Going Hogwild at Lover's Leap

John did the annual Loon Lake kayak trip with Bluewater Ventures the second week of July and I was doing the pickup Sunday afternoon. So, Kitty and I headed out Saturday morning for Lover's Leap. It was pretty warm, even up at 6000' and the air was smokey from wild fires. Surprisingly, the campground was only 1/2 full. We grabbed a site, set up the tent, walked down to stick our feet in the stream and waited for it to cool off a bit. Decided to go climb Pop Bottle -- a two pitch 5.7 at the far end of the East Wall. There was a tricky move over a bulge, then another tricky move up a crack in a golden wall. We wimped out on the boulder start for the last pitch and walked off instead as it was getting dark.

At the belay on Pop Bottle



Got up the next morning, packed up and made a short hike to a great-looking little wall with a route called Hogwild.


Hogwild goes up along the arrows






Its one 110' pitch that starts with a little dihedral, then goes up a steep face, then follows a nice hand-sized crack to a belay. Kitty decided to give it a go on lead, but in the first 30' there were few spots for placing protection and she decided to turn over the lead to me. Up we went.




Excellent climb although the crux moves past the first bolt seemed harder than the 5.7 rating. Rappeled off and headed out.







Got to Loon Lake in time to see the crew paddling back from the camp. Everyone seemed to have had a great time. Helped load up the kayaks and drove home with a carfull of kids from the trip.