bouldering on some nice sandstone boulders near Santa Fe that I don't know the name of and then went to grab a beer, some food and sightseeing in downtown Santa Fe. Fun. On Sunday, we went for a run on some really nice single track trails (the Dale Ball Trails) in the hilly northeast side of town, watched the Cardinals beat the Eagles and then went to the Spence Hot Springs near Jemez Springs (about an hour from Santa Fe) where we got harassed by the cops for soaking after dark (harrassed by the man!). We had barely slipped into the springs when we got busted, POOP! On Monday, I went on a nice 8 mile run on the "Blue Dot/Red Dot" loop near White Rock (a town about 1/2 hour north of Santa Fe) while Susan was studying (she is in grad school). The trail was hard work but worth the effort. The trail starts at a lookout that is over a deep basalt gorge with the Rio Grande River at it's base (the canyon is similar to basalt gorges in eastern Washington). The first 1,000 ft is a steep descent over 1 mile. Steep! When you get to the bottom you are rewarded with pretty flat faint trails along the Rio Grande River. Along the way you see springs and petroglyphs. After a few miles along the river the trail then gets to the but kicking part. A 1,000 ft. elevation gain back to the top of the gorge in only 1 mile! I tried to run the whole climb but made it 3/4 of the way before pooping out and power hiking. The finish of the run was flat and along the rim...ahhhhh. Nice run in a new area. Here are some photos and a trip report from another blogger that visited the trail I was on. I then went back to Aundrea's house (she lives in a cute adobe house) and packed with Susan, said our goodbyes and "book on taped" it back to Flagstaff. Very fun trip.


Last but not least on the list of things I've done in the last week...

Yesterday evening I went on a really nice run up Elden Look Out Road (the dirt road that goes to the top of Mt. Elden). The road is about 4.5 miles long and climbs from 7,000 ft. to 9,500 ft. in elevation. It was a nice out and back run with EXCELLENT views of the painted desert, Mt. Humphreys, Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff. Northern Arizona is beautiful.

Hoping to get back to the Grasshopper Point wall and go bouldering...

Run in Sedona

Two days ago I went down to Sedona to go for a run and did a big loop that included the Brins Mesa Loop. It was beautiful as always. I love Sedona.

The run ended up being about 10 miles and felt good. I have been keeping my mileage about 20-25 miles a week with mostly short days and then one bigger run each week. I think that I am going to start increasing the mileage to 25-30 miles a week for a while and then go from there. It feels good to start doing longer runs and get on trails that are away from the crowds (tricky thing because there is so much snow around these days).

Here are a couple photos I grabbed from the web to show you what it looks like on the Brins Mesa Trail (I need to start bringing my camera on runs-I feel dirty using other peoples photos).

Kim and Dick- I ran right past that place we hung out and ate prickly pear fruit. Remember? That was a nice day.

Snowy Sunday at Gloria's

Yesterday we went to Gloria's (a local bouldering area at the base of Mt. Elden) to play in the snow. It was super pretty out because it has been snowing still and there was at least 2-3 feet of snow on the ground! We are having quite the winter in Flagstaff! Here are a few pictures of our day.

A cool tree branch on a ponderosa pine.

Shiloh doing her best impression of a wild animal.

Susan getting a close look at the cool cotton candy like snow in the trees.

An actual stream in Flagstaff! This won't last long. As soon as the snow leaves it'll all dry up. Pretty though.

Cool waterfall in the Heart Cave.

Ice cycles in the cave

Inside the Heart Cave

Sun shining into the Heart Cave

Shiloh spazzing out even at her old age.

Susan post holing. The snow was deeeeeep.

Susan in the wild!

Brrrrrr in Bishop

I went to Bishop, California December 27-30 to go bouldering with my friends Danny and Ken. We thought we would miss all the snow that fell there over Christmas but we were wrong! There was lots of snow, especially in the high country where the Buttermilks (my favorite area to boulder in Bishop) are. We found some good bouldering in the Happys (not my favorite but still great bouldering) that was not totally covered in snow the first day so we bouldered there and then went to the buttermilks the second and fourth day when the snow started melting enought to top stuff out. We went to the Sads (yet another bouldering area) the third day and that was fun too. I had a great time but I would have liked to go to some areas that were still under piles of snow on this trip. I will have to try to plan another trip this spring to hit some of these other areas. Below are some photos I took before my camera went on the fritz. Ken and Danny have some more photos of the trip and I will try to get some of them and post them here. They have some cool shots.


Oh yeah...funny thing happened on the way back from Bishop to Flagstaff. While I was driving through Las Vegas at 10:30 pm I (and everyone in front and behind me) drove over a whole bunch of lumber on the freeway. Luckily, the only bad luck from it was a blown tire. Of course, I wasn't going to try to drive the 25o miles to Flag on a undersized spare tire in the middle of the night so we stayed in Vegas that night in a Motel 6 (can you believe I stayed in a Motel...yuck!). The next morning we went to Discount Tire and my unlucky day...I had to replace all four tires because I have all wheel drive and the tread on my other tires were to low to only replace one tire. Poop. $400 later we were back on the road and finishing the trip. I suppose I was due for my money sucker car to grab some cash from my wallet. I haven't had a car epic in a while on a trip. This was nothing compared to my epic in the remote Ibex area of western Utah many years ago where I wrecked my rear axil or the time many more years ago in Central Utah at Maple Canyon where my car was totalled by rockfall during a flash flood! A blown tire is nothing!



Here is a shot I took as I was still hiding in my sleeping bag in my car at the climbers campground the second morning.


Another shot from bed in my Subaru.

Shot of the "Tablelands" near Bishop.

My friend Ken bouldering on a problem called "Atari" at the Happy Boulders.

No trip would be complete without a dip in a scenic hot spring. We were lucky enough the third night to be able to burl our way through the snow to a beautiful hot spring near Mammoth, California called "Shepherd Hot Spring." This spring was excellent because the setting was spectacular and remote, the pool itself was well built and comfy and you could adjust the flow coming into the spring from around 100 degrees to up to at least 108 degrees. I would like to visit these ones again for sure. Photo below has no snow in it because I nabed it from the web. When we were there there was at least a couple feet of snow on the ground.