Wednesday September 22. Great climbing all ‘round. Today we hiked around the back side via Misery Ridge (aptly named) took a look at Monkey Face. Bill did a climb on the back/west side of the area (in the shade) called In Harm’s Way, 5.7. This was great fun, with a large flake for the first half, and cool face climbing on nubbins and finger pockets for the second half. Bill did this climb many years ago, and it was just as much fun this time!
After a couple-hour nap deluxe under a big pine tree next to the Crooked River, we moved on to the very popular Dihedrals area and did Bunny Face (5.7) and a couple of 5.7 cracks whose names I don’t remember.
Thursday we headed back to the Dihedrals with the intention of doing Helium Woman (5.9) and Captain Xenolith (5.10b), which are some of Bill’s old favorites. Thankfully, there were people on the climbs when we arrived, because it soon became clear that there was no way Bill was up to doing either of those. Instead, he lead Bunny Face again to set a top-rope on a 5.9 and another couple of 5.7 cracks.
Since sleeping in your vehicle is not allowed at the Smith Rock “bivy” site (walk-in tent camping only), we stayed at a free BLM campground about 10 miles outside Terabonne. No facilities other tan toilets, but we were able to get showers at the park. Met some other roadies here, who gave us all the secrets of the road that they’ve learned over the last couple months of living out of their Hallmark popup camper. Much bigger than ours, but they only get ~10 mpg compared to our 15-16.