Life on the Road (Late Summer 2022)

 I miss bouldering blogs.  And I think you should be the change you want to see in the world.  So I've decided to start blogging again.

We had the plan for years.  To sell the house in Fruita, and give nomadic life a shot once the girls were finished with high school.  To find out first-hand if Ashley and I really could dramatically cut our costs, and spend years on the road, by selling our house and not buying a new one for a while.  But I never could have envisioned how the plan would end up happening.  That our marriage would fall apart before the plan could take effect, the two years stuck holding together broken pieces of what we'd built while working through the divorce, or that I would still end up following our original plan by traveling alone.  I'll explain more in upcoming posts. But for now just know that I've been living with a truck, without a house, since mid-August, and that I'm enjoying it.  There's a lot to write about, let's start with my first couple months on the road. 

The first day felt really strange after leaving the house closing.  Normally I'd just drive home after getting my errands done for the day, but I had no home to go to.  It was hot in Grand Junction.  Way too hot to hang out in my truck or sleep anywhere close to town.  But I couldn't leave for Wyoming, or the mountains, quite yet.  My adventure buddy Josephine was flying in the next day for a backpacking trip into the San Juans. We had planned it together before I knew when my house would close.  "Who is Josephine?!" and "How did David become her adventure buddy?!"  It's quite a story, too long for this post.

I needed elevation. So I decided to drive up into the Book Cliffs north of town.  The air was cooler up there.  But when I opened my food bin, everything in it was absolutely covered in melted chocolate.  The first of many lessons I've learned living on the road. You can't keep chocolate bars in a food bin in summer.  So pack Peanut M&M's instead.  

Dramatic lightning surrounded me in the truck that first night in the Book Cliffs. But the storms all went around me.  I took it all in. A beautiful moment, a good omen, an exciting start to the adventure.

The San Juans were absolutely gorgeous! Some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.  And it felt triple good to be up there.  For one, I was backpacking with friends in one of the prettiest places on Earth. Two, I was starting a very large new adventure of undetermined duration. And three, I wasn't stuck in a classroom stressed out about the upcoming school year. These three conditions stacked up into a huge pile of gratitude deeply felt.  It rained some, but we were never caught in it without shelter.  Good times, a great trip!

Next up was a week of dogsitting, and working on the second Unaweep guidebook.  

I like dogsitting. So if you want a dogsitter, and I'm in your area, get in touch!  I get along well with most dogs, follow instructions, and like having access to a table and running water occasionally.

The next month and a half I was back up in Wyoming, and my time up there surpassed expectations in both how at home I could feel without a home, and how productive I could be.  I was immediately climbing with friends at the Rock Shop, both old and new, and saw so many familiar faces in Lander.  And working on the Rock Shop Bouldering Guide both up at the Rock Shop and in the Lincoln Street Bakery was ridiculously efficient!  All the boulders were easily found at the Rock Shop, and all the boulderers were easily found at the bakery.  

I made a couple trips deep into the Winds to get cooler conditions and do some exploration.

My first trip was up to Dinwoody Lakes.  There's a lot less bouldering potential than I expected up there, but with so much high-quality stone I was bound to find something.  A highlight was the first ascent of "Set and Setting" V5, a tricky problem on perfect stone in one of the most beautiful spots I've ever explored.

Autumn joined me for a few glorious days in October.  The leaves were changing, the days were cool, problems were sent, and we had a great time together!  A few days like these are worth a lot.

I finished my Rock Shop book, and the weather was changing.

I revisited Sweetwater.  Amazing as ever, and it hit me especially hard because when I moved to Colorado six years ago I wasn't sure if I'd ever see the place again.  It felt so good to be back there.

Then the nights got too cold, snow was in the forecast, and so it was time to follow the Fall south to Colorado and Utah...  Thanks for revisiting the Lloyd Climbing Blog!  See you again soon.