Scattered Thoughts

Also known as This Year's NCS Adventure

I found out last Thursday where I'll be going for NCS this summer: Camp Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

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As you can see from that map, it's nearly an eleven hour drive, and it's likely to be exhausting. I am planning on making the drive, but I've decided that I'm going to take a couple stops in WI along the way. Granted, as of right now, I'm going alone, but if someone else is interested in following, I'd be happy to have the company.

Here's the planned route, as of right now:
Leg 1:

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Yes, that's right, I'm going to be making some stops in WI to do some bouldering. The first leg of my epic climbing adventure will be from Bloomington to Governor Dodge State Park, WI. There's some decent bouldering there. I'll be leaving Bloomington early in the morning on May 23, arriving sometime around dinner time that day. Set up camp, sleep, and on the 24th, get started on some bouldering. I'll probably spend just a couple days in "The Dodge" (until the 26th) before making the second leg of my journey.

Leg 2:

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From Governor Dodge State Park, I'll head north about two hours to hit up some bouldering in the Central Sandstone area of Wisconsin. The only rocks I want to hit are the ones located in Rattlesnake Mound.

It would be nice to bring along a partner of some sort because at Governor Dodge State Park, there are some sport and TR routes that I'd like to try out, but if I don't have a partner, whatever.

All in all, I'm super excited about the trip. So excited that tomorrow I'm starting a five-day-a-week bouldering/climbing conditioning program to get my skill level up to the max-rated routes in the area. One question remains…

Who's coming with me?

If you want to join me, you'll have to drive yourself up to WI, unless you want to camp in The Dodge until I'm done teaching NCS on Friday morning, June 5th. If you do stay all week, we can hit up some more climbing on June 5th – 7th in some more Wisconsin area sites.

Let me know if you're interested!

On a sadder note, on November 3, two climbers were killed in a gear-related accident. It happened in the Red River Gorge, KY at a region called Emerald City. I first heard about the accident on Thursday when Shotwell posted the article on Twitter. It didn't really sink in that there had been a tragic accident until this morning when I found the linked article on the RRGCC's website. When faces are put to a tragedy, it suddenly hits home.

It's accidents like this that make me happy that I'm doing my part to teach climbing to today's youth. If enough future climbers get the right instruction, accidents like this can be prevented. However, it also reminds all climbers that we participate in, and have an intense passion for a dangerous sport. If you slip up, or don't pay attention to what you're doing even once, it could potentially be fatal.

That's all I've got.

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
— G.K. Chesterson.

This Tuesday is election day. If you haven't already voted early, like me, you better get your ass to the polls and cast your vote. This is possibly the most important election in our lifetimes.

Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, etc. I don't care how you vote, who you vote for, what if you agree with me or not, I just care that you get out to the polls and cast your vote.

If you don't vote, you're dead to me… DEAD TO ME.

I've fallen into a rut that I've kept up for the last few months. I always mean to post more often, but things always come up, things like life responsibilities. I like to have some time away from computers, and I also like to have some time to just do nothing. So I guess it's just a rut I need to work hard to break.

I recently purchased (on mommy-daddy credit) a new computer! For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a sexy machine. I know, I know… "Tom, why did you buy a Windows machine?" I bought it for a few reasons: 1) when I work from home, it's faster and I don't have the issue of the machine disconnecting because of lag, 2) its price-point was what I could afford right now, 3) it fits on my desk, 4) it's good to have multiple platforms at my disposal, 5) I wanted a Windows machine just to have one around.

Overall I'm very pleased with the machine. It does everything I need it to do right now and over the next four months, I'll have it paid off — just about the same time my truck gets paid off. After this machine and my truck are paid off, I'll be able to get back into the Apple world with a machine I actually want, and not a machine that I need.

I went Geocaching this weekend and snapped a few photos that will be making their appearance on my photoblog over the next few weeks. I'm hoping to get out and do some caching again some time this week.

You can also check out my Facebook profile to check out photos from the CAC COPE and Climbing Committee trip to the Red River Gorge (they were all taken by Tyler, here's the album (need to be logged in because you can't get a public link from an album that's not yours…)). That weekend was a blast and the best part, the Natural Rock Program was approved! Starting in the Spring, we will be guiding groups to the RRG to cut their natural rock climbing teeth.

That's all I really have for now. Go vote tomorrow, scrubs!

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
–Doug Lawson