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Published: October 2nd 2008
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Welcome to California
Caleeforneeah (Arnold Schwarzennegger Accent)My birthday passed in Smith Rock. A good day- and a good time overall. From Smith, we head south to California. It is obvious before we even get there that this one trip will be more reconnaissance than anything else; California is a huge state with vast opportunities for climbing to say nothing of all the other forms of outdoor recreation. Anticipation runs high as we drive through the night towards Lake Tahoe- our first and most anticipated stop.
Let me explain this briefly. Lake Tahoe is home to one of the few cliffs in the US where there are long moderate climbs that are well protected. This translates into long-ish routes with great exposure and consistent difficulty. More than that, Lake Tahoe was once home to the late, great Dan Osman- a climbing icon of the middle/late 90's whose climbing exploits made me dream a lot bigger in terms of the vertical world. In the video attached later in this blog, you can see Dan free- soloing (climbing without ropes) one of the routes that we hoped to climb, both in tribute to a climbing legend and more simply, for the enjoyment of three long pitches of sustained 5.7
Inyo National Forest
In Inyo county...IN YO FACE!!! and beautiful weathered granite. It would also be a landmark experience due to the fact that we would have to protect all the pitches of climbing traditionally, with no bolts, and negotiate a 20 foot run-out right off the ground, leaving little room for error.
As we drove (and subsequently became too tired to go on that night) in search of a parking spot to pass the few remaining hours of night, visions of grandeur paraded through my imagination. What greeted our eyes in the misty morning light was far different. No welcoming locals. No deserted back roads to camp off of. All the trees in sight were festooned with no parking signs; in fact nothing could have said 'we don't want you here unless you intend to spend a vault on our precious resort town' better than...several signs that said just that. Sadly the battery died on the camera so no confirming photos could be provided...Everyone on the road seemed to be in a considerable rush judging by how far up my tailpipe all the Hummers and Escalades were. You know, a quaint little mountain town where all of life's inconveniences can be lubricated with excesses in material
Lassen Volcanic National Monument
volcanic rock...interesting, but not that impressive. its all sort of the same... goods and wealth. Oh, and a delightful amalgamation of theft and methamphetamine addiction. More on that later...
Meanwhile, we headed towards Cave Rock, Nevada (on the east side of the lake) to see the place where Dan Osman put up some ridiculously hard routes which climbed out of an overhung limestone cave...until he had them wired and could climb them ropeless...Unfortunately, the cave was located right between two tunnels in the middle of the highway and was inaccessible unless you paid an excessive parking fee and then braved traffic to reach it. Or you could brave traffic by slowing down just after driving through the tunnel, then hanging out of the car window to snap a picture. Not as reverent and nostalgic, but cheap. I firmly believe in going to great lengths to keep my hard hoarded funds out of the hands of the undeserving, even if it means inconveniencing myself, and, God forbid, some of the arrogant millioniares of central California. To be honest, I lost a fair amount of sleep in the following days over the possibility that I may have delayed a round of golf or a rousing game of corporate ookie cookie.
Fortunately we
Lassen
We drove through this park on the way to Tahoe...volcanic monuments are not really my speed. But still interesting and worth seeing, its just that once youve seen one, youve seen them all. got past the initial, smaller ups and downs and made it to the next portion of our adventure in Tahoe- the larger ups and larger downs. We located some free camping on some forest service land where we decided to wait out the weekend. It has been our habit to rest and travel on weekends so that we can climb during the week. Beyond being nearly ridden off the road en route, it seemed pretty routine. Get off the beaten path. Set up camp in an out of the way place and enjoy the most exotic places that you pay nothing for, and often do not have to share. We have avoided paying for camping as I love to point out, excluding our stay at French Creek Camp, which we actually got a bargain for only 15 bucks a night...(we havent forgotten to write the chamber of commerce Rock and Diane...that will be happening on the soon side...we promise...) If you would camp for free, you must forego some of lifes conveniences...flush toilets, running water (unless there's a stream nearby) electricity etc. All of this is not so bad once you make the adjustment. The good part is that usually
you can count on folks who are sharing in your primitive lifestyle to usually share similar values.
