Work hard, play harder

Come one, come all.  It is time again for another entry from the diary of a madman.

It has been a little while since my last one of these. But as the temps warmed up, the jobs picked up. The first of which was painting the Purina logo on the side of the Purina factory in Denver. (In case you are having a hard time figuring out what is going on in this picture, this wannabe Picasso is hanging about 85' off the deck)

As the temps have risen out here in the Black Hills, so too have the number of "tourons" in the area (especially with the Sturgis rally just around the corner).  A solitary creature can hardly get from the car to the rocks without being bombarded by silly questions ("How do you get the ropes up there?") or statements of disbelief ("You're crazy!" says the Harley rider who just rolled in to town, sans helmet, moving into day 3 of a no-sleep meth binge)




But still, as you can see... this is a place of great beauty and even the worse of the two wheelin' neanderthals seem to have an appreciation for it.

After a short break, the work load came on heavy. I spent about a week working in Knoxville, TN, had a day off, and then headed to Greeley, CO to paint a water tower.

This is a structure that has been on my working to-do list for quite a while. The climbing ended up being a lot more technical than expected which is great. It keeps things engaging. In this photo, you can see me and my buddy Matt painting. The Greeley newspaper came out and did a story on us and put us on the front page, which reminds me... I need to fire my agent....


After another all-too-short break, I was back on the road. Destination: The exotic and foreign lands of Wisconsin.
For those amongst you who are long time readers, you may recall a tale from days gone by about working at the Brewers stadium; Miller Park. Well we returned again for another week of painting AND one of the most exciting experiences of my life... the pendulum!


After Miller Park we headed to another place in WI called Fond du Lac. Here, it was our task to fix up a public viewing platform. The old platform was in rough shape with lots of rust and even more graffiti ("Ricky" if I ever find you, I swear...)


Here is the tower after we finished. It was actually a huge effort to paint this thing. Every piece of metal you can see, and every angle on every piece you cant, had to be painted. We were all quite exhausted and tired of this job, so the end of it came with great rejoicing. And after working so hard, it seemed a little vacation was in order... Yellowstone/Tetons, here we come!!!

I had been to Yellowstone once before as a younger man, though I was so engulfed in my headphones and teen angst that I hardly recall seeing this amazing place... funny how things work.

Anywho, Lindsey and I got out there late Friday night, poached a campsite and snuck off early the next morning to avoid having to pay the fee to camp in national forest (which is usually a free place to camp). We saw a few things like the lower falls of the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone, and stumbled into the backcountry permit office.

Lo and behold, we got a free backcountry campsite and despite the huge amount of crowds at all the major attractions, not a soul was to be seen out where we stayed. One of the highlights of the trip IMHO was getting to longboard a two mile long paved path that had geysers and hot springs all along the way. One may have needed a crowbar to pry the smile off of our faces.

For any who have not had the pleasure of seeing Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. The only other place that one might see such brilliant colors is in a Sherwin Williams store.


After getting our fill of bubbling and gurgling geysers and hot springs, we hit the road and headed onward.

It is hard to explain the excitement of being a climber and going to a new climbing area... especially when that area is the Tetons. These mountains are the youngest in the USA and because of this, the most dramatic. Rising suddenly from the rolling meadows, these titans command awe and respect.

This blog feels as though it has become long and there was far too much adventure to even begin to try and retell the whole tale. I will say though, we ended up getting another backcountry permit, camped in a beautiful forest oasis amongst the mountains (complete with the best water to have ever touched our lips, coming straight from the melting mountain snow), surrounded by the slumbering giants, Grand Teton, Middle Teton, and Teewinot. We had full moon nights, warm weather blue skies, and played harder than we have ever worked.





"There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar,
I love not man the less, but nature more."

-Lord Byron