Vedauwoo Trip Number Two & Trek Home

We stopped at the 1.4 billion year old granite climbing playground of Vedauwoo as part of our trek back to Oakland after finishing up a month at the Denver Veterans Hospital podiatry program. Kimber flew back out from Oakland to spend the last week with me there, see the area, spend time with friends and drive home with me. We love Colorado! Much of the week was spent with Brody and Kiley Hatch who also joined us for out Vedauwoo pit stop, along with Salomon the dog.

We setup up camp and hiked from our campsite to do some climbing. Our objective was the 5.8 Satterfield's Crack. The climb has been recommended from friends who had done it. I took the lead with Kiley, Kimber and Salomon on cheer squad and Brody on the belay. I was able to do the entire climb in one pitch and could have used a few more larger cams but made do.

The first section was a bit awkward with two side by side cracks and a smooth face in a corner. I sewed it up tight to reduce anxiety of my cheer squad and to eliminate the chance of decking if I were to take a fall.

The second section was a widening crack that was encroaching on the off width status near the top. I was looking for a wider piece to place but had used them to stitch up the lower section. I kept my cool and ran it out a bit with no problems.

The final section included a smooth chimney that narrowed at the top and popped out onto a huge chock stone to belay from. This required some chicken winging and using my leg as a Big Bro cam to top out.

Brody followed me up showing his enjoyment with the occasional grunt and curse word. He topped out with a smile.

We spent the night around the campfire which we hadn't done in way to long. There is something about a campfire that just makes life awesome.

Emergency fireside wedge resection of an ingrown. They hurt so much worse in climbing shoes!

Saturday morning we set out to climb Oslund's Delight but found people just starting the route so ended up on Silver Surfer, a single pitch 5.9 crack. Our approach to the climb was about the least direct route possible. We just considered our inefficiency in getting to the climb as part of the learning process that occurs at any new area. Silver Surfer has two sections, the first an awkward (word used often in Vedauwoo)  chimney up to a chock-stone and into a diagonal hand crack. I took the lead with my usual cheering squad and made it look really hard so that Kimber would think that I was cooler. We set up a top rope and Brody had a lap. It was a great climb.

We had a quick lunch and departed ways. The 17hr journey back to Oakland was broken up by a birthday dinner for me in Salt Lake City with my parents and Amie and Matt and their family. It was a good stop and great to see them again. We ended up sleeping in the car somewhere past Elko Nevada. Coming back into the Bay Area was a breath of fresh air, literally the air quality is so fresh and cool! Nice to be home.

Anniversary Glamping at Big Basin Redwood State Park

November 1^st, our 4 year anniversary, turned out to be a bust! School and life make celebration of such events a bit on the difficult side. So to redeem the occasion Kimber and I decided to celebrate the next weekend away from home. Ordinarily an anniversary would be celebrated in some nice hotel being pampered, eating fancy food and whatnot. While we aren't completely against that, we were aching for something different. After much thought, we decided to use the anniversary funds to go on a glamping trip.  Glamping, shorthand for glamorous camping, isn’t something that either of us are very familiar with. I think that it is fair to say that I am not even a very good camper. Camping usually consists of driving to the adventurous place that we have chosen to partake in the exciting activity, stopping for fast food on the way, arriving late, throwing our sleeping pads on the ground next to the car and sleeping. Unless of course it is raining then we either set up a quick tiny tent or sleep in the car if there is room amongst all of the gear. If we are going to camp in the future with a family we better actually learn to camp, so we gave it a shot, glamorous like. We took a trip to good’ole Sports Authority and Walmart for supplies and it turned out pretty good. 

Notice the extension cord running to the DVD player in the tent.

Complete with sheets, huge air mattress and memory foam topper.

Dutch oven chicken and biscuits.

Boys scouts paying off. 

Huge'ole Redwood!

Even though it was a bit colder that we had thought it would be and rained most of the night we had a great time. It was pretty awesome not to have cell phone or internet service and just 'hanging out' with each other, just the two of us. I even got up and got in a 14 mile run through the beautiful trails and green. Best anniversary to date!