RIP Stupid Bird

I finished packing my stuff on thursday.  I've now got just a 5'x8' storage unit and that's in my car.  It's nice to not have so much stuff.

super stable packing job.

After a fairly sketchy night spent sleeping in a residential grand-junction neighborhood, we made it down to castleton towers area.

On the way, I managed to hit both a mole/mouse type thing as well as some stupid bird that decided to run across the road.  Had the bird flown across the road, as it should have, it would still be alive. Anyway... we went down to the north chimney route on castleton tower.

The tower, as seen from the roofless pit toilette. Definitely the toilette with the best view that I know of. 

The tower is about and hour or so hike in.  It's not that long of a hike, but you have to climb up these choss/sand/gravel slopes which is exhausting.  The climb is three pitches.

The second/third pitches follow this huge chimney... hence the name of the route.

On top....

A selfie I guess.  I hear thats what the kids are al doing these days.

Headed down.

 The desert is in bloom this time of year which is really nice.  Lots of yellows and purples and pinks everywhere, and it's greener than I have ever seen it.  Also a bunch of lizards, which I'll identify when i get a chance.

I've seen these before, but this time they all have orange/red colored heads.

 So a successful day, and aside from all the small animals I keep murdering with my car a successful start.  We are headed out in a sec to get food for next week.  The plan is to spend all week in indian creek, so no cell/internet till next weekend.

For some reason people don't like my sandals.  I think they are just fantastic.

A Climbing Trip!

For the next couple months I'll be living out of my car, traveling and climbing.  Also maybe visiting some aquariums as aquariums rock.  In preparation, I've got a sweet cargo box on top of my car, and a memory foam mattress in the back that serves as either bed or couch depending on if the seats are up or not. I'm fairly excited that my car can transform into a couch now, and that I'll be an unemployed climber for a couple months.

The plan is to head south-west, through Utah and Nevada. Then hit southern California and drive up towards Oregon.  Continuing up through Washington, we'll fly out of Vancouver to spend a week in Taiwan.  Then some climbing in British Columbia, and... either head south-east back to Boulder or maybe head back down through California.   We'll hit most of the places on the map below...



Getting ready... we laid out all of our climbing specific gear.  Thats my sweet new blue pack in the back, right behind the nice rainbow of C4s.

ZOMG so much sweet sweet gear.

I went swimming in it of course.

Not as comfortable as I would have liked.

So... just need to finish packing now.  Along with climbing gear there are tents, sleeping bags, food, etc that needs to be organized and stowed.  Our first stop will be Castleton Towers  and after that Indian Creek where we will meet up with some friends... drink... and climb.  Woot!