posted this at the taco too, but here ya go...
we made the best of a slightly frustrating weekend. we didnt leave escondido as early as planned friday night, and lets just say there was tension in the air and maybe a wee argument.
by the time we got to temecula i realized that it was the weekend of 11/7, which made it exactly 20 years ago that jen and i met. a truce was called and we were on our way.
by hemet, i realized that i had left the big propane bottle at home. no biggie, just buy another one, but i already have two, so a third wasnt ideal.
once on highway 10, it was noticed that i didnt have my national park pass. oh well, another expense would have be incurred.
not sure what time we got to the park, but of course all campgrounds were full. we did the customary drive by through hv, ryan, and jumbo. i pissed and moaned loud enough to wake up both kids, who both started crying at the thought of having to go home. nice move dad.
we headed back out of the park and contemplated the BLM overflow area, but i assumed there were no picnic tables (much easier with little kids) and no fires (the wee ones really wanted a fire), so we conceeded and got a hotel room.
the mood turned positive as all four of us got silly in one king bed and watched a few minutes of rocky V (until tessa insisted it was not appropriated for her two year old brother).
we got up around 6:30 and headed into the park. again the customary drive bys at the campgrounds. there were lots of people walking the campgrounds looking at the dates on the tags, so we knew weren't alone.
no luck so we headed for wave rock at the dam per mr gordon. i dropped the gear at the base then we cruised around and saw petroglyphs and a grinding hole. tessa and jen really enjoyed this, shane was more interested in finding bear caves. tessa did a few boulder problems in her new climbing shoes.
i noticed a climbing class getting ready in the parking lot so i decided that i had put off climbing the easy, but tall boulder, long enough. the kids cheered me on, shane kept telling me “dont fall daddy, its far!”.
i set up a tr and had achieved hero status, even if for only a moment. shane was pretty impressed with my rappel.
tessa got her harness and shoes on and went for her first roped climb ever.
getting ready to go
http://www.jeffnjen.com/images/climbing/jtree/tessa.jpgshe only made it about 10 feet on her first try before asking to come down.
first go
http://www.jeffnjen.com/images/climbing/jtree/tessaclimbing2.jpgshe tried again a few minutes later and got a bit higher, but wasn’t feeling very comfortable. on her third try she got about 5 feet from the top and then got really scared. it was getting close to becoming a scene, with tessa crying and mom and dad barking orders.
third attempt
http://www.jeffnjen.com/images/climbing/jtree/tessaclimbing3.jpgshe was having trouble trusting the rope and letting me lower her, so she basically downed climbed with tension. everyone got their emotions under control and we (at least i think) avoided being to obnoxious.
jen had a go, the kids had a snack and i fixed another rope. tessa gave it one more try, this time with me beside her the entire way on the fixed rope. she made it to the top and was pretty excited!!
even mr shane gave it a go, old school style with the rope just tied around his waist..
future rope gun
http://www.jeffnjen.com/images/climbing/jtree/shaneclimbing1.jpgit was about 11am so we packed up and once again did the campground drive bys. this time we hit all the campgrounds just in case, but again to no avail. we talked of just going home, but then decided to drive out the south entrance and maybe camp in culp valley (anza borrego). on the way out we checked cottonwood campground, which had a few sites left, and decided to stay there to enjoy the rest of the daylight.
with camp set up, the focus shigted to a frosty beverage and campground games. we killed about 90 minutes doing different challenges on the boulders that outlined the parking space, by the end Tess could jump from rock to rock on all of them except one that was pretty far apart. Shane grasped the concept of getting to the very edge of the rock before jumping, which was cool. i was able to get across all the rocks jumping on just one leg.
i spied a gnarly looking offwidth crack way up the hill so we packed everyone up to check it out. i got impatient on the trail and forged straight up the hill. the terrain was rougher than expected. it didnt take tessa long to notice, and avoid, the more unpleasnt vegetation. about half way up the hill she declared,
'Dad! I think the only thing soft in the desert is US!' hillarious and true...
it looked like at least third classing up to the crack, so we abandoned that goal and dropped back down in the (cottonwood?) creek bed and continued up the main trail. shane found a few more bear caves and then we headed back down the Cottonwood Spring Nature Trail back to camp. dinner, fire, and sleep. i think we were all asleep before 8.
sunday morning was pretty windy, and none of us really felt like driving the 30ish miles back into the park proper to climb, so had breakfast and headed for home. we decided to drive down past the salton sea and across borrego, encountering strong winds and heavy rains.
tessa told me later that the climbing was pretty scary and that she thinks she might just want to boulder next time, but maybe try the rope again...
