Monday, August 04, 2008

The joys of playing in the mountains

OK so the title of this post basically is an effort by me to explain to you the reader how much my life has been a living hell since returning from the Middle Kings kayak expedition three weeks ago. On the last two days (days 6 and 7) I had to do some walking through poison oak. I've never really had to deal with poison oak more than just a bit no larger than a quarter. Well, I ended up getting it REALLY badly all over my arse! It was a really bad case. So bad that I couldn't even really sit down. I'll spare you the drippy, oozing details. It's finally receding and I can sit without wincing.

Chad with our route up Temple Crag right next to him.

Last week I decided to go climbing in the Sierra Nevada Mtns with a kayaking buddy. Chad is a great boater and like me he enjoys scaring himself on the side of a mountain. We decided to climb an absolute classic, Temple Crag.

Me at the base of the route. It ended up being nine pitches.

Chad snapped this photo of me on lead on one of the loose pitches.

It was a good trip but my poison oak condition made the 6 mile hike in and the climb a rather painful experience. I ended up having a fever due to the P.O. You can see in the photo below me on the approach at 4:00am needing to take a nap due to the fever. It really hit me hard. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we had to do this car to car because we couldn't get a wilderness permit due to the hiker quota.

I need a pillow... and some Tylenol!

Chad on the summit with the Palisades in the background.

All in all it took us about 14 hours. I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I hadn't have been sick. It sure was great getting back into the mountains on some good rock though. Chad and I have plans to do some more so stay tuned.

3 comments:

Jessica said...

Hello Tim,

I can relate to the poison oak agony...after we saw you on the river, I ended up with poison oak on my face. Luckily it was a very light case. Anyway, do you and Lora have a mailing address in CA? I would love to get it. You can email back at hlgoddess at yahoo dot com.

Unknown said...

Hey Tim,

It's Craig, Lora's former assistant. You guys are hard to get a hold of, perhaps on purpose. Glad to see that you made it back Stateside and are doing well. I'm trying to get in touch with Lora so if you could let her know, that would be awesome.

Cheers.

matias said...

yo Tim!
what's up man. It is Matias.
drop me an email so I have yours.
matias.nunez@gmail.com
and in case you want to pratice your spanish, i made this blog for family and friends. there are a few pics from middle kings too.
http://matias2000.blogspot.com/
hope you are doing great.

Matias