The Never Ending Weekend

Leah and Rusty left the working life in Buffalo for a road trip across the US and Canada.  Follow their adventures, discoveries and trials along the road as they find out how many licks it really takes to get to the center of a tootsie-pop.

[theneverendingweekend]

The Never Ending Weekend Goes to El Potrero Chico: Part 2

Rusty and Dylan really have some fun in this one ya'll.

[theneverendingweekend]

The Never Ending Weekend Goes to El Potrero Chico: Part 1

The Never Ending Weekend Goes to El Potrero Chico, land of 2000 foot limestone cliffs. Watch Rusty and Dylan as they survive their own idiocy.

[theneverendingweekend]

The Never Ending Weekend Hikes the JMT

Roy, Gene, and Marty hike the JMT in this one ya'll. Them mountains is crazy yo.

Here’s the video from the JMT thruhike that Rusty just completed this summer with Rad and Hiren. Not the typical hike.

[theneverendingweekend]

Rusty and Zach head up to Meyers for some sweet multipitch climbing. By the end of the day, they climbed a thousand feet and all the routes on the wall. Now their legs are in pain.

[theneverendingweekend]

Throwback to May, 2017

I was digging through photos and found these!  In the hustle and bustle of us buying a house, this trip report was overlooked (but not forgotten)!

We road tripped from Reno up to Vantage, Washington for a week of sport climbing at the beginning of May.  On our way, we pit stopped in Portland to visit my friend from college, Marisa.  After filling our bellies with delicious organic, non GMO chickens named Fred and touring the city, we finished the drive to Vantage.

For 3 days we climbed and climbed some more.  I was able to hop on about 20 leads throughout the week, while on our last day, Rusty crushed 27 climbs in a day in honor of his (long past) 27th birthday.

Vantage is one of our favorite sport climbing areas that we visited while traveling the county.  It is aesthetic, decent quality rock that is highly congregated.  There is a mix of sport and trad, and to top it all off, cheap camping right at the bases of the climbing areas.  Additionally, it is a good place for new leaders.  The feathers has about 40 climbs, all ranging from 5.1 to 5.10b.  Most are under 50 feet tall and are well bolted.  It’s definitely a place to gain some confidence - add it to your next climbing roadtrip!

~Leah Wz

[theneverendingweekend]

May 18, 2017

Yeah, so Mexico was pretty cool. I was making some videos with the footage I had from the trip but decided it was mostly poo. Here’s a quick recap.

Got stuck in traffic on the way to Sacramento’s airport.

Climbed at Pipeworks while waiting for flight.

Forced myself to speak spanish to flight attendants in american airport.

Realized that I was going to get enough forced spanish and started speaking english to those who knew it.

Flew to Guadalajara and then to Monterrey. Had long painful conversation with mexican who wanted to practice english but knew less english than I did spanish. Cool fellow though.

Took bus from airport to central station in Monterrey and then to Hidalgo.

Found atm that wouldn’t give me money. Found bank that wouldn’t give me money. Why won’t anyone give me money?! Found atm that worked. One to twenty conversion rate rules. 

(settle in because this is no longer a quick recap)

Walked/hitched to El Potrero Chico after stopping at El Buho (coffee shop). Found campground, found friends, found the mountains. Taller than I expected.

Then we climbed. A lot. Everything was bolted. Thousand feet or taller limestone cliffs. 

Every night ended with $3 margaritas that would were big enough to make a drunkard blush. Did I mention the conversion rate? We ate like kings at the restaurant near our campground.

We yelled things. Shockabrah! Wubbalubbadubdub! And awwwwwaaaayy we go!

We climbed so much that even the frat boy wanted to hit the hay at night. No partying for him. But karaoke has a way...

Got attacked by an owl. Thought we saw a mountain lion. Almost grabbed a tarantula. Met tons of stray dogs. Mostly super nice. Some not. Woke up to roosters every morning at 4 or 5am. Not cool.

Weather was unpredictable. Rained in mountains but not in town, or rained in town but not in mountains. 

Multipitch for days. Bailed on a couple climbs. Lost a biner. Got some booty. Climbed the hardest I’ve ever climbed. So did partner.

Met a ton of people. Really cool people. Was treated nicely by all the locals. Genuinely nice people. Sang with climbers, sang with mexicans. Who doesn’t like Karaoke?

Shuttled back to airport. Said goodbyes. Flew to Guadalajara. 7 hour layover?

