Your 1st encounter with Mr. Mud

[F4?]

I thought it would be fun for folks to share their 1st encounter with Mr. Mud.

Here is mine...
It was '94, we had just finished climbing West Crack and were at the Daff parking lot when Tree Trimmer Charlie shows up. Now Charlie had "schooled" one of my partners in climbing, and we had bought one of his special gear slings...YUP.

So Charlie and this scraggly blonde guy with glasses and long hair are unpacking the truck to camp up at Daff. The plan is to Hemispheres on Fairview the next day.

I didn't think much, and didn't give much notice of his partner.

Fast forward to '99. I am heading down to climb with Mungie at the Pinnalces, but he has a partner already. However, he has a 4th partner eric/dennis that I can climb with...some blonde guy with a beard and glasses.

Ok

We crushed it that day, hitting 20-30 climbs, even Heretic! It was a memorable experience getting in all of those cool climbs.

A few years later Nov '02, I see eric/dennis at Western Mountaineering (now Dennis or Eric?). I somehow mention that I had just climbed Levitation29...his eyebrow raised and immediately he said "want to go climbing?"

I've been climbing with the SOD since then.

Now somehow the topic of Hemispheres comes up with eric either in '99 or later in '02.
Hmm, and who was your partner???
"Tree Trimmer Charlie!"....small world HE was the scraggly blonde guy, now with shorter hair!

[mynameismud]

that was a fun route and a good day out.

[mynameismud]

it has been good knowing you and thank you for rescuing me off of hwy 35 in the middle of the night during and epic rain storm. 

[Brad Young]

December, 1995. Dave Harden and I were on the West Side, we'd finally mustered the courage to do Shake and Bake. We got all the way out there and... two climbers were about to get on it. We had to wait in line!

I'd met Clint before, but I didn't know him well. I met Dennis for the first time that day. Crazy bastard (in a good way).

[F4?]

That's what I was looking for!

[NOAL]

After the second or so time meeting up in woodside @ 5a.m. mud says" what? You live in San Mateo?  I thought you lived in oakland. I was wondering why you wanted to ride down together."  Ha ha.

Peninsula power!

[clink]

 Mr. Mud is like Shrek. Pinnacles is his swamp. He has layers and stories.

[mungeclimber]

92 ish, christmas, I'm in Joshua Tree with friends and camp in Indian Cove. These scraggly guys at the site next door don't have any firewood. They come over poach some space around our fire. Nice enough.

The question "so where you from, where do you climb?" comes up. The reply was "Pinnacles! It's great!" I have the Harlin guidebook with it's weird black and white pictures (weird now) showing a set of steps. So I'm intrigued, so is my buddy. I'm sure we got stories of the knobs and rock and colors and what not. We didn't see the guys after that. That January I'm on my first trip to Pinnacles doing Rat Race.

Fast forward to sometime in the 2000s after having been climbing with Mud for years I have this picture out on the table at Uber's place. And he goes "hey, that's my picture cuz that's Dave's truck" I go 'no its not.' That's my pic from years ago.

We finally figured out that it was Mud and Dave W. that hung around the campfire that night.

Basically Mud was the actual cause of us being inspired to go to Pinnacles, but I didn't know that for years.

Small climbing community.

Mud, we should do a Joshua Tree road trip!

[mynameismud]

JT trip, as soon as i get to 1111 routes.  ; )
Should we use the same site?

[mungeclimber]

JT trip, as soon as i get to 1111 routes.  ; )
Should we use the same site?

Definitely. We can reserve those sites in IC in advance now a days. April? Hurry up. Stop fooling around.

[F4?]

To continue the roast.....

So it was T-Giving Week '02. I went to pick up Mr. Mud from his place in Campbell.

He opens the door with this devilish grin on his face and a stereo speaker on the floor thumping away...."I'm feuding with my neighbor down stairs!! She kept me up all night, now it's my turn!"

Little later he fessed up to taking on a gang-banger with his ball peen hammer and was subsequently a marked man in the hood.....

A short time later he answered a rental add in the paper "Rustic Cabin in the woods"......

[clink]

I knew not to buy into his mild mannered disposition act.

 

[mungeclimber]

Is that the same incident when he took out the alpha in a pack of bangers? Once he put that one down the rest bailed.

[F4?]

I believe that was his east Palo Alto place.

[Brad Young]

About four months after we met, he and I went on a climbing road trip on the eastern side of the Sierra. We decided to do a route on Wheeler Crest (which is basically right behind where Jim and Wendy live now).

The climb was an old, runout scarefest on The Left Rabbit Ear (six pitches, 5.9, with a nearly two hour uphill approach). While we were hiking uphill, uphill the skinny guy was just ahead of me. Steep hiking too. We're over an hour into the approach, still uphill. Suddenly, in one motion, Dennis turns around and jumps on me. Literally, he jumps on me. I try to fight and push him off, but he's above me and I'm not having much success.

And then I heard it. From just above us: bzzzzzzzzzzz. Jesus. The climb seemed tame after that.

Do you remember that one Mud?

[Brad Young]

Is that the same incident when he took out the alpha in a pack of bangers? Once he put that one down the rest bailed.

That seems dangerous. Perhaps even a little more dangerous than living in an old, extremely drafty redwood cabin in the winter with no heat but a wood stove (in which it took him a full hour to get a fire going because all he had was newspaper and chunks of oak).

Who is this mystery man?

[JC w KC redux]

And then I heard it. From just above us: bzzzzzzzzzzz. Jesus. The climb seemed tame after that.

So Jesus was there with a chainsaw? I don't get it. What was so scary?

[Brad Young]

So Jesus was there with a chainsaw? I don't get it. What was so scary?

Maybe I'm not good with my onomatopoeias?

How about if the sound was rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle (but that's not what it really sounds like). 

[clink]

So Jesus was there with a chainsaw? I don't get it. What was so scary?

Nice job of filling in the blank.

Suddenly, in one motion, Dennis turns around and jumps on me. Literally, he jumps on me. I try to fight and push him off, but he's above me and I'm not having much success.

And then I heard it. From just above us: bzzzzzzzzzzz. Jesus. The climb seemed tame after that.

 I was leaning toward an alien spacecraft with a blown exhaust manifold gasket. !st encounter and all, and when two female aliens suddenly appear to do some probing Brad exclaims "F'n JC, no way in f'n hell, f-u." while Mud says "Hi, I know where there is this nice swimming hole."

[mynameismud]

About four months after we met, he and I went on a climbing road trip on the eastern side of the Sierra. We decided to do a route on Wheeler Crest (which is basically right behind where Jim and Wendy live now).

The climb was an old, runout scarefest on The Left Rabbit Ear (six pitches, 5.9, with a nearly two hour uphill approach). While we were hiking uphill, uphill the skinny guy was just ahead of me. Steep hiking too. We're over an hour into the approach, still uphill. Suddenly, in one motion, Dennis turns around and jumps on me. Literally, he jumps on me. I try to fight and push him off, but he's above me and I'm not having much success.

And then I heard it. From just above us: bzzzzzzzzzzz. Jesus. The climb seemed tame after that.

Do you remember that one Mud?

I thought it was the decent but yeah.  Six feet up and over, right into Brads waiting arms.   He did not initially seem to thrilled.