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After an exhausting trip to Geneva, I spent a short night at home before getting up early to pack and load gear into the car for a Memorial weekend trip to um... a place near Tahoe that I won't name to help keep the crowds down. Erin and I were joined by Lisa and Colin, and we all fit (barely) into my car. Hooray for my roof box! Luckily the jet lag made it easy to get up early and stay awake long enough to drive out there. We had an emu sighting in Placerville, which was later confirmed by Jack and co. We arrived in the early afternoon, and eventually located a really nice place to pitch our tents. I was finally able to make use of the table that I had acquired for the ill-fated Indian Creek trip. We had lunch, during which Lisa had a horrible accident with an unopened can of tuna that left her bleeding profusely. She felt rather faint, so retired to her tent to lie down, and at that point, the jet lag really hit me, so I did the same, and we all ended up napping for a while. After all the napping and dithering about, there wasn't really enough time left to get a climb in, so we went on an exploration expedition to scout out the domes, until finally we were driven back to the camp site by pangs of hunger, which we assuaged with a glorious stir fry that Erin and I whipped up. Yum! The mosquitos came out in force, so we built a smoky fire that really helped to keep them away.

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I got up really early the next morning, thanks to my jet lag, and was eventually joined by the rest of the gang. Erin and I had plans to do "Sands of Time", a 12 pitch 5.9, but so it seemed did everyone else - when we hiked up to the start, we found parties already on it, and 3 more parties waiting to go. Bugger! So we hiked around to Join Colin and Lisa, and decided to get on "Old Smokey" instead. It was Erin's day to lead, and she worked herself pretty hard on it. The worst was the chimney on the second pitch, which caused much pain and scrapes to the knees. She did a much better job of it than I! There were a multitude of colorful feathers scattered about the ledges, a testament to the falcons who live up above. Lisa and Colin spent the day cragging a few hundred feet away, where there are a variety of fun climbs to be had within a few feet of each other.

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Erin on Old Smokey

When we staggered back to camp that evening, we were disgusted to find some other folks had invaded our camp site, pitching their tents very close to ours. The disgust quickly turned to anger and hate when we discover that the interlopers were none other than Rod, Katie, and Nate. The temerity of these people! After saying hi, Erin and I dashed off for the reservoir, to see if we could go swimming before it got too cold. Unfortunately, the water was freezing, so Erin only managed to get in to her ankles, though I did convince her to soak her much abused knees. The next morning, Erin and I hiked back up to the Silk Road corner (for the third time!), and had a go at Silk Road. Rod and Katie got on Sands of Time, which is just next door, and even shares the P2 anchor. Luckily, Rod missed the P1 anchor, and continued 20 past the P2 anchor before setting a belay, which left the anchor free for me - a welcome relief as the P1 station is a hanging belay. This is a truly excellent climb, with sustained pitches of mid 10 finger cracks in dihedrals, slab, face, and even some dike traverses. Wow! We didn't make it up all the way (it's 12 pitches!), as we had to be down by 4:30, so it will definitely require a return trip. We met Colin and Lisa at the car - they had made an attempt on Old Smokey - and headed back to Berkeley. We made an unfortunately long stop in Jackson, at a mediocre Mexican restaurant, which we had picked because it seemed to be packed. What we didn't realize is that the reason it was packed was because of abominably slow service, as opposed to quality cuisine. When you have to ask for the bill 3 times, you know things aren't good. Never stopping there again! As for the rest of the trip, minus the mosquitos, the jet lag, and the tin of tuna, a most excellent weekend. I am so going back there!