Well, I figure I've got to keep the momentum up on this blog or you guys are going to get bored. So here's the latest outdoor adventure I've had:
Monday I had the pleasure of driving to the Callahans near Roseburg, about an hour-and-a-half south of Eugene. Kohl and I were both up for a bit of sport climbing so we packed the Explorer up and loaded the doggers too. Graham and Jake were very excited to get to go somewhere, anywhere, and jumped in the back with great enthusiasm. We got on the road about 12:30 p.m. and hit the trailhead around 2:00 p.m. or so.
We parked the car and huffed up a steep, graveled road for about 1/4 mile to our turn-out into the woods. Normally this marks the beginning of a VERY steep, long approach to the climbing area but today we passed the turn-out and kept on the gravel for another hundred yards or so. We were looking for a bouldering area just off the road that we'd not been to before. We quickly found the rocks and dropped our rope bags, put on our climbing shoes and chalked up. We had a guide book that told the difficulty of the routes here and we knew that most of them were out of our league. There was one obvious route that we had to try, a V1 that we both knew we could do. For those of you who don't boulder, a "V#" is a numbered system to grade the difficulty of a bouldering route. For example, a V0 or a V1 is relatively easy and a V10 is incredibly difficult. Thus, V1s are awesome.
Kohl went first as I set up the camera and played with the dogs. The forest area we were in was mostly second growth timber with lots of downed branches and underbrush. There wasn't much foliage on the ground except for poison oak. In other words, not a pristine forest by any means but much nicer than the climbing gym in town. The route was short and Kohl quickly progressed to the finish. The shot of the shoe in the facebook photo album (#31) shows just how small the finish foothold was...pretty cool stuff.
I was up next and made Kohl play with the dogs this time around. Without that distraction, hanging from the rock two feet off the ground made for a very difficult route as the dogs would come up and lick me, wanting to play and unaware of how annoying they were! I too progressed through the route quickly and we were ready to move up to the climbing area.
Our packs returned to our shoulders, we went back to the climbing wall trail. It was about 75 degrees and around 2:45 p.m. The trail up to the climbing area is steep and there are lots of switchbacks but we made quick, sweaty work of it and soon were at our first problem. The route was a 5.8 (similar to V scale but different...post a comment to find out more about the ratings) off-width and I really was a wuss about climbing the darn thing. I took more times than there were bolts but in the end, I salvaged my pride and finished it. Photos to match here:
At the top of the route I discovered that the anchor system I expected to see (AND USE) didn't exist. This was a bit of a bummer and it took me a few seconds to decide what to do. After talking it over with Kohl, we decided that he would lead an adjacent route and clean my top anchor for me. I was lowered back to earth and Kohl then led his route, a 5.6 which he made VERY quick work of. I should point out that anytime I'm climbing or belaying the doggers are on leash...it takes virtually no time for their grubby little paws to ruin a nice clean rope so it's never an option to let them run free while someone's in the air. That said, their time on leash was short.
After cleaning the gear from his route and mine Kohl and I headed further east along the trail to the "fantasy island" area of the Callahans. This monolith was one we'd never seen before so hiking the 1/2 mile to it was worth it, despite the time of day. There was a split in the trail and we soon realized we'd gone the wrong way. Normally I'd be happy to turn around and try the right way but you must understand that the trail we were on was VERY steep and I could tell that I wasn't very far from the top. It seemed easier to keep going up and risk finding nothing than to backtrack down a very steep, slick trail.
At the top we found a nice view to the east of Roseburg, about 15 miles away. Along a pillar of rock towering over us were three routes we'd never seen before. Feeling adventurous I decided to lead the middle one, another 5.8. This route was extremely exposed, meaning that on both sides of me (about 2 feet on the left and 10 feet on the right) there was a steep cliff as the pillar curved around on itself. This meant that each time I looked to the left, I couldn't see rock, but a birds' eye-view of Roseburg, 1000' feet below in the valley. To the right, countless trees filled the view of the side of the cliffs we'd hiked along before. I didn't look around much until we were leaving.
I led my route like a champ, redeeming myself from a June trip here where I was the biggest weenie ever. It's ebb and flow like that for me in rock climbing, one of the reasons I like it I guess. Kohl then cleaned my route and we huffed back up the hill to a gravel road that would lead us back to the other end of the ridge. We hiked just over 1/2 mile and dove back into the woods. At this point, it was dusk and the woods were beginning to darken quickly as the sun faded to the west. We could barely see the trail as we jetted down the steep ridge toward the car. Graham and Jake seemed really tired at this point, which made me a very happy man. About 30 minutes later we were out of the woods, both literally and figuratively speaking. The dogs received dinner a la gravel road and made quick work of inhaling their grub. We called in a to-go order of pizza in Roseburg and arrived to pick it up 20 minutes later. Never has pizza tasted so good!
Thinking back on this trip there wasn't much I would change. In fact, only two (though major) things stand out as an oversight and that was a light source and food. We were fortunate to not sprain an ankle or worse coming down that steep trail in the dark. Lesson learned; bring a headlamp no matter the time of day you think you'll be departing the Callahans. Regarding food, I didn't bring a single thing to snack on while we were on the rock and Kohl's Luna bar saved me I'm sure. Thanks for looking out for me, buddy.
Here's the full photo album for you:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=207932&id=501504245&l=8553cc778d
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