OK, so I've almost lost track of how many days I've been here but there are just an endless list of things to do in the area.
My main objective while here was to do a couple of climbing routes in Indian Creek (legendary crack climbing), so the first thing I did was to get directions as to how to get there from here. Turns out it is about 120Km from Moab, and I decided to spend the first night camped in Moab rather than flirt with the darkness and not find the right turn off.
The next morning, before I could head out of town, I was "way-layed" by friendly locals who bought me breakfast and regaled me with tails and advice for travel in Mexico and then took me back to their house to give me maps and more advice. The eldest son in the family is learning to fly helicopters and is also a rock climber, and I was promptly taken off to a local cliff (on Potash road) for some climbing...
The rock was nice and the climbs were agreeable at the high 5.10 to high 5.11 rating (I was just top roping so it was good for me). After we did that for a few hours, the son headed off to go Mtn biking for the afternoon, and I headed out to find Indian Creek.
I got there in the late afternoon and after a wrong turn or two I found the place (working from a scribbled mud map). To my chagrin, there was almost no one there though, so I was a bit worried about finding someone to climb with. Not to worry, there were three very friendly French climbers in the camp next to me (Jerome, Ingrid and Terry) and they offered to let me hang out and climb with them the next day. So in the morning we went to "Battle of the Bulge Buttress" and again climbed in the 10s and 11s for the morning (great stuff).
The clouds had been building all morning and by about 2pm, it started to rain, so we packed up and headed back to the car park. I did not have much in the way of supplies, so I headed off to a nearby town to get supplies and tried to duck in between the rain showers with my timing. This worked pretty good for most of the ride but I did get wet on the ride back into camp. Anyway, I camped happily there at Bridger Jacks and watched ALL the remaining campers in the area leave!
The clouds stayed around and even built up, and later that night I go a really good thunder and lightning show and the tent got nearly flattened by the rain and wind gusts... :)
I really love thunder storms so I had a great time :)
Next morning I got up and headed out to the "SuperCrack" parking lot but couldn't get there because the sudden downpours had created quite the flash flood and the road was cut by huge banks of sand/silt deposits at a stream crossing. And of course some city slicker in his Subaru had decided it was a real 4WD and tried to cross... result... He was completely mired in the mud and "high-centered". When the road grader showed up to clear the road (about 20min later) the Subaru was in the way and slowed things down a bit, and of course by then there were a few cars on either side of the blockage and no shortage of advice from the spectators... Again very entertaining :).
After the road was clear, I went to the parking lot as planned and almost immediately met some climbers. They were older guys and very friendly (Jay Smith and Jim Dinini and Chris ?) and they almost immediately offered to let me climb with them - I'm liking how friendly these Americans are :)
So, we headed over to "Cat Wall" and spent the day doing about a half dozen moderate routes in the low 10s to low 11s which was again great for me. after that I went over to their camp in SuperBowl camp ground and we met another couple of climbers (Roadie? and another guy) and swapped tall tales and had beers and red wine... Another fine day :)
So after that, the skin on my wrists needed to grow back! ... Worn off by the awesome crack routes in the creek combined with my poor crack climbing technique. :)
So, next morning (after a good sleep in) I packed up and headed into Moab but not before my bike slid out from under me in a slimy pool of water and mud! No damage done other than another dent in my ego, but the bike was impossible to lift without removing the gear first.
I made it back into Moab and decided to drive out to Fisher Towers to have a look and see if I wanted to do a route on it (There is a moderate route on good rock that I was considering) I did the hike out and back and had a look which was nice but the route was not on the main "Titan" tower and I was happy to just look rather than climb.
So now my next objective is to do some off road riding on my bike.
There is a multi-day trail called the "White Rim" trail that everyone seems to think will be fine for me even with the loaded bike.
So I rode out to the visitor center at Dead Horse Point this morning and got a permit to start tomorrow and spend one day camping. Then, to get back from there (it is quite a way north of Moab) I took an off road route back as a warm up and managed to get through OK with ego and bike intact :) So, now I am looking forward to starting the route tomorrow, and as a bonus, the weather seems to indicate there could be more thunderstorms at some point in the next couple of days :)
Will keep you all posted...
