Graffiti cleanup at Castlewood Canyon

I was climbing at the Morning Sun wall this weekend and discovered that hooligans had spray painted graffiti near the giant detached downclimb flake. There's also some at the base. Does anyone want to wrassle up a cleanup crew? Tom Hanson comes to mind, Chosswood is his stomping ground (and maybe he can show me the final moves on Renaissance.)I live 15 minutes from the wall so anytime after 12:00 is good for me.

Little effin pricks. You see the type there all the time. Sideways hats, drooping pants, dangling smokes, a ho or 2 in tow (with the roll of fat oozing out over the low-ride jeans); sometimes with Pit Bulls that ram the snout right up the inseam. The place is slowly but surely becoming an urban park. I'm sure the DCCC will have a wire brush day, but it'll have to wait for one that's too crappy for climbing.

Hi Garrick, Thank you for relaying this disappointing news.
It always amazes me that prepubescent suburban white punks feel that they need to emulate their inner city, under educated role models.
Some years back, similar miscreants created a homie billboard on The Projects Wall on the east rim.
Twenty-five years ago I predicted that The Wood was destined to become an urban climbing pit, due to Douglas County's position as one of the U.S's fasted growing counties.
I will gladly take part in the clean up.

Mike Lane wrote: (with the roll of fat oozing out over the low-ride jeans)

I would be albe to help out too.

I'm game to help.

There's some discussion on different ideas/issues for graffiti removal from some in Boulder Canyon here:

mountainproject.com/v/color…

I was heavily involved in trying to get the graffiti off of Happy Hour in Boulder Canyon.

About the only thing that worked was wire brush and good old water. Spritz some water on the painted area, brush hard a lot, repeat. Unfortunately once the paint is set-up (hours) it is very hard to remove. I tried using some stout chemicals but the only thing that seemed to work was elbow grease, and it still left a mark on the rock.

A few minutes of work by some douchehead requires many manhours (er, peoplehours to be PC) to fix.

But we will fight the good fight. The people who are working hard to make the world a crappier place rarely take a day off. We can't afford to either.

Thanks for all of the support! I let Jennifer, the park manager at Castlewood know that there's going to be some crumb-bums cleaning up the wall. She was very impressed that we are taking initiative on this. They didn't even know of the graffiti. They want us to use wire brushes and water first, and if it doesn't work, they will supply us with some top secret environmentally sound cleaning product that they have had success with.

Forcast for next week:

Monday: 54 and partly cloudy
Tuesday: 70 and clear
Wednesday: 56 and partly cloudy

Tuesday looks promising. I work graveyard at the hospital so I am free by noon. Any day will do. I don't know how many people can get out during the day, so I would propose two shifts, an weekday crew to give it a go, and then a weekend crew. The brushes could be stashed by the ledge. I will send out some pictures tomorrow of the damage. It's up on a ledge by the flake, you can see a large black "X" on the wall from the parking lot.

I have a drill mounted wire brush that looks something like this:

flickr.com/photos/rests/282…

I figure that may work pretty good, and save some elbow grease.

So let's go do good for the wood!!!

I can't help on the weekdays, but next time I am there on a weekend, I can scrub for a while.

Anyone have a Dremmel (battery powered?) with a wire brush attachment? That oughta eat through the choss - but have to be careful not to go too deep.

If we catch these younguns let's hang 'em high by their BVDs. Forturnately I bet their BVDs will already be in view so we won't have to go digging for them. Ewwwww!

Garrick and Jeff,

We tried cordless drills and battery powered Dremel tools on Happy Hour. I don't want to keep you guys from experimenting, but I gotta tell ya, the only thing that really worked was a wire brush in the hand and a lot of scrubbing. Fortunatly the repetative up and down motion is something I am very familiar with....

I would recommend bringing the hand brush as well as the powered stuff.

So whats the status on this? While I havent climbed @ the wood in a while, I would be happy to make the trip and help clean it up. Any further action planned for a weekend?

It'll be A weekend, but not this one. Look for the next Saturday that'll be cloudy and cold. Amazing string of beautiful weekends can't last forever, but I'm climbing as long as they're around.

If I'm in town when you guys do this, I'll come help. I'll more than likely have my sons so they will help too.

I am going to head out on Thursday afternoon to give it a good once over, and see what happens. Here's what were up against.

I headed up yesterday to take a crack at the clean-up, and do a little sleuthing. This is what I came up with.
It looks like after downing a few Keystone Ice's he went to work on the wall.
Apparently, the hooligans name was "brandon" (No Capital letter for his name by me because he is less than human and therefore deserves no Capitalization), He explained in paint that he was there. He also had to dictate that he likes "tits". Just to be clear on that point he sprayed a pair of breasts on the ground.
I worked on the big "X" because that is what is easily seen from the parking lot.Luckily, some of the paint was on lichen, so it came off pretty easily. I think that the "brandon was here" is going to require more work. I brushed for an hour and now the "X" is getting faint from a distance. I left the wire brush in a pocket underneath the graffiti. There's plenty of pockets to place a cam. Or use the ancient pin on the lip with what looks like a rusted 1/8 inch hanger.

This coming Friday looks like a good day for it weatherwise. I sent an e-mail to Jen about getting the Park to supply us with some more brushes and the approved solvent. She was out last week, so hopefully I'll hear from her Monday. I also had a discussion in the Falls Trail Parking lot right below it with a ranger last weekend; and she agreed that letting us put a couple of anchors in above it would be a possibility. Also, if we attached some broomsticks to the brushes that would increase the leverage and speed the process up.

So who all is in?

I gotta check on some details, but I think I can be counted in.

AHEM!

forecast.weather.gov/MapCli…

I just moved to Castle Rock, and would be more than willing to head out there and get acquainted with "the wood." I don't know where any of the walls are, but have a drill brush and will travel. =) Just need a guide...

MM

suck it up Lane & put a beanie on that follicle'y-challenged noggin.

I can't do Friday but can possibly do Saturday and am sure I can do Sunday.