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May 05, 2004
climbing at castle rock and other joys
though i didn't sleep very soundly last night, i awoke before 8, to read in bed until aaron and matt were ready to head out. the night before matt and i had done some late evening recon, coming up empty handed. luckily, we had full bellies from an excellent meal we all cooked up, homemade pasta sauce in the putanesca style over wheat pasta and a babaganoush dish that i feel i can improve upon.
aaron headed out a few minutes before matt and I, and having barely wiped the sleep from my eyes i pointed my front tire down fulton. aaron and the fellow residents of the purple house live far up a hill from downtown, and although the ride up can be long and feel even longer at times, the ride down makes it worth it. we bomb down the past the first three blocks, usually getting halted at masonic. after that it's about 7 blocks to divisadero, where we cut right in front of the oncoming traffic and cruise up to golden gate.
golden gate is the real jewel of the ride. waiting halfway down the first block for the light below to turn green, you can imagine how the steepness of the hill will be translated by your bike into a quickening and hell bent motion. since the lights are all timed, you can pedal with the momentum and fly over the flattened cross streets to accelerate even more on the next slope. we cruised this all the way near to market, which we crossed, and headed over to the 6th street cafe.
aaron and matt have ritualized their mornings at this cafe, recently opened and unfortunately likely doomed to close before too long. chock full of progressive literature and magazines, my 2 friends found that they loved the atmosphere of indigent people yelling at each other in front of and through the front door, all accompanied by hardcore music in the background. plus the 3 dollar veggie sandwiches are a treat, i get mine on dark rye that makes me think of my jewish heritage for some reason.
after winning one then losing 2 poorly played games of chess to matt, aaron never showing up because he got a tag to go deliver packages at the beginning his shift, i rode back up the same hill i flew down, the 12 minutes down turning into 20 or so up. i threw my bike in the bike garage, loaded my backpack, and soon my new friend mike from the climbing gym pulled up outside.
i met mike in the boulder section of the gym, both of us working on similiar problems and quickly realizing that we are equally new to this city. mike's from texas by way of southern cal, where he did his training as a nurse. he does the traveling nurse thing, and deems in a good racket for now. mike has taken the step i never have and dedicated himself to the sport of climbing, traveling around the country and indeed the world to visit famous spots. he's heading to spain after the summer to climb some famous spanish crags, i already recommended he visit san sebastian in the north.
we drove out towards santa cruz with a terrible climbing map, planning on climbing at some boulders known as the castle rock area. though we had no trouble finding the entrance to the state park that these boulders are situated in, we were unable to decypher the mediocre trail map and ended up walking a few miles of the trails before some fellow climbers showed us that we'd missed what we were looking for, that it was less then a quarter mile from where we parked the truck. this is not the first time i've been lost wandering around looking for a boulder, and i'm sure it won't be the last.
the rocks are all sandstone here, and said to be similiar to fontainbleu in france, a world renown climbing destination. we started out on some easy V0's and V1's, then moved on to the harder stuff. i should mention that mike climbs up to 5.13, so he is quite a bit stronger then i am. my best moment of the day was finally, after too many attempts, pulling a semi sketchy heelhook and finishing out a pretty V4 problem, my first V4 sent outside. i managed to burn up a lot of my energy and finger pads in doing so, but i was still pleased with myself.
there were some other guys out there working on harder stuff, and it made me want to get back out there soon, even though the mosquitoes ate me alive and i'm scratching bites as we speak. just getting out of the city and into nature after nearly 4 weeks of being here felt really rejunivating, i need more of that.
we rolled back into the city, managing to catch a bit of rush hour traffic, which firmly reminded me how little i miss having a car. mike dropped me off with plans to hit the gym later this week, and hopefully some more outdoor trips in the future.
i bounded up the steps to find colin whipping up an excellent curry dinner, the highlight of which may have been his mandarin orange and toasted walnut salad, which all of us agreed may possibly have been the best salad we've ever wolfed down like hungry animals. i relaxed a bit after that and finished up a reread of in search of captain zero, which did little to calm my travel hungry nature. depending on my financial situation, i may decide to not work until october but perhaps only unitl august, and quit my job so that i have time to drive across the whole country with friends and take part in the protest against the republican national convention, as i've mentioned earlier. i've never driven across the entire nation, and have nearly as much aspirations to do so as i do an urge to ride the whole damn thing on my bike. we'll see which happens first.
speaking of bikes, i decided i didn't like that bike i rode to the top of an oh so steep hill to look at, but the trip was made totally worthwhile because i got to visit the vegan ice cream store. so damn good, now i just need someone to ride up there with me to get sundae's. any takers?
ok, off to sleep, tomorrow return to the land of the working. i wish all my days were days off.
Posted by bendan at May 5, 2004 12:57 AM
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