A cool paragraph from the book, "Desert Solitaire".
No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the pinciple of civilization itself. If industrial man cintinues to multiply his numbers and expand his operatinos he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making. He will make himself an exile from the earth and then will know at last, if he is still capable of feeling anything, the pain and agony of final loss. He will understand what the captive Zia INdians meant when they made a song out of their sickness for home;
My home over there,
Now I remember it;
And when I see that mountain far away,
Why then I weep,
Why then I weep,
Remembering my home.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Non Climbing Summer activities
Staying fit and positive is going to be my motto for a while. Not being able to climb is always a tough non-motivating situation, but channeling that energy into other pursuits will ultimately be a positive. I have been getting out and hiking with my dog while finding other beautiful places in Colorado that I normally would not search out.
Climbing has been my way of staying fit for many years and a great way to escape the stressful dramas of life. Now that I have contracted the dreadful tendinitis in my left elbow and possibly a torn bicep in my right arm, staying fit will be a different pursuit. Not having an upper body to keep in shape, I figure maybe going hiking to keep my lower half in check would be a positive way to escape those pesky, stressful dramas.
There are so many hiking trails in such a close proximity to our home that I have been able to hike a new trail weekly. I have taken Peanut up to Nederland and hiked the trail around Nederland Lake, the Green Mountain Trail in Boulder Canyon, the Rabbit Mountain Trail in Lyons, and a bunch of open space trails along the plains. The wild flowers are still in bloom and are rich in their colors of yellow, orange and purple. Even though we are in the middle of August, with so much rain this year, everything is still alive and green which is a nice change from summers past.
Saturday, I took Peanut up to the Rabbit Mountain Trail in Lyons. It was warm, but not blazing hot with a gentle breeze and scattered clouds.Peanut and I hiked the three mile trail up to a look out that allowed us to see the entire Front Range and Flatiron areas. I have my snake eyes on so to speak for rattlers, but have been lucky so far. Even though it hasn’t been too warm, I know there are still snakes out basking in the sun. On our way back down the trail, Peanut, bless her heart, crashed. She is a small pit bull with very short hair. When the temperatures get one degree above 70, she moves like a slug. I was walking at a medium pace and noticed that she had been lagging way behind. I do admit that there wasn’t a lot of shade on the trail and Peanut does do ok when there is some shade for her to hide in. It was a pretty sad sight to see and at this rate, we would never get home in time to make Chris Schulte’s birthday party. I picked her up, wrapped her around my neck and she didn’t even put up a fight. She is about 38- 40 pounds which isn’t too bad. I walk her down to the base of the uphill section and place her back on the ground. As soon as I put her leash back on, she is in the lead and pulling on the leash as usual. She is such a funny dog, in that, I mean that she is so much like a little child. I have had to do this before because she more or less stops and gives you the, I’m dying look and just stares up at you with sad eyes. Her suffocating panting was also a sign that she was a bit overheated. I do know that her breed is from a cooler, moister region that is totally different from Colorado’s dry, high altitude, intense sunny region. As we closed the gap towards my truck, it did seem to be getting warmer and I felt a bit bad about dragging the Nutt up the sparsely shaded trail. Poor Peanut must think that every time I take her outside now, that I am going to torture her to hike some fiery inferno of a trail. She may at some point protest these hikes and just want to stay home in her air-conditioned castle. I think for Peanut’s sake and mine; I can get back out and get to climbing again soon!
Climbing has been my way of staying fit for many years and a great way to escape the stressful dramas of life. Now that I have contracted the dreadful tendinitis in my left elbow and possibly a torn bicep in my right arm, staying fit will be a different pursuit. Not having an upper body to keep in shape, I figure maybe going hiking to keep my lower half in check would be a positive way to escape those pesky, stressful dramas.
There are so many hiking trails in such a close proximity to our home that I have been able to hike a new trail weekly. I have taken Peanut up to Nederland and hiked the trail around Nederland Lake, the Green Mountain Trail in Boulder Canyon, the Rabbit Mountain Trail in Lyons, and a bunch of open space trails along the plains. The wild flowers are still in bloom and are rich in their colors of yellow, orange and purple. Even though we are in the middle of August, with so much rain this year, everything is still alive and green which is a nice change from summers past.
Saturday, I took Peanut up to the Rabbit Mountain Trail in Lyons. It was warm, but not blazing hot with a gentle breeze and scattered clouds.Peanut and I hiked the three mile trail up to a look out that allowed us to see the entire Front Range and Flatiron areas. I have my snake eyes on so to speak for rattlers, but have been lucky so far. Even though it hasn’t been too warm, I know there are still snakes out basking in the sun. On our way back down the trail, Peanut, bless her heart, crashed. She is a small pit bull with very short hair. When the temperatures get one degree above 70, she moves like a slug. I was walking at a medium pace and noticed that she had been lagging way behind. I do admit that there wasn’t a lot of shade on the trail and Peanut does do ok when there is some shade for her to hide in. It was a pretty sad sight to see and at this rate, we would never get home in time to make Chris Schulte’s birthday party. I picked her up, wrapped her around my neck and she didn’t even put up a fight. She is about 38- 40 pounds which isn’t too bad. I walk her down to the base of the uphill section and place her back on the ground. As soon as I put her leash back on, she is in the lead and pulling on the leash as usual. She is such a funny dog, in that, I mean that she is so much like a little child. I have had to do this before because she more or less stops and gives you the, I’m dying look and just stares up at you with sad eyes. Her suffocating panting was also a sign that she was a bit overheated. I do know that her breed is from a cooler, moister region that is totally different from Colorado’s dry, high altitude, intense sunny region. As we closed the gap towards my truck, it did seem to be getting warmer and I felt a bit bad about dragging the Nutt up the sparsely shaded trail. Poor Peanut must think that every time I take her outside now, that I am going to torture her to hike some fiery inferno of a trail. She may at some point protest these hikes and just want to stay home in her air-conditioned castle. I think for Peanut’s sake and mine; I can get back out and get to climbing again soon!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Taking time off of climbing:(
I have been trying to be good and not push my injuries too much. My left elbow tendinitis is getting better, but is still there. I have had a small bit of pain in my right bicep for the past couple of months and now it is super painful. With the economy forcing companies to lay off much of their work force, I WAS doing the work of two large guys. I by no means am a large guy and I think I may have torn my bicep. Going from sales to loading and unloading lots of doors and material has beat me down. I thought I was frustrated before with just the tendinitis, but now I am about to scream. I went to the doctor and they took Xrays to find that there were no chipped bone issues, thank god. Now they are sending me to an arm specialist to probably administer an MRI. They also have put me on work restriction that only allows me to lift no more than 10 pounds with either arm, yeah, f-ing psyched. I have done my own research on line and have concluded that my bicep must be slightly torn. Hopefully it is small enough that I don't need surgery. Without surgery, I believe recover is around 3 to 6 months. I have pretty much stopped climbing all together and probably won't climb again for at leased a month. I will try to see how the bicep feels and then and go from there. I guess I will have to get my hike on and go check out other areas of the Park that I haven't seen before.
