I am so excited for the long President’s Day weekend! Partner-in-Climb(PIC) and I have talked about camping and climbing at Ojai, Joshua Tree and a variety of other places, but we have just decided that we will play it by ear tomorrow morning. I hope the weather holds out because I am so anxious to try out my new sleeping bag. I got it for Christmas from my mom, but I haven’t been camping since then, so I have not had a chance to use it out. It’s from LL Bean and has a very soft fleece lining… Should be cozy!

I’ll post more Monday about my adventures!

I realized the last set of Bishop photos didn’t really demonstrate just how large the boulders are. In this photo from the Sad Boulders, the cars in the distance give some idea of the scale of the boulders. The weather was amazing. It was hard to believe it was late November. At night, the temperature dipped below freezing, but during the day in was in the high 70s and incredibly clear and sunny. It was absolutely perfect for scrambling around on the rocks and hanging out and working problems.

We couldn’t find this problem mentioned in any guides, but there were some chalk marks on a nearby problem, so it might be an area that is still under development. I didn’t try this problem because what you don’t see in the photos is the sheer drop on the backside of this boulder. Yes, I am a big chicken sometimes. But that’s OK with me.

We had to head back to camp around 4:30 PM because the sun was going down and the temperature was dropping quickly, but we did have several great hours enjoying the sunshine, the boulders, and the scenery.

The dusty crash pad in the foreground is truly one of the best investments anybody who spends any amount of time bouldering can make. It’s the Black Diamond Mondo Crash Pad and it rules. When not actually using it as a crash pad for bouldering, we have used it as a “camp couch” and a camp bed. It’s really amazingly comfortable. When the straps are underneath the pad, you can’t feel them at all. The first time we used it as a bed, I thought it would be a “princess and the pea” situation and I’d be turning all night, but the foam or something seems to absorb the straps so it’s just pure relaxation.

It came in very handy on the cold Bishop nights as well. It’s about 5 inches thick so it was a nice layer of protection against the cold ground. I highly recommend it.

I wish we had the chance to stay for a longer time on our last day, but Big Old Dog was hobbling around so we decided to head home a little early to give the poor guy’s hips a rest. He loves to run around when we go out exploring but he usually needs a day or two to recover from all the fun. I totally understand how he feels.

I saw a golden eagle on the side of the road just as we turned onto 395, but I fumbled with the camera and wasn’t able to get a photo. It was eating some roadkill, so it might be best to just leave it to my memory anyway. The site didn’t really do much to kill my appetite;I think I was too much in awe of the eagle. We stopped at Schat’s Bakkery on the way home and loaded up with treats, including a sticky pullaway bread that was mostly devoured by the time we were back in Los Angeles. I am really looking forward to the next road trip to Bishop. Bishop is really an amazing place.

Ok, I admit the title is a bit alliteratively cheesy, but I am in that kind of mood. I haven’t really had a chance to write about our Thanksgiving trip to Bishop yet, other than a few notes here and there, so here is the first official installment of “Bishop
Boulder Bonanza 2007″.

The trip from Los Angeles was amazing. The full moon was rising as we drove through the desert near Edwards Air Force Base and I caught this pic:

It really set the tone for a fantastic trip. We arrived in Bishop well after dark that night, but the moon was so bright details of the mountains were still visible. I don’t even think I used a headlamp most of the time when we were setting up the tent. The Pleasant Valley Pit campground is set in the middle of a lot of desert scrub and vegetation, and under the light of the moon, it was so easy to navigate all the way around the campground, from the dumpster to the restroom and back. I walked out into the brush very, very late in the night because I couldn’t resist getting to a place where I could feel like I was completely alone out there in the middle of this beautiful moonlit plain surrounded by the Sierras. Walking off marked trails is usually a huge no-no with me because there are a lot of important microbes in the soil crust and I don’t want to screw up the ecosystem, but it was such a rare opportunity I could not help myself. While I was in the brush, I found an almost new Thermarest sleeping pad that must have blown away from someone’s camp site and was therm-a- resting on some bushes, so I picked it up and brought it back to our site with me and went back to bed. The owner of the Thermarest, unfortunately, was nowhere to be found the next day, so I still have it.

The plan was to get to Bishop at night, sleep until the sun woke us up, then spend the day bouldering at the Happy Boulders. We did manage wake up early, and instead of making breakfast at camp, headed to town to Schat’s Bakkery. Now, I have only been through Bishop twice before on my way to and from Mammoth, but I did stop at Schat’s Bakkery both times, in addition to sampling the one in Mammoth (which, by the way, is not affiliated with Schat’s Bakkery in Bishop, but that is another story entirely. Suffice it to say, there seem to be some “eccentricities” among the bakers that will become apparent if you visit.) My partner-in-climb (PIC), who lived out of his van for 2 years to dedicate some quality time to climbing and bouldering and spent several months camping in Bishop, had not been to Schat’s Bakkery even once before. We needed to remedy that right away.

As I suspected, it was total “love at first bite”. I got a ham, egg and cheese croissant and a mocha latte, while PIC had a cherry danish, I believe some sort of breakfast sandwich, and a caramel latte. Neither of us are huge coffee drinkers, but Schat’s has AMAZING coffee and it was the perfect accompaniment to their light, buttery pastries. I don’t know if it’s the fresh mountain water, or the Farmer Brothers coffee with the slightest hint of cinnamon, or some other secret ingredient, but man, that is some fantastic coffee. They have a little outdoor patio where were sat to savor our heavenly treats, and we overheard this teenage straight outta the OC whining that she wanted to go to Starbuck’s. Silly Ugg boot wearing child!

After that breakfast, it was pretty much a sure thing that we would be eating breakfast there every day for as long as we were in Bishop. We got back in the 4Runner and headed out in search of the Happy Boulders. After a few minutes of map time fun and a short detour in the wrong direction, we finally made it to the first boulder spot, the Sad Boulders. We decided to just park and explore the Sads for a while, since there weren’t a lot of people there yet and we could have our pick of problems. The name “The Sad Boulders” is a little misleading; they may be “sad” in comparison to the Happys, but they are really fun in their own right.

OK, gotta work for a bit… To be continued…