The City.

Chris and I spent a weekend climbing at the City of Rocks.  It was more like dodging weather than climbing.  We took a long hike that started at Window Rock and circled around the inner City and back up Circle Creek.  I got to see some routes that I had been too lazy to check out in the past when the weather was good and climbing could be done!

Mushroom Rock

I wanted to take Chris up a nice moderate multi-pitch.  I hadn't climbed "Theater of Shadows" and wanted to, so we drove to the parking lot at the overlook and started the approach.  The weather seemed to be stabilizing, but it also looked like it could go either way real quick.  

Do you feel lucky?  Well, do you punk?

We got to the base of the climb and started up.  Within about 5 minutes the wind picked up and brought a wave of rain.  I lowered back down and we waited for about 30 minutes.  We had a break in the weather and I started back up.  By the time I was below the first belay, a HUGE bolt of lighting ripped across the valley.  

The Gods handing us our asses.

Then the rain started again, but much harder.  I rapped back down and we bagged it for the afternoon.  We headed into Almo for pizza and Scrabble at Rock City.  After pizza the weather improved a lot.  I took Chris to Castle Rock SP and we climbed a couple of moderates.  After such an exciting day, we soaked at Durfee Hot Springs for about 45 minutes.  We made it back to our camp spot and after a couple doses of fermented malt, I racked out.  I woke up later in the night with an iPod earbud in my nose and my headlamp in my eye socket.  I must have thought that I was going to read before sleeping, but things didn't work out that way...

We were able to accomplish our mission of hiding another Mammut geocache.  The bonus was climbing on Window Rock and seeing the brine tanks at the top.  

Good Times or Pure Pleasure (5.6)(I can never remember)

The hiding spot!