It seems to be the season of the Praying Mantis at Golden Cliffs. They’ve turned Golden, like the scrubby hillside weeds. Ann met one along the trail, then another came up to watch us climb and kindly offered to belay Sean.
Climbs of the day: Big Dihedral 5.8 (A very fun trad lead!), Deck Chairs on the Titanic 5.9+, Killian’s Dead 5.6.
9 responses to “Mantis Belay at Golden Cliffs”
you can NEVER go wrong with praying mantis pics. i have seen the most since i have moved here this year.
so uh.. see if you can find .. the what? what’s in this pic??
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/wild_beast_71/005.jpg
Walking Stick? Cool picture.
Where did you move to?
wow, my comment was rather misleading.
yes, that’s a “walking stick”. i was watering a bush out at WW and it started moving. i was really stoked to see such a critter (i ceased watering it).
That’s about as camoflaged as you can get, I think. So WHERE DID YOU MOVE?
*ahem*, DYLAN, i did NOT NOT NOT move. i am still here in donkeycrest, awaiting armageddon and so forth. should be fun.
going to NJC this weekend. *guess whose guidebook i am going to use!!*??
i wish you were still around. i liked bouldering with you. i can barely remember “how it was”. but i remember you were a hell of a lot more committed to bouldering than anyone that is here (at most, 1x per week, but most weeks not at all). sux. fo’ sheez. yeah, i do miss those days, but it’s weird, i can barely remember them.
my computer HD is nearly full (at home.. i got like 1/2 a Gig left).
i went through every single pic ‘we’ ever took and put on my computer. there was a quite a bit of deleting in the end. man, there was some serious crap on there.
but a lot of them were good. days in the ORG. lots of days out at WW. tons. that really wet “backpacking” trip we took in the White Mtns but wound up back at our cars.
just tons of pics. i went through them all. saw my gut change at least 3x. saw my hair go by by. heh.
i think i took your appetite for hiking OR climbing for granted, instead of taking advantage of it. i mean, it’d all be in the past now, but i really got a bug to climb and boulder and there is just nobody here that does it to get better. they just do it for fun. to get better, you must go LOTS. do hard stuff. but it just waffles like crazy.
I miss our WW sessions too. The gym does not compare. The details may fade in memory, but I don’t think I’ll forget the feeling of driving out of town, maybe having to force myself a little, then just getting absorbed in the desert rocks & air.
It’s funny, I don’t think I really climbed to get better either, I just had a big appetite. You did miss out on some good pack trips & overnights, but we did pretty well with our time. To be honest tho, I hope you find someone *better* than you to climb with – I think I was the one benefitted most from our sesssions. I wasn’t going to push you out of my envelope in the end.
I have all those pics archived, but I haven’t gone back through them. I think I’ll wait until I can go out to WW when I’m done!
“…but I don’t think I’ll forget the feeling of driving out of town, maybe having to force myself a little, then just getting absorbed in the desert rocks & air. ”
very true statement. i mean, you get home from work and motivation / energy is lacking. by the time you pass the donkey factory, yer just drooling with anticipation.
then you see it on the hill and wonder if there is any place anywhere that is better to be. you get there and there is so many rocks and you place yourself at all the different spots, somehow figuring you can do them all.
so funny. that’s how it has been for me… like “The place is played out. It’s just ok.” then i get there and i am just frothing. foaming at the mouth. i imagine myself hitting 3 or 4 different spots.
then i just melt into the desert surreality. content myself with one spot, then force myself to another. the pain of leaving makes the pain in the fingertips seem like a butterfly kisses.
check out these out when you get a chizzance
http://photobucket.com/albums/b124/wild_beast_71/2005_10_23_choss/
I want to get better Ted. I agree with what you said-but not the part about the climbers here not wanting to improve. I just think you haven’t found somebody (like Dylan) who *you* had a GROOVE with. Folks who are here are flaky at times-including myself-but you are needing a buddy, a pal, a climbing “guru” type. Somebody better than you would be great-Dylan’s right. And that’s just not here right now.
In any case, I really enjoy climbing here too and bouldering. I have gotten better since I’ve been here, but a lot of it is not measurable. It’s mental. I liked your last entry-it was spiritual and uplifting. Keep that going, Man!
Nice looking boulders, I don’t think I recognize them, but they look like the ones we’re talking about…