Bug

Go goat! It's really unfair of the lady to put other animals through such traumatic experiences. Dogs can be trained. It IS the lady's fault. Many moons ago, I was a boyscout hiking in the Mission Mountains with a few other hapless lads. One of my fellow fools had a black lab that loved to chase deer. The Mission Mountains are full of grizzly bears and it was just a matter of time before dumbo the dog found a scent and took off. Ted the turd laughed as his dog ran into the brush of the Mission mountains. In about twenty minutes, the dog came running up the trail and cowered at Ted's legs. We all dumped our packs and climbed trees as the bear came running up the trail after the dog. When it heard our yelling, it stopped, sat down and sniffed the air. After a few seconds, it left. If there would have been fewer of us, a few questions pop to mind. We all told Ted that he had to be tied to the dog from then on. The lady with kids is playing with fire. This time it was her dog. Next time......?

I used to cruise the Glacier Point Apron every evening to scarf all the rap anchors people left behind. By the end of the summer, Half my rack was from those excursions. I have also left my share of gear behind. Whoever finds it gets it. Wet rock, lightning, darkness, too much smoke, not enough smoke, you name it. If I know whose gear it is, I ask them if they want it back. If they don't say yes right off the bat, I keep it. The universe will work out the trade.

CHeck out the climbers camp abve Bridge Creek. Cross the creek on the bridge and go up the hill about 100 yards. Look for a primitive road to down to the left. It takes you out to a bench where lots of dirtbags will be waiting to jump you and torch your tent. No one else mentioned this place because they knew I would warn you.

Put me on the list too.

Of course. But it concerned me that the boy's jackets didnt' have crotch straps. With regard to the aluminum canoe, it might have had flotation embedded in the bow and stern. It might not have. I have pulled aluminum canoes off of a riverbottom, so I know some don't float when capsized (that was yet another canoe epic, but not of my own making: I was tubing the upper Gila river with friends when some gumbies got into serious trouble. It really killed the beer buzz.). Different gear would have made it all a little easier. With no exaggaration, the trip across the lake was like a 2 mile stretch of class 2-3 whitewater. A canoe with no keel and some rocker would have been better. There's always next time. Yeah. It sounds like good surfing sans kids. When I was about 5, my dad bought a little sail boat/board. It was similar to the Sunflowers that came out later but was more of a styrofoam board with side ridges. My 3 brothers and I took it out on a small lake the first time and got blown to the other end. Coming back, we were piling up on the windward side trying to keep it upright and zipping along at what seemed really fast then. We tipped a few times and finally got over the panic and actually had fun. But as the story gets told around the dinner table, my mother was in the car the whole time crying. She was sure we would never come back alive. It was a wise decision on her part to not go on many of our adventures after that. Dad had a little of the go-for-it in him and i sometimes wonder how we all survived.

I have had three aluminum canoes and they all had flotation in the bow and stern. "Stay with the boat" was the rule. Of course, there was the time in the Big Blackfoot during high water that we all would have died of hypothermia so we broke formation and clammered to shore. But, it was a great thing to see nature up close and personal that way. I hope you and your kids have more fun adventures if less harrowing.

I put one pic up in the Washington section of this gallery. My modem is slow. I will put up another or two tonight.

I'm not trying to flame anyone here. It seems like there are some opinions above that blanket a lot more circumstance than is reasonable. I have had my life saved by two separate reels and have saved a few lives that way myself. Every situation is different. Even in the same place, as the leader climbs, there may be times when reeling is good and times when it is not. It is a skill based on judgement and can only be improved with experience. Discuss it at each belay ledge. If you are leading and see a place where reeling seems appropriate, inform your belayer. "Be ready to reel." was a common instruction amoung my old climbing buddies. There is no way to sit here and say 'reel' or 'don't reel'. Hope this helps.

THere is one big boulder in the middle of the ste but it is mossy and damp. Probably a few good boulder problems somewhere on it. It is big. Otherwise, what I saw where a few good looking smaller crags here and there a little ways up the hill. There could be some stuff closer. The road is pretty closed in for the most part. It would take some exploring. Maybe we can have some kids put up a few FA's and name them.

Chatter Creek looks good for a large group. There are plenty of tent sites, a few open tables, and one shelter with a table and fireplace. The trees are big and the area is way up the canyon so expect some cold nights and mornings.

Sinking was not an option. Only Albert took a fall on that trip. We had just crossed a really steep talus field and I looked back to see how the mutt was doing. He slipped off a big rock and started bouncing down the talus. I knew he was dead but I dropped my pack on a ledge and started scambling down after him. He hit a tree about three feet up and bounced back down onto a ledge. I was dumbfounded to see him pop up and shake. He saw me and headed for me immediately. There were no cuts or injuries I could see. He stuck right by my feet from then on. This same dog was hit by six cars and feared by all dogs and mailmen. When the National Inquirer had an ugly dog contest, the winner was cute by comparison. He peed on everybody's packs, ate anything left unattended, and impregnated dogs ten times his size. When his end was finally near, his entire body swelled up and he couldn't walk. My mother had some Demerol from when my aunt died of cancer so we dosed him with four tabs to put him out of his misery. It only prolonged his existence. He got up and wove around the room looking for food or females, I'm not sure which. Then he layed down on his favorite hot air vent and went to sleep for a day or so. When he came to, he was in a lot of pain. He whimpered and yelped. So my father took him out to the back yard and gave him one merciful dose of lead. He was 17 years old. My mother still hangs a picture of him snarling at the camera. He hated flash bulbs. Albert was a climber.

