City of Rocks - Lost and Run Out

As some of my close friends know, these last couple weeks have been Hell for me. I've been coping the best I can, but stress and I do not get along well... Now enter City of Rocks, as I've stated before this is one of my favorite places ever. That thought was just reinforced last week, the City of Rocks is MEDICINE for my soul. I cannot even describe the feeling of peace that overcomes me just being there. (The main picture in my blog header is the view you see heading towards the City after hours of dirt roads and nothing-ness.)

View from the top of Skyline

I went up there with a friend on Saturday to do some climbing to try to take my mind off of life's curve ball that hit me hard earlier that week. It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend, mid 70's and sunny, couldn't have asked for better weather. And after a quick drive around we found a great camp site with some fun looking boulders nearby. Everything was already hinting towards what a great trip it was going to be.

Onto the good stuff now, aka climbing. We started out on Swiss Cheese, an easy 5.7, either the book failed to mention or we failed to notice the "R" after the 5.7 grade, that's how they tell you the climbing is a bit run-out (lack of protection). I decided to lead it up first and after about 25 ft I finally got to the first bolt, after about another 10 ft there was another bolt, and then.... nothing. I should also mention that I completely missed the anchors and climbed a good 10 ft above them and had to down climb to get to them, this route is about 70 ft tall so I'll let you do the math of how far I climbed without protection.  It was a super fun climb though and a tell tale sign of how the rest of the trip would go.

We moved over to Scream Cheese on the same wall. It was a 5.9 and I was still kinda freaked out about the last climb (I had never done a climb that run-out before) so my partner lead that one and I just top roped it. It was an ok climb, but my standards had already been set for the weekend.  After that we moved over to the Morning Glory Spire to get on Skyline, a popular 5.8 trad route. I decided not to lead that one as well since 5.8 is the hardest trad route I've ever led and was still feeling nervous. My partner led that and set up a belay at the top and up I went. It was a super fun route, and I definitely kicked myself for not leading it. After that I really wanted to get warmed up on an easier trad line. We found a nearby 5.7 trad route called Hesitation Blues and since I had been hesitating to lead after the first route I decided it would be perfect. A couple waiting to get on Skyline after us had just come off Hesitation Blues and said it was a fun route and warned us about the trail and told us to take the long way to get to it.

View from the top of Skyline

Now the maps in the guide book are ok... But for some reason my partner let me lead the way (bad idea) and I got us completely lost and ended up taking the way we had been warned to avoid. After what seemed like hours of endless bushwhacking we finally found what we were looking for. It was getting late and it was going to be our last climb of the day. I got racked up and started up, it was a great climb. Perfect crack for jamming and placing gear and a ton of holds on the face too, it couldn't have been an easier climb. After what felt like forever of climbing the route started to get slabby and the crack was a bit overgrown so I just ran it out about 50 ft looking for the anchors. I could not find the damn anchors anywhere and it was starting to get dark. I decided just to set up a gear anchor and bring my partner up to rescue me. He got up to me and said he thought the anchor should be to the right of us... Sure enough, 20 ft to the right, there it was. He put me on belay and I climbed over to the anchor. I was pretty pissy about it, I hated asking for help. I couldn't stay mad for too long though, after I was clipped into the anchor he pulled out a bottle of wine. I don't think I could've asked for a better climbing partner!

We had an awesome evening of campsite bouldering and a great campfire to sit and relax by at the end of the day. The next morning, we had decided to climb Jackson's Thumb, an easy 4 pitch 5.7 route. The approach was... terrible. I have never been so out of breath; it was a super long, steep hike up to the base of Steinfell's Dome and Jackson's Thumb. I was so happy to see another party already on the route so I could take a break before we started climbing. My partner was a total gentleman and let me lead all 4 pitches. We flew up the route fairly quickly, only stopping at the anchors to wait for the party ahead of us a few times. The route is so overly bolted that anyone could climb it, I skipped more bolts than I can count just to make it more interesting. The route is 500 ft, but not once did I ever feel any exposure, which was slightly dissapointing. At the top of the route are rappel anchors for a beautiful free rappel into the descent gully, definitely the best part of the climb.

Hazy view of the City from Jackson's Thumb

Jackson's Thumb and Steinfell's Dome

After the hike back down to the car, we decided to get some lunch before heading back home. If you have ever been to The City of Rocks, you MUST go to Rock City in Almo and get their pizza. Awesome little store and they make the best pizza's. Their dough and sauce is made from scratch everyday, and the ladies that run the place are the nicest people ever. We had actually tried to eat there the night before but got turned away because they were all out of dough, so it was an absolute must that we got there before they ran out again. That veggie pizza was the cherry on top of a great weekend climbing.

Do you have a special place that makes your heart happy??


Don't forget to check out my guest post from Venturesome Krysia on Climbing with Kids 
 It's a great way to get active with your little ones.

Pizza... Need I say more?

Yesterday while I was casually perusing through some of my favorite blogs for some gourmet ideas and recipes I came across my friend Jason's blog Cook Train Eat Race and his post Same Ingredients, 3 Different Meals. It was just what I needed to read. You see, Jason and I share a fondness for all things pizza, particularly pizza made with Naan. I had found exactly what I was hungry for, with one problem, I had no Naan in my house.



I had decided to take it upon myself to attempt to make my own naan flat bread. Couldn't be too hard right? I found this simple looking recipe for homemade whole wheat naan. I had all the ingredients so I gave it a try. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of omitting the maida and using 3 cups of whole wheat flour as suggested. I let the dough "rise" for 2 hrs and was slightly disappointed that it didn't appear to have risen at all. Now onto the cooking... I'm not exactly sure what a tawa is, but all I had was a cast iron skillet and it worked just fine. The directions said to sprinkle a little water on one side and put that side down onto the skillet. I did that and it didn't seem to do anything except prevent it from bubbling up and cooking right.

My first attempt :(

After my sad first attempt, I refrained from putting water on the second on and put it in the skillet with a dusting of flour from rolling it out still on it. It worked like a charm, within 30 seconds I could see parts of the bread start to bubble up. I flipped it over and was thrilled to discover this...

It almost looks like the real thing!

So after I finished cooking each one individually (note to self... invest in large cast iron griddle), I started on my pizza. After realizing I was also without tomatillo's (like Jason's recipe called for), I winged it. I drizzled olive oil on the bread and topped that with black beans, diced tomatoes and chili's that I had mixed together. While my naan was cooking earlier, I had sauteed garlic, onion and green peppers with olive oil and that went on top of the bean mixture. I topped that with fresh red peppers, yellow cherry tomatoes and goat cheese and baked it for about 15 minutes. It came out amazing.... I'll let you see the results for yourself.

It's ok to drool... It tasted as good as it looks.

What is your favorite pizza??

Do you have a favorite healthy recipe to share??