Major Mungie 's soliloquy

[mungeclimber]

When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the forest. I'm here a day now... waiting for a mission... getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute climbers squat in the manzanita, they get stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.

Ready to go back up.

[mungeclimber]

no appreciation for Apocalypse Now apparently. 

[dj]

Ah, I had no idea about movie reference munge.   I gotta watch that one when my sweetie is having girl's night out. 

I liked the manzanita reference.   It made me feel comfortable when I was in the thick of it last weekend.  In fact, I was thinking we should have an overall chaparral rating to approaches.   

Ch5.6: skin gets scratched, even through clothing.
Ch5.7: you have to do Barry Sander spin moves to get through it.
Ch5.9: sustained crawling

[mungeclimber]

lol

escalating scale or just differences?

figure some of the worst is like

1. clear path occasional branches, logs, mosquitos
2. clogged path, with same
3. brush surfing on top, walking branches, but generally non hostile plants
4. manzanita, choked and overgrown but passable
5. manzanita, choked, overgrown barely passable with blood letting, scars, and pain
6. same as above, combination, but with tunneling so that you can't see where are going, plus mosquitos and rattlers and rat poop.

at 6, I'm heading home.

[dj]

LMAO!   Thanks for jumping into the hole on that tangent, I thought I might be going solo on that one.

I had forgotten about the 1 thru 4.  Well put!

Rattlers are definitely a game changer.  Yikes!  I was wondering if they make breathable pants that are resistant to snake bites.

[mungeclimber]

Was on SPH last weekend and saw one... In the manzanita, but it was a mostly cut thru trail.

Rating?

[larsj]

Copy those manzanita ratings. I was tunneling through dense manzanita up at Salt Point back in the '80's. True face down groveling, when I came face to face with a wild pig. We both turned around immediately and beat a retreat.-lars

[mungeclimber]

Lol

[dj]

I'm in awe.   You guys are doing wild pigs and poisonous snakes!     I gotta up my game.

[susan]

Oops....

Innocent mistake there.

ANYWAYS....

[YETI]

Sean and I were full on canopy tree climbing 20+ feet  over boulder voids.

On a mission in a new area.  Full on Manzahurt combat mode.

Surprised sean made it, he was pretty gripped! 

I wonder what the absolute worst approach/destination with in the general area is?

Hmmm, maybe a thread of it's own?

[susan]

...climbing 20+ feet  over boulder voids.

Lots of places for this or similar in these parts.

Reminds of a poem by RFrost:

"...It's when I'm weary of considerations,   
And life is too much like a pathless wood     
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs     
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping     
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile 
And then come back to it and begin over. 
May no fate willfully misunderstand me 
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away 
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love: 
I don't know where it's likely to go better. 
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, 
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk 
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, 
But dipped its top and set me down again. 
That would be good both going and coming back. 
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."

[NateD]

Very nice poem, Susu. Thanks for sharing.

I think I hate wading thru the web covered brush the most. I'll take plenty of scratches over the thought of spiders crawling over me. I remember too well a particularly long first-time approach with Ger, likely to and through the same territory YETI and Sean survived.

[susan]

I'm guessing Exile.

I think Munge started something on this on ST called Deep Bush Soloing. Yup.

[mungeclimber]

DBS is much different from BM!