Three Corner Rock Trail

A strong mountain biker on a casual trail

Jerry and I were mountain biking from the lower parking lot beginning at the 3-Corner Rock Trailhead. He was a virtual pro at mountain biking, and I was a total novice (having only peddled on streets and 1-2 brief minor trails in town). But I was a strong rock climber and an energetic honed mountaineer so I naturally assumed the two activities should help me with the peddling. 

In a mere minute or so after departure from the trailhead, he was gone in a fast ZOOM up the trail in a biking dash, but just a few hundred feet up the trail I quickly found myself pushing the bike....a lot more than I had anticipated, for whenever it went up a steep enough grade I burned out of lung capacity, simply because the concept of how to mtn bike-ology was not ingrained into my skill set yet. That skill set takes years of intense practice.

Each time I did catch up to him he was sitting alongside the trail, waiting patiently for me to catch up, while he casually was lounging about smoking and cigarette and smiling at my out-of-shape condition for this sport activity.

We both eventually crossed the foot bridge over the creek and then continued pedaling up the next long zigzag trail grade till we both eventually reached to the USFS gravel road. I quit there at the gravel road and opted to wait, while he dashed off uphill -- him and his speeding mountain bike -- on up the upper portion of the trail en route to the very summit of Three Corner Rock. Yet this year in early June the summit zone of the peak was still covered in random deep snowdrifts. 

So, at that gravel USFS road junction where the trail crossed over it....I waited, and waited, and waited...for what must have been several hours. It seemed like forever, but eventually I heard a sound of racket coming from the south (on the gravel road), and from around a bend in the road he came pedaling into view, and finally arrived, stepped off his bike and sat down to smoke a cigarette.

He explained that the upper portion of the peak had so many snow drifts that he resorted to pushing his bike the remainder of the way to the summit. He was not too eager to push his bike back down a considerable portion of the same trail, and he glanced southward and noticed that the main gravel road going southward had minimal snow drifts on it. So he decided to pedal south for several long miles, till he reached the 3-way junction, then cut back NW on the west side USFS gravel road that returned past the location where I sat patiently waiting. Hours went by during this whole process, and he did not escape all the snowdrifts, for apparently there were still notable section in the thick forest -- even on the road -- where he had to resort to pushing his bicycle for long distances. Thus it was HOURS while I patiently waited. 

Wow, I thought to myself, he had unlimited physical energy level all committed to the sport of mountain biking....

As a team, we jumped back on our bikes and, from that forest road, we sped off down hill along the Three Corner Rock Trail travelling down to the footbridge, along the lower forested hills trail in fast time on our bikes, racing all the way back to our vehicle parking spot along the Washougal River road.

Jerry pointed out to us that this particular trail (Three Corner Rock Trail) is considered to be an "easy" mountain bike journey for most mountain bikers. I got quite a laugh when I heard that comment....

"Easy for whom?"....

Let The Music Play

 Our large weekend multi-day climbing group, which had been in separate smaller teams during the day, returned at the end of a long Smith Rock climbing day to the picnic tables near the parking lot, and we all began unloading from our vehicles, all the various food delicacies, pans, utensils and lounge chairs that will be needed for this evenings meal preparations. The items all got heaped around one main wooden picnic table as the late evening sunlight cut a low angled brilliant hot shaft of sunlight across the green lawn. It was a hot calm late evening day in the month of August, and the day's rock climbing session had been sweaty, busy, and exciting.

One of our friend's, whose name was Adrian, brought out his music jam-box, and set it on the table, then plunks a CD into the player and presses the start button. The sound of Big Band 1930's style of music hits the speakers and broadcasts its odd betwixt melody to all the ears near our picnic table. Various climbing friends' heads turn upon hearing the odd strange music of yester-yore, tunes that virtually zero rock climbers ever bother to listen to these days, and upon hearing that odd ancient music drift across that green lawn around us, several quirky smiles erupt on our friends' faces, followed by several spicy comments that get flicked back and forth amongst the group. I doubt five minutes went by before it was changed to something else.

Yeah, I guess even I'd find it a bit pressing to listen to 1930s Big Band music at anytime, anywhere — whether at Smith Rock, or elsewhere.

On The Wrong Route

A friend and I went to Jungle Cliff at Broughton Bluff to climb the highly star-rated Gorilla Love Affair route. Upon arrival we took a brief glance at the book then quickly sorted through the gear we would need for the route. My partner racked up (some quickdraws and an assortment of camming devices), tied in to the rope, looked up at the route, and prepared to climb. The route indicated a steep vertical dicey stemming problem, and required some cams in the 2" range.

So up to the flared slightly overhung stemming slot my partner climbed. He's feeling quite strong today, but at the crux move he hesitates by the tricky crux moves. Wow, this looks like a stout crux. After hesitating he finally he powers his way through the crux moves fighting desperately to stay on it, with his legs quaking like a leaf. After the crux the route eases to mere 5.9...a cruise for him. On those final moves (above the crux) he is able to recompose his overcharged senses, and shortly later reaches the belay anchor, clips the rope through the belay rap rings, then is lowered back down to the ground.

Upon arrival at the ground he comments to me, "Dude, that's the stoutest 5.10 that I've done in quite a while!

Both of us glanced at the guidebook again, thumbing over to the Jungle Cliff page. At that moment we both realize that he did not climb Gorilla Love Affair (our intended route), but had, in error, chosen to ascend the "Crime Wave" route to its immediate left, a dicey mixed gear lead.**

**Note: Prior to all the recent fixed bolts that were added to Crime Wave this route was climbed using some natural pro gear (using cams). A bold lead indeed!

Soloing at Smith Rock

I was always a soloist at heart, generally more than willing to solo anything up to 5.9, especially crack routes. One sunny weekend day at Smith Rock I managed to ropeless solo a variety of routes ranging from Moscow, Super Slab, to Moonshine Dihedral, and sometime later that day I gravitated over to the west side of the state park nearer to the Monkey Face rock pillar formation with the intended goal to make a fast dash up a long crack system on the far west side of the cliff -- on a route called West Face Variation (5.7) route.

So upward I embarked in my rock shoes, dancing effortlessly past the crux in fast time, cruising quickly and efficiently up the jam crack. This is gonna be a fast ascent with very easy climbing, I thought to myself. 

But, just as I reached a large midway ledge, I suddenly heard a distinct rattle.

I paused in my tracks, frozen by the sound of the rattle, and instantly glanced straight across the flat ledge at the back side of the small ledge (that I had just arrived upon), only to find a rattlesnake warning me of its presence.

"Hmmm...how did you get up here Mr Rattlesnake!"

There was no way I was gonna get around this particular spot, so quickly, and quietly (and wisely), I opted to down climb the entire lower portion of the route, going back down the crack I had just climbed up, carefully reversing the crux moves, descending all the way back down to the ground, then packed up my gear and marched around to the popular Dihedrals zone.

Perhaps Smith Rock is not the most ideal place to solo after all....