Ian Caldwell

Spring Thing Volunteer Day at Smith Rock returns for the 25th year!!! Made limited number of 25 years of volunteering t-shirts. Show up at parking lot between 8am and 9:30am to sign up for a project. Alan Watts and Doug Crispin (former park ranger) will give a slideshow and talk about development of Smith Rock in the 80s and early 90s. We provide dinner for volunteers. Also screaming deals at the Auction and Raffle. (need to volunteer to attend evening event)

Great event. We had 165 people show up. Got a ton of work done. The weather was perfect at 64 degrees. The day before was nearly 80 and on Sunday it rained off and on all day. Thanks everyone who helped or donated. ian

http://www.ktvz.com/news/rescuers-reach-fallen-injured-smith-rock-climber/25807000

Score some good karma points by volunteering. Good karma helps you send routes! Evening event is lots of fun. Yoga starts at 3:30. Slackline will be set up. Several shoes demos. Practice your dart throwing to win prizes. NEW this year...free "Spring Thing" Stickers. T-shirts for sale $5 (we lose money on them, so this is a good deal for you). We will also have the spotting scope on the golden eagle nest.

Lots of projects lined up. Shipwreck Wall, including over to Voyage of the Cow Dog, Phoenix Buttress Area, Marsupials Area, Backside Trails, Aggro Gully, Misery Ridge Trail, Monkey Face Trail. Lots of prizes coming in. Gonna be a good year.

The Smith Rock Spring Thing, volunteer day, will be on Saturday May 3rd, 2014. We normally have about 200 people. Projects will be throughout the park. Sign up in the parking lot between 8 - 10 am for a project. Dinner, slideshow and auction will be that evening.

Spring Thing this weekend. Weather looks good. This is a really good event. We get lots of work done during the day and in the evening have a ton of fun. This year we will have a slackline set up in the front yard and yoga in the back yard (3pm and 4pm). Dinner, slideshow, lots of great gear for killer deals (auction and raffle). There will also be golden carabiners hidden in some of the projects, which you can win a prize if you find one. ian

Great way to rack up good Karma points to help you send your project.

Smith Rock. It looks like the closure for the Prairie Falcons is also going into effect in the First Kiss area. It will be the same closure as the last 2 years.

There are multiple Golden Eagle nests in the Monument area at Smith. Every year they use a different nest.

At Smith Rock, the Golden Eagles have returned and appear to have selected a nest site in the Monument area (different nest than last year). Closure is in effect. There is a pair of Bald Eagles nesting near the Bivi area. You can see the Balds flying over the climbing area most days. No word on the Prairie Falcons yet. Although I think I saw one yesterday.

Fuel taxes from snowmobiles also pay into the program, that's why their fees are less.

I think a guy named Leonard??? lived in the Coos Bay/North Bend area about 10-15 years ago. He was climbing 5.13s at Smith. I heard he put up some routes in the coastal area. I think he moved to colorado some years ago. I have no beta for you, but if you hike around you might find some developed areas.

How many jamboxes do you see at Smith? People don't take them out because other people don't want to hear the music. Ipod and headphones is the easy solution.

That swing has endangered other people. And by the many anti-swinging rants here and supertopo and complaints State Parks has received it is ruining other peoples experiences.

This swing has changed from people swinging risking their own lives, to nearly killing 2 innocent by-standers. I think this accident is horrible and should never happen again. Now we have 2 innocent people who are severely injured and will be impacted forever. I have heard the extent of their injuries and it is not good. Joel is very upset about this and was going to remove the bolts himself within a week. We both discussed it and we felt the sooner the better. This is a very high profile incident that runs the risk of endangering our ability to continue enjoying the opportunities that we have right now in the park. Newer stuff in the park like highlining and even climbing could potentially be at risk. This has to do with the big picture that is very complicated, I will not go into the details here. I gave it a lot of thought. I have read every post here and considered what everyone has said. BTW. I talked to Alan Watts about this today. He did not put the bolts in, never swung on it and agreed with my actions.

1. I was thinking about safety of both people participating and other bystanders. 2. I was thinking about jeopardy of our privileges to climb (and highline) at the park. I have many individual reasons, but they mostly fall into these two categories. And there were so many reasons which added up, leading to the decision.

I work for state parks, but I am not a ranger at the park. This action was completely off duty. Removing the bolts was an action from the climbing community. I talked to several locals including the person who put in the bolts(who was considering removing them next week). I did not ask every climber and I did not request input from bulletin boards. There were many details about this swing which lead to the decision to remove the bolts.

Today I removed the bolts at the top of the swing. I removed the two bolts Joel placed and there were two older stud bolts which I sheared off. I patched the holes with epoxy. I have talked to several people about this, including Joel. Everyone thought removing the bolts was the best thing to do, including Joel.

The Smith Rock Summer Classic, an annual running race, will be on Saturday, July 9, 2011. The race will start and finish in the Smith Rock State Park Parking Lot. Crooked River Drive will be closed at approximately 6:15 am until 6:30 am and 7:00 am until 7:15 am. There are two start times one at 6:15 am and one at 7 am. The event organizers have a permit with the county to close the road for approximately 15 minutes, for the start of each race. There will be several hundred people at the event and racers will be running on the roads. Expect congestion. Park will remain open for other park visitors. Please try to avoid arriving at the park during these start times. Event participants will be parking in the RV/Overflow lot in the park and at the Pumpkin Patch just outside of the park. For a map of the event or other information go to http://www.smithrockrace.com/

The Smith Rock Summer Classic, an annual running race, will be on Saturday, July 9, 2011. The race will start and finish in the Smith Rock State Park Parking Lot. Crooked River Drive will be closed at approximately 6:15 am until 6:30 am and 7:00 am until 7:15 am. There are two start times one at 6:15 am and one at 7 am. The event organizers have a permit with the county to close the road for approximately 15 minutes, for the start of each race. There will be several hundred people at the event and racers will be running on the roads. Expect congestion. Park will remain open for other park visitors. Please try to avoid arriving at the park during these start times. Event participants will be parking in the RV/Overflow lot in the park and at the Pumpkin Patch just outside of the park. For a map of the event or other information go to http://www.smithrockrace.com/

I think there is loose stuff all over in the tunnel. Stuff overhead and on the ground. Dirt has been moving out of the gully for years. It is getting really bad. The hole is getting really big and moving uphill. Park staff will likely look at it more soon.

The right tunnel of Cocaine Gully at Smith Rock is blocked with large rocks and has been closed by the park. There is another route on the left side of the gully, but is a little harder and near impossible for dogs. If you top out from a route such as zebra/zion, consider using Aggro Gully to walk down.

There is a tent camping area at the Park with showers. Vehicle camping area at Skull Hollow Campground in the grasslands about 8 miles away to the east. Great food at Terrebonne Depot for lunch and dinner (climber owned). Worth stopping in. Good climbing shop in Terrebonne (Redpoint) with lots of info, guide books, etc. Lots of stuff going on in Bend for food, music, gym, hanging out, old mill, downtown, micro brews, etc

It is Saturday, May 28, 2011. Memorial Day Weekend.