I'm outa here...for a bit

My wife trying to straighten out the mess I made of packing. This was an ongoing theme for most of the trip.

 

Middle of nowhere. This is a random shot showing that we are somewhere deep in the Midwest. We stopped at this town for gas and to eat a picnic lunch in the park. The park featured one of the only remaining Pony Express stations. I don't believe it was still in operation.

 

This is a high pass in Wyoming. The entire town consisted of one gas station and 183 wind turbines. The average wind speed in this pass is 25 mph, with gusts up to 125 mph. We didn't get a chance to test the Prius crosswind performance at the higher end.

 

The State Marina on the Great Salt Lake, at Salt Lake City, UT. Doesn't it figure that we drive half way across the U.S. and into a desert just to go look at more sailboats.

I couldn't get my head around the lack of vegetation - talk about a bleak landscape. I would have liked to see how the boats handled in the higher density of all that salt (12%).

 

This is the entrance to Maple Canyon in Utah. Maple Canyon is owned by the BLM, and they operate a small campground in the canyon (13 sites).

The approach road is gravel and climbs a couple of thousand feet or so from the basin floor. The Prius did fine on the climbs, but our mileage was better going the other way.

 

Maple Canyon is famous in Utah for having maple trees. The micro-climate in the canyon provides the right conditions. Outside the canyon it's nothing but scrub trees and desert. This is keeping with our theme of carrying coals to Newcastle. Where we live our yard will turn into a maple forest in one season if we stop mowing.

 

We were camping at around 7000 feet, so it was cold in the morning and well below freezing at night. This is a photo of some of the nice rock directly opposite our camp site, and a good look at my wife's morning attire.

 

Later in the day. It's warmer, and I'm getting ready to lead a route.

Note: I just noticed that the PC software is squashing the vertical images. If you click on the photo you can see it in its proper perspective.

Note about the note: Now it looks okay?!?

Note about the note about the note: Looks odd again. Beats me.

 

Getting ready to rap down after cleaning the route.

 

My wife top-roping a crack. Note that Maple Canyon rock is all aggregate cobbles. This stuff is weird to climb and entirely different than the sandstone we usually climb. There are lots of things to grab, but most of them are round and slippery.

 

Way too many shoes, and that doesn't include the 4 pairs of climbing shoes already in the Prius.

The pads have their own compression straps, but I have to plead guilty with the sleeping bags. Those are some really old family camping bags that we took along because they zip together. My little mummy bag compresses down to 1/16th the volume of one of the family bags, but I don't have a mate for my wife (that really doesn't sound right when I see it written out). We need to invest in some new bags and stuff sacks, and a little common sense.

Tom

 

Gothenburg, NE.

American West - The Gothenburg Pony Express Station

 

Lots and lots of slopers. The cobbles are bonded by something close to but not quite limestone. It appears to be the same process, but without enough pressure.

Sandstone varies a lot by location. Some places have big cracks, others not. A lot of sandstone is mostly high friction slopers, often only big enough for only two finger pads. In the Red River Gorge where we usually climb, the crags are mostly overhung with little pockets. Climbers there like to talk about the "Red River forearm pump". The holds are pretty good, but the overhung angles make up for it.

Tom