Rock Hunt

Bouldering at Rawley Springs

A few weekends ago, Tyler and I decided to hunt for the elusive “Rock Maze” at Rawley Springs, a wilderness park about half an hour away.  The Maze is famous among climbers for being a sweet bouldering hang-out and notoriously hard to find.  So, with that challenge in mind and our trusty guide book in hand, we set off for the hills and found ourselves quickly leaving trails behind in search of bigger and better rocks.

Tyler navigating our course....straight up this boulder!

Our hunt paid off, and a couple hours later after hiking and scrambling our way through the woods, we arrived at the Maze and were immediately amazed (pun intended, just for you, Dad) at the size and, well, the maze-like-ness of the rocks.  After climbing to the top of the nearest boulder, we could see how the rocks were completely level on top but were separated from each other by several feet, forming a network of passages between them….just like a maze!

Janelle sitting on top of the Maze

Tyler being eaten alive by the Maze

Janelle bouldering one of the passages

Tyler hanging from the top ledge

The sun began to set, so we had to cut our exploration short, but I’m sure we’ll be heading back to the Maze again soon!

A real cliff-hanger

Christmas Tree Expedition

My fearless leader sporting the lumberjack look

Saturday Tyler and I decided to venture out into the wilderness to select the “perfect” tree to bring into our home.  The “wilderness,” aka the tree farm, was huge and had many options, but in the end we selected a Douglas Fir.  I let Tyler carry it back to the car so he would feel manly.

The lumberjack in true form

Our neighbor kindly took a picture of the two of us with our perfect tree.

Tree huggers, through and through

As it turns out, choosing our tree and getting it back home was only the beginning of our adventure.  Our “perfect” tree turned out to be fat and dense, and our lights decided to put Tyler’s technical expertise (and patience) to the test.

Tyler playing nicely with the tree lights

But, in the end and after a couple trips to various stores, we had all the lights and a perfect star to top our perfect tree.  A happy beginning to our Christmas season….

Janelle loving having a tree in her house

Happy Thanksgiving

Janelle's shadow

Since we weren’t able to travel for Thanksgiving, Tyler and I decided that rock climbing would probably be the best possible use of our time.  The day was gorgeous (= warm and sunny) and perfect for climbing.  After climbing a couple routes, we shared a Thanksgiving feast of bologna sandwiches, baby carrots, and hot green tea – not your usual holiday fare but tasted just as good (could be due to the everything-tastes-better-when-playing-hard-outside rule of life).  The last climb (called Shipwreck) was hands-down our favorite, even though the first half was in the shade and made our fingertips so cold we could hardly feel the cracks.  Once we got about half way up, though, the sun was shining on the rocks and the view of the valley below was incredible, and we had a chance to warm our frozen fingers.  And….the best part is that from the top of the cliff, Tyler even saw a bald eagle soaring over the meadow below!  All in all, a great Thanksgiving….probably destined to become an annual holiday tradition!

For more pics of our day’s adventures, click on the first picture above (the one of my shadow), or go to our picasa website by clicking on “Pictures of Adventures” in the right sidebar.

Tyler climbing Shipwreck

Tyler just after climbing Shipwreck

Janelle swinging

HIdden Rocks

Seneca Rocks, WV

Seneca Rocks 4/12/200

Today was supposed to be rainy and nasty outside. But as you can see it was gorgeous. We decided to head on out to Seneca Rocks and check it out. We also heard the climbing store there would be able help us find a pair of shoes for Janelle, and they did. We did a nice little hike up to the top and scrambled out past the “Stop here if you don’t want to have any fun” sign. (this was Janelle’s interpretation and not what the sign actually said).  The rock crags were amazing and the narrow ledge dropped off +/- 100 feet on either side. People were setting up repels, climbing long trad routes and going places you couldn’t walk out too. If someday we happen to get a little better at rock climbing, get enough money to build our own trad rack, perhaps we will come back and climb some of the huge pitches. For now we’ll stick to our local spots where we can use our new rope to do some top-roping.

Spruce Knob, WV (darkest sky on the east coast) (also open for business)

Spruce Knob

Here are some pictures from our most recent adventure. 10 of us from the GCCOC got together to eat meat, sleep outside, and build a fire. Also to say farewell to our good friend Sir Dunbar as he embarks on his epic journey to the vast westerness of our country (http://dunbarsm.wordpress.com/). It felt so good to be outside again and to stretch some vastly underused backpacking muscles. Maybe next time we can just leave our packs in the car and carry our stuff 1 mile instead of 10, but where’s the fun in that.

ps. too bad it was cloudy

pps. West Virginia is also Open for Business