Bused into Old Town Guadalajara. Sightseeing. Lots of people. Lots of fastfood. Lots of really old churches. Lots of cobble streets. Lots of rundown buildings. Lots of modern buildings. Lots of people.

Flew back to Sacramento and drove back home.

Mexico is a really amazing place. I plan on returning there once every couple years or so. I need to work on my spanish a little more before next time however. That subway lady had a hell of a time explaining what my discount would and wouldn’t get me. Sorry. Mi espanol es muy mal senorita, muy mal.

-Rusty

P.S.  Shockabrah

[theneverendingweekend]

Kayaking the Black Canyon below the Colorado River

April 2-5, 2017

I decided that I wanted to do a “girls only” style trip.  Originally, I had my eyes set on doing Havasu Falls in Arizona.  However, after over 350 calls to the reservation office, I ditched that idea. (It is EXTREMELY difficult to get a permit).  A little brainstorming later and I decided to do an overnight kayaking trip, as I’ve never done an overnight via small boat.  The Black Canyon was perfect.  It’s smooth water (as long as weather is good) through some pretty rugged country and about 12 miles total.  As an extra bonus, the side canyons along the way are scattered with hotsprings! I made a facebook group to invite the ladyfriends, and thankfully Marisa, Kasey and Kritika were able commit to the trip!  

We all met up early Sunday morning, and drove to the Hoover Dam Lodge where our shuttle was waiting.  After loading up our gear, we drove down to the put in, getting a not often seen view of the Hoover Dam from the bottom!  We began our first day of paddling, getting sunburnt, “parking” our boats to hike up the side canyons to experience the hotsprings, and chasing ducks.  That night, we camped at Arizona Hot Spring Beach, took an amazing night soak in my favorite spring, and played with night photography.  

To begin Day 2, we hiked up to check out the slot canyon spring during the daytime before hitting the water.  It was longer paddling on the second day and we were expecting to battle winds that were forecasted.  Emerald Cave wasn’t 100% what we expected, but still crazy beautiful with the reflecting green hue of the clear waters.  The last mile of paddling to the take out was rough as a storm began to blow in.  Waves splashed over the sides and we had to maintain our balance to keep from capsizing.  About 2 minutes after we pulled our boats of water and secured them on the beach, cracks of lighting began.  CLOSE CALL!  After the shuttle dropped us back off at our cars, the storm passed, and we got some hot food in us, we hiked the old train tunnels above Lake Mead.  That night, camp was set up in one of the washes.

In the morning, we did some exploring of the Lake Mead Recreation area before heading back into Vegas to drop off Kritika.  After snapping a quick shot with the “welcome to Vegas” sign and swinging by the airport, Marisa, Kasey and I scrambled the beautiful rocks along the Tanks hike at Red Rock Conservation Area.  We filled up our bellies at Panera, then headed to the strip to take our first showers.  Ahhhh! We explored the strip, collected escort cards and gambled about $15 total between the three of us before calling it a night.

The next morning, I dropped the girls off at the airport and hit the road back to Reno.  All in all, the trip was a great success!  It was relatively stress free, got us away from the hubub of work and the real world, and we did it without the help of our male counterparts.  I think we were all very sad to leave and wish we could have spent another night on the water.  I cannot wait til the next all female adventure, where should we go next?!

~Leah Wz

[theneverendingweekend]

Trip Report:  Roadtrip to the Women’s Climbing Festival in Bishop, California

Weekend of March 3-5

I headed out of Reno on Thursday to meet up with my HS buddy Steph and her friend Lindsay in South Lake Tahoe!  After enjoying some coffee and lunch at a cafe, we walked the beach and docks to enjoy the super calm waters.  We then began our trek south towards Bishop during the sunset.  We cooked up some dinner on the stove in Walker, and slept in the cars in Walker Canyon.

The next morning, we drove up to Bridgeport for a soak in Travertine Hot Springs, enjoying the view pool and the main travertine pools.  After thoroughly relaxing, we made a quick stop at Mono Lake, where we again had super calm waters and AMAZING reflections of the tufas.  Hungry, we continued to Bishop and filled up on food before hitting up some bouldering in the Happies.  Steph and Lindsay headed off to the festival while I ate dinner and caught up on some reading.   That night my coworkers Genevieve and Brittany met up with me and we headed up to the Tablelands to camp.

