Beads of ...

... perspiration. I spent 5 days in Joshua Tree National Park last week with friends. We went hiking and climbing, cooked, watched the moon wane, heard coyotes sing, and bouldered in the asteroid belt. It was hot, dry, and ... well ... hot.


Fire Damage




Collared Lizard(?)




Joshua Tree


Kenny on Manx

I set up my first ever top rope on Cap Rock.

We inadvertently bootlegged a camp in the closed section of Indian Cove campground and got thrown out. We set up a shower in our camp in Hidden Valley and the ranger came by and busted us, saying, "You can't tie anything to the vegetation" (as far as I recall in Yosemite that's OK). We tied up a big sling and tied it to that, rock climber style.

Lily and Amy brought us dry ice, which froze everything, which meant we ate strange things like frozen grapes, which were unbelievable.


Fallen Angel

We met a guy, the bead man, at Cap Rock, who was looking for the grave site of Gram Parsons, which we all found. We help him find the site, so he gave us all a string of beads ... "Beads of accomplishment," according to Lily. He was wandering the planet carrying his brother's ashes, "I'm taking him everywhere."

We climbed at Manx boulder.

It was a great trip, despite the heat, shredded knees and fingertips ... beads of inspiration.


21 Palms Oasis

Cottonwood Oasis


Ocotillo


Burnt Joshua Tree from a fire on the way to Lost Horse Mine


Arch Rock


Amy


Lily

Joshua Tree National Park Winter 2008

Proximal Phalange, Left Hand

Ring finger, middle joint; my first real damage. I was working on a bouldering route at the House of Pain™ when I matched my left hand to my right on a fairly small hold, and loaded up my body's weight on to the ring finger of my left hand. It made a noise that reminded me of a dog eating a chicken and I hit the crash pad.

I am wondering right now if it's broken, dislocated, or just all torn to crap, and I've taken some Ibuprofen. As you can see it really isn't swollen all that much, despite a fair amount of pain -- so maybe I am just a wimp.

I did continue to climb with it for about an hour. I might regret that.

The House of ...

... hmmm™ ... contortion. Stopped by the House of Pain™ for a little breakfast workout. I managed to get past the overhang on the curiouser and curiouser route mentioned the other day; I was dreaming about the route the other night, which is odd. Dreaming about climbing, who would have ever imagined. Perhaps that is why it was possible.

Once you've conquered an obstacle like that it seems anti-climactic to just climb up a flat wall, even if it's a 5.9 route. So I didn't do it. I hung there on the wall looking spent. I was spent.

I rested, watered and .. then tried the overhang on the Hamachi route. ... It's dicey and ... well ... maybe next time.

¡Ouch!

I went to the climbing gym, and was working on an highly overhanging route called "Curiouser and Curiouser" and drat -- I found that I also have hamstrings and adductors, rather than just the quads I used to have. And guess what else?