Rock fix

I ended up climbing at Taylors Falls today with a new friend of mine who I met at Vertical Endeavors.  It was an impromptu decision last night at the gym due to the forecast being incredible after the long winter, as blogged earlier.  It was a good day of placing cams and pulling down on rock instead of plastic for a change.  I now only have one new cam which hasn't seen duty- the big #5 C4, which could have been used in an anchor I set today if I hadn't forgotten it in my pack below.  Dumb.  How long have I wanted that cam, and then I didn't use it.  I'm sure there will be more behemoth cracks in the future.  

I was able to better familiarize myself with Taylors today due to the leaves not being in; you can actually see the forest through the trees right now.  :)  So, routes I have not been able to locate before were found and climbed today.  Nice.  I also did a little scouting of the WI side of the river, and have a few routes on the to do list marked for over that way now.  There just needs to be more weekends and more climbing partners.  And preferable less wasps, too.  I had to back out of one lead today due to having no crack to place gear in that wasn't full of flying stingers.  

Big mileage on the road bike is also needed if I'm to keep in distance shape.  The MN Ironman century is next weekend, and I may partake.  I may be heading to CA though, so that's pending.  I'll most likely choose climbing out that way over a prairie suburban century, but we'll see.  I do need to log the miles in order to pull off something bigger later this summer.  It may be the summer of the double.  But don't be impressed now; it's just talk and dreaming at this point.  Many talk and dream and end as posers.  Few complete a 200 mile one day.  I have the dream, but we'll see if I have what it takes to pull it off the mental and physical suffering of it all.  

Tomorrow will have some riding in store I would imagine, despite rain in the forecast, as well as bottling an Irish Red brewed last month, so it should be a relaxing Sunday before starting in with another week of teaching buttons and checklists and policies.  Freedom comes in short sweet bursts.