This trip was my first solo trip, and thought I will do some things differently in the future, for the most part, it went very well. I wrote every day, I think, in a journal form, because in the past I have found that without the daily updates, I forget a lot, and get confused as to what I did on particular days. So…..with a little bit of editing to remove contents that needn’t be included in a public space, here is what it was like:
Thursday, December 1st, 2005 – My flight, from JFK to Las Vegas, was fairly uneventful; I caught up on sleep I didn’t get the night before. I was up until 2am cleaning the apartment, packing gear and getting business ends tied up.
We arrived in Vegas a bit early and I went to pick up the car. As usual, the “book compact-size” worked. This is a tip I got from Marty (Alpine Endeavors) last year when I went on his trip to JTree. He told me to always book the smallest car, because the rental companies don’t have compact cars available. It’s a bait & switch scam. You get to the counter and they try to persuade you into upgrading. In April, when Curt and I did the same trip, they told us we wouldn’t fit, with all our gear, into a compact. Though it would have been the truth, we stuck to our guns, and it wasn’t until the last minute that she said there was a mix-up, and she’d give us a larger car as a coutesy.
This time, the counter person told me that the compacts were very uncomfortable, and older, and didn’t even have power steering or power brakes…. This, I found to be truly an amazing show of hubris, and was actually even willing to stay with my choice just to see if they actually still did make cars without these features.
“Well, that’s not really a problem. I’ll stick with what I’ve reserved.” was my reply. I chose Alamo, by the way, mainly because their debit card acceptance policy seemed to be fairly clear. This was my first time reserving a rental, and I was worried I would be stranded because a debit card wouldn’t be acceptable. Anyway, they let the customers choose the car they want, from the stable of cars in the appropriate size. I picked a 4-door GMC in a color which brought comments wherever I went. After being asked more than once, I finally named the color “Burnt Tangerine.”
After getting directions to the area I was headed, upon leaving the car lot I proceeded down the street and immediately proceeded to miss the first turn. I wandered about for a bit looking for an alternative that I thought would take me there(to Charleston Street). It was frustrating at the time, but looking back, I can see that it didn’t take that long, in the scheme of things.
Anyway, I’m looking for the Whole Foods. I was happy to find out that they had a store in Las Vegas. I am sometimes a food snob, I have to admit. I find the choices(mega-producers only) available in the usual supermarket chains to be pretty limited. I don’t want Dad’s Root Beer and Canada Dry Ginger Ale; I prefer something with a flavor actually derived from natural ingredients. And the breads that are on the supermarket shelves…well, they really don’t constitute what I think of, when I think of bread. And produce – it’s nice when a tomato actually tastes like a tomato, and not pulpy cardboard. That’s not to say I won’t eat “regular” foods form stores, but unless you are able to taste the difference between a decent pasta and one of the “national brands,” Whole Foods is probably a big waste of money to you.
Eventually I found the store, after getting bad directions from several people along the way. Each of the well-meaning people gave “sort-of” right directions, but they all were just off, in one way or another. Finally I gave up and just followed my own instincts. I’d been in the city only twice before, but it was pretty cool to see that I did actually have some sort of idea as to how it was laid out. It occurred to me that this instinctive knowledge was probably the way “guys” navigate, and why they prefer to not have directions…..Anyway, it worked. I got to the store, stocked the goods I wanted, and headed out of the city.
The ride through the Mojave was very nice. There was quite an increase in traffic over the other two trips I’d done though. I probably saw 50 cars oncoming whereas it had been two or three before. I passed 2 cars along the way, and at the intersection where the highway to the needles is, a Jeep pulled up to the stop sign, looked and didn’t register my car, and started to pull out in front of me. I had to hit the brakes, swerve a bit, and honk the horn, in order to not have an accident. Not good…..
As well, National Chloride, a chemical plant located in the middle of the desert and one of the few signs of commercial interest in the area, seemed to be doing a bustling business. The other trips, I could barely tell if the place was even in business. There were a few trucks in the parking lot, alight skim of salt coating some of the nearby acreage, and less than two dozen small mounds of what I assume is the soil after it’s been processed.
Now, there are row after row after row, acre upon acre, of the spent dirt piles, and the land seems crusted with the white stuff. How do they “grow” it, I wonder? I have no clue, but it seems that these are fertile times. I would estimate a 10,000% increase in production, from what I noticed.
