Camping...well, kind of

Adam, Ildiko, Chris, and I (and the dogs!) headed to Leavenworth, a crazy German village-themed town near the place where we planned to climb. We went to this one campsite (KOA) which was not what I was expecting at all; I thought we would be lucky to have an outhouse, but everything was paved, there was a swimming pool and hot tub, and the main office was a place where you could buy pretty much any foodstuff you might want. Definitely not what I was thinking of doing. But it was fun to swim when it was hot.

So after being in the car for about five hours or so in hot weather, we got to the campsite with the hopes of climbing, but it was not to be. I ended up getting a migraine from (I think) a combo of the heat and not eating lunch until 3. I was miserable. Eating helped though. After we checked in, we headed down to where the trail to the climbing site started. We hoped to get a sense of how long the trail was to the site. By the time we got there, I truly could not handle the heat and luckily, the boys offered to go check out the trail while Ildiko and I drove some teenagers back to their car after a long hike. After we dropped them off, we all headed back to the campsite for a swim in the pool.

The next morning, after a late start and the rest of my migraine later, we headed up to the trail. The sun was glaring and I thought it would be another horrible day. But everything turned out for the best. The hike up to the site was very scary to me because it was very step and there was a lot of loose dirt.

We got up to the site without incident (luckily) and the wind picked up, making it not very hot at all. We ended up being able to climb two routes each on a big granite slab. It was bit difficult to trust my holds at times because there weren't really hand holds at times, but the texture of the rock made for some great climbing. Chris got some good shots (so I hear), so hopefully he'll be able to get those up soonish. I'll post some pictures when we get back.

Now we're back in Seattle. We're planning on meeting up with Adam and Ildiko tomorrow afternoon to spend some time near the coast. This has been a great vacation so far, so thanks for planning everything Chris!