July 4th Parade

Chloe and I drove up to Dutch Flat to see the Dutch Flat 4th of July Parade. It's been a long time -- maybe eighteen or twenty years -- since I had last experienced it, and it was as great as I remembered it. The whole "water fight" part of it seems to have assumed a more prominent role, but it looks like kids and adults alike were enjoying it.






















As we were walking back to our car, I noticed an Outback with a Williams sticker on it and asked the people sitting nearby if they went to Williams. It turned out that one of them had, and is good friends with my Junior Advisor Naoko, who I occasionally hear from and who now lives in Rockridge.

After a little deliberation about what to do next since it was already noon, we decided to go back to Sterling Lake again. The road provided the usual bone rattling ride. Along the way, as we crossed paths with kids in ATVs and heavily modified Jeeps, I began to wonder whether any other Subie owners were foolhardy enough to drive this trail. My question was answered in the Sterling Lake parking lot:


We set off along the trail

and immediately found a fun warm up peppered with knobby inclusions, which I did in my awesome new Vasque hiking shoes (with Stealth soles)

This time we had a much better idea of how to get to the mystery boulder field without any bushwhacking. We even found another beautiful vernal pond at the very top of the ridge

At the top of the hill we were greeted by a panoramic view of the Old Man Mountain and the field littered with glacial erratics that I have named "Bouldertown"

Unfortunately, several of the boulders which had looked so appealing last time were actually highball death forays, holdless and super difficult, or both.

The knobs on this one are actually blank concavities. It's really a shame I'm not stronger, because it's a beautiful line with a picture perfect landing, despite being on a steep hillside.
Next, we walked down the hill, and I found my favorite boulder of all. Sure it's not an ankle snapping highball, but it has some intriguing lines and the boulder itself is like a sculpture. Theres the V-easy mantle:

The V-easy crimp lader/ high step:



The technical slab


And finally, the V? (3?4?5?) super fun sit start on a perfect right handed sloper inclusion off tiny feet to a giant and perfect ear shaped knob



In between tries we walked up the hill to absorb the view of the valley along Fordyce lake and down to the Eagle lakes

At around 4:30 we started hiking out and came across this interesting boulder:
. It's a difficult looking problem and will require some cleaning, but definitely a candidate for a low-gravity day. I figure it will happen seven years from now or so.

We had a steak, potato and corn dinner with the parents in Alta