Shelf Road ' N

A campsite filling group of us traveled down south for 4 days of climbing on Shelf's always impressive limestone.

The crew - Jerm, Lisa, Ryan'o, J-Rock, mua, Kster

Shelf Road: Nearing 1000 vertical pocketed routes on bulletproof limestone.  Shelf probably sits #3 on my list of favorite limestone crags visited this year.  (Spearfish, Ten Sleep, Shelf)  One great attribute of Shelf is however the possibility for winter climbing.

Newly released Shelf guidebook: Bob D. Antonio (2010).  I believe this is book #3 or #4 published for the area. This new release is the first to contain all shelf crags and to utilize color photos. Warning: There have been a few reported errors in the guide. One such example exists on the Spiney Ridge section of the guide book and involves two classic routes: Toxxxic Entertainment (5.10a) and Purple Toe Nails (5.11c).  The route tracing drawn/transposed over the color photo are shifted.  Making Purple Toe Nails look like its neighbor Toxxxic Entertainment.  The error caused me to jump on Purple Toe Tails instead of Toxxxic Entrainment as warm up number two for the morning.  In fear of not on-sighting a 5.10a as the flash pump reached painful levels I thankfully reached the anchors.  After reaching the ground and grasping my forearms in embarrassment, I was greeted by another couple saying "Nicely done, that's a hard route"  I responded "that's the hardest fn 10a I have ever done"!  "NO NO You just on-sighted Purple Toe Nails a classic 5.11c"  Thank goodness I was just about to go back to camp and drink beers.  Anyway heads up with the new guidebook:)
        

Cactus Cliff - A popular colder weather crag

K on Urban Fringe (5.10d)

Ryan on LaCholla Jackson (5.9)

Me on Funkdemental (5.11b)

Ryan on Ga-Stoned Again (5.9)

Noteworthy Sends:

Funkdemental 5.11b

• FL

Purple Toe Nails 5.11c

• OS

Pot Pie Pizza & Da "Bers" - The Windy City

Chicago with the Casey's!  Finally made it out to K's crib:)  This visit was long overdue:)  What a perfect time to visit the windy city, which really was more like the sunny city for our 5 day visit.  I mean really.... a Bears game in early October, in short sleeves, like I said perfect timing.

Trip Highlights (many more then whats listed below)

• CPOG (chicago pizza & oven grinder company)   

• Pizza Pot Pies:  what a Chicago welcoming, from the airport to the CPOG 
• Valentine's Day Massacre: a garage directly across from the CPOG was thought to of housed the sub-machine guns that brought the notorious “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” to headlines around the world. Rumor has it that the house at 2121 North Clark (now CPOG) served as a lookout post for the hoodlum henchmen of the Valentine gunners.

• Wendella Chicago River Architecture Tour

• Chicago's architectural heritage is considered to be among the finest in the world...what better way to view the magnificent structures then via Chicago River.  Wendella boasts as Chicago's only tour boat company with a dedicated, in-house education department allowing the docents to provide a unique and entertaining insight into Chicago's architecture.  Great idea Debbie:) 

Tribune Tower (On June 10, 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, and offered $100,000 in prize money for "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world". The competition worked brilliantly for months as a publicity stunt, and the resulting entries still reveal a unique turning
point in American architectural history. More than 260 entries were received.)

One of my favs.  The architect purposefully used specifically curved glass windows to capture the reflection of surrounding buildings

Sears....I mean Willis Tower as it was renamed in 2009. Once the tallest building in the world, now remains as the tallest building in the US (108 floors, 1,451')

 

• Bears vs Panthers (10/2/11 Soldier Field)

• Starting with a taste of tailgating.. NFL style with Chicago's diehards
• I also learned during a phone call to brag to my pops about getting to watch a game at Soldier Field...It turns out he one upped me - He played at Soldier Field against Navy with the Air Force Academy back in 1966

Tailgating at Soldier Field - Now these guys had the setup!  A convert into a party ambulance:)

Not bad for the "Nosebleeds" - Bears won 34-31 - Do you think in 1966 the endzone graphics were in black and white? :)

• Wrigleyville  & Bears victory celebration at Chicago's top 3 bars
• After the bears game, Kristin got this rural raised city slacker on the L (elevated train) to Wrigleyville
• Formerly a working-class neighborhood, Wrigleyville is the nickname to the neighborhood directly surrounding Wrigley Field, which is more commonly referred to as Central Lakeview.  
• The top 3 Bars:
• Sheffield's Beer Garden (located in 3 blocks south of Wrigley Field)
• The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge (Shades of Al Capone's heyday are found in the wall memorabilia. Ask the bar tender about the famous booth where he and his henchmen could keep a cautious eye on both doors)
• The Hopleaf (Chicago's best Belgium Style Muscles, and one heck of a beer list)

Waveland Avenue and the Wrigley Rooftops  (Wrigley roofs have dotted the neighborhood of Wrigleyville around Wrigley Field. Venues on Waveland Avenue overlook left field, while those along Sheffield Avenue have a view over right field)

Already looking forward to our next visit to the Casey's in Chicago.  Maybe next time we will remmber to get a group photo:)  In the meantime we will keep working on a McQuade/Casey Colorado Christmas:)

Hormone of Darkness and Limestone Gripping - Spearfish Canyon, SD

N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine (Melatonin): levels of the hormone melatonin vary in a daily cycle, thereby allowing the entrainment of the circadian rhythms of several biological functions.

