Would you Adam and Eve it!

On the road again, this time with some new shades!

Would you believe it I am back in the USA again.

Last Tuesday I happened to have a chat on facebook with a friend who mentioned that he and a group of friends were heading to Joe's Valley for some climbing. This made me quite jealous as I love Joe's and was wanting to go back but was not sure if and when I could. So after a day of thinking I decided that in order to save my sanity, and believe me it was close to being totally lost, I would make an attempt to get back over the border into the US. I was not sure if they would let me in as I was refused an extension to my visa, but thought that it was worth the try just to get away from the rain.

I left Vancouver on Wednesday morning and said a sort of goodbye to my hosts. I was feeling very nervous and my stomach was full of butterflies, which is never a good sign. The drive to the border is only about an hour so if I did have to come back there was not too much driving involved.

I arrived at border patrol about 11am and after my brief explanation of why I was wanting to visit to check point guard I was swiftly told to go inside and speak to some officers. Inside the guard was very straight faced but polite and asked many questions about why, where etc. He then had a search of my car and came back in with some of my folders of paper work and note books that he had found in my bag. He took them to his desk and looked through them, then took them to his supervising officer where they both looked and pointed and talked about me. Eventually after about 2 hours of sitting and waiting I was told that they would not let me in until they had some more evidence that I could support myself on my trip financially, had something back home that I would need to go back for eg my house and have a flight booked home. So after another hour of getting finger prints and mug shots taken they let me leave and go back to Canada. As I was being escorted back to my car the poker faced officer suddenly turns to me and in a terrible Scottish accent asks me what Clan I am from!?! Slightly bemused and hacked off I say "pardon". He continues with the accent and proceeds to tell me that on his mothers side he has McPherson connections, blah, blah, blah. In order to be polite I just reply with "my clan is Harvey." and drive off.

I returned back to Vancouver and managed to keep my Dad up till early morning scanning various pieces of paper work that we thought would help my case. I then had to book a flight home something I have been trying to avoid for as long as possible. The problem with this was what date. If they did not let me in, and at this point there were no guarantees, I would have to leave Canada by the 26th August as my 6 months there would be up. If they did let me in my exit date from there would be different. Dilemma. The flights were quite expensive so I did not want to risk booking a flight at a later date and then not be able to use it, so I eventually booked a flight for the 23rd August. I am slightly disappointed with this date as I really wanted to fly home on the 1st September so it would be exactly a year since I left, but beggars can't be choosers.

The next day armed with my life in a folder I returned to the border. Thankfully one of the officers that had dealt with me the day before was on duty so I did not have to explain my situation from the start. It took about an hour and a half for them to process and finally decide that they would let me back in, but I made it. They even stamped my passport for 6 months, which makes my date to fly home even more annoying.

Finally across the border I could start my long drive through Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and finally into Utah. This journey was made all the more exciting because I got caught in a snow storm driving through a high pass somewhere in Washington. The pass was open if you had snow chains and since it was early in the day and I really wanted to get going I had to turn around and find a shop that sold some chains. I got my chains and headed back to find that the pass was now closed. I joined the many other cars and trucks waiting to get over the pass and put on my chains in preparation. After about an hour or so the traffic started to move. I had driven about 400m or so and realised that the snow had actually mostly melted and with the final words of the man in the auto store ringing in my head "your tyres will explode if you drive with them on a normal road". So I pulled over and took them off, hoping that the whole road would be back to normal. It was. I probably should have just waited the storm out rather than spend the $40 on chains but sometimes my impatience to get somewhere overrides everything else.

Snow chains for sale, unused.

Snow!

I drove until about 11pm and then stopped at a motel for the night to catch a few zzz's. I had a bit of a weird dream that night so did not sleep very well but after a shower and some breakfast was refreshed and started on my way again.

I was just going to keep driving straight through to Joe's but after hitting gnarly Friday night rush hour traffic in Salt Lake City, I decided to take up the offer of a couch for the night with my friends Rocco and Mary. They were going out that evening to a friends birthday at the local bowling alley so I tagged along for a fun evenings entertainment.

On Saturday morning we all loaded up and headed to Joe's. I have had a fun few days back here and am looking forward to hopefully sending a few problems that I did not manage on my last trip here.

