New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #43

WF WF51 wrote:

"Mother died today. Or, maybe yesterday." 

“That doesn’t mean anything,”

Guy Keesee wrote:

Oh so you’re one of “those RICH guys” who stay in those cabins. My FF friend says “they’re insanely expensive”….. 

So how did you do? 

Maybe he invested in crypto through the first family?

…and then tried to shift the national economy towards crypto so he could continue to build his investment?

x15x15 wrote:

Sunset a couple days ago at Hot Creek. A little fishing, a little climbing.

Hot Creek Ranch! Love that place. Here’s a photo my wife Yvonne took of me at the Ranch (around 2010). We were comped a few nights stay since I was writing a feature article for one of the fly fishing mags. Loved the “dry fly only” ethic, kind of like “trad climbing only.”

Bob Gaines wrote:

Hot Creek Ranch! Love that place. Here’s a photo my wife Yvonne took of me at the Ranch (around 2010). We were comped a few nights stay since I was writing a feature article for one of the fly fishing mags. Loved the “dry fly only” ethic, kind of like “trad climbing only.”

Yes…. I have looked at that view many times and wondered… “i bet the Trout in there are huge. They are protected by armed guards, there is a grounds keeper, who manicures the creek so there are no pesky weeds. Hot young woman come and wake you up and serve breakfast about 30 minutes before the first BWO hatch. Your Rod has been all set up with 5x and the best fly for the day.

I’m jealous of the pampered trillionaire class. Using money- cubic money- to get everything they want.

Sucks to be poor 

The other day we were talking about climbing on glue ups and other man made structures.

This “obelisk” is the newest ART at CSUN… so far it’s rejected all who have been brave enuf to attempt it!

Guy- I feel ya. However, ENVY is the correct word.

Bob is a great soul. There is no DESERVE in my opinion. Nobody deserves any material convenience.

But when someone like Bob, a kind, generous and eclectic person is comped something nice?

 (And something a flyfishing guru/wizard like him would value the most)? Well….

I need to remind myself sometimes good things happen to good people.

No need to look further.

Cheers all.
Guy and Bob especially.

Been lurking in the past few weeks after a hiatus.

Alan Rubin has been sadly absent…But the return of Todd Berlier has been a refreshing renewal to this thread (sometimes it gets stale and tired to be honest). As expected, regulars like Old Lady H and Phylp bring levity and good balance.

Can’t say enough about the wisdom I’ve gained from Rgold going back to early Taco days.

I like keeping up with all your climbing/life adventures. So please continue stoking this virtual campfire.

Guy Keesee wrote:

Yes…. I have looked at that view many times and wondered… “i bet the Trout in there are huge. They are protected by armed guards, there is a grounds keeper, who manicures the creek so there are no pesky weeds. Hot young woman come and wake you up and serve breakfast about 30 minutes before the first BWO hatch. Your Rod has been all set up with 5x and the best fly for the day.

I’m jealous of the pampered trillionaire class. Using money- cubic money- to get everything they want.

Sucks to be poor 

Thanks James.

Here’s an excerpt from a piece I wrote about Hot Creek, from the perspective of the public section:

”Hike upstream in the canyon and you arrive at a barbed-wire fence that marks the boundary of the Hot Creek Ranch property. There is a nice little pool there. One fine spring day I found myself there with my wife, lying on the grass, relaxing, picnicking, and occasionally fooling some juvenile rainbows on tiny black midge imitations Yvonne had tied. 

Suddenly, the telltale hooked jaw of a huge male brown trout broke the surface as the fish rose straight up out of the water, exposing half of its massive body before splashing back down, slapping the surface like a breaching whale. I had never seen such a big fish in such a small stream. Yvonne and I turned to each other and simply said, “WOW!”