My imagination, also quite fertile, immediately went to the idea that the cause for such an increase must be government military contracts. People laughed when I suggested it, but….I get home, and I start to research. I enter the company name along with “military contracts” and get some sites that are very, very long and boring lists, with information that doesn’t make any sense to me. I look up that chemical compound, along with “military uses” and it comes up with several PDF files which I am too lazy too download, because I need to get some softwar e installed in order to read them. I’ve tried, but so far, I still don’t seem to have it right. . I find photos, when I Google such things as the company name, of tanks filled with Calcium Chloride. Anyway, one use for the stuff, that is not really scary, is that it is used in those new auto-heating ration meals. If that is the only reason for the increase in this mining concern… Well, that’s a lot of meals….. I am wondering what percentage of the meals our GI’s are eating are heated this way and thinking it’s probably not high enough to justify the creation of what is tantamount to a small mountain from mined dirt…..and thinking Haliburton’s got to be getting a cut out of that wastage….but, what do I know.
But, I digress. Still, it was sort of weird, to see a business that seemed to be limping along at best suddenly so active.
So…..I got to Hwy 62 east of 29 Palms at about 4pm, and came into the park through that entrance. I love seeing the rock formations entering the park from that side, so much larger and more abrupt a geological change. Plus, the ear-popping as altitude shifts; just reminds me that I am on vacation. Forget about all the world behind me, and just…be…here.
I set up camp at Hidden Valley, in site # 28, the same as I had last December. It’s a good site – right across form the bathroom, which is convenient for the middle of the night potty wake up call. It’s freezing cold, and you don’t want to get out of that bag, but until the matter is settled, there’s no going back to sleep. Somebody later told me that you expend energy holding in the urine anyway, from a survival standpoint anyway, so you are best off getting it over with.
The site is also good for meeting other people since it’s centrally located, and has an open and inviting feel. The sun takes a while to rise over a large boulder bordering the site, and so the table is in the shade in the early morning. But that’s the only negative about #28 that I have discovered.
It is a gorgeous, sunny day with a slight breeze. I slept well last night, and the coyotes came out at about 4am. Earlier in the night, there were some humans howling, but they settled down quickly enough. When I had gone to bed, the temperature was fairly cold, but when I woke to the coyotes, it was much warmer in the tent; foretelling a good day ahead, I thought. I went out for my pee stroll, and stood out looking at the stars without any sense of the cold at all.
There is a difference in the campsite, compared to last year, and that is - the litter seems to be on the increase. I cleaned up what was blown around within my site, and found quite a lot of food wrappers clinging to the brush. Particularly disturbing was that there were a good number of wrappers for those mini Snickers bars. Some were crumpled and tossed into the fire pit, and others were snagged on branches of the groundcover brush. So, it was probably the campers at the site ahead of me. The other stuff could have blown in from anywhere, but this was evidence of…..polluting evildoers!
Friday, December 2nd, 2005 – It’s very windy today, but not cold, and the wind is coming in sporadic gusts. Yesterday turned out to be a very good day. I had gone in to leave Locker, a guy who offered to climb with me, an email, but I didn’t get him online before I headed back to camp. So, I didn’t know how I’d meet him.
As the morning went by, I hoped he might drop in at my site, but at 9:30 I decided to run into town and see if he’d emailed something after I signed off. Luckily, he had, and I found him where he said he would be, waiting for me at the little restaurant across the street from Nomads. He had along one of his climbing partners, Woody, and we got off to a good laughing start right away. I knew I was going to enjoy their company, and it turned out, I absolutely did.
We headed out to AFPA Rock, which is sort of cool, because it was the last formation I had climbed on when I did my December 2004 trip. I felt like I was starting off right where I’d left things, though of course I had been here intermediately, with Curt, in April.
I was interested in learning the various descents on the rock formations, since the Tree can have some doozies, and so I followed Locker up the backside and watched him set anchors for a toprope. We climbed Adromena Strain(5.7) and I was so p.o.’ed at myself for buttering off the crux - the first move off the ground - because I’d been on the thing last year. It might have been nice if I’d remembered the beta.
Next, Locker set a toprope up on a 5.8 called Which Witch. I hung at that crux….could not do it, and finally lowered down. I said I’d try it again after the others went up. And when I did, I fell a few times before finally committing to the jam.
