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Memorial weekend on the east side is a welcome tradition, and I was able to indulge this year, tacking on an extra day on each end of the long weekend. Bryan and I left for Horton Creek on Thursday night, making good time over the newly opened Tioga pass. Rod, arriving earlier, had already staked out a bunch of sites. Dan, Lynsey, Keira and Tom also came out on Thursday, so on Friday morning, after being woken up by the baking sun at 7, we headed north to cooler country. We made the excellent decision to take Rod's 18 year old honda civic, loaded it up with 4 bodies, and tackle the dirt roads that lead to Clark Canyon. Most of Rod's car survived the trip. Unfortunately, given our late start, we only managed to tick a couple of routes before the skies opened up. After waiting out the storm, then rescuing a wet rope, we bailed and spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Bachar boulders, doing highball problems without a crash pad. On Saturday, we were joined by the rest of the gang - Jack, Kelly, Dan, Pascale, Eva, Ed, Vivian, John and Brian. We headed to the Pratt's Crack gully at Pine Creek, where Bryan and I started off on the 4 pitch Rites of Spring (5.10d). After some shenanigans at the base with neophytes and obnoxious locals, we headed up, making it as far as most of the way up the 3rd pitch before it started to rain. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, we bailed off a couple of old slings and were down before the weather got serious. Seeing as the weather wasn't going to improve, we packed up and headed into the gorge where we spent the rest of the day at the Social Platform, trying to remember how to climb slick tuff. Sunday was spent at Pine Creek again, where the crag was overrun by ill behaved dogs, their ill behaved owners, and gumbies galore. Despite the crowds, I really enjoyed this area - beautiful rock, pleasant temps (Mustache wall stays in the shade all day), awesome lines. We warmed up on Supergrinder (5.10d), a very mellow 2 pitch bolted route - more like 5.9, then moved on to Mr. Ridiculous (5.11a) and Gala Tumble (5.10d), both of which were pleasantly sustained and intricate. After lunch, we tried Window Shopper (5.11c), and Stone Cold Fusion (5.12a), both stellar lines. The routes tend to be technical and well featured, with intricate moves, more demanding of footwork than upper body strength. The gumbies and obnoxious morons were out in full force though, and I finally lost my cool at the end of the day (yes - I know it surprised many, but given sufficient provocation, I too can loose my temper) after getting hit in the head by a rock displaced by a repeatedly careless group, with a pack of dogs that were totally out of control. If you can't control your dogs, you should leave them at home, or tie them up somewhere well out of the way. We liked the area so much, that Rod, Bryan and I returned on Monday to finish off the routes on Mustache Wall. After an unpleasant warmup on B-Gizzle (5.10c), (while I appreciate the job he's done, I've never been a huge fan of Marty Lewis's bolt placements. You can really tell that this route was rap bolted) we ran a couple of laps on Flamethrower (5.11d) which has a very fun roof. I think the grade in the guide is a misprint - it's more like a 10d or 11a. The crowds were much more pleasant to deal with today - no flying rocks or roving dog packs. We moved on to Coven (5.11b), and Phenomena (5.11b), both amazingly fun lines. If Coven is a 5-star, then Phenomena is a 6 or 7! The clouds were seriously starting to threaten by then, and I was just finishing the new line (11b?) right of Coven when it started to drizzle. BTW, whomever placed the anchors on this route deserves some serious castigation - mantle up to a ledge, then a totally blank face from there to the anchors, which are at arms' reach for me. If you're less than 5.10, you're shit out of luck and won't be able to clip them). We packed up decided to head up canyon to explore Silverback Wall and the mine. The rain had petered out by then, but the clouds were still building. After checking out the Silverback area, which looks stellar despite the chossy approach, we continued up to the end of the road, and hiked up to the old mine. We had just reached it when the skies opened up, and we got pelted with hail and rain. Ouch. We raced back to the car, thoroughly soaked, and returned to the camp site, pausing on occasion to watch the storm. It was still raining at camp, so we punted on cooking dinner, and headed in to town to watch Star Trek. Much fun. Dinner was a very dissapointing meal at the Whiskey Creek. The next morning, Bryan and I packed, leaving Dan, Lynsey and Keira behind. They were going to spend a few more days on the east side, finishing up with a jaunt through Reno to visit Ed and Viv's new digs. We stopped off in the meadows, and opened up the Tuolumne season with an ascent of Needle and Spoon (5.10a). That first pitch is every bit as sustained as I remember - especially after so much time in the gym. Nothing like a bit of tenuous slab to warm you up! After lunch, we did a solo lap on Hermaphrodite Flake (5.8). It would have been fun to keep going, but the clouds were starting to threaten, and we didn't want to arrive back home too late, so we called it and began the long drive back. It was sooooo great to finally get outside again. I had forgotten what real rock tasted like, and I'm really glad that we played around so much at Pine Creek. That area is awesome, and there's still so much left to do there. I'll be heading back for sure.