Delay of Game: Penalty...15 yards

So I was going to finish this days ago but, I have no excuse really. Call it a several day long lapse in reason. Moving on...

My roommate Zack, buddy Fred and I rolled down to California this last Memorial Day weekend to escape this Oregon weather we've been having recently. What we found was not Oregon weather, but full-scale monsoon season and hip deep mud. My two travel mates are training for the annual Cascade Cream Puff and they thought it'd be a good idea to go ride in the 12 hours of Weaverville mt. bike Race, in Weaverville CA of all places. When we rolled in Friday evening the skies were lookin' good, the trails packed and our spirits high. Thence came the deluge the likes of which the world has never seen (a small exaggeration). I guess things weren't so bad because the last time Zack and Fred came down this way their bike rack (with attached bikes) decided to fly off their car at 65 mph.

Despite some mild hypothermia, searing lungs, inflated quadriceps and right knee, my generally cheerful disposition got me through 4 painful laps. Lap 3 was about the worst I've ever felt on a bike, and strangely, lap 4 was one of the best. It's funny how that works sometimes. You never know when your friends the endorphins are going to stop by.

Zack and Fred both finished strong, with Zack winning the single speed category and it must be stated that he stopped riding after about 9 hours. The format was pretty simple. The course was a 12 mile loop that started at the Weaverville high school. Whoever completed the most laps one the race, or there category. This being my second mt. bike race I joined the beginner class. I came in second place!... Out of 3 people. And I'm pretty sure the other two racers were riding unicycles. But either way it was still a blast, and I'd like to do something similar in the future.

The muddy 3 mile climb right off the bat still sends shivers down my spine, though. I passed a guy (who was peddling) while pushing my bike up the hill. Probably the best part of the day, besides not wrecking, was seeing my parents come and watch me roll in at the end of lap 4. Here are some of their pictures that you've probably seen already.

Geology Fieldtrip

My Geo 203 field trip this weekend was one of the best I've taken. Most field trips at Oregon State end up being rain soaked affairs and I've gotten a bad case of poison oak more than once. Not that I'm complaining, as it's great to get out of the classroom. Anyways, besides the glorious weather this weekend, one of the highlights was the chance to play around on a certain sedimentary cliff on the Oregon coast and do some fossil hunting. My group and I found a number of 16 million year old invertebrates from the middle Miocene epoch. We found a number of bivalves (clams), gastropods (snails) which were preserved in a variety of methods. This included preservation of the original material, replacement through mineralization, and we came across many casts and molds. Another student found something that looked like an ancient mussel, but it was incomplete. I got to take a few home with me and I'm hoping one of my larger clam specimens will get me an extra credit point this week in lab. I just have to identify it first, which doesn't sound to easy.

At a couple of other stops (between excursions in our big yellow school bus) we viewed a a few sedimentary layers that were solidified turbidity flows. A turbidity flow is basically an underwater landslide that occurs on the continental shelf. Then the material was uplifted through plate tectonics and squished together just west of Corvallis. On no other field trip does the scale of geologic time seem so huge, and most of Oregon is actually fairly recent (we are talking tens of millions of years, not billions). It took a loooonnnggg time to create most of these features. I'll finish my science nerd monologue by stating that I think I need to get a rock hammer now... they look pretty sweet.

p.s. I'll also take this space to apologize for my liberal use of parentheses, but it's how I roll. Sometimes life is just too complicated to present in an organized fashion.

Last one, I swear

The Lost Rocks

And...*drum roll* a few Lost Rocks pictures on this marvelous malfunction Monday.

Amy watching Mikey up on the North end of the beach.

Amy trying a great arete

Our random seal skeleton to ward off evil spirits. We named him Simon.

Matt on the Button. That shark finned shaped monolith in the background is called The Prow

Mikey on a hard problem that none of us managed to climb

One of the best things to do at Lost Rocks is to climb on top of The Prow and get a little vertigo

The Button

Let's see if this works.

Product Placement

I'll be headed down to Northern California this weekend to boulder at one of my favorite climbing areas, the Lost Rocks. The area consists of a quarter mile stretch of beach or so with countless boulder problems of all shapes and sizes. One of the greatest aspects of the place is the variety of climbing one sees there. The west faces of the boulders (some are more monolith size) have been wave polished over the years and thus represent some of the most desperate sloper and slab problems on the West Coast. However, on the east side of the boulders you can find some of the sharpest most heinous crimping lines around. The problems are seldom graded and this is not due to that laid back California attitude. The nature of the storms and sand movement here make it almost impossible to grade anything. Case in point: the first time I ever bouldered there, I climbed one of the most gorgeous V1's I've seen anywhere. Upon returning a couple of months later, I found that the problem was now getting hammered by waves and covered with algae. Now back out of the water, "The Flake" as it is called, is not the 12 foot cruise it once was. The top of it is more than 25 feet high, and the start is impossible for mere mortals like myself. Here's my crash pad for scale.

I've seen a sandy landing be replaced by a bunch of cantaloupe sized cobbles in the matter of a few days as a result of the wave action. You never really know what to expect.

The best part about the climbing here is the ambiance. Bouldering next to the ocean in an awesome, secluded area gives the place a charm that is rivaled only by the Buttermilks (as far as California goes).

Some climbers made a movie about Northern Cal climbing, and you can see a lot of Lost Rocks in this clip from the Spray Movie. While I've heard it isn't the best climbing flick, it still gets me fired up to go climb there. Here's a few more pictures from my last trip. Have fun people!

Just a quick one

I'd like to commemorate the first Spring Mt. Bike of the season (Read: not muddy or unpleasant) by posting a quick pic. The trails were fast and the bikes were dialed in! One of these days I'm going to have to get some action shots, but riding and taking pictures does not increase longevity. Here, Fred, Zack and I take a breather just before descending the upper Horse trail in the MacDonald-Dunn Forest. I never realized how nice we have it here in Corvallis until I left for Auckland; the trails are about 5 to 10 minutes from town, if that. Hell, the trails go into town in a couple spots. Whenever civilization is pressing on you, a great stress reliever is to head out into the "Mac" for a quick burn. With a little luck, you can see the 3 Sisters and Mt. Jefferson on a clear day, or you might get to see one of your buddies wreck without seriously injuring themselves. Note to other riders: the poison oak is starting to look juicy...