Maple Canyon

Since the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday this year, Leah and I decided to take Monday and Tuesday off and go somewhere for a five day weekend.  With the heat soaring into the upper 90's, and the crowds flocking to Ten Sleep, we chose to head to Maple Canyon, in search of shady North facing caves, finger friendly cobbles, and some quiet camping.


Along the way, we got lost, drove until 5am, and slept in a Walmart parking lot.  In the morning, while we were wandering the aisles of Walmart like zombies, I couldn't get over the eerie twilight zone feeling I get every time I am deep in Mormon Country.  It's a mix of invisibility, tolerance, and curiosity.  I feel like an ambassador for an inferior country and ultimately, I find myself swearing a lot less.  So in a strange way, being in Utah makes me a better person.

Luckily, the drive was the low point of the trip.  The rest of the trip was filled with new crags like the Compound.

Deceptively cute attack Beagles.  Who knew those existed?

Back off or I will bite your face!

Amazingly cuddly crag dogs.

 Great car camping.

Turkeys.  And their stench.

Ice cream. 

 Huge wildfires. 

Beautiful, smoke enhanced sunset.

Rodeos. 

Breakfast at strange cafes.

Best cafe name ever!!!  Food wasn't bad either.

6bdrm, 5bth, 2ktn, 2lndry, 4000ft, 10acres- $160,000.

Kinky Mormon stuff.

Goofing off at Walmart

Deer urine, Elk urine, Bacon.

 Classic American landscapes.

Big sky.

San Rafael Swell.

And of course, some hardcore chillin'. 

Rockstar Leah will put her feet wherever she wants.

Five days flew by and once again, neither of us wanted to return to Boulder.  Unfortunately, work and responsibility reeled us east across I-70 and back into the Bubble.

Everything But Climbing In Maple

Last week Lee and I went to Maple for a 9 day trip. For the most part we had great weather. Unfortunately, Lee's neck was severely tweaked for 4 days, which destroyed the morale during the middle of the trip.
Although she could barely look down, and sneezing nearly brought her to tears, she selflessly did the 25 minute hike to the Pipe Dream and belayed me. She eventually found a way to cope with the pain...
On our rest days we hiked to the top of the Pipe Dream and enjoyed the wildlife...
the view
and may have seen the future of Maple Canyon climbing.
This cave is in the right fork, about 100 feet off the ground. From our perspective, it looks about twice as big as the Pipe Dream. For some reason, Lee was terrified by the formation.
Actually, a grasshopper caught her off gaurd.

On another rest day, we checked out the Morman Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah. Basically, the LDS puts on a huge, week-long theater production depicting the story of the Book of Morman.
They set up about 4000 folding chairs on the temple lawn...
get all the actors in costume by 8pm so they can walk around an interact with the crowd...
and start the show at 9:30pm...
As you can see, the production involves hundreds of actors. It's actually quite entertaining, but I have to admit that I was totally confused by the story. It was hard to keep track of all the charachters, feuding tribes and what point within 2500BC-1830Ad they existed.

Of course, the event had it's critics. This guy is a christian, who was telling all the Mormans that they were going to hell. Needless to say, he had some people worked up, but for the most part, they politely debated with him until the show started.
Sorry there aren't more climbing pictures, but honestly, the nonclimbing activities were way more interesting on this trip. Oh yeah, I sent the Wyoming Sheep Shagger and Lee did her first 12b within 24 hours on our last day of the trip. Gotta love the high pressure, last minute send. It's always sweeter.