Spring Adventures

Hello All

Last spring break my girlfriend, my dog and I headed down to one of the best climbing areas around, Joshua Tree. Joshua Tree is host to thousands of climbs both sport and trad. Although from our experience the sport is dangerous and run out and the trad is “as safe as you make it.”

Once you decide to go to Joshua for any amount of time, there are certain things you need to consider packing. There is no water in the park (which a friend and I found out the hard way) and minimal facilities for other uses such as the bathroom. A tent, sleeping bag, firewood, and all the other camping essentials would come along with us of course.

Joshua tree doesn’t stop at the usual camping experience though. If you are like me and thousands of other people who come to Joshua Tree from all over the world, you are there to climb some rocks. You therefore have to bring some extra gear along including the necessary camming devices to place into cracks and quickdraws to clip into bolts and anchors as well as a rope and all of your personal systems. Needless to say, the car was packed!

The first day we decided to climb with some neighbors we met the night before. They had a little more gear than us, which was considerably lucky. The first climb we hopped on was The Bong (5.5) and at the rating it should have felt very straightforward for me. What happened was the other thing completely. I was pretty happy I had some extra gear from the neighbors and a helmet! Our friends and Talia followed shortly and we found a kind of sketchy walk off to get back to the ground. All is well in J Tree!

We decided to get some lunch and some rest after our first adventure. The sun and the wind really get to you over the course of the day! Naps in the shade are a must. But after there is no shortage of summits to conquer. We had been looking around and found one obvious crack that was an aesthetic ideal. It is called Toe Jam (5.7) and would turn out to be my favorite climb I have tried to date. All I had to protect myself was three #1 sized cams and a set of nuts. I had to run the first easier part out before clipping into protection but it all felt fine till the top.

There is a blank section of rock about ten feet from the top. There are no cracks in this section of rock, therefore nowhere to place protection. Many climbers would feel very comfortable here, in fact many people climb this almost daily without ropes at all! But considering my level of experience combined with my lack of gear, I was a bit worried.

Everything went well though and I got to the top to set up anchors. Talia followed it and she said it was right at her limit as well! A bit scary for her towards the top because she could have taken a bit of a swing, but she pushed though it like a champ and we rappelled down to the bottom to get some beers and some rest.

The next day we did a very fun climb called Beginner One (5.3) It was very fun and also a really long climb which made it very satisfying. We trail blazed our way off the side of the rock and ate some amazing bagel sandwiches and drank coconut water! All good calls on Talia’s part.

After lunch and some napping/reading/bouldering/running around, we went to do our final climb called The Eye (5.3). The Eye may be the coolest climb I have ever laid my eyes on. I have been staring at it and dreaming for years, and finally the time had come. I was ready. Someone did it before us and it was really nice to be able to watch first. After they were done I took off. You really do feel like you are in a special place when climbing in Joshua Tree. And when you get to the top of this particular climb you are literally in The Eye of Cyclops Rock haha!

After Talia had her turn and we made our way down we climbed a tad bit more, but it was all easy straightforward stuff. We went back to camp and started our fire and our dinner. What a pleasure it was to be sitting in such a wonderful place filled with unlimited beauty. Our trip was such a blast!

After our nights sleep, I did a bit more bouldering and then we packed up. After we left Joshua Tree we went to my mom’s house which was very close for a short visit. She has a horse which we got to take out and there will be more pictures on that soon, so be sure to come back shortly

Thanks for visiting!

Kyle Simmons

A Long Run

The other day my dog and i went on a seventeen mile run to a place called Fisher Point. Fisher Point is out on the Arizona trail which runs through many beautiful canyons and valleys all the way through Arizona.

When you teach the bottom you have ran about eight miles. There is a lot to explore at the bottom like a cave and a nice canyon, but our goal was to get to the top so we shortly picked up again. Two more miles to the top…

Once you hit the top the view is amazing. It feels like you can see all of Arizona from there! We hung out for a bit for a snack and some water and then it wad time to run again.

When you leave the point it is another six our seven miles home. When we finally made it we were both so tired! I ate a burger and Nalah and i crashed out for the night

Thanks for reading about our run. Tune in soon for more adventures!

Kyle Simmons

Sunny Summer Days

Went climbing at Buffalo Park today and the weather was gorgeous! I got new shoes so i wanted to give them a go.

I don’t think i could have picked a better day than today.it sure is getting hot though : /

More pics to come…

Thanks for stopping by,
Kyle Simmons

Towering Above the Desert

Hello All,

 

I want to thank you for the opportunity to share another adventure! We went climbing and I just have to tell someone, because we had so much fun. This was the second time I had done this climb in particular and the first time for my girlfriend. The climb is called Queen Victoria and is rated (5.7).

