Journeys: City of Rocks, ID - Day 2

The moment the sun crested the horizon and cast rays on my face I felt too hot to sleep. I climbed out of the back of the truck tripping over gear strewn on the ground. Ryan did not move or make a sound. I hid in the shade behind my truck shaking off sleep. I grabbed a book and my camp chair and started to read. 30 minutes later Ryan was up. He climbed out of the back of the truck.

"Why are we in the middle of a desert?" He asked rubbing sleep from his eyes with the heels of his hands. I smirked. We had the same sense of humor. Random and obvious statements mixed with heavy doses of sarcasm.

Waking up in Idaho.

I was glad we had not driven into City of Rocks at night. I wanted Ryan to see the glory of the City in full daylight as we drove through the hills. We threw our gear into the bed of the truck haphazardly and drove off.

We were driving through the City passing large rock formations standing alone in the fields. Ryan was stunned. "It reminds me of Joshua Tree." He said. Then added, "This is my new favorite place!"

Distracted by the excitement of climbing, we went about reserving and occupying a campsite in the least efficient manner possible. As we were finally unloading our gear and ferrying it to our campsite a City employee pulled up in a Jeep. She was tan and looked to be a climber. Knowing Ryan was always looking for climbing models, I chatted her up. How was work? Where was she from? Did she climb? Was she climbing anytime this week? Do you mind having your photo taken?

The answer? Tomorrow with a group of friends.

Sounds great. She would leave a note on the message board telling us what routes she and her posse were going to climb. And, oh, she drives a green Mazda pick up truck.

"By the way" she added "there is wedding party going down at the group campsite later tonight. You guys should come."

Ah what luck. It seemed the chances of meeting new people, finding climbing models, and getting hero shots were going to be through the roof.

We established our camp then drove to the Breadloaves formation. There were a few trad moderates that I had climbed before and thought would be a good warmup for the trip. While climbing Adolescent Homosapien on the Decadent Wall we met a group of younger climbers who were planning to climb Steinfell's Dome later. Ryan inquired whether he could shoot photos of them because it would make for a great evening shot. The group said they were headed there later and it seemed like a good hook up for Ryan.

We finished our route then drove down to Elephant Rock to climb Columbian Crack. The off width section at the top was harder than I remembered. When Ryan followed he called out, "Is this the part where you started grunting a lot?"

"Yeah." I replied.

"Ok…I see why."

We moved over to the rappel station and Ryan went down first. At the base he bumped into the crew from Breadloaves. They were no longer going to Steinfell's Dome. Instead they were going to climb Rye Crisp. Ryan took off for the truck to get his rigging gear and camera. "Wait!" I hollered. The keys were in my pocket and the truck was locked. I lowered my keys down. A few minutes later I hauled Ryan's static line up and secured it to the anchors. I had decided I was going to watch the action from the top, but forgot to ask Ryan to clip my camera bag to the rope so I could haul it up. The breeze was nice and the air was cooling as the sun made its way closer to the horizon. I made sure I was clipped into the anchors then leaned back against two piles of rope. My breathing was heavy and slow. It was so nice on top of Elephant Rock.

I woke up to the sound of Ryan skipping around on the rock face just below me. I stood up and looked out over the edge. Ryan was snapping photos as a climber worked his way through the crux. Ryan looked up and saw me. "Oh, there you are. I wasn't sure if you had come down earlier."

"Nah." I replied. "I wanted to take photos up here, but forgot to ask for my camera. Besides it was nice just to sit up here and relax."

"I think I am done." Ryan said. He tucked his camera away and started lowering off. Soon I was dropping his static line down and untangling the two rope sleeping pad for my own rappel.

I was back on the ground and could not shake the drowsiness. "Want to split a pizza?" Ryan asked.

I agreed. We drove to Rock City and ordered a pizza with cheese and pepperoni…no sauce. Yes, really. No sauce.

We sat down and waited. A mother-daughterish duo sat down near us. Still no sauceless pizza. We struck up a conversation with the mom-daughter duo. They were not mother-daughter. The younger girl was graduating high school soon. The older woman was a globe trotting adventure guide taking her pupil on her first climbing trip.

Ryan pitched his standard, "Hey if we see you around tomorrow can I take some photos of you?"

"Sure…why not." was the response.

Back at camp. It was late. The sky was clear. Where was that party at the group campsite? Just three cars. No lights. No people. Ryan spread out his pad and sleeping bag and crawled in. I set up a long exposure star trails shot and laid down.

"This party sucks." I stated.

Ryan snickered.

I woke up about an hour later and clicked my camera off not even bothering to look at the result.

The result.