Actually, the guys had given me the beta on the jam/positioning to use but I was a move lower than where they were talking about at the time! I looked at the rock and was like “huh? That can’t be right. F them I can just lay this back!” So…..that was a bit of a conundrum. I felt bad because I couldn’t see what they were talking about, and thus couldn’t follow their suggestion. It was funny, because I was – as usual – irritated about “being told” what to do, and that was my focus, when it might have been “Are you sure I’m supposed to jam here….because there’s no slot to jam!”
Anyway, once I got to the crux, it was crystal clear that the beta they’d given me was accurate – and again I was mad! Because I would have seen that for myself….. I am a Taurus, through and through. I stll had some trouble committing, but once I made that decision, the hard part was over. Even so, it was a bit of a power move. It was a fun climb, and I would like to try it again next visit.
Next, Woody wanted to lead a climb called Spaghetti Sauce Sunset(5.10c) and I was given the job as belayer. One look at the start and I was a little nervous. I always am when I can’t see the sequence of moves clearly, even if my partner is capable of climbing at the grade.
The first piece of gear, Woody felt, was a crappy micronut placement, a few moves into the line, and then a few feet higher there was a slot for a bigger nut. But the beginning of the climb was desperate and getting a stance to place the gear proved to be an end in and of itself.
We had good laughs on the whole thing, and at one point, he came off the thing, and the micro popped. I felt like a little ant seeing a big old shoe about to splotch me, but I tried to catch him. Didn’t work, and we both fell over; I became a defacto crashpad for Woody, and hope I saved a little butt pain for him. There was a knee height flat-topped rock just behind me, and the momentum of it all had me soon seated as if some aggressive matre de had pushed a chair up behind me.
Before this trip, I had tried to line up some partners, and though it seemed like I had several raring to go….it turned out to be a different story. One of them was a guy named Richard, who was supposedly going to be in Josh nearly on an identical schedule as myself. I had also emailed him once I’d set up camp, with a description of my rental car along with the campsite number. He was driving through the park on the way to the campground when he recognized my car. I was really glad that my plan had worked out – when I saw the rental choices, I decided on this quite….orange….colored car. It wasn’t really bright orange; I called it “Sun-baked Tangerine,” and I was correct in assuming it would stand out in the crowd. Richard spotted the car, and with the Nevada license plate, he was fairly certain he was had found me. I will choose the funky color whenever I rent a car and need to meet up with people – it’s like having that brightly colored bow on your luggage at the airlines. Easy to recognize.
I am going to save the stories that involved this person for the campfire….it just doesn’t seem right to put them down in cold text. We didn’t hang around much, and only climbed together that afternoon, but he was quite an interesting one. Alas, he was unprepared for the desert night temperatures, and so he ended up staying hoteled in town after the first night. And his habit of being a slow riser was too slow, even by Jtree standards for myself. So, we never did meet up again, except for once in town where, again my Tangerine car gave me away, and he found me at the library, sending emails out on the computer.
Anyway, after saying goodbye to Locker, I headed off to do some scrambling around Steve's Canyon area.
Saturday, December 3rd, 2005 – It was windy today, and when I got back to camp after a day of climbing, I noticed my tent seemed slightly askew. Interesting, that I would be aware of such a subtle change, and feeling a bit worried, even though I knew I’d left nothing in the tent, I was still a bit proud of myself for being so aware. Of course….had I not noticed the slight change in the rock placement for the tent guylines, there was a slightly more obvious clue. The footprint was jumbled in a pile and set atop the camp table, with a few large rocks to hold it down. Thank you, to whoever was kind enough to save my inadequately secured tent from being blown away!
Yesterday, I climbed with Locker again, at Playhouse rock. And again, I asked if I could follow for the set up of TR anchors, but this one seemed a little scarier to me than AFPA rock’s trail. I put on my rock shoes, and Locker was very patient with me. He gave me a belay on a section that unnerved me too, and I appreciated it; he could have gotten up and back down so much quicker without me bobbling along.
The wind was pretty strong up top, too, and that was a strange feeling, especially in some of the more exposed areas. A misstep at the wrong time would be cause for some concern!
I am not sure of the climbs we did, as Locker, being an old local, just goes out and does them. With so many lines in the park, it’s a lot to remember all these little climbs and their ratings. Later, I checked my guidebook, which isn’t really the most concise in some of the route topos, and I think we climbed Practice Rehearsal(5.7), then Break a Leg(5.9) and psycho Groove(5.9), plus a variation start on that one, with an off-width crack. I have got to try that OW again; as I was really not prepared for it and floundered up inch by inch, until my shoulder said “OW!” People think that the O and W stands for “Off-Width Crack.” I am pretty sure it might just mean…..”Ow!”