The big trout settled under the far bank, directly underneath the barbed-wire fence. After I’d lost half a dozen flies, all which soon dangled like spiders under the fence, the huge fish had enough of my foolishness, slowly swam upstream, and disappeared in the ranch water. I gazed lustfully over the fence. There were no anglers in sight. The ranch water seemed to run a little slower and deeper, and the meadow grass even looked a little greener. I turned to my wife and said, “I guess that’s where the big fish hang out.”

Kris Solem’s b&w photos from the early 1970s got me thinking about OpSail76.

I was in one of these boats in NY Harbor that beautiful day. I would turn 7 later that month.
First National City Bank (a major covert conduit for CIA operations overseas during the height of the Cold War which would change its name to Citibank later in 1976) was my father’s employer at the time and they chartered a party boat for the Bicentennial.

Thousands of vessels.
President Ford flew in for the festivities. 

“Old Ironsides” /USS Constitution came down from Boston.

Firework show for the ages.

And that’s considering I was in Manhattan for both 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Centennial fireworks and for the 1986 Statue of Liberty Centennial fireworks.

BB fireworks were a little over a half hour. Something like 10,000 individual fireworks.

As wounded and tempered as the US was in a post Vietnam Watergate world, the patriotism of the Bicentennial was tangible in every aspect of American life. Especially for a 6 year old bearing witness to a cultural shift in national pride, which continued through the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979 and the Miracle on Ice in 1980.

Anyhow… Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy holiday this year. As divisive as America has become, I still hope for common ground every day.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

James Harvey wrote:

Guy- I feel ya. However, ENVY is the correct word.

Bob is a great soul. There is no DESERVE in my opinion. Nobody deserves any material convenience.

But when someone like Bob, a kind, generous and eclectic person is comped something nice? (And something a flyfishing guru/wizard like him would value the most)? Well….

I need to remind myself sometimes good things happen to good people.

No need to look further.

Cheers all.
Guy and Bob especially.

Been lurking in the past few weeks after a hiatus.

Alan Rubin has been sadly absent…But the return of Todd Berlier has been a refreshing renewal to this thread (sometimes is gets stale and tired to be honest). As expected, regulars like Old Lady H and Phylp bring levity and good balance.

Can’t say enough about the wisdom I’ve gained from Rgold going back to early Taco days.

I like keeping up with all your climbing/life adventures. So please continue stoking this virtual campfire.

Alan is back and posting elsewhere. He replied to me and reported that access to his account mysteriously reappeared. I’m happy that you’re back too. 

James Harvey wrote:

Alan Rubin has been sadly absent…

Just saw him yesterday.  I was warming up on the set boulders (for my board session) and he gave me a hard time saying: “I thought that you were all boards all the time,” which is what I posted here.  He is reading the threads, but can’t post for some reason.

Utah fire last week made for incredible sunsets sadly.

RIP firefighters 

Edit:Thanks Daniel.. always appreciate your input.

Edit:Thanks Ward for the Alan sighting! Hope he is well!!

So many great pictures and stories!  We are lucky indeed to be able to get outdoors and enjoy what we love.

I feel like my slow recovery is finally becoming real.  I'm hiking farther and faster, without panting and having to rest.  And, a sure sign of life, rocks and routes are standing up and saying hello again. 

Nearly every day I pass by Mary Worth Buttress and glance up at Welcome To Joshua Tree. I have only hiked that far a couple of times... there's a lot of squeezing and scrambling, and there's snakes. The problem with snakes is if they startle me I jump back, and I have toppled off of boulders.

But that rock is the first to catch the sunlight many mornings, and it just looks so fun to climb.  AND, it's a Houser route, actually Jan, Dave Houser, and Herb Laeger.  

I never pictured myself able to grab morning hikes, sit in the sun and ponder life on the daily and then head home to see what's up with Tony.  Really blessed.  :-) 

Lori Milas wrote:

So I was listening to an Orthopedic surgeon this morning who coaches aging athletes, he himself is an aging athlete, and I loved his message, which is that we don't 'wear out' our cartilage or bones, and the term "bone on bone" is not helpful for an arthritic patient.  Working the joint and the increased circulation can only make it better.  Dr. Howard Luks.   