I still want to go out with friends still and at leased hang out and take photos.
I still want to go out with friends still and at leased hang out and take photos.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Camp Dick Day
This summer has been brutal at work. My tendinitis is still there, but now I have torn my other arm's bicep. Now, both of my arms are wrecked and I am not too psyched about it. It has been extremely hard to work physically and climb as hard as I have in the past. This summer's climbing has been less than motivating to say the leased. I have been getting out once in a while mostly to just hang out with my wife Danielle and to just get our dog out. I have been doing some routes with Danielle and that doesn't seem to bother my tendinitis too much. I have been climbing about half as much as I am used to, but at leased I am still getting out. Routes have been kind of inspiring since they don't hurt nearly as bad as bouldering does right now. Plastic boulder is the worst by far, so I have only been trying to do plastic routes to stay in moderate shape.
Last weekend, I went up to Camp Dick with my buddy Jim in his crazy Jeep. We 4xed up the heinous road to the Omni Globe Boulder. I have talked to some folks who told me that it was not worth it to endure the hour and half hike up to the boulder. Once I saw the boulder, I about shit my pants. It is this HUGE boulder with two overhanging sides that you could still climb on in the rain. There are about a dozen problems that vary from slab to overhanging. The rock quality is bullet! I was pretty blown away at how fun all the problems were. We had gotten rained out and I thought it would be a fun place to go hang with the wife and let Peanut run around. This weekend, Danielle, Joel, Cory, and I decided to hike up to the Omni Globe. Danielle and I had plans later in the day, so we thought the park would be too much work and we really wanted to get the doggy out. It turned out to be a really fun day. I really wanted to do a couple of the V8's and a 9 that I couldn't do the last weekend because of the torrential rain. This weekend, the weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and there was a great breeze that kept everything fairly dry compared to last weekend. Danielle and Cory put the beat down on "The Maxi Pad" and Joel put the beat down on "Cleaners Call". I really wanted to finish "Put Some Hair Around It" and it's variations. There is a left and a right variation that in there own right are pretty damn cool. The finish of "PSHAI" is the business for all of the variations I thought. Once I figured out the beta on the top out, all of the variations came together. I think maybe with having to do routes lately, I have gained some endurance I didn't know I had. The problems were fairly long compared to the boulder problems I like to do. The rock was very Squamishesque. All in all, the problems were really fun, but the hike is longer than the park and Evans. I think we may have hiked something like 8 miles with pads and climbing gear. My legs and arms were a bit sore, especially my bicep. A little food, beer and Ibuprofen helped me feel better. Once I find another job, I can possibly heal and maybe start bouldering without pain once again:)
Last weekend, I went up to Camp Dick with my buddy Jim in his crazy Jeep. We 4xed up the heinous road to the Omni Globe Boulder. I have talked to some folks who told me that it was not worth it to endure the hour and half hike up to the boulder. Once I saw the boulder, I about shit my pants. It is this HUGE boulder with two overhanging sides that you could still climb on in the rain. There are about a dozen problems that vary from slab to overhanging. The rock quality is bullet! I was pretty blown away at how fun all the problems were. We had gotten rained out and I thought it would be a fun place to go hang with the wife and let Peanut run around. This weekend, Danielle, Joel, Cory, and I decided to hike up to the Omni Globe. Danielle and I had plans later in the day, so we thought the park would be too much work and we really wanted to get the doggy out. It turned out to be a really fun day. I really wanted to do a couple of the V8's and a 9 that I couldn't do the last weekend because of the torrential rain. This weekend, the weather was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and there was a great breeze that kept everything fairly dry compared to last weekend. Danielle and Cory put the beat down on "The Maxi Pad" and Joel put the beat down on "Cleaners Call". I really wanted to finish "Put Some Hair Around It" and it's variations. There is a left and a right variation that in there own right are pretty damn cool. The finish of "PSHAI" is the business for all of the variations I thought. Once I figured out the beta on the top out, all of the variations came together. I think maybe with having to do routes lately, I have gained some endurance I didn't know I had. The problems were fairly long compared to the boulder problems I like to do. The rock was very Squamishesque. All in all, the problems were really fun, but the hike is longer than the park and Evans. I think we may have hiked something like 8 miles with pads and climbing gear. My legs and arms were a bit sore, especially my bicep. A little food, beer and Ibuprofen helped me feel better. Once I find another job, I can possibly heal and maybe start bouldering without pain once again:)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
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