The CragBaby

Back in July, my friend Melissa posted the blog post “Martha Stewart” describing how she had made a custom dog collar for her pit bull, Honey.  I was completely impressed with my friend’s creativity and the finished product, inquiring if she would teach me how to make a custom collar for CB.

Honey’s collar. Picture by Melissa.

So, Melissa and I got together, hit up the leather store to buy the leather, stain and jewelry, then crafted away while drinking beers at her house.

The starting leather for Honey’s collar.  CB’s starting leather was LOTS smaller. Picture by Melissa.

While I worked on CB’s collar, Melissa made one for Tiggs.  Here is the finished collar. Picture by Melissa.

I really loved the deep purple stain on Honey’s collar and went with this for CB’s, adding in some large green bling and silver rivets.  I absolutely love it! Picture by Melissa.

We also bought supplies for leashes, but ran out of time that evening.  So far I have stained the leash deep purple, but still need to add in the jewels.

Interested in making your own collar?

1. Get to know Melissa through reading this fabulous blog or using this service.
2. Go out and buy some M&Ms and Beer and deliver to the 1822.
3. Beg her to teach you.

CB wearing her beautiful new collar. Thanks, Melissa!

I made my first trip to Elephant’s Perch (and the Sawtooth Mountain Range) with my friend DB.  I found the area to be stunningly beautiful, figuring I would share some of the pics here on my blog.

View from the boat.

DB on the trail into the Perch.

My favorite part of the hike.

The Elephant’s Perch.

DB hanging out at the 2nd belay station on ‘Mountaineer’s Route’.

Me striving to stay warm at the first belay of  ‘Astro Elephant’.

DB wishing he had a topo as he couldn’t quite remember where the second pitch started.  But, of course, he chose a route and made it look easy.

The view from Astro Elephant.

I absolutely love my birthday (August 18!) since it is the only “holiday” I celebrate.  Last year I started the tradition of working on a birthday challenge with 2008 being spent jamming out 28 routes in a day (epic!).

This year I turned 29 and now prefer bouldering, so wanted to search out 29 new (meaning never been sent by me) boulder problems in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

On the “magical day” the temps were fabulous, with a high of perhaps 80. We started at 7:30 am and finished around 6:30pm. I had a couple friends (Guillaume and Camilo) who climbed with me all day with others who popped in and out through out the work day, with a good crew showing up for the last couple problems at the Split Boulders.  (It was really nice of everyone to show up… thank you!)

Trying for the send of Shingles Stand.

The 29 boulder problems weren’t nearly as hard as the routes, mostly because we were focusing on easy problems in order to get in the needed quantity before our tips were too sore and because I still have a lot of boulders to explore in LCC, making “new” problems very accessible.  The 29 ended up being:

1. Easy Arete v1 (Secret Garden)
2. The Bulge v1 (Secret Garden)
3. Go Right v3 (Secret Garden)
4. The Scoop v1 (Secret Garden)
5. Cynthia’s Arete v2/3 (Secret Garden)
6. Space v0 (Secret Garden)
7. The Plane v0 (Secret Garden)
8. Left Arete v1 (Secret Garden)
9. Crystal Move v1 (Secret Garden)
10. Face v0 (Secret Garden)
11. Unnamed v0 (Secret Garden)
12. Jug Haul v3 (Secret Garden)
13. West Face of the Tower v1 (Secret Garden)
14. Tower Crack v1 (Secret Garden)
15. Walkathon v0 (Secret Garden)
16. Jugs v0 (White Pine South)
17. Warm Up Arete V0 (White Pine South)
18. Eastern Ways V1 (White Pine South)
19. Wacko Variation v4 (White Pine South)
20. Wacko v3 (White Pine South)
21. Fang v2 (White Pine South)
22. Ramp Move v1 (White Pine South)
23. Pinch Me v0 (White Pine South)
24. Rooted v3 (White Pine South)
25. Arse v2 (White Pine South)
26. Stacie’s Face V1 (White Pine South)
27. Arete v0 (Split Boulders)
28. Fook Yu v1 (Split Boulders)
29. Big Mouth (AKA Man Eater) v1 (Split Boulders)

I also attempted the following:

1. Rub My Butt v4 (Secret Garden)
2. Shingles Stand v4 (Secret Garden)
3. Drive By v2 (Secret Garden)
4. Over the Top v4 (White Pine South)
5. Hidden Fish v2 (White Pine South)
6. Karate v5 (White Pine South)
7. Full Mindy v5 (White Pine South)
8. Mr Smiley v6 (Split Boulders)

Overall, I hopped on a total of 37 problems and finished up the night drinking wine and beer at the house with friends.  Yet another perfect 8/18. Seriously, thank you to all of you who came out for climbing and drinks. I really appreciate it.

