BOBBY'S WORLD
The Winds
This was my first backpacking climbing trip.
I had spent the summer in Colorado training for this trip, mostly with Chris and Hannah. We traveled around the state, them in their camper van, me on my dirtbike, climbing cracks every day. On our off days we hiked up and then ran down 14ers. It ruled.
After a month or so of that, we linked up with Taylor Sky and blasted off north to The Wind River Range in Wyoming. This was possibly the best climbing trip of my life. Drinking water from pristine streams, camping amongst giant walls, exploring the alpine with some of my best friends, incredible.
Upon arrival to the Cirque of The Towers, we were greeted by a dog, Prismo. A day or so later we came to understand that this dog had lost its owners. We asked anyone we saw out there if they knew him or people looking for him. Nobody knew anything, we welcomed him to our pack. He came everywhere with us, even the billy goat approach up Pingora.
We climbed a lot on this trip, alternating from groups of 2 and 3. Sometimes I climbed with Chris and Hannah, sometimes just Taylor, sometimes Chris and Taylor. Each climb took an entire day. Alpine starts were a must and making it back to camp by or around sunset was normal. The Fred Beckey route on the Northeast Face of Warrior One was by far my favorite day of climbing ever to be had. Seven pitches of smiling. Taylor was on the sharp end of the rope while I was on the fun end. At one point I was just cruising in the flow, jamming my way up, then I paused and followed the crack with my eye all the way to the top of the wall and beyond. The crack led to the sun at it's zenith, with a circle rainbow around it. So dreamy.
So many other stories from this trip but I'll just leave it at that.
Yellow Tape
This one took me a minute to remember what exactly was going on. In the fall of 2016 I was at the local roadhouse, Peterson's Corner, watching the results of the election unfold.
The guy next to me points at the television and says, "This is crazy."
I look at him and say, "Yeah dude, it's nuts."
Then he laughs and says, "You don't recognize me do you?"
I says, "Well you look an awful lot like my buddy Andrew."
He says, "Bobby, I AM your buddy Andrew."
I had not seen my buddy Andrew in 2 or 3 years and that was back when we were in school together in Cincinnati, Ohio. He had since moved to Nicaragua but had come to The Ridge for the trim season. What a funny surprise to see him. He bought this rad grandpa edition Chevy to have some wheels up here. I had him over at the house either that night or the next day, actually, judging by the early morning light in the photograph he may have slept in his truck at Mesa that night. He was appreciating my bolo tie collection and I told him he could have one. In exchange he gave me a cassette of Scott McMicken's "Yellow Tape" which I would later find out is called "In your dreams" and 1 of 100. I had to have played that tape thousands of times and shared it with everyone I knew back then. Needless to say, the trade was in my favor. I think I passed the tape on to Aaron Ross. I found it on youtube, here's one of the songs. Have a listen.
Brother Dave
Brother Dave came out for a visit. I believe he flew into SF because I remember we gorilla camped at the Stinson Beach parking lot. From there we headed north to a bunch of my favorite coast spots. Brother Dave is an architect. When we pulled into Sea Ranch, Dave pointed out everything and anything and why they did this or that. "See how those lights lead your eye to that window and frame that view? So sick." We visited the chapel which was significant because Dave worked with the architect of that building, James Hubbell, years prior for a bit in college. If you think the Sea Ranch Chapel is cool, look up that guy. We went as far north as Mendocino then darted to the valley. Dave helped me work a few days at Robert Beauchamp's milling California Walnut for my work at Erickson Woodworking. Once we had enough wood to load the vans and gas in the tank, Dave and I blasted over the mountains down the 395 for a hotspring tour. What a time. At home I showed him all my favorite rock skipping spots down my favorite dirt roads, on our way back up we came across a man on a bicycle I did not recognize. We stopped to say hello and he told us he had just finished a days of work. I asked him if he wanted a beer and his entire face lit up. I handed it to him and he chugged the whole thing down right in front of us. So I just handed him another and he did the same. "Ok thats all I got for ya haha." We talked for a bit, his name was Tom and he had been walking the PCT and took a layover which landed him on The Ridge for some work. He has since moved on and we still contact each other every now and then. I took Dave to the monthly book sale I attend and I found the book, "The Craftsman Builder." I opened it up right to a section on James Hubbell and showed Dave. It was a feature on the house and studio where he had worked at. Wild. On this trip we not only got to see some of my favorite place and favorite people but we also got to find new places and new people.