Saturday morning, Genevieve, Brittany and I enjoyed a slow morning, making coffee, eating muffins and eventually packing up our bags to hit Owens River Gorge.  We got to the Gorge floor around 11am, and it was packed with clinics and groups attending the women’s fest.  We still found a couple climbs to do; I was able to onsight 2 routes (something I’ve needed work on), Brittany led her first outdoor route and it was Genevieve’s first time on ropes in over a year.  We were only able to do 3 climbs in total, but we considered it a success!  We hiked out of the Gorge in time for sunset, then headed into town for some well earned pizza and cider.

Waking up on Sunday, we were met with no view.  Clouds had swept in over night and the temperatures had dropped.  Not sure of what the weather was going to be like, we headed into town for some coffee and gear shopping.  We met up with Steph and Lindsay and decided that we would brave the crappy weather and climb at the Sads.  Upon unloading the cars and getting the crash pads ready, Koa (Brittany’s pup), decided he should roll in some cow poop... creating a smelly fiasco.  We hiked up to the Sads in the light snowy rain stuff and found some V0s we were comfortable cruising up and down, since we were nervous about topping out in the wet weather.  After about 2 hours, we headed out, as the weather started turning for the worse.  We parted ways with Lindsay and Steph, and decided to take the Nevada route back to Reno to avoid the chain controls and road closures on 395.

I’m excited for more Bishop trips soon! ~Leah Wz.

[theneverendingweekend]

Thanksgiving Visitors!

Dec. 7th, 2016

For Thanksgiving week, Leah’s family came to visit from Durango, CO.  When they arrived, we took a drive up to Lake Tahoe where snow had started to fall, did some outdoor climbing at Dinosaur Rock and played BINGO at a local pizza place.  Unfortunately, Diamond Peak wasn’t open for skiing yet, so Eric didn’t have the chance to use his free pass.  They happened to be here for Rusty’s birthday, so we celebrated with dinner at Denny’s and brownies for dessert.  We climbed at Rocksport and Basecamp, the climbing gyms where we work, even getting Leah’s mom on the wall!  For Thanksgiving, our friend Andrew also came over and we enjoyed some delicious salmon, veggies and pie.  After dinner, we played charades.  One evening, we drove up to the old west town of Virginia City just in time for sunset.  On the ride home, we saw some wild horses!  Rusty took Leah’s mom and Eric up to Donner Pass in the knee deep snow to explore the graffiti train tunnels.  We also did a chilly local hike up Jones Creek.  It was a fun filled week with adventures both in town and in the mountains.  Come back to visit again! 

[theneverendingweekend]

Nov. 17th, 2016

One of the perks of living in Reno is our access.  Two weekends ago, we took an easy mini trip down to Bishop for the American Alpine’s Highball Craggin Classic.  

We drove down with Dusty and Andrew on Friday night, arriving in Bishop a little late for climbing.  We played some Spikeball downtown before grabbing dinner.  Unfortunately, the showing of Reel Rock filled up fast and we didn’t get seats.  Instead, we headed out to the Tablelands with some of Rusty’s coworkers to set up camp and enjoy a small fire.

The next morning, we headed to the Happy Boulders where everyone had a ton of success.  Check out the pictures!  The weather was great, the rocks were even better, and the crowds weren’t as bad as we expected.  When our fingers and forearms had enough, we headed back into town for the block party where we stocked up on stickers and swag.  (I won a $200 gift card for winning a pinch competition!) That night, we enjoyed an entertaining slideshow/talk presented by the one and only John Long.  

We woke up early on Sunday to head back to Reno, enjoying the podcast Serial during the ride. (I highly recommend it for your next road trip).  We are beyond stoked for Bishop season and already planning our next weekend on the rocks. 

~Leah Wz

[theneverendingweekend]

OUR FIRST GUESTS!!

A little late, but better than never... here is a quick summary of Rad and Dan’s visit out to Reno, NV!

After finishing his tour of Asia, Rad decided to do some real adventuring and made the drive to Reno!  As soon as he arrived, we headed down to Mammoth Lakes where we hit up some climbing, soaked in some hot springs and attempted to scramble up Mt. Morrison.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have our route down 100% and after backtracking a couple times, we got spooked by some dark clouds that had started to roll in.  We ended up bailing.

We then headed back to Reno where Rad decided that he loved the city (and us) so much that he was going to hang around for an extra week and a half so he could be here for Dan’s visit!  During that time, we climbed at the gym, did some local hikes, and watched all the Resident Evils.

