Still doing lots of catching up blog-wise, as usual. I guess that is a good thing...I am busy doing stuff instead of writing about it. Before I get too far behind, I am going to try to write this fast so I can go to bed!
Friday, Josh has class in the morning now. But I used my free morning by sleeping. Very productive. Unfortunately, by the afternoon, I felt like I wasted a day of adventure. We decided to go running but I rejected pretty much all of our usual running routes as not being adventurous enough. Finally, Josh suggested running Monrovia Canyon. I rejected this too at first but then we realized we could go a different way and explore a new area. Much better! The run ended up being awesome. With all the rains recently, everything was bright green. The first part of the run was on VERY steep pavement going up to a dam, and then eventually we made it to an awesome, empty of people, perfect for running single track trail! Yay! I loved it. We went farther than expected but turned around after the sun set (we didn't bring headlamps, very smart). My achilles tendon didn't even hurt. Yay for hill running and uncrowded single track trail running and beautiful forest with squirrels who were not scared of us at all!
Saturday was a Joshua Tree bouldering day. I was tired and still sick so rope climbing was not a good plan. First, we warmed up right on the edge of the "backcountry" area which is nice due to lack of crowds. Josh topping out:
Me enjoying a warmup boulder with Joshua Tree in the background:
We wandered around and worked on White Rastafarian. Kind of cool, but too high for us to want to do with two smallish crashpads. Jumping down:
We also looked at some other random problems. Some guys yelled to us to find out what problems we were going to work on. I replied, "we don't know. There are rocks over there," which is typical of how Josh and I climb. He worked on Bittersweet and only got in maybe three tries before ripping the skin on his finger. Not cool. So we took a break and found the first aid kit, which was perfect timing for food for me.
The next stop was the Gunsmoke Traverse. Josh worked on a very hard problem:
Meanwhile, I finally worked on the crux of the traverse (well, it was my second time there but it felt like a long time). Now I can do all the moves and almost make it to the corner...but not quite. It was fun to work on though to end the day.
The weekend ended with bodyboarding, even though the weekend's waves weren't that great. Still, I found clean, fun waves and had a great time enjoying the sunny weather. Its good to get outside before it gets hot this summer.
The time change is proving to be a minor disaster. Its time to stop running in the normal places and start moving back to running in the mountains. The Rose Bowl has been invaded by far too many people, although the lower arroyo is still beautiful. Either way, we will be doing a lot more running in the mountains and avoiding the more crowded areas (remind me not to surf Huntington anytime soon). For now at least, its cool enough that the beach isn't too crowded, and its easy to get out an enjoy the ocean! (Well, minus pollution sicknesses. One of which I've had for weeks. Go away infection!)
1 comments:
I love that blue SoCal sky!
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