Ultimate Climbing Adventure
On Labor Day weekend I had one of the best times of my life. I missed out on Tammy's wedding, which was a bummer, but I was able to go rock climbing instead.
Kagan, Eric and I went to Yosemite and Bishop to do some sweet rock climbing. You can see the climbing photos in my gallery.
The trip started out on Friday night at the Oakland airport. After getting my bike from baggage claim we quickly headed to the parking lot where we disassembled my bike and packed away my stuff. Then we hit the road. We headed east for Yosemite. Along the way we found a Starbucks. Seeing as it was 11:30 at night I thought it would be good to only get a grande. I thought two shots would be fine, but Eric, on the other hand, thought three shots were due. After coffee we got something to eat. Before we even had our food Eric went back to Starbucks for another 3 shots of espresso! So in the span of about 20 minutes Eric drank six shots of espresso. Surprisingly he did not go into shock or just crash after all the caffeine.
Later that night we made it to the Groveland Motel, which by the way, is pretty bad assuming you were not early enough to get a real cabin. After we paid for our $60 / night "cabin" I knew something was wrong when the lady said our cabin was next to the other silver cabin. Our cabins weren't cabins at all, they were trailers. We were tired and did not have much other choice, so we laughed about it.
The next morning we drove into Yosemite Valley. Once there, we rode our bicycles around the floor until we came back around to Camp IV, where we could boulder. After a few hours of bouldering we left the valley and drove to Bishop. We didn't need to spend too much time in Yosemite because the nation's best bouldering is in Bishop, so we wanted to be able to spend the most time possible there as we could.
The first night in Bishop we needed to find place to stay. We didn't want to stay at the Best Western for $170 per night, so we politely told the lady no, stole some candy from the dish and then proceeded to another motel. The candy tasted great also.
The next morning we climbed Happy Boulders in the valley floor. The climbing was super cool and most of it was pretty mellow. The routes were taller than anything I had climed in the gym. We also got to do some pretty nice overhanging routes.
After a couple hours in the afternoon we hiked back to the car and headed for the Buttermilks where we set up our super cool campsite and climbed some more. The Buttermilks has some pretty challenging routes, which we didn't do, but it was still neat to see some famous routes like the Ironman Traverse.
Our final day of vacation was pretty relaxing. We broke down camp in the morning, headed over to the rocks for some bouldering and then headed into town. After getting some famous Buffalo Burritos from Las Palmas restaurant, we headed back west. In the late evening we made it to San Francisco, so we headed into China town for some Chinese food. After a little walking around we found a place where we could fill up on some nice food. Once we were done with dinner we looked for a Starbucks to get some coffee. Everything was shut down pretty early, so this mission took us on a trip from Chinatown, down to the Metreon and back. Along the way we got some cds at the Virgin Music Store, so it wasn't all bad.
That was pretty much the whole trip. It was pretty exciting, but there was a lot of driving. The most memorable parts will be the climbing (which, I will say is reallty great) and just being a dumbass with my brother and Kagan.
Thanks for a great trip guys!
Kagan, Eric and I went to Yosemite and Bishop to do some sweet rock climbing. You can see the climbing photos in my gallery.
The trip started out on Friday night at the Oakland airport. After getting my bike from baggage claim we quickly headed to the parking lot where we disassembled my bike and packed away my stuff. Then we hit the road. We headed east for Yosemite. Along the way we found a Starbucks. Seeing as it was 11:30 at night I thought it would be good to only get a grande. I thought two shots would be fine, but Eric, on the other hand, thought three shots were due. After coffee we got something to eat. Before we even had our food Eric went back to Starbucks for another 3 shots of espresso! So in the span of about 20 minutes Eric drank six shots of espresso. Surprisingly he did not go into shock or just crash after all the caffeine.
Later that night we made it to the Groveland Motel, which by the way, is pretty bad assuming you were not early enough to get a real cabin. After we paid for our $60 / night "cabin" I knew something was wrong when the lady said our cabin was next to the other silver cabin. Our cabins weren't cabins at all, they were trailers. We were tired and did not have much other choice, so we laughed about it.
The next morning we drove into Yosemite Valley. Once there, we rode our bicycles around the floor until we came back around to Camp IV, where we could boulder. After a few hours of bouldering we left the valley and drove to Bishop. We didn't need to spend too much time in Yosemite because the nation's best bouldering is in Bishop, so we wanted to be able to spend the most time possible there as we could.
The first night in Bishop we needed to find place to stay. We didn't want to stay at the Best Western for $170 per night, so we politely told the lady no, stole some candy from the dish and then proceeded to another motel. The candy tasted great also.
The next morning we climbed Happy Boulders in the valley floor. The climbing was super cool and most of it was pretty mellow. The routes were taller than anything I had climed in the gym. We also got to do some pretty nice overhanging routes.
After a couple hours in the afternoon we hiked back to the car and headed for the Buttermilks where we set up our super cool campsite and climbed some more. The Buttermilks has some pretty challenging routes, which we didn't do, but it was still neat to see some famous routes like the Ironman Traverse.
Our final day of vacation was pretty relaxing. We broke down camp in the morning, headed over to the rocks for some bouldering and then headed into town. After getting some famous Buffalo Burritos from Las Palmas restaurant, we headed back west. In the late evening we made it to San Francisco, so we headed into China town for some Chinese food. After a little walking around we found a place where we could fill up on some nice food. Once we were done with dinner we looked for a Starbucks to get some coffee. Everything was shut down pretty early, so this mission took us on a trip from Chinatown, down to the Metreon and back. Along the way we got some cds at the Virgin Music Store, so it wasn't all bad.
That was pretty much the whole trip. It was pretty exciting, but there was a lot of driving. The most memorable parts will be the climbing (which, I will say is reallty great) and just being a dumbass with my brother and Kagan.
Thanks for a great trip guys!
posted by Jon Keto at
11:56 PM
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