From their 2008 album “You & Me”

By your 4th day of climbing you start to feel a little worked. We decided to brave the crowds and the local bros and hit up the popular Battle of the Bulge wall. I hung all over some 5.10 handcrack, but was happy to get up it at all. It was my first lead where you had to use the crack for everything, no face holds. We ended the day by trashing around on another offwidth, Big Baby.

I managed to make the most of the good weather in Missoula last weekend. On Saturday, Conor and Cole wanted to put up a new pitch on a big route in Mill Creek. We climbed 3 pitches, the 3rd of which consists of a really clean hand crack that I got to lead. It was nice to onsight a 5.10 trad route. Then Conor grabbed his drill, took the sharp end of the rope, and burled out a new line for the new 4th pitch.

The day where we woke up to snow we went on an expedition to look at Critic’s Choice wall. A wall that includes the hardest off-width climb in Indian Creek, Belly Full of Bad Berries. On Wed we decided to climb there. We saw a total of 2 people all day, a big contrast to the action-packed scene at Way Rambo.

For Spring Break myself and a few friends went rock climbing in Indian Creek, Utah, a little over an hour south of Moab. We spent a full week surrounded be beautiful desert with world-class crack climbing thanks to the unique geology of the area.

These are all pictures of Tuesday. Saturday we climbed at Pistol Whipped wall but I didn’t bring my camera. Monday we woke up to 2 inches of snow on the ground outside our tents and had an unexpected early rest day.

For our last full day in Mexico we left the bikes in the hotel room and spent 12 pesos on catching the bus to Cabo San Lucas. We ended up going to Pelican Beach to try to snorkel. The water was just cold enough to make it tolerable for a little while. Definitely a tourist mecca.

The next day we put our packed bikes in a taxi, had a lovely ride to the airport, and I spent my last hours in Mexico reading in the airport. The plane flight over to LA was wicked awesome.

The next day we did about 10 M’s to catch a ride with the owner of the RV park who was driving to Cabo San Lucas, about 100 miles down the road. We were skipping a hot 60 mile ride on the main highway. Our planes were leaving in 2 days from San Jose Del Cabo, so we decided to get a hotel room there.

San Jose Del Cabo is about 20 miles from Cabo San Lucas and completely devoid of the nightlife that constitutes part of the fame of its sister city. There is a bus that runs between the two cities and costs about a dollar (American).

A 10 minute newscast showing the people of Syria fighting for their freedom against a murderous government. Absolutely gripping.

The dirt road snaked around hills by the ocean. The scenery was amazing. The road was challenging.

The dirt was replaced with sand. When the sand was relatively hard it was manageable, but bike tires do not ride well through soft sand.

Eventually we had the opportunity to leave the sand and get back on pavement. The paved road may have been the hilliest road I have ever seen (I am not exaggerating). You would finish a hill and think “damn that was hard” and then there would be another, larger one. Repeat this about half a dozen times. We all ran out of water.

It was another tough day of biking, and incidentally ended up being our last full day on the road. The riding from La Paz had taken its toll on our desire to bike. We thought we could do the last 60 miles to Los Cabos on a paved road along the beach, but we learned the road was only paved for 10 miles. Spending our last days of the trip biking on 50 miles of who-knows-what kind of conditions was unexciting, to say the least. The idea of relaxing by the beach was rapidly gaining appeal.

Leaving La Paz was rough. Lots of stores were closed because of the holiday and finding food in the morning was challenging. Also, we ended up biking about 9 miles in a completely wrong direction, and so we started the day with 20 M’s before we went anywhere.

We also decided to not take Highway 1 out of La Paz. We thought a side road would have less traffic (which it did) and take us closer to the beach (which it did). What followed was possibly the 2 hardest days of biking I have ever done in my life.

Taking the 286 out of La Paz starts with a 15 mile up-hill (maybe 20?). Due to our misstep in the morning we did that in the hottest part of the day.

The giant uphill was followed by a downhill of about the same distance, most of which was on a single straight-away. It was wild to be coasting in the same direction at over 30 mph for half an hour. It was glorious.

Our route abandoned the paved road (which ends) and crossed some mountains on a dirt road. We did this in the late evening. It was rugged. By the time we were camping I remember any sort of movement was a serious challenge.

Loreto was the sight of some of our less-good decisions of the trip. An unfortunate encounter with some local hooligans left us a bit demoralized. We were running out of time on the trip and decided getting a ride to La Paz, about 200 miles to the south. The biking between Loreto and La Paz was mostly a long and straight bit of highway through the desert. No one was too worried about skipping it.

We spent several hours by the highway 10 miles outside of Loreto in the late afternoon trying to hitchhike. Finding a ride for 3 gringos and their bikes so late in the day turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. We ended up biking back into town and catching one of the fabulous baja buses late in the evening.

The bus ride was probably my favorite ride ever. The road was passing us by as we lounged comfortably and without worry. It was one of the only times in my life I didn’t want the journey to a destination to end.

We arrived in La Paz around midnight that night. Exhausted, we managed to find a cheap hotel downtown.

The next day was New Years Eve and for the first time all trip we would be staying in the same place on 2 consecutive nights. Jeff and I did a 30 mile day ride. It was great to bike without the weight of our bags.

New Years in La Paz ended up being a bit of a let down. There was a stage setup on the waterfront, but the only ‘music’ we saw were cheesy guys with too much makeup lip synching. It was awful. The event seemed to consist of people that didn’t know how to have a good time. Probably me just being judgmental. I felt the Mexican government was to blame for this crappy celebration.

Another day of biking and we were in the town of Loreto.