Journeys: City of Rocks, ID - Day 3

I joked about brushing my hair before being able to do anything in the morning. 10 minutes later I was standing on top of a boulder in my underwear brushing my hair while Ryan snapped photos roaring with laughter. After I put my clothes back on Ryan and I realized that we had a similar penchant for quoting Will Ferrell movies.

We shouted Will Ferrell quotes as we drove through the City eyes peeled for the green Mazda. Nothing.

We found the non mom-daughter duo at Breadloaves and got some shots. For some strange reason I called the younger gal homeslice. "Does she look like a homeslice?" Ryan screeched. Then Alpine Butterfly because of the browbeating I got from everyone for calling her homeslice.

Alpine Butterfly and her mentor departed after trading emails with Ryan and we soon took off. Where was that green Mazda pick up truck?

The Alpine Butterfly floating up a route.

It was the middle of the day and the sun was brutal. We pulled into camp to relax in the shade. Ryan did not make it out of the truck. He dropped his seat back and was immediately asleep. I sat in a cave and worked on my journal.

An hour later Ryan walked into camp. "I forgot. We need coffee. I have a pulsating migraine."

We made our way back to Rock City. It was hot outside. Ryan drank coffee. We pored over old climbing magazines. We waited for the day to cool and hoped we would find the green Mazda on our way back through City of Rocks.

We were driving up the road to the City after coffee. Ryan suddenly turned to me from the passenger seat and said, "I am really relieved that there are no dinosaurs coming over that hill to eat us."

I laughed. Then replied, "Well, at least I brought my bear spray." I made custom modifications to my bear spray canister as soon as possible.

Back in City of Rocks there were no green Mazdas in sight. Ryan was desperate for a photo. I was not sure what was worse in Ryan's life…lack of photos or lack of coffee?

We stomped around Breadloaves and Anteater looking for climbers. Unfortunately it seemed everyone was clearing out for the weekend. We swung by Elephant Rock one final time. Ryan was expecting a dejected return to camp, but I tried the positive approach saying it would all work out and we were about to find someone to climb with.

We did. Their names were Nico and Anna, an Italian climbing partnership transplanted from Italy to San Francisco and St George respectively. Nico and Anna were finishing their day of climbing, but agreed to hang out with us at our campsite later that night.

Later that night…

It was dark. The wind was picking up and a huge storm was brewing to the south. Lightning crackled against the black clouds. Beneath the dark stormy clouds we hunkered against the wind with the Italians. They were eating a late dinner of salmon and we were trying to decide how the four of us could climb and shoot photos the next day.

The west side of Elephant Rock sounded good with some classic sport routes. A heavy dose of Steinfell's Dome would be a late afternoon adventure, hopefully fulfilling Ryan's needs of climbers in sunset light. Ryan called it a good night and hustled off to bed. I talked with our new friends late into the night.

I woke hours later because the wind was howling and more lightning was crackling. Maybe sleeping on top of a rock was a bad idea. I fell asleep. I woke again. It was still dark, but there were no clouds, no wind, only a canvas of stars and moon.