We arrived in Bishop rather tired and heavy-footed a few days ago. We had spent the last few days relishing in post-graduation delight with some friends who just entered the "real world." Big Red carried the 7 of us out to Saline Valley Hot Springs in Death Valley, completing the heroic 4 hour, bumpy dirt road journey like a champ. The springs are truly spectacular, and if you have a HCV, we highly recommend the journey. Be sure to bring some brussels sprouts and bleach for Lizzard Lee, the camp host. Unfortunately, our dear friend had a freak accident late at night on our second evening. Somehow, it still remains a mystery, a small, head-sized rock rolled onto her foot. Perhaps she accidentally stubbed her toe on one rock and another was dislodged onto her foot? Unknown. Regardless, the outcome was horrific screaming, intense pain, and a true emergency evac situation. We cleansed and bandaged her wound best we could, but it was apparent that her amount of pain did not coincide with the laceration we saw on her toe - something was wrong internally. We loaded her back into Big Red and made the long, torturous journey into Bishop. Pain killers saved the day. If you can, find a way to keep some heavy duties in your med kit for extreme emergencies. Open fracture and 10 stitches on the pinky toe was the verdict.

Our friends drove back to Southern California to start their own journeys and we headed out to the Buttermilks. The screams that seemed to puncture the night sky were still ringing in my head. She had been merely walking along and *bam!* broken toe. Now we were planning on putting ourselves in seriously risky positions, high up on sierra granite walls. My nerves were shaken. Is all of this worth the risk? We also recently found out that a former co-worker, friend, and backcountry-skiing hero had lost his life after falling into a crevasse on Mt. Ranier. The news had hit me hard, as if someone had hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat. Not him. He could never fall into a crevasse. He's the one who is supposed to rescue the less-experienced from dangerous situations. But yes, him. No one is safe when we enter into these sports. Climbing glaciers, ice walls, granite faces - it's all incredibly risky and dangerous. But yet, we continue.

It took a few days of sitting at the base of the crag to finally get going again. The memory of that painful night and the image of our friend at the bottom of a crevasse hung on our shoulders like iron weights. We could hardly get off our crashpad when we were in the Buttermilks, and looking up at the routes we so desperately wanted to climb, all we could say to each other was, "It's too windy. Let's go back to camp and read."

Our bodies are so brittle and our lives so fragile. It's truly a puzzle why anyone would venture into such dangerous terrain. Yvonn Chouinard called it "conquering the useless." Is it useless though? What do we find out there on the rock and in the snow? Some part of ourselves that Kmart and Target stripped away. A part that computers and automatic automobiles suppress. We find our bodies; our fingers, our toes, our lungs, and our muscles as they stretch and contort into improbable positions. We find the glorious mountain light and the crisp desert air. The flowering nolina and the singing warbler. We let the setting sun kiss our shoulders as we rappel down for the day. We let the wind blow and howl about our bodies, forcing our concentration and immense attention. In some sense, we find ourselves. In many senses, we find each other.

Well, it took a few days and a lot of reading, but we finally got down to business. We realized we were pretty out of shape after a week of hot springing and college dumpster diving, so we started with some moderates to boost our confidence. We then found two beautiful lines, a 10c and a 10d that begged us to climb them. We both attempted to free climb the 10c, Wild Garlic, and failed. Rob then attempted the 10d, Rubber Gloves and Razor Blades, and also failed. Pumped and a bit frustrated, we slept it off. We came back this morning, however, and Cristina sent the 10c without a problem. The wind got pretty serious and we decided to call it a day after that, since we were completely out of water and badly needed supplies from town. The 10d still awaits Rob's return!

For now, we are planning on heading out to the Owen's River Gorge and checking out what everyone calls the best sport climbing in California. The guidebook is truly mouth-watering, though we've noticed pictures where crack climbs are bolted! sacrilidge!

A few more additions to the Guide to Being a Dirtbag:
#5 -  Bring along a living Basil plant, but don't leave it on the ground! The plant will provide you with a sense of home, entertainment, flavor, and if you name it, you will even start to endear the plant like a pet. Water it, leave it in the shade, and don't leave it on the ground where the squirrels and rodents will devour it!!! RIP Basil, the best Basil plant to live in Joshua Tree NP.

