Boulder Hunting - The Sespe Way
So, I've been working on a topo for a little climbing area we frequent just downstream of the Sespe/Potrero John confluence and I've been making use of Google Earth for the task. Using the satellite image as a guide, I can accurately freehand the shape of the river and where the boulders are situated in the creekbeed. As Im zooming in and out on this particular area of the Sespe, I'm checking the orientation and aspect of the satellite image against my hand drawn topo, and I notice what looks like a small cluster of boulders across the highway from the parking area for The Fortress. I break out my USGS topo of the area and see that this particular spot is called Derrydell Creek, and notice that the boulders I'm interested in are up a small gully just off the main creek, about a mile and a half back from the 33.
Truth be told, there are many such spots I've pondered over in the Sespe back country, places I've seen from other formations, from top of Pine Mtn or Reyes Peak or on Google Earth. As circumstance would have it, Diesel Boy and I had an opportunity to run this one down.
It was a nice a sunny Sunday afternoon, perfect for a little hike and climb. On our way up the highway we noticed a crew working Ending Crack and another down on Chip's Block at The Blackwall and still another party on Permanent Income Hypothesis at The Fortress. Busy day on the Sespe, nice.
We pulled into the Fortress parking area and had a look at the map one more time. Our route seemed simple enough; cross the highway, follow the creek east/northeast to a dry branch/gully, follow this gully east a little ways to the boulders. We grabbed a little gear from the ship and and got to it.
At first, we followed the creek itself because there was less bushwhacking and we could move faster. However, many times we come across a small section of trail and it occurred to me that there might be an unmaintained or hunters trail running up this canyon. We'd have to keep our eyes peeled. Carlo and I hopped and jogged and climbed out way through the creek bed and soon arrived at the junction, and not a moment to soon. The brush and trees in the creekbed were starting to thicken up and we've had our share of poison oak this year. Fortunately turning east into the gully kept us in the open and in the sun and soon we found and faint trail and the first boulder. It looked to be 8-10feet high, heavily featured, reddish brown hunk of sandstone.....surrounded by a ton of brush. We kept walking.
After a couple of turns up this gully we found Boulder #2, a laid back, SDS mini-roof over sand. We kept walking. Soon, we came into a widening of the gully and found three more; two sitting in the gully and big round red one up on the hill to the north. We picked out an nice spot to plop down and had a look around.
I do not entertain the delusion that rock climbing, and more to the point, rock CLIMBERS, are some how tip-toeing through the wilderness without any adverse effect on the environment. All one need do is look at places like Josh or the Buttermilks to see our impact. Don't get me wrong, Josh and Bishop are not "trashy", far form it. They do however show the effects of decades of crash pads, gear bags, short-cut/use trails, fire pits and the like. Now, I'm not slamming those areas or condemning the climbers who go there (I'm one of them), but here are lessons to be learned here, things for us to keep in mind as we develop new areas.
Since the developing of new boulders often involves considerable landscaping, poison oak abatement, lichen brushing, loose rock removal and other hellish tasks, we have to look at the practical as well as the ethical considerations. Its kind of where "could I" meets "should I", a topic for another day.
We checked out the boulders that were out in the open, and tried to work out the best way up the hill to the big red one. Prolly gonna have to come at that one from behind. All of these boulders will require some landscaping, and I'll have to meditate on their viability and whether its gonna be worth it to put in the work.
After a little snack, we left the gear and walked up the gully a little ways further. After about five minutes we ran into the best boulder of the day; a 15 footer, tan sandstone with cool features on all sides, the harder routes being over the sand of the gully. Sweet.
I knew from my memory of the satellite picture that there were other boulders further up the gully, but this would be our turn-around point for the day.
On our way down, right as we re-joined the main fork of Derrydell Creek, we found our hunters trail. It was faint and narrow but it zipped us back down to the 33 and the ship in about 10 minutes. All told, we could prolly get the approach up to the new boulders down to about 15-20 minutes.
With couple of hours of sunlight left, we decided to run up to The PJ's for a quick pump. It didn't look like anyone had been there since our last visit a couple of weeks ago. We went right to the traverse boulder.
I worked on some eliminates to my problem Hello Nasty while Carlo spent time sorting out the top-out, which he hadn't done yet. Not to let it get away from him this time, Carlo was determined to get the send, and after a dozen tries, he did. Nice job Diesel Boy!
Now he needs to go back and work out the whole thing...the new challenge.
We jammed at The PJ's until we lost all remnants of the sun and the temperature dropped. Carlo dusted chalk while I rolled up the gear and after a quick look around we were out. another fine day on the Sespe.
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