crags

This weekend was a whirlwind adventure testing bikes, hiking and climbing. On Saturday I woke up groggy in the early morning and decided to stay in bed... until about noon. The afternoon was filled with more test bike rides. As i am not in the market for a new bike, I tested out a sweet single speed Specialized and a $3,000 Orbea carbon-frame bike. I decided on the way back to the bike shop that if I ever need a quick form of transportation I should just "test ride" a super fast bike.

We headed out to the coast after bike testing to hike and climb. We hiked down through toasted grassy fields to a rocky point. Fractures in the stone had created perfect niches for blooming sedums. Trodden paths followed the terraced fractures to the top of the rock face. We explored the surface of the rock with our fingers and rubber-clad toes searching for holds. The only other creatures around us were of the non-human kind. Cormorants and gulls... and flies and ticks. Beer break just before sundown. We started back as the sun was squished by the line of fog on the horizon, first into a square then into a 'V' shape, then into 2 slivers.

Hike to Sea Crag

On Sunday we woke early and packed up our gear for a day of climbing the crags near Calistoga. I'm not a big fan of ropes, however i surrendered to the idea for the day, trusting in my climbing partners who were not the typical ego-freak climbers.

I've always wanted to get into climbing but was fairly repulsed by the skilled ego-freak climbers who were intimidating, and the unskilled ego-freak climbers who were not intimidating but rather annoying and surely wouldn't care about my safety. I'm also not into climbing with unadventurous types that discourage 'unwise' behavior (see pic below). I looked for a while in undergrad for the perfect climbing community but there seemed to be no middle ground. So, I feel pretty lucky to have finally run across a group of non-gear-heads who are both skilled and fun.

The day was blistering hot but we climbed until our fingers were raw, our bodies were weak and knees bruised with blue polka dots from a free chimney climb.

The Far Side Crags @ St. Helena