Bliss. I want to live there, sounds nice.

So what are my plans now? Well I am not really sure. At the moment all I know is that I will be home on the 24th August and I will be back in Canada at some point because I have yet to climb in Squamish, there are places I want to visit in good weather and I need to sell my car. So for now as ever I will wing it. I seem to be getting quite good at that.

Photos by Caroline Harvey.

Orangeville

The Food Ranch

Orangeville is the closest town to Joe's Valley. It is the home of the Food Ranch where you could buy food, petrol and guns, it is also where I washed for most of the time I was there and most importantly it was a good place to get a hot drink and sit in the warmth.

Although very much (for want of a better word) a Hick town, it is one of the friendliest places I have ever been. Every single person was incredibly welcoming and always keen to chat. They were continually amazed at all these climbers coming from far and wide to visit their small town and play on rocks.

One very cold and snowy Friday we took shelter in the one and only pub in the county called Chicks Rock and Roost. We initially went to get warm and play some pool but ended up staying for about 7 hours and having a very pleasant time being bought lots of drinks by the locals. An excellent time was had. Many would not have survived the amount of alcohol consumed were it not for the 3.2% Utah beer. I however was quite chirpy due to the tequilla and sprite!

We also took shelter for much of our rest days in the local library where you could chill out all day use the internet and the bathrooms for free. Awesome!

Dining area

Spot the Black Diamond poster

Main street Orangeville

Housing

Garage

Wide streets

The story so far...

Ok, it has been a while since I posted and I apologise. I started writing one when I was in LA and never got it finished or posted, so the start of this one is from there and I am just going to add on to the end of it. I will probably not get pictures on but will try my best to get some on as soon as possible.

Well my few days in Boulder were chilly ones, the above picture of my car is what I woke up to on Saturday morning, the temp was down to -8c. The highs and lows for that day were record temps for October in Boulder.

After taking about half an hour to defrost my car, I slowly drove it back to the car hire company, praying that I would not slip and slide on my last day and cause expensive damage. Thankfully I made it in one piece as it would appear that although very cold the roads seemed to be very clear and non icy for the most part. I had traveled over 2500 miles in the Hyundia by the time I handed it back, the guys in the rental shop were very impressed and asked where on earth I had been and they were just glad that they gave me a new car.

In my attempts at trying to be more frugal with my money I managed to blag a free ride into Denver in order to catch my train and was then just going to hang out in the train station till the early hours on Sunday morning. As it turned out Union Station in Denver is not owned by Amtrak but owned by Denver city itself and so do not allow you to crash in the staion after 9 at night. So in the end I had to get a room in a motel and a cab to get there and back which was extremely annoying.

In order to get the train I firstly had to take the connecting bus to Raton in New Mexico where the South Western line is. This was quite an epic journey in it's own right as the freezing weather conditions made it quite exciting, especially since the bus driver, although nice was clearly quite insane. Anyway we made it the train and my 26 hour people watching festival began. Very amusing and much fun. A couple of interesting moments include a Boyz in the hood style white dude getting jumped by the police as he got off the train for a smoke. He had been drinking and giving verbal abuse to the staff. Then one of the conductors who seemed to be doing a mega 48 hour shift was accidentally left on a platform somewhere in California. Hours and hours of full on entertainment, much better than the TV.

I have not really done much since arriving in LA but the weather has been very Scottish, clouds and rain. I think the whole sunshine and blue sky thing is just a fallacy. However the rain is very warm, so it is just a bit like having a shower. I will maybe come back and check the place out later on. I am more looking forward to going back to Utah and getting in some climbing. We are heading off in that direction tomorrow. Exciting.

The drive from LA to Utah was long but thankfully uneventful. I travelled with my new friend Wes in his lovely VW Jetta, that reminds me of my car, except for the fact that the steering wheel and gear stick, yes no automatic, are on the wrong side. I even took turns of driving and managed fairly successfully to change gear with my right hand. Awesome.

