Given the hassle factor and the money we spent to drag our 65 pounds of climbing gear across the country, we decided to head back to Smith Rocks and spend another day out in the dessert sun doing what we love to do. We hiked to this area called Rope-De-Dope block, which is literally this one huge rock nestled away from everything else with about 10 climbs on it. Most of the climbs were too hard for us, but there were a few within our range, two of which were sport climbing, which is why we chose this spot for today.

We each climbed two sport climbs: Shamu (a whale, get it? Barry’s didn’t), a 5.8, and How Low Can You Go, a 5.6. The beginning of How Low Can You Go was way more difficult than a 5.6, mostly because of where the climb started. A ground fall could have been very dangerous, and neither of us were willing to risk such silliness. When Barry came down from Shamu, he clipped into the first bolt on How Low Can You Go so that we were top roping the first section. We do this a lot if possible, especially if we don’t have a stick clip with us. When we were done with these two climbs, Barry climbed up How Low Can You Go again so that he could set up a top rope on this really fun crack, called the Rope-De-Dope Crack. At this point in the day, my fingers were totally shredded, as the composite of this one type of rock was very, VERY sharp. :( The climb was still really fun, but after both of us leaving more than the requisite amount of skin on the rock, we decided we could be done with climbing for the day, and the week. We packed up our gear and said good-bye to Smith Rock State Park.

One of the main reasons we originally chose to come to Portland for the week was because I decided that it would be fun to go snowboarding on Mount Hood in July. As it turns out, we agreed that this might not be the best idea after all, but Portland was still a great vacation opportunity. None-the-less, we wanted to check out this gigantuous mountain that allows for snow sports in the summer. It was about an hour or so north of where we were, and the drive was quite beautiful. I think the most remarkable aspect of the day’s voyage was the drastic change between the dry, brown dessert and lush, green valley. It was almost as if a physical line was drawn in the land that we drove over, changing the landscape.

The scene was even more dramatic as we got closer and closer to the treeline of Mt. Hood. At 6000 feet above sea level, the view was amazing. We could actually watch the mountain making clouds as the wind blew toward the east. It was truly spectacular, so we decided that we would spend the night nearby, at the Mt. Hood Inn (a good chunk of change cheaper than the Timberline Resort), then wake up in the morning and take a hike around the mountain. We were bound to get much better pictures earlier on in the day when the sun was up and hitting the snow, and the sky was blue. With excitement mounting, we went to check in to the hotel, and then found our way to a yummy restaurant right across the parking lot, called the Ice Axe Grill. It was not soon after that, with full tummies and a cozy bed, that we were both snoozing away in dreamland for the night.