The good, the bad and 'the bay'

The thought of paying a visit to my former 'hometown' had me shuffling through pages filled with mixed feelings...most of them being excited ones. My experience living in the Bay Area had been a memorable one. I always love the chance to re-visit someplace that I am fond of so it didn't take much to convince me to make the trek out of the mountains and into a seriously civilized and hip society. I went straight to work, visiting some key players in my life's script and rushing around to some of my favorite places I had grown to love throughout the eighteen months that I spent living in that crazy place. The people (lots of them), the setting, the beauty, the familiarity of it all even while squinting to see past the layer of culture shock...I gasped for air through the perception of my senses while attempting to take it all in; oddly enough it was extraordinarily enjoyable. I spent time hanging on the Marin coast, in classy coffee shops, running around ring mountain, tasted some California rain, saw countless beautiful women, fancy cars, rad hangs, had to pay to cross bridges, went shopping, wandered and ran down endless trails, and even dared to go climb in a gym. The fun to be found is endless if you have enough time and money to go look for it...

 

My mornings in Tahoe 

 

 

My mornings in 'the bay'

 

 

En route to the big city...see the psyche in those eyes?!?

 

Turtle Rock, in a field, atop Ring Mountain

 

Kinda pretty

What a foreign place for having resided within its walls for so long. It felt as if I were a tourist with a dulled and more relaxed impression of the places I felt I knew. I'm in awe of cities like these, and smile at the thought that they are frequently, even by myself, lumped together and referred to as one place...'the bay'.

 

Artwork at the Presidio

 

 

Beach time in the city

 

 

Tourist-ing about

 

 

Coffee is good for the heart and the soul

 

Had a blast paying a visit to and climbing at the brand new Dogpatch Bouldering Gym!

 

The gym is HUGE with towering 17' walls, every angle imaginable, and lots of top out boulders...HIGHBALL

 

Breaking the rules and heel-hooking in the gym

 

So many situations and events have added up and left me knowing and loving two very different styles of California life...After all, that IS life right? It's interesting to observe and reflect on how and why people choose, and/or live such drastically different realities with such drastically differing ambitions. The fire for life seems to be ignited and kindled in countless ways depending on an unending list of factors that fit in to each individual's background and personality. I'm happy to be alive and in it, watching, learning, refining, and in search of what's next. What good clean fun taking time to explore the adventure and uncertainty found inside this life continues to be. Now, back to the rocks!!
 

Down with the desert

 

 

 

There really is no place like Joe's. The 'scene' seems to be growing, but surrounding the hundreds of visiting climbers and the micro town of Orangeville is a captivating environment. At first glance I'd have thought a four week stay in Joe's Valley would be too long -or- less than ideal...nearly eight weeks later I finally left.

 

Chad Parkinson, looking cool and sending 'The Happy Spaniel' v6 or 7ish

I had been bouldering A LOT since December 1st. Hell, I'd been bouldering A LOT since September 1st... Then I turned 30. Not surprisingly, I found myself pretty worn out and injured for about three or four of the weeks I spent in Utah. When I first felt the pain of the 'old(er) guy gunning too much' tweaks I thought about calling it quits for a bit and taking off...after all, I'd been out in some form of the desert for too long already. I weighed my options for a few days and decided I would wait it out another week to see if I started getting better. Great friends and fun visitors were constantly cycling through and at least I could always hike around and look for new rocks. Besides, Orangeville has great spring weather, it's inexpensive to live, super relaxing, and happens to host a few boulders with some of the most gorgeous holds and rock and lines imaginable!

See what I mean...the perfectly sculpted features on 'Kill List' v11ish

 

 

PERFECT grips on 'Lonesome Animals' v12ish

 

 

 

'Jitterbug Perfume' is a RAD book, and happens to be the name of a problem full of equally rad holds

In the end, climbing through injuries can be a positive and productive thing for me. Sometimes I just need to tone it down a notch and having a limiting injury makes me happy to be able to climb on and enjoy the less difficult and less committing climbs. While I dreamed of my projects and waited for my body to heal itself I sought out and climbed on tons of problems I would have otherwise missed out on. Plus, higher mileage days are some of the best training days in my opinion and rarely climbing indoors makes it more difficult to have high volume sessions sometimes. My mental state and energy toward climbing also benefit when I break my focus for a while and pay closer attention to how much fun I have pursuing any and every part of climbing. I am truly in awe of how lucky we are to have the opportunity to experience all the things that climbing on rocks provides. The places, the process, the adventure, the people, the solitude, the psyche, the feeling, the moment, the hang, the failure, the search, the success...it's all sorta magical or something!

Had some wet weather during my final two weeks...it made for some nice sun sets and sun rises

 

 

Lindsey T. being hip one moment before gunning down 'Wills a Fire'

 

 

One of the best problems...ever...'#tall'

 

Check out this link to an iphone productions clip of a really nice problem called 'Radiant' near Price.

 

https://vimeo.com/65618202

 

I narrowed my focus during my final two weeks in Joe's. My injuries were almost gone and I started pushing a little harder every day without feeling any painfully familiar pain. I was super psyched to be able to go try and to actually finish every problem I wanted to do plus a few extras before I hit the road. I drove away in a state of elation, sifting through memories and feeling ridiculously high from having 'the moment' upon me all day. As I capped my time in Utah, I could hardly harness the excitement I felt to be en route to another very special place...I was Tahoe bound!!