Sorry to break in so late. I was climbing. I started climbing because dad made good swimmers and mom's plumbing was working fine. There four of us boys in a little over four years. By the time I was 5, my mother was needing a little alone time. We lived in Montana so we had two choices, go drinkin or go outside. On my first backpacking trip, I had a $7 sleeping bag and a knitted wool blanket from grandma. We hiked 3 miles to the top of Boulder point which is about 8000-. It was June so there was still a lot of snow up there. We got to the top and looked around. It was cool. I asked my dad "where are we going to sleep?" He said, "Anywhere you want." I curled up inside a big bush after a dinner of white bread and vienna sausage. The wind howled all night. It ripped through my cotton covered bag like it wasn't there. When we got up in the morning, no one would admit to having had a bad night. We had hot ovaltine and eggs with white bread cooked over a sub-alpine fir fire. My father and one brother went down to Boulder lake to fish while the other three of us stayed up on the point and tried to dislodge a cornice. The afternoon was hot and we swam in Rattlesnake creek on the way out. It was icy cold so we just dipped in and out and made fun of each other's shrinkage. It was a twelve mile hike out the road since my mom hated to drive in the mountains. It was really hard to hike that far as a six year old but it was also really nice to be down where it was warm and green. We got home about ten o'clock and I slept until noon the next day. It was an adventure I will never forget. There were a lot more 'adventures with dad' but there is one that I credit with really sucking me into technical climbing. I was nine or ten and dad, Paul and I went up Kootenai creek to the Bitterroot divide and then south to Lolo peek and out to the Lolo highway. We took four days and climbed every peak and fished every lake we came to. The climbing was great. we didn't have a rope of any kind. We were cutting steps with sharp rocks and passing Albert, our 20 lb dog up to ledges and across chasms. We caught only one fish. Fish was going to be most of what we ate so we were all pretty hungry. Albert would have been in danger but at that point he had lost so much weight, we would have been sucking on bones. The climbing on granite, unroped, inching across steep snowfields, and summitting over and over, really caught me. I have always looked for ways to improve my climbing since. Even when I first had my kids and barely climbed twice a year, I was a climber. I am just starting to come back. More importantly, I am bringing my kids with me. They beg to go backpacking. They love the freedom and adventure. The mountains have them. They are climbers too. You will see us dancing in the light of the full moon.

The patriot act is designed to deal with subversives like you.

A friend and I once spent a month up there. It was a snafflehound infested, climbfesting, chick-chasing, extravaganza. YOU SAW ONE CLIMBER?!!!

I'm not upset. I just happen to have an opinion about just about everything. Save one of those for me.

Trade with Ade and give the rude dude the vomit soaked rope. Or ask Ade to vomit on the one you have.

Glad you got your bird back. funny story! My dog used to disappear for a day or so and come back all happy as hell and reeking of shit. Pets Pets!? Hell, my wife does that!

You picked the perfect avatar for yourself. You know smoking doesn't really hurt you either. Those scientists are all a bunch of media hogs. Light up a fag, guzzle a dozen brews, lay back and watch those muscles grow.

Relaxing and trusting your feet is the only right thing you said there. slamming your spurs in too hard makes them harder to pull out, and the only time I ever look at my feet is when I'm spurring up a hardened dead tree. Hmm. OK. I wasn't able to get the spurs very far into the hardwood I was climbing. Getting them out was too easy. But I've only climbed one and hated it. As for not looking at his feet, would you really recommend that to someone who hasn't had spurs on? Just curious. Don't be offended, I've only climbed for cones.

Yes, Ice ages come and go. It's just that you don't usually see it happen in one lifetime. The last ice age took over 1000 years to get into full swing and took another 1000 to swing back into the current phase. Both shifts were due to an average annual temp change of 1 degree farenheit. We have seen a 5 degree annual ave temp change in the northern hemesphere in the last 50 years. But that's OK. I'm over it. It will go away. It means nothing. Goodnight GW.

If it's a hardwood you're climbin, be sure to set those spurs deep lest you be makin curly-ques all the way down. An hit the trunk, not yur leg. Like climbin a rock, you'll do well to relax and trust those feet. Lean back into the lanyard and watch where you put those spurs. Best of luck.

VERY stupid mistake. Busted.

Then again, you might come up short only once. I like twin 60m 8.7 for long routes. That is as long as is practical though, in my opinion. It is difficult to communicate between belay ledges, rope drag, management on ledges, weight. The twins still get you off quickly in storms and late descents and it opens up rap lines that look impractical otherwise.

OK. I married a woman who was one of the hottest white water freestyle boaters in the west in 92. I hardly ever went climbing after that. Very stupid. I'm back now. Whimpy arms, big gut, whimpy legs, old gear. Very, very stupid.

I know one person in the group that helped push the log off. She was a Member of YOSAR from 83-89. They thought it was way to dangerous and pushed it off. Didn't hear anything about any ass kicking involved. This would be worth a TR. Can you contact her and get her to write it up? I would be willing to buy a few beers.