Three O'Clock Rock Silent Running ..

Steve and I made our second weekly trip to Darrington to Three O' Clock Rock. This time to climb Silent Running (II, 5.10a/b.) We got there a bit earlier this time and welcomed the cooler temps.
Now, prepared with watches we were able to make the hike to the base in 30 minutes. (It also only took us 1.5 hours from Steve's house to the trail head.) After reaching the base we started gearing up. Then Steve led out on the first pitch. This was agreed on earlier to give Steve the lead on the final crux pitch which he had not previously climbed.
The first pitch was nearly a rope length of easy climbing. (Almost running up the slab.) Steve brought me up and it was time for the second pitch where the difficulty increased significantly. Well, at least you had to be weary of where you put your feet, and there was no more running. I led the second pitch on some nice friction moves where it got harder through the last two bolts to the belay. I arrived at a nice belay ledge, and brought Steve up.
Steve got the lead on the next 5.9 pitch which started out with what looked to be great rock. However, it was polished and slippery. Foot placements were critical through the first four bolts or so. Then the route moved right a bit and the traction was phenomenal. Completely different character for the second part of the pitch. I followed him up and was off on to the next pitch.
From this pitch on, the first bolt was often a bit off the belay. (In this case, about 10-12'.) After clipping a few bolts, I could no longer see any above me and in a shaky stance decided to look at the topo. In the difficult stance for viewing, I accidentally looked at the following pitch which moves right after a few bolts. Since I could not see any bolts, I started to move right where people had clearly been before. After I moved right, I was stuck out on a ledge and could see the "next" bolt up and to my left about 15' or so. (There was a hidden piton that I could not see about 10' above the last point I was on route.) So I yelled to Steve about getting back on route. I put a cam in a weak flake and decided to head straight up to a ledge system that would bring me to the last bolt on the pitch. The climbing was easy up to the ledges, but was unprotectable. After going up about 20' I put another cam in a flake, and started leftward on the ledge system to get back on route. After crossing the ledge, I used some quartz dikes to gain the bolt and return to the pitch. The final climbing of the pitch went up a fun small gear protectable lie back past a bush to the anchor. Once at the anchor, I could see where I went wrong. Steve pointed out to me the piton as he made his way up my off route excursion.
Steve led off on the next pitch which was more of the same to start with, then some climbing up some creaky flakes to get to the anchors.
The penultimate pitch is where the fun really started. I led off up and over an overlap and mostly easy terrain while moving leftward. Then the the slab steepens. There is a section of steeper slab with widely spaced (10+') bolts going up. The bolts are closer to the left of this narrow slab near an inviting grassy corner. When I first arrived at the steeper section, it looked as though the right hand side would also work, but reaching the bolts may have been difficult. So I followed the bolt line up friction moves to another overlap and a piton. I clipped the piton and worked my way over the final overlap to the anchor, a hanging belay. I brought Steve up to my position and we readied the rack for the next pitch. (The guidebook stated gear to 4" for the final pitch, so we pulled out the 3 & 4" cams, but Steve didn't need them.)
Steve left the belay to clip the first bolt on the final pitch. There were a few moves on a slab protected by a bolt before having to surmount a double overlap. The first overlap was not as high, and was protected by a bolt. The second was stepped, and higher and needed to be traditionally protected. Steve made his way through the overlaps and I asked him if he felt they were the .10b portions. He didn't think so. He continued up onto a slab where he took on a bolt before reaching the final flake. He told me his feet had had enough and he needed a rest. After resting on the rope briefly, he made the easy moves to the flake and was shortly at the belay. I found the moves through the overlaps to be difficult and required me to bounce to make the moves. They were high steps and required manteling as there were no holds above the overlaps. Once past the overlaps, I used any possible rests before gaining the slab that tired out Steve's feet. I moved up the slab quickly and deliberately. I was soon at the fun flake moves to finish the route. Once there, we set up our rappel and started rapping the route.
The rappels were uneventful, except for a serious lapse in judgement on my part where we reached one of the larger rap ledges and I forgot to clip in before undoing my rappel. That will never happen again! Yipe.
I liked this route better than Total Soul from last week. I think the line was more logical and the final two pitches were really 3 star. (Maybe four.) At times Silent Running seemed more run out than Total Soul, but it was usually on easier ground. It is a slightly shorter and easier route, so it is a little quicker to finish than Total Soul if you have less daylight to work with. It was more enjoyable too, because last week's "warm up" on Total Soul made the moves on Silent Running pretty familiar to me and it feels like I may have gotten rid of the rust from not climbing for a while.
On the way down (rapping and the drive out) we discussed with each other that it seemed darker than the previous week. We knew we were getting out a little earlier and there were no clouds in the sky. We couldn't understand why. I thought maybe because it was so hot the previous week, that being in the shade did not make a difference. It wasn't until we got back into Darrington that we had our answer. There was a fire on the other side of Whitehorse Mountain. We had seen the forest service helicopter in the morning at a makeshift helipad near highway 530. (But there were no signs of smoke in the morning.) We stopped to see it landing and it appears there were fire fighters from Targhee NF on the scene. After snapping a few pics, we drove home.
Fire on the Mountain
My pics are here.