I TR’ed Practice Rehearsal clean, but fell once on Break a Leg, and of course, flailed miserably on Psycho Crack. However, I was able, if I remember correctly, to climb the face variation on that line. Locker went up the face, and he is really very fun to climb with. Obviously, he knows every move on the line, but he was pretending he was all scared and having route-finding trouble and making silly “nervous noises.” To me, this was the height of an enjoyable experience. I love goofing off and laughing while out there. Why not – so long as when things need to be serious, you’re capable of switching modes, right?
S, that was yesterday, as I said. The journal entries for this trip are a little funky because I have usually written both in the morning before heading out and then again in the evening. So, the days might seem a little confusing, not that anyone is paying attention. If you are actually reading this – well then, thank you for doing so! I hope you’re not too bored.
I was supposed to climb with a group f guys from the internet today, on the Alanais Wall. But they totally stood me up! Rude, rude, rude, I say. I understand that it can be problematic, hooking up with strangers in an area when you’re both from somewhere else, but there is a way to work JTree, and it’s not difficult, I don’t think. I had given everyone I was hoping to meet my campsite number on the first evening, and these people, I had also called and left the info by recording. As well, I left a note with my camp # on the bulletin board. Everyone knows to do that. Anyway, I heard back from this group ever again. Not even an after trip email…..
Still, I thought that maybe I would head over there and see if I could find them, since I had no partner for the day anyway. But I had trouble understanding which formation I was looking for on the maps, and within a short time, I gave up and decided to simply enjoy a wonderful exploratory visit surrounding and in the Lost Horse area. I had a really good day by myself, and did some boulder-hopping, bouldering, and even one or scrambles to the tops of some formations. There were some that I really wanted to try, but they were 5th class, and off away from the popular spots. I just didn’t want to find myself in trouble, or fall and hurt myself. I have a dog to support, you know, and I need to be responsible for his sake, if not my own!
Here are photos from that day:
One day I went to the backcountry, at the Queen Mountain area. Here are phtos from that day.
On another day, I went hiking and scrambling east of the Barker Dam parking area, near Hunk Rock. I saw a line that I wanted to take a closer look at. Getting close, it looks to be about 5.2(hey, we all start somehwere!). But.....there's no protection, except maybe for a tricam fairly quickly off deck, that protects maybe one move until the climber is again in the splat zone. Still, maybe next trip, I will try it.
I scrambled up alongside the line, to see what I could see, and along the way, I came across a secret garden. Big blue flowers, as pretty as can be, right there in the desert. In December.
On another day, agains sans climbing partner, I headed over to see the Jumbo Rocks area for the first time. I only explored a small portion, but here are some of the things I saw.
On my last night in the park, here was the sunset I got to experience.
On my last day in Joshua Tree, I showed the people from the campground next door Stem Gem, and took some shots. Reese, the guy in the orange shirt, did send it, but where I was with the camera, I couldn't say. I think I had used up the memory, and was busily deleting what I hoped were crappy shots, all the while yelling "wait!"
Here's Reese sending another problem in campsite #23.
This is Daniel on Stem Gem. Later in the day, he and I went to rope up. We set up Hand's Off on Tr and I managed it clean(had tried the climb last year) and Daniel, not used to crack, flailed his way up using incredibly funny face moves. Then we headed over to Echo Cove and got on some 5.8 slab, which he also gracelessly led or TR'd. Then.....we went over to watch some people on Big Moe and after watching one person finish the sequence, Daniel hopped on and sent the thing first try. It was so funny, watching the difference in his ability from crack and slab to something more like his beloved limestone from back home - he was strong and confident, and dyno'ed for the bucket with one damned hand. Stuck it like he was a rat on a glue trap, too. I wish I'd acted as photographer for that climb, but I was belaying him.
On the drive towards Las Vegas, there is a town called Amboy. It is of historic interest, from a Kitschy Americana point of view. As I headed out of town, I noticed the lone tree along the roadside. Coming closer, it seemed to have a mass of birds flocked within the branches. Closer still, I was thinking to my self. "It's not a bird.... it's...it's...It's a Shoe Tree!
Here is Kelso, about the only commercial stopping grounds once you turn off of Highway 62 on your way back to Las Vegas. They renovated the old historic train depot, and it's got quite a bit of tourismo now. Luckily, the rest of Kelso is continuing the slow march of time.
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