#6 - Try to always have a stash of heavy duty pain killers on hand in your first aid kit. These are for EMERGENCY  situations and to alleviate EXTREME pain when you are in the back country! Pain killers can be habit forming and should never be used recreationally!! When asked what he would bring if he could only bring 2 items into the back country with him (including clothing), my Wilderness First Responder instructor responded, "Trip wire and Oxycontin!"

We are officially about 3 weeks into The Summer of The Dirt Bag and it feels great. Big Red is getting some gaskets replaced as we rest and shower in lovely Claremont, CA. Little known fact: John Long graduated from the Claremont School of Theology. Hail to the chief.

We spent the last 2 1/2 weeks out in Joshua Tree. It was a great spot to build our strength and confidence for the summer.  After a winter of skiing, our rock fingers needed a bit of defrosting. We started by leading as many 5.7s as we could find. Soon, we were bored and into the 5.8s. Then the glory routes started calling our names, so we pushed up into the 9s and that's where we basked in the beauty of the aesthetic Joshua Tree cracks.  The contrast was startling for us. While we had been fearful of decking and not that impressed with the climbing in the park on 8s, once we got onto 9s, we were literally floored by the splitter cracks we found and comforted by sheer beautiful walls with hardly any ledges on which to shatter an ankle.

In our last couple of days, we decided to really push are limits and hop on some improbable 10s: The Hobbit Roof 5.10d in Hidden Valley Campground and Left Sawdust Crack 5.10c at Trashcan Rock. We top roped both routes and dialed in the moves. We then both red-pointed The Hobbit Roof (a John Long original), which has a convenient bolt right at the slabby crux and a beautiful 10b roof that you have to pull up to the top. While we were pretty stoked about the climb, in all honesty, The Hobbit Roof has only one move of solid 10d climbing. We were pretty nervous going into the Left Sawdust Crack (10c), which is much more sustained at the grade and has no bolts. Rob led it first, taking a couple of falls at the crux. Cristina then took the sharp end and sent it clean after making use of a hand jam that was too small for Rob's big hands. It was a valuable lesson about the subjectivity of climbing. The hand jam at the crux made it possible for Cristina to send it clean while Rob's bigger hands made the crux much more difficult. We left Joshua Tree immediately, so as not to jinx our success. Showers and free food at graduation awaited us in Claremont.

We have already started to become dirt bag savvy and learned some lessons that are worth sharing with our devoted readers. We are compiling these valuable lessons in our "Guide to Being a Dirt Bag."

Guide to Being a Dirt Bag:
#1 Never pay full price for a campsite when there are plenty of unsuspecting campers for you to impose yourself upon. Drive around and pick out the campers most likely to be chill campsite-mates. Avoid campers with NRA stickers on their bumpers. Look for climbing gear strewn about on the picnic table. Also look for a cooler with ice and beer. Be friendly and confident when you introduce yourself - most normal people will gladly accept you into their campsite. Offer to pay half of the campsite fee and have other peace offerings on-hand to sweeten the deal. 

#2 Always buy day-old bread. Most super markets have a rack somewhere in a far corner of the store where they sell day-old breads and bakery goods. Buy these. You might have to wander deep into the depths of the store, past the Ensure and tampons, but you will save much cash.

#3 Always stop when driving past a college campus around graduation time. Try to appear socially acceptable in your dress and level of cleanliness and walk around the campus. Free food and champagne flow around graduation, and as long as you stay confident and don't linger in the shadows like a sketch-ball, all will just assume you are either a student or a relative. At night, it is worthwhile to take a peak into the dumpsters around campus. All the students are in the process of moving out and are too pampered and/or drunk to care about throwing their valuable belongings into the trash. In our experience we have found (sealed) packaged food, brand new Arcteryx pants, Patagonia shorts and a jacket and cooking pots, pans and utensils amongst other things. A fellow dumpster-diver who we met actually found a lightly used Mac Book Pro sitting in the dumpster! No joke, you can find some real gems around colleges at the right time of year. Also, keep your eyes peeled for textbooks in dumpsters or in "free" piles around campus. Snag those suckers and lug them up to the college bookstore, where they are most likely buying back textbooks. We recently made $200 in one day by simply pulling textbooks out of the trash at one college!

#4 Always check campsites Sunday afternoon and Monday morning for schwag. Weekend warriors always leave their extra firewood, water jugs, and lighters for us perma-campers to pick up. Some friends of ours actually scored a nice cast-iron skillet from an empty campsite.