Stubborn Irish People From Chicago

This post, "Stubborn Irish People From Chicago", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.
As some of you may have guessed, we were away from Austin for a few weeks and I'm having trouble returning to everyday life. It will take a long time to get reordered and catch up with all your posts, but that's not the reason why my Christmas tree is still up and the outside lights are still lit... the reason is that my maternal ancestors were a bunch of stubborn Chicago Irish people who always kept their trees up until Epiphany, the 6th of January. And at this time of year, I'm proud to be one of them.

My brothers and sisters and I were raised in this tradition, calling the day "Little Christmas", a time for visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins. Sometimes we stayed at one location - other times finger food was served at one house and desserts at another, with mixed drinks for the adults and 'Kiddie cocktails' for the youngsters - would anyone dare serve them today? Most houses had a piano or one of the electric organs that were so popular in the fifties and sixties - a couple of the aunts could play and everyone could sing. The party may have been stressful for the hosts and hostesses but we kids thought it was all wonderful.

Although I'm far away from my family and many of those people are no longer around to celebrate Little Christmas, the lights will shine here for a few more nights, to puzzle the neighbors and add a little sparkle to the January darkness.

There were a couple of hard freezes while we were gone and we came back to a garden that had changed greatly from the one we left - MSS from Zanthan Gardens referred to her rosebuds as 'freeze-dried'... I like that phrase enough to swipe it to describe the iris buds as they look now. A .. birthday gift from my mother and sisters was a miniature rose bush... I divided it into 3 plants last spring and one of them was still blooming yesterday near the shelter of a brick wall.

The Sasanqua camellia 'Shishi Gashira' seems untroubled by the colder weather - with just a few more buds not yet opened.

Inside the house the barely budded Thanksgiving cactus from the previous Blooms Day post had opened in the hoped for peachy-apricot color, which I like very much in the breakfast room.

Peachy-apricot must be the in color this January - back in November I decided to bring the Mother-of Thousands inside rather than let it freeze - my reward was a few delicate flowers in that shade... but they didn't appear on the usual 3-foot stalk. The plant was already taller than usual when I brought it in and it kept elongating all of December. Now the flowers hang almost at eye level, 58 inches above the surface of the potting soil.

Happy New Year to all of you who have made the world of garden blogging such a warm and interesting place!
This post, "Stubborn Irish People From Chicago", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

The Fruit Loop

Peaches, pears, and apples - oh my! With white and gray, non-threatening clouds leading us through the Columbia River Gorge, we eventually shed the rocky gray walls and low-hanging clouds to find a stunning, sun-shiny day in Hood River County. For years, I wanted to travel the Fruit Loop Route around Hood River during the peak season. Today we finally did it.

First stop, Visitor Info Center to pick up a Fruit Loop map. Then we were on our way into Hood River Valley. First stop: photo op of dramatic Mt. Hood peeking out from behind the clouds, but keeping its top firmly planted in a cloud cap.

Mt. Hood showing off fresh snow.

The rental SUV - a Ford Escape.

Pearl's orchard was our first stop where we took a look at all the apples hanging on the trees. We found Elberta freestone peaches and bought a box of 16. Samples of different types of pears were on the cutting board and we tasted our way through those. Bartletts had the sweetest flavor. We bought peaches, Honey Crisp apples, and honey.

Pearl's store.

Apples ready for harvest.

About two miles down the road, our next stop was The Gorge White House with fields of flowers in bloom. They not only had a flower patch, but we also saw ever-bearing strawberries almost ready to pick. We were told they would have strawberries for sale until the first frost. In the house proper a local artist had his works on display. We thought he was superb. Next to the house was a farm store selling apples, pears, peaches, pear syrup, Pinot Noir Chocolate Truffle Sauce (oh yummy) and various preserves.

