On Wednesday another one of Amanda’s friends joined us. Gal is actually Amanda’s rock climbing coach and damn is this girl a strong climber.
We spent the whole day at the Aspen Glades climbing area. It’s close by to where we are camping but it’s a bit more of a hike in. I don’t mind too much. It seems like hiking into some really scenic spots is a part of the climbing process which is something that I enjoy anyway.
The first part of the day was a bit boring for me because this area didn’t have many beginners level climbs. So we were more focused on getting Gal and Alex on the wall as a group. They are the strongest climbers. It was still cool watching them tackle some pretty difficult routes. You can learn by just watching. But yeah, sitting in the woods just watching other people for hours gets a bit boring.
I was able to get on a few climbs later in the afternoon. They were mostly intermediate climbs and again I wasn’t able to finish them. That was alright. I was able to apply a few of the things that I learned on day one. I took some time after my falls to study the wall and that definitely helped me get through some sections.
I also pushed myself to use some smaller foot holds and that definitely worked out well for me. I have to trust the shoes that I got. The rubber is very sticky on the underside and it will help provide some traction in the smaller foot holds. The shoes are designed to fit very tight and wow do my toes hurt after a run! Something I will have to get used to.
We spent pretty much the entire day at the crag and we didn’t get back to the campsite until close to sunset. We made a quick and simple dinner and sat around the fire for an hour or so before going to bed.
The next day we all volunteered with the forest service and helped create a hiking trail to a few of the climbing areas. It was basically clearing vegetation to form a trail, moving rocks into places that helped with water irrigation, and throwing logs around so that the machine workers could finish everything off.
It was definitely tough work but it was cool to give back. I woke up feeling a bit anxious for God knows what reason. But getting some good exercise in and giving back made me feel a whole lot better. You walk the trails sometimes and you wonder how they are kept in such good shape. Now I know what it takes.
We went into town in the late afternoon and ran some errands. Grabbed a shower, did some food shopping, and filled up the water tank. By the time we finished, it was about 5 PM and they had an event in town for the festival.
We stopped off at the climbing store and signed in, got our tickets, collected our goody bag, and got our free beer. There were a bunch of vendors along the street and we walked up and down and checked things out. Amanda and I bought a few small prints for the van. It’s a bit bare in there and I want to make it feel a bit homier.
They had a festival opening party at the local bar and we grabbed some food and hung out for a bit. They had a pull-up competition and they raffled off a few things. Alex ended up winning some fairly expensive binoculars.