a pacific ocean view
santa barbara. i don't think i've been there in several years. i think i was still surfing when i last visited, which would mean it couldn't have been any later than sophomore year of high school. anyways.
i celebrated my final class day at csm by immediately hopping in the car and rolling on south. the stretch between san jose and SLO is desolate only in the sense that you want to pass through it as quickly as possible in search of other things. the familiar parts of that drive are so random. geographic cyphers for memories i assumed had fled. or half-fictions that make for strange bedfellows on long~ish drives.
a tent was pitched at cachuma lake after much bandying about at other potential sites. it's a nice place to go in the winter, although a bit expensive for my taste. i've long since warmed up to the idea of living out of a van. which is precisely what we shall be doing for late december through january. if not longer. you never know. my schedule looks something like this:
next weekend: give the van a shakedown run, head back to SB for the weekend.
post-xmas: head to bishop as soon as christi gets back from the frigid east.
new years + ~6: head to hueco.
late january: start moseying on up to SLC for the tradeshow and sendfest. maybe Joes.
february, post-OR: head home? work like crazy for a couple weeks.
late february-early march: crushing, euro-style.
i'd like to amass a ticklist as long as the geneologies in Genesis.
but i digress. a trip report is in progress, after all.
perhaps the best thing that can be said for the brickyard is that the setting is amazing. up in the coastal mountain, overlooking the ocean and the channel islands. not many areas can boast anything like that. the sunset the at the end of the first climbing day was amazing. the rock isn't bad either. it's vaqueros sandstone, like castle rock, but with a better patina that yields some functional edges. the features are often a bit more intricate as well. factor in a couple hundred problems of generally moderate difficulty, and there's fun to be had.
getting out of the tent in the morning is hard. both days we didn't start climbing until after 2. which, when the sun sets by 5, is rather late indeed. but that didn't stop sends of Smooth Criminal and Dancing Outlaw. christi was working Charlotte's Web (and getting a bit frustrated in the process. we eventually decided it was my fault for purely tangential reasons). running into buck was a bonus. if i had to adopt an older brother, it would probably be him. and what christi would do to him is unspeakable (but only if he were her brother). haha. oh man, some good times were had on that trip.
christi has - had - a beanie that makes me look like a mushroom. a lovely mushroom. we traded hats. she took my ropegun home. holding clothing items hostage seems to have become a inter-trip ritual.
surreality strikes at opportune moments.
i celebrated my final class day at csm by immediately hopping in the car and rolling on south. the stretch between san jose and SLO is desolate only in the sense that you want to pass through it as quickly as possible in search of other things. the familiar parts of that drive are so random. geographic cyphers for memories i assumed had fled. or half-fictions that make for strange bedfellows on long~ish drives.
a tent was pitched at cachuma lake after much bandying about at other potential sites. it's a nice place to go in the winter, although a bit expensive for my taste. i've long since warmed up to the idea of living out of a van. which is precisely what we shall be doing for late december through january. if not longer. you never know. my schedule looks something like this:
next weekend: give the van a shakedown run, head back to SB for the weekend.
post-xmas: head to bishop as soon as christi gets back from the frigid east.
new years + ~6: head to hueco.
late january: start moseying on up to SLC for the tradeshow and sendfest. maybe Joes.
february, post-OR: head home? work like crazy for a couple weeks.
late february-early march: crushing, euro-style.
i'd like to amass a ticklist as long as the geneologies in Genesis.
but i digress. a trip report is in progress, after all.
perhaps the best thing that can be said for the brickyard is that the setting is amazing. up in the coastal mountain, overlooking the ocean and the channel islands. not many areas can boast anything like that. the sunset the at the end of the first climbing day was amazing. the rock isn't bad either. it's vaqueros sandstone, like castle rock, but with a better patina that yields some functional edges. the features are often a bit more intricate as well. factor in a couple hundred problems of generally moderate difficulty, and there's fun to be had.
getting out of the tent in the morning is hard. both days we didn't start climbing until after 2. which, when the sun sets by 5, is rather late indeed. but that didn't stop sends of Smooth Criminal and Dancing Outlaw. christi was working Charlotte's Web (and getting a bit frustrated in the process. we eventually decided it was my fault for purely tangential reasons). running into buck was a bonus. if i had to adopt an older brother, it would probably be him. and what christi would do to him is unspeakable (but only if he were her brother). haha. oh man, some good times were had on that trip.
christi has - had - a beanie that makes me look like a mushroom. a lovely mushroom. we traded hats. she took my ropegun home. holding clothing items hostage seems to have become a inter-trip ritual.
surreality strikes at opportune moments.