The Gorge White House

Beautiful signage.

Dahlia photo courtesy of my son, Mike.

Echinacea purpurea Ruby Giant

Mike amongst the dahlias.

Jan (sister) enjoying the pretty flowers.

Wow - Mike captured this beautifully.

Me dallying in the dahlias.

Mike spotted this frog trying to get out of our way and snapped a photo. Looks like a tree frog.

Massive sunflower (photo by Mike G.)

A field of sunflowers.

Hood River Valley at midday.

Guess I won't park here!

Sauces, syrups, preserves and honey.

Off we went for cider at Fox Tail Cider. I had cold, fresh apple cider, Jan had hot apple cider and Mike ordered an apple/peach hard cider. We stopped briefly in an apple harvesting museum. The most interesting find was an antique Fageol tractor. Other than that, this stop was a bust.





At the alpaca farm, cuteness ruled. Alpaca food was 25 cents for a small cup. Our popularity soared as soon as the alpacas heard the food coming out of the machines.

This was all the rage at Paris Fashion Week.

Lunch time.

This alpaca didn't want just what was in my hand, it wanted the cup too!

Sweet baby alpaca (photo by Mike G.)

Mike with an alpaca.

Love this photo!

Alpaca kids.

The alpaca kids above just finished chasing a squirrel out of their pasture. In unison, they all turned to look up at us. What were they thinking?

For Karen Pfundtner, check out the loom below and the skeins of alpaca wool.



Packer Orchards & Bakery, our next stop was a true find and a gem. If you are ever doing the Fruit Loop Tour don't miss a stop here! When you walk into their showroom, you see bins filled with cookies and on top of the bins are free samples of the cookies in the bins. My, oh my. I'll tell you what, that is the best marketing ever. People were falling all over themselves snapping up cookies. The cookie samples move those cookies right up to the cash register.

Packer Orchard & Bakery.

Convenient bags for purchase are on top
of the bins along with cookie samples.

Mike chooses pumpkin chocolate chip.

When we finished buying our bounty of cookies, we headed back to Pearl's for more fruit: Bartlett pears and another box of peaches.

All that cookie tasting was making us hungry so we went into historic downtown Hood River and found a cafe where we had a delicious lunch. Mike had a meat loaf sandwich, I opted for a turkey Reuben with side salad, my sister had a French dip sandwich, and Mom had a half turkey deli sandwich with side salad. All of us enjoyed our meals

Today's blog will be continued in Part 2 - The Columbia River Gorge.

Better late than never

Santa brought 1/4 inch (.6 cm) on Christmas, but waited until yesterday to deliver the main gift: a whole inch (2.5 cm) of rain!
You know you're deep into drought when just an inch of rain makes you so happy. Of course, when you're this far gone, one inch doesn't help that much, but we'll take every little bit we can get.
We still need something like 12 - 15 inches (30 - 38 cm) 24 inches (76 cm) to catch up. I don't think it's going to happen. Weather experts are predicting more dry, dry, dry, at least through spring.
But I can't think about that now... it may rain again tomorrow.
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Updated:
I was wrong about the rain deficit -- it was worse than I'd thought.

Zygodactyl Coccyzus & the cut direct

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus).

Giving me...

The cut direct.
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Cuckoos are zygodactyl, like woodpeckers. Click that link for further bird-foot edification.
Friday Ark.

A Day in the Life

Here's Darcie this morning doing a little encyclopedia research all decked out in her nightgown, unbrushed hair, and my plaid wellies.  Actually this isn't typical of her. She's usually dressed by now.
But since her room has been confiscated by her oldest brother, Garrett, just home from Army training, she has to wait until he's up and about before using her room. 
School must go on though!  I'm glad homeschool gives us the freedom and flexibility to let a weary soldier sleep in when needed.  Actually, he was probably playing video games too late last night and was making up for lost time this morning. Or perhaps he was dreaming of his ladylove, Mallory? 
He's gone to spend some time with her this weekend.  I hope they set the date, and the sooner the better!

MMMushrooms

I had a feeling that the rain last week would make a few fungi shout for joy. I think these are oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus).

But I'm not sure enough to try to eat them.

Even though there are so many.

And they look so tasty.
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Everything I know about mushrooms is from books. The only one I'd be confident enough to eat would be a morel. And I never seem to find more than one of those at a time, so I just leave them and hope they'll make more.
People in Europe gather wild mushrooms all the time, but I've never had anyone here (in the south) tell me that they do.