After about a week, Dan arrived, and not knowing Rad was still in town, was extremely surprised by (Rad’s) naked man upon his arrival at midnight!  After a day to adjust to jetlag, Dan, Rusty and Rad headed to Yosemite while Leah stayed home sick.  They visited the Valley where they hiked Liberty Cap.  On their second day they headed up to Toulmne Meadows, and scrambed up Cathedral Peak.  Before heading home, Dan, Rusty and Rad took a starry soak in Travertine Hot Springs... (nudes were taken, keep an eye out on instagram #mtnbabes).

Once back in Reno, we all explored the city, doing a night of bowling and playing ping pong at a nearby bar, enjoyed an all you can eat sushi lunch, did some outdoor climbing in Carson City, played Spikeball and had a tastey cookout at a BYO BBQ place!  We spent a lazy day taking a trip up to Lake Tahoe, which unfortunately was a bit dark and stormy.  Eventually, Rad departed, beginning his road trip back to NY while we took Dan to some nearby sand dunes to stargaze and play with photo settings.  The next morning, we dropped Dan off at the airport with misty eyes.  

Come back friends!

So, that’s about it for a quick summary of our first adventures with Buffalo pals.  Sounds pretty boring right?  Ugh.  I mean, Rad extended his 4 day trip to last almost 3 weeks!  It must be terrible here!

~Leah Wz.

[theneverendingweekend]

Red Bull Rapid Ascent 2016 Livestream

Watch Rusty Race to the top!

Basecamp (Leah’s new job), hosted the Red Bull Rapid Ascent Comp here in Reno yesterday.  Rusty competed in the competition, racing to the top of the world’s tallest climbing wall.  Check him out... the video link should take you to his run up the wall.  Great job to all that competed yesterday!  

[theneverendingweekend]

September 9th - Labor Day Weekend!

Labor Day Weekend was spent at Dusty's (our neighbor) family cabin up by Susanville, CA. We had a blast playing frisbee golf, paddling on the lake, and hanging out by the fire.  Rusty even set up an 80 foot slackline over the water! 

[theneverendingweekend]

Why Reno??

Aug. 5th, 2016

I figured we'd answer the question on most people's minds…  Why Reno?  As we've traveled, we developed a list of our top cities.  Rankings were based on a multitude of criteria, such as access to the outdoors, traffic levels, climate, cost of living, bike friendliness, cuteness levels, etc.  In the end, our list was topped by Reno and Salt Lake City, but since we hadn't gotten the chance to explore much of Nevada nor the Sierras, we figured that Reno was the place to be for the next year.  

Reno claims to be the Biggest Little City in the World, and so far it seems to be pretty true.  It has a cool lit up skyline, thanks to the Casinos downtown, but the real life of the city is in the cute neighborhoods and parks.  From our apartment, we can walk to the downtown park, which features a white water course with 12 rapids along the Truckee River.  Almost every time we go there, at least 2 other people are slacklining, and tons of families are using the pools in between the rapids to cool off.  Commissioned graffiti murals splatter brick walls of local businesses and alleyways, adding color and personality to the city.  Coffee shops are on every corner, and there are some pretty cool night life options, like a "BYOBBQ" bar that has community grills set up.  In our time here, we haven't needed to use highway to get anywhere since there is little traffic.  Additionally, bike lanes are on almost every major street, and since we're now a 1 car family, bike access is important to us. Because of the casinos, I think I 've heard about 10 firework displays already and a quick 8 minute drive out to the "plaza towns" brings you to your Walmarts, Home Depots and McDonalds.  The best way to describe Reno?  A little big city.  Pretty much the same as their tagline.

In terms of access, the amazingly crystal clear waters of Lake Tahoe are 20 miles away, up and over Mount Rose, the local ski mountain that towers over the city.  Rock climbing surrounds the lake and it's mountain towns.  Within the 3 hour radius, we can either take a trip to San Francisco, or hit up the high country of Yosemite.  We just discovered there are giant sand dunes about 1 hour east.  My favorite nearby attractions are the scatterings of hot springs thanks to our location along a fault line.