Sadly, this just isn't true.  When you have completely depleted the cartilage in the joint and it really is bone on bone, there is no amount of increase in circulation that will make things substantially better. Instead the bones start grinding away at each other with every movement and the joint gets out of round, so to speak.  Ask me how I know...

I think we are not too far off from being able to help people preserve their cartilage before it is gone, but once it is gone you are fubared.

I put this on my FB page but I thought you folks here would get a chuckle out of it:

Guy Keesee wrote:

Oh so you’re one of “those RICH guys” who stay in those cabins. My FF friend says “they’re insanely expensive”….. 

So how did you do? 

The fish are smart and it takes a perfect presentation to get them to rise. But, it is fishing and not catching. Still many were  put in the  net. This was one of the smaller ones...

Standing on Great Head watching a sailboat ride the tide in

Looking towards Otter Cliffs 

Mid route photo on a local classic, the belay ledge was wet by the time we left.

Friggin humid heah today bub

apogee wrote:

“Absurdist existentialism combines elements of both absurdism and existentialism, recognizing that life is inherently meaningless while also emphasizing the individual's freedom to create their own meaning. It suggests that one should accept the absurdity of existence and live authentically despite the lack of inherent purpose.”

I encountered the phrase ‘absurdist existentialism’ today and it perfectly articulates my view of life and living. While I’ve been clear about this sentiment for a very long time, I hadn’t encountered a name for it.

In Casteneda's writings Don Juan called it "controlled folly".  To act as if it is important and meaningful knowing it is not.  I think of that as holding both the detailed, narrow focus AND the big picture at the same time.  In astrology it would be the view from Gemini (details!) and also from Sagittarius (big picture) at the same time (they oppose each other).  That's where the famous quote of Don Juan's of finding a path with heart came from:  because of no inherent meaning the practitioner is free to create meaning. And this from the 60s!

Bill Lundeen wrote:

In Casteneda's writings Don Juan called it "controlled folly".  To act as if it is important and meaningful knowing it is not.  I think of that as holding both the detailed, narrow focus AND the big picture at the same time.  In astrology it would be the view from Gemini (details!) and also from Sagittarius (big picture) at the same time (they oppose each other).  That's where the famous quote of Don Juan's of finding a path with heart came from:  because of no inherent meaning the practitioner is free to create meaning. And this from the 60s!

Haha, yes!

MM Full sail or Morning Glory???  It so rad climbing over the ocean.. 

We are in a heat dome. It's been too hot to sleep inside so even if I am home I have been crashing in the van. better air circulation...   Keeping with the heat warnings I humped a big pack up to the crag.. My junk show.

seven hours of scrubbing, leaf blowing and drilling later I had 8 bolts in 

and one empty hole. Out of epoxy after in the extreme heat the glue nozzle hardened up on me before I could finish filling one of the holes...  Jugged back up with the drill and re drilled that hole so its ready for tomorrow with a fresh tube and nozzles..   I was stoked that the new 5amp hr battery gave me nine 1/2x4" holes with the little sub compact Makita, I hate lugging the 36v bosch up a cliff...  That little drill was working really hard though..  It fires in 38" holes like butter but 1/2" is a different beast...

I was completely spent. 

I did not have room in the pack with all the kit for water. Not real smart..  I stumbled down the trail to the parking lot only to find this...

I chugged 4 spindrifts (seltzers) and mixed one of them with liquid IV  Changing sprinter tires is a beast because they are heavy and theres no studs on the hubs to hang them from..  That really kicked my butt. Then off to the big city to try and find another tube of AC100+ but no luck. Had to settle for Sika @ Lowes..  its smells and feels the same so probobly the same chemicals?   Finally had dinner by the lake and that swim was too long coming...