The Drive

Last Monday I left San Luis Obispo for my big drive out to Minnesota for my summer internship with Wilderness Inquiry.  I was fortunate enough to have the company of Eric for the first part of the journey, and I took advantage of my passenger by making him drive almost the whole way to Utah.  The first day of our drive was very uneventful as we suffered through the Bad B's- Bakersfield, Boron, and Barstow.  Bleh.  We woke up early the next morning psyched to gun it to Utah for some bouldering at Joe's Valley. We got sidetracked however, when we passed the sign for Kolob Canyons.  Feeling adventurous, we decided to stop.  Fortunately I had a Utah guidebook that pointed us in the direction of some climbing.  We hiked up the canyon and got on Last Rites, a 5.10d, thin, arching crack.  It was a delicate struggle, with very tiny/limited feet.

Thin, arching crack.  Hard!

We then ventured further into the canyon and saw a wall full of amazing looking climbs!  They were all covered in huge huecos that went on for over a hundred feet up the wall!  We jumped on the shortest looking one because we weren't sure that our rope was long enough for the rest of the climbs.  It turned out to be one of the most fun rock climbs I have ever done.  Eric and I both led it, and both enjoyed taking long rests by sitting inside the big huecos.  All the holds were HUGE, but the wall was slightly overhanging which made for a good pump.

Eric resting in a hueco

Coming down

Me resting

We then decided to try one of the longer climbs- a 14 bolt, very over hanging line.  Eric led it, and after a long rest in a hueco, he sent it!  At the top of the climb, someone had written 'Namaste,' which is the name of the route, listed as 5.12a in our book.  I followed the climb and experienced more pump than I have felt in a looong time.  The movement was so much fun!  Our 70 meter rope was just long enough to make it back to the ground from the top.  Another classic, Huecos Rancheros 5.12c, sat just to the left, but we decided to save that for another day.

Kolob Canyons

After our detour, we headed to Joe's.  I only got to stay for a day and a half, but the weather stayed great (it was supposed to rain, but was instead sunny!).  In the short time I was there I got on a bunch of fun things.  I managed to put down another V5, Reading Rainbow, and send a really fun, classic V4 called Pimpin' Jeans.  I also tried some harder classics including Chips V7, Wills a Fire V6, and Big Joe V7.  I enjoyed making moves on these climbs and can't wait to get back to put more time in on them.

The Angler V2. Joe's Valley

Unfortunately, I had a lot more driving to do, so I had to hit the road again.  I headed for Denver and experienced an intense rain storm that forced me to pull off short of my goal.  The next day, I headed to Boulder and met up with Wade, a friend from Cal Poly who has been living there for a few months.  We headed out to Boulder Canyon and did a couple climbs.  We weren't really prepared for the freezing wind so we called it quits after a quick session.  Then it was back on the road for a few more hours to North Platte, Nebraska.

Wade on top of one of the funny climbs we did

In the morning, I headed through Nebraska to Vermillion, South Dakota to visit my old roommate Ryan!  Nebraska was pretty boring, and flat, but it allowed me to get very good gas mileage at least.  It was great to see Ryan and the tiny town of Vermillion where he is getting his PhD.  After lunch, it was back in the car.  Pretty soon I was in Minnesota!  I got to Minneapolis yesterday and headed for Dinkytown (yea, that's really what it's called), where I will be living.

I pulled my bike out of the car, went to the bike shop and got a map, and then rode my bike to Target Field for the Twins game.  I love baseball games, but it sure wasn't the same as a Giants game!  Next I rode to the climbing gym to check it out.  It is pretty fancy, but has a reasonably priced student membership, so I will consider joining.  It might be good for me to gym climb again for a while, so I could work on my fitness and endurance.  I also asked some of the employees about climbing in the area.  They told me about several sport climbing places that I will have to check out.

River

Biking to the baseball game.  This whole thing is a dedicated bike path!

Target Field

Dinkytown is right by the University of Minnesota, so I checked that out a bit today (and got lost and rode my bike in circles for a long time).  Minneapolis is SUPER bike friendly (apparently the #1 most bike friendly city in America?).  There are lots of dedicated bike trails, which is awesome.  The people seem really friendly too, one girl let me follow her through town to the bike trail and told me how to get back from the climbing gym yesterday, which was nice.  So far two people have asked where I am interning, and both have said "how cool!" when I told them WI.  The girl from the bike trail said she works with youth and they did a canoeing trip with WI last summer.

A building on the U of M campus

Lots of old looking, pretty brick buildings

Nice Ride station where you can rent a bike!  You can then return it at any other location throughout the city

A Nice Ride Bike.  I think they should include Nice Helmets

A sculpture on campus

A museum

Ok, well that's it for now!  I hope to update my blog throughout the summer, but unfortunately it probably won't be much about climbing.  I am so psyched and in climbing mode now after the amazing climbing I've been doing for the past month!  It will be hard to transition to going to work everyday, but I think I will have an awesome time :)