Climb, Scramble, and Explore Joshua Tree National Park

Date: 12/11/2015

Type: Rock Climbing, Scrambling, and Exploring
Who went - Therry, Gaby, Brian, Erick, Jared, Andrew, Shana, Tami, Keri, Regina, Erica, and Myself.



So, the trip started out really testing what I would call my Weather Karma. You see, for the past few years I have been more and more vocal in pointing out how lucky I am when it comes to the weather and it's desire to cooperate with my adventure plans. At first I would tread lightly when asked, even knocking on wood a few times. But over the last year I have been outright challenging Weather Karma to try and ruin the upcoming adventure. I would joke about it and I even stopped knocking on wood (not even secretly). Well, I really thought this weekend I was going to have to eat some crow and endure a few days of foul weather. As we were driving toward Joshua Tree, we were in a complete downpour, and just as I was preparing my little speech about how we are going to pay the price for my lack of respect for Weather Karma, and how we will just have to slog though it, I caught a glimpse of a little piece of blue sky in the distance. Then, as the rain started easing up, the blue patch got bigger and bigger. Suddenly we were under blue skies and the weekend started looking a lot brighter. I proceeded to neatly folded my concession speech to Weather Karma and put it away for another adventure.

Climbing at Cyclops - Erick set some solid anchors and we all got our first climbs of the trip in.

After a few hours of climbing we headed across the intersection to The Chasm of Doom, had lunch, and then did some cool exploring.

As the day was ending and sunset was approaching, we hightailed it over to The Hall of Horrors to squeeze in (literally) some scrambling and exploring before it got too dark. Luckily, because for how much I tell myself to bring a headlamp (just in case), I went off with out mine again.

There is a wall at Indian Cove that is normally pretty popular, but on Sunday morning we had it all to ourselves. By the early afternoon, the wind began to really pick up, so we cleaned up our gear, packed up camp, and headed home. Oh and a whispered - "thanks" to Weather Karma.

Ya know what... I really feel like everyone found out something about themselves on this trip (I know that sounds a bit over-dramatic, but its true). There were members who had never climbed outside and learned something new. There were some who had never climbed outside and excelled past some of us who have :-( And there were some who seemed to push to a new level of climbing ability. But I think everyone at some point overcame some trepidation, anxiety, and maybe even a bit of fear. And that's what this group is all about. 

Images

• The Meetup Photo Album.

Video

Tips and Tricks

• There is minimal drinking water throughout the park, so bring some sizeable containers and fill them up at one of the park entrances. Each has a faucet of some kind.
• Always be prepared for WIND. I have endured a couple wiped out campsites because of it.

Campgrounds (Map)

• Indian Cove (Recreation.gov)
• Hidden Valley (First come first serve)
• Jumbo Rocks (First come first serve)
• Black Rock (Recreation.gov) - Outside the park at the west end.

Lodging

• Soon to come

Dining

• Soon to come

Maps

• ALP Map

Links

• Meetup Event

I have been doing these adventures for about 6 years now, and for all of those years I have been saying that the best part has been meeting new people and learning new skills from those people. I almost always find myself with people whose skills surpass my own and after a little ego wound licking I feel a sense of gratitude because my skills have been improved that much more. Well, on this weekend I found myself surrounded by superior skills and drive and that just makes me that much more grateful. And I am getting a lot better at wound licking!

Thanks to everyone that went and put it out there!

Jim