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I was still feeling under the weather, and a full weekend in the
mountains seemed like a bad idea, but when Chris broached the subject
of a day trip to the Grotto and Gold Wall, my interest was peaked. It
wasn't long before we had mustered a foursome, and so at the ungodly
hour of 6:30AM on Sunday morning, Dan, Chris and I piled into Vivian's
car and headed east. I promptly fell back asleep, and woke again as
we pulled into Oakdale for the customary stop for coffee and lunchables
at the Richland market, or whatever it's become now. Once we got to the
trail head, we split into two groups, with Viv and Chris heading to
the Grotto, while Dan and I went up to the Gold Wall.
After a few warm ups on the right side, we stepped up to the harder
stuff, with Dan starting off on President's Day (5.12b). When
it was my turn, I shocked myself by onsighting it. Luckily there are
a number of good rests on it, but it still blew my wad, leaving me
rather pumped. We continued on to the two 12cs to the left, though I
had much less success with them, and then Dan finished off with the 12d,
while I decided that was a bit too much for my sore arms, so did the
11c instead. It had started raining in the middle of the afternoon,
but the wall there is sufficiently overhanging that we were able
to keep on climbing throughout.
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