Well, it shaped up to be a beautiful weekend after all.

The only down side from the weekend is that my dog, Elu got out of the fence Saturday while I was at work and hasn't come back yet. So, instead of going camping and getting up early this morning, we decided to stay home and wait for the dog to come back... she hasn't yet.

Erin and I woke up around ten this morning ans decided to try and meet up with our friends. The plan as of Saturday afternoon was to camp at Horse Pens 40 and then go up to Sandrock in the morning, so I was hoping that although I hadn't gone camping with them, that the plan would still be the same. When I'm out at the crag, I normally love that cell phones don't work out there but it's really annoying when I'm back in the city and trying to get in touch with those at the rock. SO, long story short we took off and hoped that our friends were there and we would be able to find them... but they weren't there.

I had my rope, five quick draws an ATC and my harness, and Erin had her harness- plenty of gear for a short lead on Girl Scout 7 we assumed. So we head over to GS7 and there were people on it. We asked them how long they thought they would be and the answer was 20-30 minutes, so we decided to boulder around for a bit before heading back to the route. While we were bouldering, we met up with a man who was also sans partner for the day. He helped us set up top rope in the bouldering area (too highball for most people to even think of topping out... Willcutt did at night, but that's another story altogether). The top rope wasn't too bad, it was a little body puzzle- once I figured out where I needed to fit the pieces, it was pretty much a cake walk. After the three of us ran up the rock, we moved back to GS7... people on it again. So we decided to tackle That 8, aka Kennel Club 8. I attempted to lead it, got the above the second bolt and got sketched out about taking my fist fall with someone I don't know on belay, so I came down and let him lead it. Once on top rope I cruised it! First time dealing with closed shuts, that was kinda a head trip having to UNTIE from the rope to thread it thru the chains, (don't worry mom I anchored to the bolts with a separate safety line) but I did it, and it was a good one to learn on seeing as there was a HUGE ledge to stand on and plenty of room to move around.

After I came down from that, Erin attempted it once and made it half way up before deciding she was pumped. We packed up and headed home.

Goes to show you that it's never a bad idea to just head out to the crag and see what's up. You might get lucky and make a new friend.