We have been in Joes Valley since the 16th October and have had many good climbing days. I have managed to stay uninjured apart from a few cuts and scrapes on my hands so am pretty pleased. There has been a fairly constant stream of people coming and going from the Valley. There seems to be a never ending stream of people living out of cars and vans and meandering through life at a fairly slow but enjoyable pace. I am beginning to feel quite at home and very much like a climbing bum, but kind of wish I was maybe a few years younger, but hey, I have never exactly stuck to lifes rules. That being said I was asked for ID when buying wine in LA on my 38th birthday. Very awesome. made my day!

For those that want to know I have managed to climb a few V4's and a V5, and even put up a First ascent, not sure what grade it was but it was fun. I went for a hike across the other side of the river on the left fork of the canyon one day with a local climber and we hiked a long way looking for new boulder problems, there were hundreds of boulders but not many were climbable. Steven found a couple and made me try the first ascents, one of which I did, he made me call it Braveheart! It was an extremely fun day even the river crossing in bare feet made me smile despite the freezing temperature.

The weather has changed just now and it is actually starting to snow while I sit in the warmth of Orangeville library and type this post. It hopefully is supposed to warm up over the next couple of days. Fingers crossed, because it gets a bit dull when you can not climb and the cold makes everything so much harder eg getting out of your warm sleeping bag, making a cup of tea and cooking dinner especially. We have been making campfires at night but even they are not much good when the wind picks up.

Many of you will be horrified or delighted by my complete and utter tinkyness. I finally washed my hair in the sink of the garage/food ranch bathroom the other day. It had been about 10 days since it's last look at some clean water. I will leave it to your imagination at the colour of the water that I washed out. I am not sure how long I will be here in total but am looking forward to a very long shower at some point, rather than my spit and polish washes in a sink. Grim maybe, but to be honest I am quite enjoying it, at one with nature and all that jazz. It makes me smile just knowing that some of my close friends would be apalled by my smelly ways. Hee Hee.

Not really too much else to report mostly just climbing, eating, staying warm and constantly trying to get dust out of my stupid tent. When I buy a new tent I will definitely buy a four season one that does not have mesh walls. Mesh is not a good idea for desert living, every time the wind blows my tent fills with endless amounts of fine dust covering everything including me if I am trying to sleep. Not so awesome and the only thing that is really getting on my nerves.

On an up note I found 2 really tasty bottles of wine when I was in LA. I chose them purely for their names and designs on the bottles. I think you would agree they are very cool if only they would upload, so will post them later. All you need to know was that one was called Happiness and the other Evil. Both were very good.

Thats all from a very cold Utah for today and sorry for the lack of photos.

xxx

Thelma and Louise-less

Long time no post but have been out of internet and phone circulation for a while, and to be honest I am quite enjoying it, because it is too easy, especially for me to get hooked on these kind of things. I am enjoying the total freedom that every day life in the city does not bring unless you really try hard to resist.

Anyway, I decided to leave Boulder as it was not really agreeing with me, so packed up the Hyundia and headed West to the wilds of Utah. It was a fairly long drive just under 500 miles and about 9 and half hours. I was quite weird at first doing such a long drive by myself in a strange country, as all other times I have travelled over such distances in a car has been with my side kick Emma. However, I managed to navigate the 3 turns and then straight line of a road to Utah without any mishap. The automatic gears makes everything very simple, you just sit back and watch out for big trucks.

The climbing area I am in is called Joe's Valley, and has the most amazing amount of beautiful sandstone boulders. On my first night I stayed in a sort of campsite that was more for big caravan/RV's than anything else but was fine for the night. Since then I have been rough camping which is great because it is free but the reservoir is quite chilly for bathing, so not been doing much of that. I am a true skank, and kind of enjoying it.

Anyway, I have met some really lovely kind people who have taken me under their wings, so have had great company for the last week or so. Sadly after about 4 great days of getting used to the new style of climbing my back has decided not to play ball and is very sore. It always happens just when I want it least to be sore, and as usual it did not get sore doing anything great or heroic, just sitting down. It sucks big style and I am very, very annoyed but am trying to look on the bright side of things. At least I have good company at the moment and am in a very beautiful place. I am going to move on to nearer Salt Lake City soon so going to take some rest and then come back to Joe's in a couple of weeks and hopefully be able to kick some sandstone butt.

Sorry for the lack of photos at the moment but will upload some soon.

xxx