After a blissful lunch and siesta at the Hidden Valley Campground, I spot a nice looking face nearby in the shade. A flip through the guide reveals a well-protected 5.10b route called Papa Woolsey. Ted took one look at it and said, “so ya gonna lead it?” I felt like giving it a try. It turned out to be perfect for me. Good quality, thin , slightly slabbly moves with some bulges and a big knob for variety. There’s a little runout at the top that gave me some pause, but I worked through it and came out with my best J-Tree lead so far.

We didn’t know the way down, so when we spotted some webbing and rap rings we gave ’em a try. They rattled around and creaked as I tried to get below to weight them, but did the job.