Tuesday, June 22, 2010

2010 Road Trip, Prvi dio, Wyoming

Part One, The Equality State

The waters were unpredictable there for a while, but the ship has landed, run aground a mile above sea level in Prescott, Arizona.  I know it's been quite a while since my last post, and quite a lot has happened to fill that time.  Although the road trip was not as epic as planned, due to some unforeseen weather, car trouble, and limited cash flow, we drove through 5 states, had some really great times, and saw some amazing landscapes.
  
We ended up setting sail out of Bozeman around 8:00, the evening of May 27th.  We made it all the way to our campsite between Hoback Junction and Alpine Junction near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but we found the gate locked and slept in the car until morning.  We woke up the camp host bright and early to let us in and had a wonderful sunny day to ourselves.  The family and 'crew' started showing up later that afternoon, and throughout the Memorial Day Weekend, there was definitely no shortage of campfires, marshmallows, rain, rafting, and fun!  There was however quite a panic that Friday when we lost Suka.  He went for a nice little swim in the rapid waters of the Snake and we found him a few hours later a couple miles downstream, wet, cold and scared, but just fine once he jumped in Shaun's arms.

The morning of June 1st found us alive and well in the Lander, Wyoming's city park.  We used a good part of the day doing laundry and sneaking into NOLS for showers.  A couple games of cribbage got us in the mood for beer, and a couple pitchers of beer got us in the mood for spending the entire night with the locals at one of our favorites, the Lander Bar.  (We love you Lander locals!)

The next day we attempted to climb world-renowned Wild Iris, but the snow drift was still too high to get to the cliffs.  We drove back through town and set up camp near the climbing in the Sinks Canyon.  The big plastic port-o-potty near the campground was the cleanest, brightest, and nicest bathroom I'd used in at least a week, however an unfortunate splash of Liquid Blue Chemical left me traumatized for the rest of the day, fearing that some of the more delicate parts of my body would be rendered un-usable due to chemical burn.  Luckily, none of my skin was eaten away, and everything is just fine.

We eventually got some climbing in.  Shaun took  to calling me 'Pack Horse', since I insisted on carrying all our gear to prepare for my school pack trip this fall.  We ended up only climbing 5 routes over two days, squeezing in between the top ropes the NOLS group had placed on almost every climbable surface. (no-no.  Bad climbers.  Be good and share!)  The climbing was good and the views were amazing.  We were having fun, but we weren't necessarily having a great time.  We felt a little uneasy and it seemed that something (the poor weather or the NOLS ropes?) was hinting at us to move on.  So we packed up camp, indulged ourselves at the downtown bookstores and outdoor store, consumed a salad and mas cerveza at Lander Bar, broke a bag of rice all over the car, and shared a 'World Famous Chokecherry Shake' on our way out of town. 

Next stop... Good climbing and good weather in IDAHO!


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