Retreat

Last week Natalie went to Miami for the weekend. She took Zach with her and left me with Adri. The week before was the same situation only with the tiny terror. I have to say it's a lot easier being left with a five year old for a weekend than a toddler.

So Thursday morning I made Adri the breakfast of champions, dropped her off at school, then headed over to Gavilan Peak. I have been wanting to take on that peak for a long time but have been busy with coyote hunting. So for 45 minutes I drove around looking for a parking spot. I was on the north side of the peak and driving down half paved roads in my little Civic. Eventually I got to a road street that was really steep and went down and where the pavement ended it was really rough. So I tried to go back up in reverse. I couldn't see anything in my rear view mirror because the road was so steep and I ended up driving off the side a little a couple times and had to go back down a bit then back up. By the time I got to where I could turn my car around I had burned my clutch pretty good. So I decided no more driving on bad roads in the Civic and I headed over to the west side of the peak where I parked in front of a sportsbar. 

After having such an awesome time just trying to find somewhere to park I should have got the message that things were not going to go right today. I didn't. Instead I took off to tackle the peak from the west side. As I got off the street and into the open desert I could see that there wasn't a trail. I had read that there isn't a trail but people manage to scramble their way to the top. Well I obviously didn't pick the route way to tackle this peak. I kept getting myself in situations that were worse and worse. Going up is the easy part too so I never realized how bad my situation was until it was time to make a descend. On top of this I was carrying a tripod for the camera, because what is the point of climbing a mountain if you can't get a picture of yourself at the top, and it was making it harder to climb over the rocks. So eventually I got pretty high up and decided it was time to retreat. My daughter needed to be picked up from school and it wasn't going to happen if I died on the mountain. I should have listened to the crazy voices in my head the first ten times when I thought this isn't a good idea but I didn't. 

So when I finally decided to come down the mountain I couldn't remember how I came up. I had to climb down a couple 15 foot rocks with a steep hill full of loose rocks. On top of that the rocks I was climbing down would often crumble. Normally I got out in the desert prepared but today was not one of those days. No rope, no first aid kit, just a camera, knife, and water. I got down the mountain but I got quite a few scratches and splinters in the process. Both my legs were scratched up bad and bleeding and I think I can in contact with some of the many things I am allergic to out there because I had some nice welts. My arms were both cutup and I had something stuck in one finger that I finally got removed yesterday. I'm definitely going to needed to find way up this mountain before trying again. This is my first retreat down a mountain without conquering it. 

Before sunrise at Badger Springs, about a month ago.

Breakfast of champions. This is why girls have dads. 

From the north side of Gavilan Peak.

This is before it got bad.

One of the rock walls I had to climb.

About 30-40 feet below the highest spot I reached.

I made it to the spot where the rock is in the middle of this valley.

Coming down here I was trying to hold onto those palo verdes. The climb is bigger than it looks. Once I got below the palo verdes I had to hang onto the rock. The rock I was holding onto with my right hand began to break loose, about a 30-50 pound piece of rock breaking free, so I had to redistribute my weight.

After my adventure down the mountain I took Adri to see the Peanuts Movie. It was better than I was expecting. 

Friday morning I took Adri to the library to make gingerbread men before taking her down to Mesa to work with me for the afternoon. 

Saturday I was looking for something to do with Adri but I was tired and not feeling so good. So I ended up just taking her down to Deer Valley for some frozen yogurt before spending half my day sleeping on the couch.

Natalie returned from Miami with a six pack of Presidente. I'm not huge on beer, I'm actually a beer snob. I like Stella Artios, Sapporo some of the seasonal stuff, and the stuff at small breweries. Everyone in Miami talks about Presidente though so I told her to pick up some. It's a Pilsner, like Stella, so I figured maybe Dominicans aren't just making things up, maybe it is actually good. Well after having three of them I no longer know if I like Stella or Presidente more. Presidente is nice and smooth and goes great with cashews or salty chicken. Only problem is can't find it in the states outside of Miami.