Of all the internet cafes in the remote Mojave Desert, we happen to have chosen the one where we can't download pictures of our trip - sorry folks, we'll have to describe it in words now, and add photos when we can.

Idyllwild, CA
After living in the S.F. Bay Area for the past 3 years, it's easy to forget that much of California truly is farmland. A 5 hour drive down the I-5 to L.A. will quickly remind you of that. A 2 hour drive across L.A. - to reach Idyllwild - will also remind you how huge and sprawling L.A. is. I think if we hadn't gotten in the carpool lane, we might still be in Glendale!
We reached Idyllwild, a small artsy mountain town, late Monday night. Tuesday morning we were able to drag ourselves out of bed and head out to Tahquitz - a huge granite rock formation just outside town. Idyllwild is at about 5,000 ft elevation, and the summit of Tahquitz is around 8,000 - so yes, we had a large elevation gain ahead of us. That elevation gain came in the form of a 1/2 hour, very very steep approach. For those of you who have climbed and hiked with us, you are probably well aware that Chris and I are not exactly speedy trailblazers....even so, this approach took just about everything out of me. I whined most of the way up....Chris whined most of the way down, but the climbing in between.....
Well, the climbing was great. We did Angels Fright, a classic 5 pitch 5.6. The rock was high quality granite, and the view on top was really amazing. The descent was a bit taxing, and after a careful examination of our state of physical fitness, we decided to - yikes! - go sport climbing the next day.



Big Rock- Lake Perris, CA
If you ever find yourself visiting family in the sprawling suburb of Lakeview, or passing through, or - well, honestly, I can't imagine a reason for wanting to come to Lakeview. But should you find yourself out that way, there is some greasy 'sport' climbing (read: 20 ft run outs) on Big Rock at Lake Perris. After backing off a super polished 5.5 - (the thought of hobbling around Europe with a broken ankle was not appealing) we found a semi-decent 5.6 called Puppy Dog. Lowering Chris a good 60 m down the cliff to try to retrieve the quickdraw we'd bailed from on the first route left him about 20 feet above it, but a combination of downclimbing, intermediate belays, and rappels brought us back to earth with our precious $13 quickdraw. After that, we cut our rest day short, and headed back to Idyllwild.