The hike up to the climb proved to be a tad bit trickier than I remembered it. We ended up down in a gully hiking through trenches and over trees and stones. Once past the brushy part of the hike you hit the large slab of rock pictured above. From there you simply push upward till you hit the base of the climb.

The route is called a “dessert tower” and would require us to be placing our own gear into cracks. This proves to be quite tricky sometimes. A lot depends on the quality of the rock, the size of a particular crack, as well as watching for precarious rock to not knock down below on top of your belayer! All these elements make the climb more arduous and risky, but much more rewarding at the end.

Look at that hot rock girl go!

The first pitch is a chimney filled with great foot holds and cracks to grab and jam your fingers into. Only a couple tough sections bring you to the anchors and the start of the second pitch. Everything went well on number one so we were eager to move on.

I started off on pitch number two and Talia belayed. The second pitch is simply a scramble up loose rocks to a ledge with a tree and an overhanging crack to climb up and over. From there I made anchors of my own to belay Talia up because it was windy and we didn’t want to risk not being able to hear each other. Talia climbed up the crack and we walked to the anchors of the second pitch.

Pitch number three is the last one of the climb. It consists of a scramble up to an overhanging section of cracks and jugs. Once again, I did not want to do the whole pitch risking loosing sight and sound of Talia. We each got to the belay station and I went up to the top followed shortly after.

We had done it! The nearly 300 foot pile of rock and crumbling dried mud had not eluded us. It is an amazing feeling to be at the top of something like a desert tower. The perspective and the venerable feeling of being that high in the air on a rock is something I live for. Talia however, had her fill and was ready to get off the rock! Haha

We set up a rappel station and Talia went first followed by me. The first rappel ends at a  big ledge where you find chains bolted into the rock to finish the rest of the rappel down to the bottom.

The rappel went well and when we got to the bottom, Nalah was very happy to see that we were alive and well. We had to tie her to a tree this time, but next time I feel we may be able to let her roam free! Hopefully she stays close and just tries to figure out how we get up the rocks so easily. LOL

The hike out was not to bad. After we packed everything up and made it past the slabs we ran into a trail which led us back to the road. We proceeded to drink some beers and gorge ourselves with good food from Oak Creek Brewery.

Thats all she wrote. The trip was a great success. Now plans are in motion for a move up to Montana where I will be playing in a rock cover band haha. Many more pictures and adventures to come

Thanks for stopping by,

Kyle Simmons

 

A Weekend at the Creek

The other day my dog Nalah, my girlfriend Talia and I went to Fossil Creek, AZ. Look thats us down there….

The road to Fossil Creek is long and arduous. 16 miles down an unmaintained dirt road filled with ruts and rocks can take a toll on you and your car. By the time we reached the first creek crossing Talia’s front window had popped out of its track and was leaning at an angle in the driver door! 

When we hit the first swimming spot we jumped right in! The water was so crisp and clear that you could always see down to the bottom. What you saw if you looked in the water though were really hundreds of thousands of baby fish swimming everywhere. It is quite an amazing desert oasis.

That night we camped at a hot springs. We ate a simple meal. Grilled cheese with peppers and bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter wrapped in foil and char broiled in the fire for about five minutes for dessert! That night we stayed in the tent and only got bitten by a few hundred bugs, so I guess we got lucky.

The next morning we got up and had previously planned to make it to a specified spot on the trail with a waterfall. We packed up camp and drove another ten or twelve miles on the dirt road to a parking lot where we hiked another one or two miles in to the spot. It was an amazing waterfall about twenty feet tall with a large basin where the water drops into the pond. You can swim down into it another twenty feet or so and check out the fish and the rock reefs. 

Oh and I forgot to mention you can jump off another five feet or so above the actual water fall…Thats a plus : )

The waterfall was a pretty awesome spot. But it was a little loud and chilly because of the spray. Besides, about fifty people with coolers and speakers came down the path to the same spot. So we moved down river to a really nice spot where we could lay in the sun and swim in peace. 

I found and endless swimming pool of sorts and was doing laps and laps up and down our private 150 ft long lazy river. Fish are very pushy in Fossil Creek and in spots you can literally watch them move along the contour of your body trying to get out of your way. They then proceed to fill in all gaps as quickly as possible to resume whatever activities fish participate in. 

Nalah even put in a couple laps of her own. 

What an amazing place! We got to do everything we wanted to do. I wanted to find an endless pool, Talia wanted to get some sun in, we drank some beer, and even Nalah got all of her activities in. Hell I even got to climb a little bit haha!

That was the start of a great week, a week filled with many great adventures. I will be posting more outing photos soon with stories to narrate I hope you will come back soon!

-Kyle Simmons

 

A Muddy Run

An exercised pup is a happy pup