Heading North!

It’s been raining for what seems like many, many days now. I am sitting in the Rialta typing this in order to feel remotely useful today. We did manage to go out for a two hour walk with Brutus while it wasn’t really raining, but the rock was still too wet to climb, so we are hitting the books and I just kicked Jay’s butt in Scrabble.

I left off with us hanging out in Owen’s River Gorge sport climbing with our friends Martin and Sherri. We were in need of a few rest days from the gorge, so the four of us as well as Sherri’s sister, Stephanie, went on an educational plant walk one day and also did a bit of climbing up Rock Creek road. Jay and I also did an overnight backpack to a small lake up McGee creek. At our destination of Grass Lake, we had the pleasure of watching the beavers in the evening hours. They had created the little lake and it was incredible to see how many trees they had downed and how much impact they had on the small environment. Brutus was polite but very interested in the beavers especially when they would slap their tails on the water. We really couldn’t go much further into the backcountry due to the snow that remains, but admired the peaks from the valley. We also spent several hours in the hot springs during our time on the east side, which was much needed in that we hadn’t showered in more than a week.

When we returned to the gorge there was a heat wave and record highs that made it a bit miserable to climb in the sun, but we chased shade and drank lots of water. Our last day to climb in the gorge we had the pleasure of meeting a solo traveling Kiwi girl named Sophie. She was great to climb with and talk to and we all ended up hanging out for several days. She came with us to the Buckeye hot springs, and then we joined her at her cousin’s house north of Truckee. We made a dangerous stop in Reno for the outlet tour as well as all you can eat Sushi for (no kidding) 13.99!!! It turned out that we got there the day before the big Memorial day sales started, so we spent the night outside the Patagonia outlet in order to score the only women’s hooded micropuff left in the store. Jay and I spent a few hours at the penny slots downtown to kill time the night before the big sale. We recommend avoiding the gnome slots and going straight to Nefretiti. Off to Truckee, Sophie’s cousin was fantastic and not only fed us dinner, but allowed us to do some laundry and shower. As all this shopping and luxury living was going on, the weather had turned to absolute crap. We actually got snowed on a bit in Reno. Therefore, our plans for climbing in the Tahoe area were foiled and we headed to the coast.

My friend Jason, from Ohio State, (we’ll call him Jason for clarity’s sake but he is a Jay too, or Jay two) lives in Fort Bragg and has been there pretty much since I moved to California. It seems funny to me that we both have lived in Cali for years but we haven’t seen each other since we moved there. Without a job, I finally found the time to get there and even be able to hang out a bit. Also, I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting his wife, Jinji, who couldn’t be better for him. Bad weather means Jason doesn’t usually have to work and they didn’t have any big plans for the holiday weekend, so it seemed to work out that we could spend some time. We went for a walk on the bluffs of Mendocino, had several excellent meals, and my favorite, kayaked right out of their backyard and saw seals and even went in little sea caves. We were lucky to have a fairly warm and sunny day for our kayak trip or I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much. Brutus hung out with their dog, Irie, who was sweet and playful. We also hit the Thrift store in their town and stocked up on plenty of books.

Heading out of Fort Bragg we stopped at the Pacific Starr Winery and roamed the property while tasting wines. Sally, the proprietor and vintner, was great to talk to and had stories from all walks of life. Jay liked petting the big wooly sheep that were due to be sheered next week. We bought a bottle of the Petite Syrah and headed on our way north. We spent a night in the Avenue of the giants and went for a long walk with Brutus. I'll never get over the Redwoods and the Sequoias, the are just incredible to me. We stopped at Moonstone beach just north of Arcata to do a little beach bouldering and Brutus was ridiculous. He seems to get all excited about being near the ocean and I guess since we didn’t really take him to swim in the water at Jason and Jinji’s he was milking it for all he could. I think we got some video of how vocal he was.

So that was Monday that we left Fort Bragg and now it is Thursday… we basically have been in the Rialta since. I guess we’ve been doing lots of driving, but also several hours in the teahouse yesterday waiting out the rain and also two hours at Sherri’s parent’s house picking up the guidebook for Smith and just hanging out with them. We left there with homemade cookies!!! We’re really really hoping that the clouds are going to clear and we’re going to get some climbing in tomorrow, but in the meantime, back to my book. I just finished John Irving’s “The Fourth Hand”, and now I’m reading “Marley and Me” about a crazy lab.

Oh, and one more thing that I’m not sure I’ve written about yet: Jay has been offered an opportunity to work with my friend Molly’s husband in Parachute, CO starting in the fall. It would be a temporary/contract position, but will allow us time to check out the area and see if it is where we want to be. Also, I’ll get to hang out with Molly a bunch and maybe even work on starting my own (or even maybe our own) business. Jay and I are both very excited about all aspects of this opportunity (most importantly being back in Colorado close to many of our friends/family), so I guess we now have a plan for after CarpeRialta!!

Owens River Gorge

We finally made it out of Tulare county and back on the road where we belong. We've been on the East side for the past week now and it has been excellent weather every day. We had the privilege of spending our time in Visalia with Mandi, Roy, and David and watching the little man transform on a daily basis. He is so fun. Jay and I loved the days we spent playing parents and Roy and Mandi even awarded us a certificate for passing their "For Real Parenting" class. Not too many people our age get to spend that much time with a couple of friends and their baby. I was so impressed to see the way they treat each other and support each other with all that needs to be done with two full time jobs and a one year old. They are a couple to admire to say the least.

We also got to spend time with the rest of the band including two full nights at Jessi and Dina's includinig the pizza cook off extraordinaire! We got to meet the new woman in Marlin's life, whom we hope will join the band soon. Daniel and Bekah's wedding was beautiful and sweet and the start to what will surely be an incredibly adventurous life together.

We are now hanging out with another favorite couple, Martin and Sherri, who I have known for about four years now. They are on the same type of trip as us and quit their stable, professional jobs to travel too. We got to spend New Year's Eve weekend with them in Yosemite right before they were embarking on their journey and we were off to Patagonia. We met up here at the gorge and shared photos and stories. We've climbed several days with them and we are slowly getting back into shape. Martin and Sherri have a Toyota Previa van which they have made into their home and, I must say, I am reminded again how extremely fortunate we are to have the Rialta. In the Previa it's harder to get out of the wind, harder to cook, harder to change clothes... I could go on. But mostly, I can't imagine trying to travel in that type of a set up with Brutus. His food alone would take up as much space as half their food storage! We have become accustomed to being in the Rialta, but it truly is luxurious living as far as our level of travelers goes. We would have had a very similar set up if the Rialta hadn't come our way, and maybe our trip wouldn't have lasted as long if that was the case. I could imagine it becoming a little more tiring without the decadent accommodations with endless solar power and dvds of the West Wing. Martin and Sherri and the two of us have swapped in making dinners and even had a movie showing in the Rialta since it was windy and cold one evening. I have always had a hard time motivating to climb when I am with these two because they are just so much fun to talk to. I could sit and drink tea and chat with the two of them for hours and hours, so it's good that we are at a sport climbing area where we can wait 'til noon to get going and still get a full day in.

Today we are in town getting the master cylinder replaced in the Rialta and running town errands. We are going to hit the hot springs tonight and then get back to climbing after an educational plant walk on Friday morning.