Our sleeping habit had been, up to that point, to offload our backpacks and some spurious climbing gear, and dirty laundry and some rocks that we picked up along the way, to make room to recline in the car. The goods outside the car would be lovingly covered with a tarp in case of rain and re-loaded when we would move camp again. Perhaps it was the thin mountain air or the euphoria of rambling through the previous haunts of Dano that put us off our guard. Or maybe it was because we were on a dirt road, way out of the way and we put our spurious goods in the bushes...but we somehow were lulled into complacency and decided not to re load the car when we went climbing that day(as per our usual routine). This was a resort town. Surely no one would steal a couple of back packs filled with dirty laundry and such. And certainly no one would go searching through the bushes on the side of some back road for such a nondescript treasure trove.
We
Lassen Hot Springs
Call me a pessimist, but its just a little steam coming out of the ground that smells like a fart. headed out for our first day of climbing in Tahoe, at a crag called Lover's Leap. It is an awesome crag, about 300-500 feet high. If you park at the western entrance by the campground and a bar called Strawberry Lodge, it costs 5 dollars. There is a "secret" parking lot that accesses the eastern end of the wall but it is very hard to find. But find it we did. Its free, and it's a much better approach. The trails to the cliffs were hard to find on the way in but much easier to find on the way out...Anyhow after much bushwhacking through potentially rattlesnake infested brush, we found a few, nice, low angle climbs. Stef got stung by a few yellow-jackets which dampened our spirits but otherwise the climbing was great.
As we pulled back into camp, spirits high from a successful climbing outing, we both simultaneously noticed that our "spurious" goods were now missing, and suddenly their relative importance soared in their absence. Here in the high Sierras, in the midst of filthy richness and excess beyond compare, some asshole, ( and I make no apologies for the use of this term, because if ever
Lassen
a lake. this epithet applied, outside of a pseudo-medical conversation, this would be the time) had to rummage through the brush on the side of a dirt road to steal from two poor blighters. To add insult to injury, they did not have the decency to separate the relative valuables from that which would not fetch any money. For example, my bag of dirty laundry which contained months worth of my filthy unmentionables. Our bag of rocks was also stolen. Mostly obsidian and other volcanic rock. Also a broken Wal Mart camp chair. A few other tidbits also walked off, including a grands worth of hiking gear, my climbing shoes, our bouldering pad, and literally all our clothes. A hard lesson.
Suffice to say that since we were then committed to wearing the clothing we had on our backs till we could buy more, spirits were pretty low. Stef opted to wait up with the shotgun in case the thief returned. I hoped they might have a twinge of the conscience and return my dirty undies and the bag of rocks due to their low resale value. Neither plan bore much fruit. We roundly cursed the thief and his forebears and
called it a night.
Figuring that we were already up a creek sans paddle, we decided to make the best of the situation. We were graciously promised assistance in regaining our losses (courtesy of Stef's sister, Christie). With the promise of help in the future, we resolved not to let this stop us from climbing the route we really had wanted to bag, "Bears Reach" 5.7.
Next day, destitute and poorer, we went out and laid waste to Bears Reach. It was a huge high point for both of us. We got to climb a route that we had in our sights since we left NY, we both overcame the technical difficulties of traditionally protecting a 350 foot route, and the knowledge that fear was not an option. With no underwear in reserve, soiling yourself in panic would have much greater consequences than the initial social faux pas.
We found out later that the methamphetamine addicts (Tweakers, which apparently thrive in the outlying areas near lake Tahoe) frequent the resort towns looking to steal anything they can lay their hands on. Didn't help get our stuff back but at least it explains the indiscriminate thievery.
We
Obsidian in Lassen
hills of obsidian...we were like little kids in a candy shop...we made it out with a whole lot...and some of that stash was raided by the thieves...but we had some hidden in the car. decided to leave Tahoe the next day on a high note, moving on towards Yosemite and Tuolumne and hopefully some new undergarments. Check out the video...
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Alexandra
non-member comment
!
To the rich at heart- How lovely it was to have surfed your site and caught up! As always, thanks for the update(s)... You are in my thoughts and prayers. Hike on! XoXo, Alexandra