Shipping Container
This was a wild time. The trip that started it all for me. I had only been living at Mesa, my old hippy shack / big kid fort on The Ridge, for a few years. Tyler was out here on a vacation and just as we had got back to town from Mendocino, we linked up with Brandt, who had just trucked his bike out from Ohio for his first of many visits to Nevada City. Dream Team assembled. Brandt unloaded his bike at Mesa and ripped up and down the driveway. Then Tyler took a turn. Ok, I'm up. After a quick lesson on what does what, I hopped on his dirt bike for my first ride ever. I got to the end of the driveway, about a 1/4 mile, and turned around and came back. You couldn't beat the smile off my face with a shovel. "I NEED one of these!" We hopped on craigslist and found one almost identical as Brandt's just down the road in North San Juan. We show up and it happened to be my buddy Jacob's brother selling the bike. Tyler and Brandt looked it over and ripped it around as a test for me. I gladly handed over the cash and was now the proud owner of a 1997 DR 350. We immediatly ripped around the dirt roads the rest of that day all the way up to Alleghany, me on my new machine and Tyler two up on Brandt's. Tyler had to fly back home. With hardly a day ever in my life on a bike, I was jonesing to go on a camping trip. Brandt and I loaded up the bikes with our skateboards and sleeping rolls and peaced out for Reno via dirt roads. There is a lot I don't remember from this trip, I do remember taking a selfie of us with the Reno Arch. We skated Reno and Truckee park. This trip is now known in the history books as "Shipping Container." When I used to dirtbag around Truckee, I would always sleep on one of the public piers on Donner Lake. When we pulled up Brandt taught me to always sleep by your bike. So instead of the piers we tucked back between the lake and a shipping container right on the shore. We laughed all night drinking bourbon, listening to the trains and joking about what was in the shipping container. The rest of the trip ruled too, at one point Brandt got a dog. Lem. Needless to say, this is the trip that unlocked it all for me, moto camping with my homies. Brandt and I have logged thousands and thousands of miles together each trip better than the last.
Coast Rip
One cool thing about climbing by the ocean is that it's always a cool hang. It has led me to some really cool remote spots that I would never have been if it were not for some climbing guide book or mountain project post. And when you're out of juice you can comb the beaches or explore the tide pools.
Silpda
My friends Chris and Hannah were in Silverthorne at Guy's place, so I stopped through for a while to kick it with them. We climbed around Mount Evans, Red Cliff, Independence Pass, and Rifle, and hiked around a bunch. I always enjoy dirtbagging around with these two.
Heading East
When driving anywhere, I like to stop a lot. Even on routes that I have driven a bunch. As long as I have the time, heck, even when I don't have the time, I stop. This trip was along I-80 from Nevada City to SLC. This trip had all my usual suspects, Thunder Mountain, The Star Hotel, the salt flats, ect. Before he moved south, I used to visit my buddy Sam Milianta every time I was in SLC. I met Sam through the mail. We used to trade photos with each other almost every week through Jai Tanju's Film Por Vida Print Exchange Program. Thats actually how I met a lot of the characters I would visit when traveling. Sam is an amazing photographer and elementary school educator amongst many other things. Every time I would visit him, he would take me to a different place where everyone new him. This day we met up for lunch and coffee. While in line, I noticed multiple school portraits of Sam around the room. I pointed them out and looked at Sam and he said, "I come here a lot."
Moon Set / Sun Rise
A trip to the coast with Ben to pull on stones. We climbed until sunset and cracked beers in the parking lot with a guy living in a bus. We thought about camping in the van in the parking lot despite the no camping signs, surely the ranger already did their rounds. We chickened out and found a nice pull out with this view of the river dumping into the ocean. When out and about, I always wake up to catch the first light. Just as the full moon was setting on the horizon, up comes the sun.
