And so it begins

I’m on the road! My emotions were an explosive brew of excitement, anticipation, fear, and sorrow as I left home for Queen Creek, AZ. I had been living with my parents for a few months since I finished my Master’s degree and decided my next step would be a road trip. Since I knew rent would be free and it was a safe place after a difficult spring and summer, Santa Fe seemed like the logical place to prepare for the road trip. But now that the road trip was happening, it seemed far more like leaving home for college than I expected. Home had quickly become a safe place again, and I had lost the knack for being on my own. I think it must always be difficult to leave a safe place and step out onto uncertain ground, whether you be an 18-year old leaving for college or a post-Master’s student heading out on a road trip. But this was the adventure I had planned for and dreamt about, so I headed off at midday on Monday, February 5.

The start of the drive was easy, leaving New Mexico on the wide-open freeways of the west. I had AM radio to keep me company, and listened to music as that faded away. I misjudged the distance from the freeway to my camp area, however, and the drive through the Arizona mountain country found me with low blood sugar and a sinking attitude. To keep myself company I threw a CD of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods into the stereo. This story of Bryson’s attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail helped my mood immensely, as I recognized much of myself in his fear of bears and desire for companionship on the trail. As he and Steven Katz arrived in Shenandoah National Park of Virginia, I pulled into the Oak Flat campground, tired but happy.

I woke to find a beautiful, warm morning and an almost empty campground. Since the campground was almost empty, and the few people here were either seniors or local campers, I had no one to climb with. And since I had a general Arizona guidebook that showed only roped climbing in the area, I was in trouble. I had been counting on a few people being around to get on a rope or show me the boulders, but I seemed to be alone as a climber. A trek into town found a library with internet access, and thus an online guide to the bouldering in the area. Returning that afternoon to camp, I discovered the presence of two javelina,

Slightly blurry photo of one of the javelina

which I initially thought to be a wild pig. The sight of something so unlikely definitely made my day! They didn't like me getting too close, but I followed them for a little while to get a few pictures.

After some stretching and getting all my gear together, I wandered out to the boulders, decidedly glad that I had not tried to find them myself since it took me about 30 minutes with the map. The bouldering was fun, although I had to quit quickly as it was late when I arrived and I wanted to get back to camp while it was still light enough to pitch a tent and make dinner. A pretty sunset, a couple of rabbit sightings (Cree would be jealous), and some photo work led me to bed.

The hills surrounding Oak Flats

Jeff arrived promptly at 9 the next morning, and brought in tow a bouncy medium-sized dog, Casey. Luckily I was ready, having eaten and packed when they arrived, though it was closer than I planned. The night had been cold, and I wished I had taken more precautions to keep warm; since the previous night had been so warm, I figured it would be fine. As a result I started the morning slowly, not wanting to get out of my relatively warm sleeping bag.
We made our introductions and talked a bit about the day, deciding to go to The Pancake House where I could get in a number of pitches around 5.7-5.8 and work on getting back my lead head; since he hasn’t been climbing much lately, he would be happy on the same routes. We headed out, and as we wandered along the four wheel drive road, Casey lost her wariness of me and came to me asking for attention; I believe it did my soul some good to have her along. Throughout the day we talked quite a bit about dogs, and I found myself missing Cree and even Lobo immensely. The companionship that a dog gives is unlike anything else, and I really would like to get one once I am settled in whatever comes next.

The Pancake House is a small assortment of sub-vertical sport climbs on volcanic tuff. Pockets that were formed due to inclusions of more soluble material or air during tuff formation provide most of the holds used in this area. This provides some unique hold possibilities, when you use one pocket for a thumb and another for a few fingers (almost like a bowling ball) and results in using the same pockets as footholds, which involves a lot of stress on one’s toes. We spent the first part of the morning climbing a couple of sevens and an eight, then decided to set up a top rope on a 5.11. Since the rope is always above in this situation, the climber is more free to take chances with only a minimal fall as a possible result. It was a good challenge, and I rose to it, falling only a couple of times. After lunch I got back on it and sent it without weighting the rope a single time. This gave me some real confidence, and if I keep working at it, I should be able to lead this type of route before too long. We ended the afternoon early, as my feet were really hurting from my climbing shoes and Jeff’s bulging disk was acting up. So we packed up around three and headed back to the camp for a couple of beers and a small fire, until Jeff needed to leave for home. It was nice and relaxing to just spend some time hanging out and talking around the campfire.

Thursday I let myself sleep in until it was warm, then spent a while stretching. For the afternoon I went back out to Oak Flats to do some bouldering, trying to find an area called The Maze. Unfortunately, as before, the directions were poor. After more than an hour of wandering, I had not climbed a single boulder, or found a hint of the area I was looking for. About then I decided that I would head to Joshua Tree on Friday, a rest day, after I was finished with internet and other rest day activities. Oak Flats bouldering had given me sufficient frustration to drive me away. The search for the boulders did give me some time to think, and I spent some good time sitting on my pad gazing into the horizon and wondering about my future, which I need to do a great deal on this trip. So the wander wasn’t a total loss. I did eventually find my way to the Atlantis bouldering area and do some neat pocketed problems there, and made many attempts on Flake Orgasm, a V2 on big flakes, without success. But it got late fast, and I headed in to dinner and then into town to call my Dad and wish him a Happy Birthday.

Which brings me to today. I packed up camp quickly this morning, came into town, and have enjoyed a nice hot shower and internet access, catching up on the world outside.. I’ll head to Joshua Tree tonight.