After a nice night of quiet sleep with the sound of the rushing creek/river, we headed to the Valhalla area. Unlike the day before, it was crowded. No surprise given it was a holiday weekend and a climber's festival was going on.
The hike up to the wall was spectacular. Just when we thought we'd seen the most spectacular display of wildflowers on the drive in, we saw this stuff. Really gorgeous.
I didn't climb much. Seems everything we can to was all about smearing and stemming and my feet are not all about that. So belay duty for me.
Everyone else enjoyed a fair amount of climbing however. I heard some swearing and whimpering from the sharpness of the rock on some worked tips. Funny, I never felt that. ;)
As is usually the case, we ended up running into tons of folks from Boulder. Steve, Mia and Julia Mestdagh were there for a week (the later part to be spent in the Black Hills).
After everyone had enough climbing, we hiked the beautiful trail back to the cars and headed to the DeerHaven Inn for some BBQ. This was quite fun interacting with the locals (not all of whom were that friendly to climbers). We sat on the porch, had an adult beverage and watched a Junco sit on her nest of young. She would periodically take off and return with a mouth full of tiny grubs to feed them. The babies were so tiny, we never got a chance to see them well.
We eventually headed back to camp where Dave entertained Milo the Cat for a while. Milo really does like Dave though in general he isn't the most outgoing kitty.
The next morning while goofing in camps drinking tea and coffee, a young moose wandered up. Pretty cool as I don't recall ever seeing one in the wild. He was aware of us, but not worried a bit. Even a small/medium one is pretty darn big!
Then it was back up to the Valhalla/French Cattle Ranch area for some more climbing. I did climb a bit more that day, though not every pitch. This place has the most undulating limestone ever. Where are the flat face climbs? Well, where are they that are rated under 5.14??
Again we ran into a fair number of Boulderites. And we climbed until everyone was tired. One more hike out, back to DeerHaven, then to camp.
The next morning, Bodhi was in playful form protecting a stick bigger than she is. She's a very cute and smart dog. She entertained us with her circus show (relax, sit, roll over, crawl, etc.)
Dave and I packed up and headed back to Boulder. We stopped in Buffalo at the Busy Bee Cafe for some breakfast (it was partially fully of Boulderites too. Is there any getting away from them?). Then headed home.
As always, it's fun to get away, but great fun to get home.
Happy Fourth of July!
1 comment:
Nice pics! Looks like a nice time was had by all. And the moose is loose!!!
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