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.

San Juan Island: John and Marian's 60th

The Bolte clan got together the week of June 22, 2008 to celebrate my folk's 60th wedding anniversary. We rented two waterfront homes on the southwest side of San Juan Island and everyone except Zach (away in Austin, Texas) was there! To cover all bases, we brought the bikes and kayaks from Santa Cruz. The two houses were great. Both were on the water with great views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Mountains and Victoria B.C. One house was architecturally interesting (called the Water House) the other had a pool table, hot tub and great beach for launching kayaks.

The weather was classic Pacific Northwest. Sometimes overcast, windy and cold, sometimes warm and sunny. We had a couple of days when the water was calm and like a mirror for as far as you could see (a pretty long way). There were deer, eagles, sea/shore birds and at the Water House a family of foxes.


There was lots to do.

Kayaked every day with flat water most of the time, biked, played chess and Scrabble, shot pool, soaked in the hot tub, went fishing, sat on the decks looking for whales and did alot of visiting and catching up.

We enjoyed a very nice anniversary dinner one night at a great place called the DuckSoup Inn and then champagne and carrot cake back at the Water House.






The whales were there 3 out of 6 days. Saw a minke briefly on Tuesday, and orcas Tuesday,

Wednesday and Thursday. They were feeding and went through pretty quickly. Had a couple of encounters from the kayaks.

All in all a wonderful week. Great weather, really great to get together and a terrific event to have the privilege to be able to celebrate.

The Boyz

One of the big pluses of moving to our current house in two years ago was that John quickly became best friends with two boys in the neighborhood. The Three Musketeers (sometimes the Three Stooges) are pretty much inseparable this summer. Video games, airsoft, football, bike riding, skateboarding and hanging.

It's great.

Girls Rock, Castle Rock April 2008

Our good friend Sara Lucatello visited from Italy this Spring. She is always up for trying new things and we packed up the crash pad, a lunch and the climbing shoes and headed for the Magoos boulders up at Castle Rock.

It was a beautiful day. Sara went from 4th class to 5.8, Kitty cranked some good problems and I struggled up some problems that used to seem trival.










Had lunch in the little cave at Pyramid Rock and hiked back to the car. Reminder to self--get out to Castle Rock more often

Spring Break - no snow left in the Sierra this year headed to Yosemite for some sightseeing and climbing. Weather was great, cool but sunny(ish). Met up with the Latifs.



Swan Slab was on the climbing agenda. Bouldered a bit, then Steve headed up Penelope's Crack with Kitty belaying. Yikes! Midway up Steve comes off and pitches headfirst for a 15' fall. The last piece holds and Kitty catches hims before he hits the ground. Next try is good and he's up. Anisa, Kitty and me up next.





Steve on lead, Anisa following





Next up Kitty takes a go at leading Hanging Flake, John laybacks up behind her. We go the rest of the way up and rap down Penelope's Gully.










Everyone makes the short hike below the Lower Falls and Steve fires up the first pitch of the Jamcrack Route. Kitty follows and is lowered off, we ask Steve if we can pull the rope and he says "sure" apparently thinking we are kidding but we do! Still a ton of gear up there at the belay it turns out. No big deal! Steve re-leads, I go up as it is getting dark, clean everything and rap off the rings. The moves in the first 10 feet are the crux, then bomber jams to the ledge. Fun route.



Steve leading, Kitty following the Jamcrack route