New Jack City

I led you astray in my last post, I said we were rock climbing in New Jack City when I should have said we were rock climbing at New Jack City which is actually in Barstow. Well, we were not exactly in Barstow but that is the closest town to the middle-of-nowhere that we spent the weekend in ;)  We (Naro and I, whom I met volunteering at 'Reading to Kids') left Los Angeles Friday afternoon around 4pm knowing we would hit a bit of traffic but hoping to avoid the worst of it - we were not successful.  Let me preface this explanation by saying that the first thing you think of when you hear someone say 'Los Angeles' should not be movie stars or the beach or the Hollywood sign - Los Angeles has all of these things of course but they are not everywhere, you do not see/deal with them everyday, they do not really affect you in any way.  Instead, the first thing that should come to your mind when you are doing word association with 'Los Angeles' is 'traffic'.  I will admit I was warned about this, but nothing can really prepare you for the bumper to bumper until you are sitting in the middle of it... I wouldn't put our congestion on par with New York City but we are close enough for it to be a pretty much all-inclusive issue every day in every part of this gigantic city.  That being said, you can avoid the worst of it by being smart: take back roads, don't travel during rush hour, STAY AWAY FROM THE HIGHWAYS.  Now lets go back to my first topic, we left town via a highway at the start of rush hour.  Idiots.  Add to this the fact that it was the start of a three-day-weekend and that there is only one way to get to Barstow and that happens to be the same way you get to Las Vegas (look at the map I posted, A: my apartment, B: Barstow, C: Las Vegas), and you end up with a trip that usually takes two and a half hours taking about five. After a few bathroom breaks and a gas stop and we rolled into Barstow around 10pm Friday night.  Instead of rushing out to our camping spot (New Jack City) to set up a tent in the dark, we decided to stop at the bar in Barstow (it is a tiny town, they only have one bar) to wind down and do a little dancing. By the time we finally got out to New Jack City we were exhausted and decided that sleeping under the stars sounded like a better idea than fighting with a tent so out came the sleeping pads, sleeping bags and the extra layers and we called it a night. It was pitch black so I had no idea what to expect as far as our surroundings were concerned, the next morning I un-cinched my mummy sleeping bag to find myself in the middle of the high desert in a huge, natural rock amphitheater... it was very cool. Here is a picture to help to help you get a better idea of what I am talking about. Picture the whole area from above as a letter "C" made of rock with us driving into the middle of the "C" through the opening and camping out in there. I took this picture after climbing to the top of the rocks opposite the opening in the "C" so you are looking down at the camp and out through the opening of the "C" with rocks on either side. There is a website called MeetUp that connects people with similar interests in similar geographic areas. The group we met up with at New Jack City was actually composed of three smaller groups combined for a coordinated weekend climbing trip.











The only rock-climbing specific gear I brought was a pair of climbing shoes that I picked up on sale at REI before we left L.A. Naro had an extra harness that he let me use and then, once we got out on the rocks, the more experienced climbers who had their own gear (like ropes and carabiners) would set up a route and then let other people try it out. If you were a newbie (like me) the more experienced climbers were willing to talk you through everything from how to tie into the harness, to how to belay other climbers. There were about 30 people who showed up with our group, we all camped out Saturday night and had a bonfire and potluck dinner and then climbed again on Sunday. I met a ton of cool people from L.A., San Diego and Las Vegas and I learned about another group, the Outdoors Club that plans all kinds of outdoor trips around Southern California. All in all (once we got past the traffic ordeal) I would have to say that it was a pretty great weekend .This is me belaying... I posted a bunch more pictures on shutterfly.