Camilo loving the Lone Star Taqueria.

Next year is the big 30 and I am already brainstorming a new adventure.  If you have any suggestions, please comment as I would love to hear all ideas.

Last of the three questions Lydia sent in was concerning safety.

Did you ever feel unsafe? (I’m getting a lot of “You’re a woman? Traveling alone?! That far? Are you crazy?!” from various people, especially my family.)

I personally feel that traveling in the States is completely safe. I have gone on solo adventures to China, Europe and Ireland. China especially was a little interesting, but completely safe as well.

If in real rural areas, I would often sleep in parking lots rather than alone in the woods. I am a scaredy-cat by nature and so not gutsy enough just to pull over in the woods. One real good tip, that I used A LOT, was actually Wal-mart parking lots. I absolutely attest Wal-Mart; however, all car campers are welcome to sleep in the lot and security usually patrols the area.

I was traveling in a Honda Civic. On occasion I did wish it had tinted windows as I truly had zero personal space (anyone could look in at any time). I slept in the backseat of my car and would often sleep with my boulder pad jammed between the top of the front seats and the back window to kind-of provide an extra covering. (Ha ha! Writing this now sounds a little crazy, but life on the road truly is a different experience.)

I noticed I also felt safer because I was traveling with a dog. There was no way my little dog was really going to protect me, yet she would bark at anything that came near our car.

I was often asked how I planned on protecting myself. I didn’t carry anything in terms of protection (guns, knives, mace, etc). Perhaps I should have, but I just tried to be smart of where I went and where I slept. I have used this tactic in all of my travels and have been just fine.

Picture from my solo adventure to China.  Within hours of landing in Hong Kong, I met two British guys who became dear friends, traveling with them for 3 out of 4 weeks of my trip.  This day we rode camels through the Gobi desert and might be my all time favorite travel memory yet.

I get asked these safety questions a lot when I travel  and I will admit that my mother got emotional when I told her I booked my solo flight to China.  But I guess I have the viewpoint that I would rather risk it and see what happens than stay at home living in fear that something could have happened.

Lydia, just be smart about where you go and you should be just fine.

I’m not quite sure why I have been slow to post lately as I have had content just waiting in the coffers.  Oh well… better late than never.

Picture by Patrick Lionais.

As mentioned in my previous post, blog reader Lydia had sent in an email with 3 questions regarding travel.  Here is question #2 with response.

What do you think was the biggest challenge on your trip?

As a preface to this question, please note that the trip was fantastic and I would highly, highly suggest everyone take some time off in their life to do a climbing trip or an extended travel (non-climbing trip) as the experience is invaluable (I am still hoping to do an around the world trip at some point).  However, there will definitely be a handful of challenges that present themselves.  These challenges will vary for each individual, but these were the three largest that I faced.

1. Feeling Lost – It is easy to feel “lost” while living on the road. I am a very goal oriented person and I noticed I felt lost for the first 6 weeks, not understanding why exactly I hit the road. (Yes, that sounds silly.. but I definitely met other people who felt the same way.) The key was for me to make goals. Sure climbing goals were good, but I made other goals of things I wanted to accomplish. I had to look at it from the perspective that I had a 10-month break from real life and decide what I wanted to do with this time. I ended up with a list of  goals that included a number of books I wanted to read, a daily time frame to try and learn French, learning to become more comfortable with the terminal window (um, I like geeky things like that), and I focused on journaling, trying to understand patterns in my life that I perhaps wanted to change upon getting home.
2. Loneliness Sets In – I was surprised at how loneliness could just creep up out of nowhere. I was traveling solo, how I usually travel, but I had yet to do such an extended trip by myself. There were definitely time periods of loneliness. Not loneliness for a significant other, but loneliness for a friend who already knew my story: someone who already knew my job, my family situation, my travels, just me. Upon meeting people there was always a “data dump” where people asked the usual questions and sometimes I just missed the familiarity of a good friend. And even though a good friend at home should have been just a phone call away, I noticed they really weren’t for the sole reason that we were living completely different lives. Interestingly, I made new SLC friends (a couple who I had met right before my trip and a couple that just reached out to me through my blog) that had lived on the road and new the highs and lows… and these people became dear friends. (A great example of this being my friend, Melissa.)
3. Finding Your Groove Upon Arriving Home – I think the hardest challenge for me was finding my place upon arriving home. I have been home 3 months and have yet to find this groove.  I think it is because I was coming home to yet another time of transition of finding a new home, finishing one job, finding a new job, hoping to make a move to a new destination, etc.  I have had a surprisingly rough time …. but I think the takeaway is for me to learn patience and just believe that things will work out how they are supposed to when the timing is right.

Hope this helps you out, Lydia.  Thanks again for writing in.