Day 2 - The Recovery

Sunday was originally planned as a climbing day. We didn't wake up until 10 AM so we were off to a good start :). We finally actually got to talk to the other people staying in site 29. We had a few crashers, but that's pretty normal. One of them was still asleep. He woke up and we just thought he was a crazy old guy, which is partially true. We didn't find out until later that it was Fred Beckey. Kris and I can now say we camped with Fred Beckey in C4, although we didn't know it at the time. We ate some breakfast and headed to El Cap Meadow. First stop, the river. There wasn't a lot of water and it actually wasn't that cold. We jumped right in. It felt great after the long hike of the previous day.

We hung out in the meadow for a while and checked out the climbers. There were several parties on The Nose, I think I counted 9. There were several on some of the South East routes but I didn't see anyone on the West side. We headed back to camp to drop off our towels and then we took the bus to Yosemite Village. We ate some pizza in the loft. Then we went to the Ansel Adams Gallery and the Visitor's Center. I had never been to either. It was nice to see some of the parts of Yosemite I never get to see. We watched the 'Yosemite' movie in the Ampitheater, it was good. We also saw there was a movie being show about Ansel Adams later that night. We did a little shopping and headed back to C4. It was later in the afternoon now. We grabbed the gear and headed to Swan Slab to get Kris roped up. I setup a TR on '5.7 crack' which is to the far left of the slab. I don't have any good pictures of the climb to post, otherwise I would. You can walk up to setup the TR. I explained some of the gear and knots to Kris and he gave it a whirl. He is getting the idea now and his technique is getting better. We will keep working on it until he can climb 5.12. It started to get dark so we packed up the gear and headed to the C4 parking lot. We sorted the gear and packed up stuff for a while, then we caught the bus to the Visitor's Center to see the Adams movie. Doh!, it was at the lodge where we caught the bus in the first place. The bus at the Visitor's center didn't really stop so I flagged down the bus with my head lamp. We finally made it back to the lodge. We missed the first 15 minutes but the rest of the movie was good. Ansel Adams had a very good sense of humor. That night we talked to a few of our camp mates in site 29. They were heading up to do Cathedral Peak the next day. Most of them don't have steady jobs, or even homes for that matter. I don't know if I could live like that. It's always nice to come home after a climbing trip. Among all the people at the table, it sounds like we have covered the globe. One person worked as a logistics expert in Antarctica, another lived in Alaska for a while, they had been to several countries and I have been to several countries. Everyone had interesting stories.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the Visitor's center to check out Kris's favorite stop where ever he goes, the cemetery. He took a lot of pictures of head stones, we didn't climb any of them so I won't put them on the site. Here he is at the entrance.

We did a little more shopping, then headed back to C4 to pack up and drive home. Kris took this pictures of 'Midnight Lightning', the famouse bolder problem in C4. I have never attempted it and don't know if I ever will. I just thought I would put it on my site so other's could see it and to remember that I have been there.

Here is another informational picture of the C4 sign so you know when you are at C4.

We headed out. Due to construction, it took us almost 2 hours to get back to the 395. We were in no hurry so it was no big deal. We got back to Bishop and stopped at Schat's Bakkery. I always stop on the way home to get some bread for my wife, Kathie. I try to pick up a loaf of Chili Cheese bread for myself, but they were all out when we got there. It's on the right side of the road if you are driving south on the 395. You can't miss it, look for the building below:

We then drove down to Lone Pine, where I always stop at the Mt. Whitney for a burger. At this point I thought the adventure was over. Once we got to Olancha, we started seeing smoke. I didn't think much of it. I thought there was a fire high in the mountains some where. As we got closer to the Red Moutain area, you could see the smoke was in the San Gabriels. We got to Victorville and could see the fire was huge. I checked my voicemail and Kathie left a message that there was a huge fire in the San Gabriels and there was also a small fire by our house blocking the 91. We were trapped on the 15. I decided to take the 10 which we could see the flames from the San Gabriel fire but traffic was moving. By the time we got to my house, the fire by the 91 was out, so we probably could have gone that way. As I am writting this, 9/28/2002, the fire is still burning out of control in the San Gabriels and is over 10 miles long. I hope it stays away from the Ski Hut on Baldy, I plan to go up there in a few weeks for the work party and then I will be checked out to be a host.