We signed a one year lease and I think that we will be very satisfied in Reno.  Since we signed our lease, we've had bluebird skies and I'm extremely satisfied with it's very low humidity levels and low price of living.   Plus, during the month we moved in, Reno was hosting Artown, the largest art festival (in the country??), with over 500 events over the month.  We were entertained with nightly movie screenings, dance performances, parades, etc… all free!  We've already hiked Mount Rose, made friends with the local slackliners and are making a list of our future adventures in the Sierras.  Since we're both planning on working part time, I think that we'll be able to fully take advantage of Reno over the next year.

~Leah Wz.

[theneverendingweekend]

Summary of the Last Weeks of the Trip

We enjoyed an all you can eat pancake breakfast, parade and fireworks in Mammoth Lakes for the 4th of July.  Afterwards, we headed into Reno, Nevada to begin hunting for apartments.  We decided we are officially done with life on the road, and want the comforts of home back... like tables and flushing toilets. We’re going back to NY in August to get married and pick up our stuff (and Melba!), so we figured we would have a month to get settled in before making the trek back across the country.  It took us about a week of apartment hunting and sleeping in Walmart, but we signed a lease on the 11th for a one bedroom, one bath in the heart of the city.  In our spare time, we’ve had the chance to explore a bit of Lake Tahoe (only 25 miles away), go rock climbing with our new neighbor (yay friends!), join in on the slackline culture at the nearby park, and enjoy Reno’s July festival, Artown!  We saw Back to the Future 2 at the park and have seen several dance and music performances.  For the time being, the blog may be a bit on hold, however, we are planning on working part time, and spending our free time exploring the nearby Sierra Nevadas and most of Nevada, which we didn’t really get to check out during the “official trip”. We will post mini trip reports from our new adventures based out of Reno, so don’t delete us from your book marks bar just yet!

[theneverendingweekend]

Summary of the Last Week of June

Sunday - We headed into San Fran (to take advantage of free parking), where we checked out the Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, watching the funny sealions and enjoying some fresh seafood.  The car took the crazy drive down Lombard St. and we checked out a couple parks with great panoramic shots of the city.  We ended the day with a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Monday - Left the Bay Area to head across the VERY HOT Central Valley towards Yosemite.  Thanks Bala for letting us crash at your place!

Tuesday - After waiting in line to get our wilderness permits (for the following days), we hiked around Puppy Dome and up Lembert Dome before the dark skies hit us.  The rains chased us over to the still sunny Olmstead Point,giving us fabulous views of Half Dome.  

Wednesday - After packing our backpacks and emptying our car of food and smells (everything) into the bear lockers, we were able to hit the trail.  We were amazed by the beautiful Cathedral peak, but soon suffered as we got into more buggy areas.  After sprinting about 2 miles, we trudged up a dome to eat our dinner in peace... we ended up running in circles from mosquitoes a top the dome while choking on our peanut butter burritos.  The tent was an escape, but didn’t cure us from their incessant buzz as they surrounded us.  It was miserable.  That night, we decided our trip to Cloud’s Rest was getting cut short a night, and we trudged out the way we went in.

Thursday - We hiked out, taking very few breaks as it was more buggy than the hike in.  Once back to Tioga Pass, we packed up and finally had the chance to rest, taking a nap in the car.  We headed down the east side of the Sierra’s and treated ourselves to a burger and concert at the famous Mobile.

Friday - Spent a relaxing day in Mammoth Lakes, checking out the Earthquake Fault and Minaret Vista.  We finished the day with some volleyball and found us a nice camp.

Saturday - We woke up early to head into Devil’s Postpile National Monument and Red’s Meadows.  Within the valley, we also hiked to Rainbow Falls and went for a swim in Sotcher Lake.  Afterwards, we checked out Mammoth’s street fair then hit up a local bouldering spot.  That night, we drove to find all the nearby hot springs (but found them all to be packed due to 4th of July weekend).

[theneverendingweekend]

Summary of the 3rd Week of June

Tuesday - We said goodbye to Rochester, hopped on a bus to Buffalo to catch our non stop flight back to LA.

Wednesday - After catching up on sleep at Mahul’s,  we grabbed donuts, explored Ikea and played volleyball at the park.  Mahul treated us to a movie night at the nearby discount theater.

Thursday - We packed up the car and hit Highway 1 driving north.  We got lost a couple times, saw (heard because it was dark) some elephant seals and camped out at a pullout.

Friday - Explored Big Sur, seeing the beautiful McWay Falls.  Then we headed into the bay area.

Saturday - Enjoyed a rest day, playing volleyball at a park and picking up some maps from REI to plan for our next backpacking adventure in Yosemite’s high country.