What Else

We went to a new area in the Jemez after I got back from the OR Trade Show while Linda's mom was still here. The area was really pretty, you hike from the road up over a low ridge and drop down into a little river valley on the other side. The area is called the Upper East Fork, of some river presumably and is just up from Las Conchas. The routes are nice, mostly slightly overhanging and the 2 main walls are pretty tall. The Monster Wall which has mostly 5.11 and 5.12 routes is about 60-70 feet tall and the Spegetti Westtern Wall, mostly 5.10 and 5.11 is maybe 90 feet or so, pretty tall for the Jemez. We headed out with Marc Ripper.. and had a good time climbing on new stuff, it is getting hard to find new routes to get on that are not pretty terrible or extreamly hard, so it was nice to climb some new, good 5.11's and 5.12's.

When we first got to the wall Marc and I headed to the base to figure out which routes were which and check the hang for Dylan. As we wandered along the base of the wall there was a bunch of chirping and we almost stepped on some very small birds. They did not take off and fly away but at times they tried. I'm guessing that they had been booted from or something happened to the nest. Marc and I each scooped a bird up to show Dylan, the one I was carrying finally took flight, sort of falling toward the ground in a controled glide then all of a sudden really took off. The bird Marc was carrying just stayed put and Dylan got to check it out up close.

After Dylan had some time with the bird we returned it to where we found them and an hour or so later they were gone. Later in the afternoon we got rained on pretty hard for a bit, pretty typical when your in the mountains at about 10k feet. Here is a shot of Dylan goofing with Popo under the shelter of the wall.

I did not hear him say it but apparently Dylan was saying "Thunder, dangerous, go home" in Cantonees, which was way beyond me, although now I might be able to follow. Needless to say we all did another route to the sound of distant thunder after the rain let up. We hiked out in a light rain and Dylan fell asleep in the Sherpini. All in all a fun day out.