MEALS 2006

[This entry was originally written under the 6 0ctober entry, but was actually written on october 9th, and was therefore moved to that date.]

I am going to diverge from our daily activites to mention our moral. I think that [up until the 9th or so] it was a bit low. I really can't talk for Levi and so these words are from me only.

Causation:
1) As silly as it may sound the day that I spent with Julia only amplified the amount that I miss her. With the novelty of our climing trip wearing off, in some ways I feel as if I would rather be with her than down here.
2) Althought not annoyed with Levi, the stress of a long car ride, and sitting around for a day is evident. Climbing today has helped aleveate the need for each other to entertain one another. It is a bit funny, on the car ride down we talked about relationships (mostly girls) and how it is healthy to have your own time. Then, although a bit forced into it, we spend the next 72 hours right next to each other. I suppose that our talk of relationships is more encompassing then we mentioned in the car.
3) After being spit off 5.8 slap climbing [over the last few days] I am reminded of how I wanted to become a better climber. I had thought that 4 weeks on the road would help this. But after 2.5 weeks we haven't climbed enough to help much. I feel intimidated sitting in camp 4 with great climbers from all around the world. I guess that I feel intimidated what ever I am doing; climbing, frisbee, skiing.

Resolution:
There is no way for me to get over missing Julia. The feeling does wane, the longer we are apart, and for the most part I don't want to stop missing her. I also don't want my thoughts and feelings to distract me from my surroundings.

Not being couped up has taken all of the stress off Levi and my relationship. I knew that it would and it has been awesome to be on this trips with him. His joy and child like awe of the rocks around us and being out in nature is refreshing and inspiring. It will be interesting moving to Jackson after spending the last 4 weeks in such close quarters.
I know what it takes to be a good climber and suppose that I wasn't prepared to do what it would take this summer. As if it only takes one summer. Maybe someday? I will always be intimadated by other people. I need to learn to be less so, they are just people too. Blah, blah, blah, this is just silly mental shit that I could write about for hours but don't feel like writing about at all.
Anyway, it is much later in the week [filed correctly in this blog] than the day that I am writing under. My moral is much higher and I feel much more balanced.

Journal Entry by Aaron Richards
Transcribed to web by L. Kilcher

Another slow morning, good weather, but waiting for the rock to dry a bit. Finally around 11 we head down to the Manure Pile. With next to no parking we decide that the climbs that interest us are probably crowded and change plans. This makes our first climbin Yosemite "The Grack", a 5.7 over on the Apron of Glacier POint. Our spirits are revived as we are finally climbing. We eat lunch on the top (400-500' up) enjoying the view and the sunshine.
Without a watch we decide to head up a seven pitch 5.9 next. Levi takes the odd pitches and on his second lead passes the anchors and heads off-route on a deteriorating crack. As the climbing gets hard he voices concern and I ask whether he can see the anchors. After looking around he realizes that theyare 20' below and that he has gone the wrong way. I lower him off his last piece and he belays me up. A good lesson on route reading/finding. My lead takes me a ways up, past unproctable slabs over a large drop off. I slowly work my way to the anchors, relieved to be off the sharp end of the rope. Levi heads out over similar terrain and I think is equally relieved to finish his lead.
Now the sun has been gone for a few hours and teh temperature has droped a bit. I head out on more frictiony slabby shit and feel as if my shoes have lost there grip. Levi mentions that the rock reached the dew point and be getting a bit wet. Regardless, I can't make the moves, which seem easier than before and so we bail off the 5th pitch.
Turns out to be a wise choice. By the last rappel we are completly in the dark. Luckily I had packed our head lamps and we make it safely to the bottom. Back on the ground, it starts to rain, and the 15min walk back to the car finds us soaked.
Not wanting to deal with cooking in the rain we head to Curry Village and eat pizza. This distroys both of our stomachs and puts us over our budget. We joke of how Mike would handle our crazed spending.

Journal Entry by Aaron Richards
Transcribed to web by L. Kilcher

Rain and snow it does. All day we spend in the Yosemite lodge cage. Avoiding rain seems all to common on our trip thus far. Reading, writing and talking dominate our day and by mid-afternoon it stops raining. The rock is still wet, but hope of climbing the next day is strongly on our minds. Sitting around all day also inspired us to create a home-made chess board. This is mostly Levi's doing, although I provided the idea of using pennies and then funding the 0.32$.
Two or three years ago I played Levi in chess. Winning, I swore never to play him again because of his boastful attitude and knowing that he wanted a rematch so badly. However, after countless hours of sitting in the cafeteria I finally agreed to a game.
The match was long and drawn out in my opinion. Levi taking nearly twice as long as I for each move. Once again the game down to the final pieces. I having percerviered in keeping a couple of more key players, once again won at the end. Ahh, 2-0 in chess against Levi. I now feel that I have nothing to prove in our mental chess games. The two years of worry about a loss tim has dissipated and I feel a bit like Gary Fischer.
Later that evening we managed to get kicked out of Curry Village's cafeteria before coming back to camp and going to bed.

Journal Entry by Aaron Richards
Transcribed to web by L. Kilcher

We wake lateish, but pull out of camp before any rangers show up expecting us to pay for camping. Unfortunately however, we realize that we had forgotten to refill the propane canister and so we pretty much have to drive to the opposite side of the park to fill it up.
Anyway, we do so, and on the way we pass by El Capitan, and I am completely floored. I had no idea it was so fricking huge. It's amazing. Words can't describe.
After getting propane, we're both feeling a bit groggy from the long drive the day before so we get a campsite and spend most of the rest of the day getting other supplies that we were short on. In the evening we do a bit off bouldering in which Aaron is far more succesful than I (what's new?) We make dinner and meet Cate (Kate? - Caitlin/Kaitlin?) our british campsite neighbor and another british bloke whos name I can't recall. There is talk of rain/snow tomorrow. Disheartening.

Aaron arrives at my house late, and I dilly-dally a bit doing things that should have been done the night before. We finally depart La Hacienda around 8:45. Julia, Aaron and I head down to sunn-side-up for breakfast, and neither I nor Aaron are in all that much of a hurry to get going - though he has two reasons (Julia) and I only the one (avoiding the long drive). We finally drop Julia off at her truck and head out of town around 10:00.
The drive is long.
We stop for bread w/ cheese (a staple of the Levi Aaron Mike crew) and gas a couple times. We chat about the relevant topics in our lives: friends, girls, climbing, ultimate and a dosh of politics/philosophy. We eventually stop for pizza in some crap town south of Sacramento before making the final push toward Yosemite. In the end we only make it to the campground just inside the park entrance where we try to figure out how to pay but end up giving up and just going to bed.