• Hows it work: melatonin is secreted into the blood by the pineal gland in the brain. Known as the "hormone of darkness" it is secreted in darkness in both day-active (diurnal) and night-active (nocturnal) animals.
• May explain why one of my night techs is a quiet/sleepy dude.  He tends to work in the IV room in the dark.....hmmm

• Recommended Uses per Chuck and Kristin:  For you night shifters out there, this stuff rocks.  Useful for flip overs, wicked vivid dreams and discovered on this trip to Spearfish: aides in some of the best tent sleep I have ever had:)

Granted we had the whole campground to ourselves:)

Also aiding in tent sleep, Crow Peak IPA: The local brewery in Spearfish. Likely the only microbrew in SD.  We had to resort to the can since the brewery was in the process of filtering the new batch of IPA.

• Melatonin & Dreaming: Some supplemental melatonin users report an increase in vivid dreaming. Extremely high doses of melatonin (50 mg) dramatically increased REM sleep time and dream activity in both people with and without narcolepsy. Many psychoactive drugs, such as cannabis and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), increase melatonin synthesis.....Know any sleepy pot heads?

• *Note*  50mg doses started above are extremely high doses utilized in a clinical trial assessing dream activity associated with extremely high doses.  The recommended doses are much lower.  We suggest starting with 3mg doses with the potential to increase to 6mg.  We cannot suggest doses above this as we have no experience with doses greater then 6mg.

Spearfish Limestone:

• The Guidebook Spearfish Canyon, The VC, and other Black Hills Limestone Guidebook, by Mike Croni. Buy here

The climbing was absolutely RAD! Prior to this trip I was in love with Ten Sleep Canyon Limestone, now I'm pretty sure I'm cheating on Ten Sleep with Spearfish:)  We climbed 4 days and mountain biked 1 day.  During the 4 days of climbing it wasn't until the last route of the trip that we saw someone, a couple that came down from Canada.  We also took in some live music in Deadwood, SD during a rest day.  

Roughlock Falls, Spearfish Canyon

Dances with Wolves Film Site, Spearfish Canyon

Black Hills Mtn Biking - right from the back door of our tent

The Prow - Sunshine Wall Crag

Astro Pop - The Firsts- Sunshine Wall Crag

The approach to The Dark Side Crag

Rapping after a route above an old mine shaft

Rest Day in Deadwood, SD

Deadwood music festival, the cheapseats (free)

Cant wait to return to the SF

Noteworthy Sends:

Merchants of Death 5.11a

• OS

Courtesy Drip 5.11a

• OS

Astro Pop 5.11b

• OS

Backyard Biking - A Little Taster

Its been quiet sometime since our last post.  I guess that means we have been having to much fun to sit in front of computers and create blog posts:)  Its amazing how fast the summer months have flown by since our relocation to G-Town.  Most of the summer has been spent rock gripping, its just so hard to do anything else with all the epic rock around here.  We've managed many mountain bike rides within the area, however not enough high alpine rides....and there has already been snow topping higher elevation peaks!  I guess the alpine rides will be on the docket for next season.

GPS Tracks:

• Dedisse Trail, near Evergreen, Colorado
• Bergen Peak Trail, near Evergreen, Colorado
• Centennial Cone Trail, Clear Creek Canyon, Colorado
• Kenosha Pass Trail, near Como, Colorado (18 of 30 miles completed)
• unable to complete Kenosha pass trail, typically ridden as a 30+ mile ride over Georgia pass finishing with a mind blowing brake slamming descent into the town of Breckenridge.  If you don't have willing friends to pick your now sore behind up in breck and drive you back to your car at Kenosha Pass the ride turn into 60 miles with over 8000' vertical gain. 
• Kenosha Pass to Georgia Pass to Breck is regarded by many as one of the best portions of the Colorado Trail for mtn bikers. Next time some butt butter and an earlier start.  Oh ya we wont forget the beer to bribe friends to pick us up in Breck and shuttle us back to the truck:)

 

K grinding it out (Dedisse Trail)

Running from the eye, we later got hammered (Centennial Cone Trail)

Ten Mile/Mosquito Range (Kenosha Pass Trail)