Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!

Indy's alarm went off. It was 4:30am. Stretching, he rose and began to get ready. Caver-Dude slowly stirred.

"It's too damned early! The sun isn't even up yet!"

"Exactly!" replied Indy, "We must get moving. We want to be up and down this mountain before it gets too late. I, for one, don't want to tempt the Weather God any more than necessary."

Caver-Dude, looking a little dazed still, went through the motions of getting ready. Unbeknownst to him, he was entering...Indy Boot Camp Training (which Indy's friend Prueheart has experienced once before...for a whole weekend). Indy was up and out of the tent, and packing the car again. Caver-Dude stumbled out and they broke camp. Indy handed Caver-Dude some pop-tarts.

"What's this?" asked Caver-Dude.

"Breakfast," said Indy between bites.

Caver-Dude shook his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he said.

They started up the trail in the growing twilight.

Borah Peak, as it is known amongst those who visit the highest points in all the states, is one of the 4 worst and most difficult peaks to ascend. Or descend. Caver-Dude already knew this; Indy would soon find out...

Indy was totally amazed at the hideous trail they had to ascend. After a few hundred yards the trail turned and went straight up the side of a steep gully/hill. Ugh!! For ever 3 steps one took up, you slid back 2. Sometimes 4. Indy was extremely happy he had the forethought to bring a skipole, which acted in many ways as a third leg, and really helped get through this nnnyasty shtuff.

As they neared treeline, other pilgrims on the Borah Peak Masochist Trail zoomed by. Indy shook his head. Even at his best speed these people were fast!

After they cleared treeline, Indy spotted off to the south....a grey slabby...flatiron! And Indy once again felt The Call. The Call was strong, the urge to abandon Borah right then and there, drive back to Twin Falls, grab his climbing gear, and come back was overpowering. The Flatiron called to Indy, and Indy's feet began to drift southward, off the trail. But he steeled himself. He could not abandon his search for the Ark - what if it truly was atop of Borah? Indy continued on the trail, but his eyes (and head) kept turning back to study the gray slab to the south. Aside from the hideous talus field at its base, the slab looked oh SO wonderful! Indy wondered if anyone had ever climbed it, and decided that one day he must do so, whether it's been done before or not.

Caver-Dude decided right then and there Indy was clinicially insane. No way he would be caught dead on that thing! The two marched on.

Soon they reached....Chicken Out Ridge. Indy looked at it...couldn't figure out why they called it 'Chicken-Out Ridge'...until he started working his way into and onto it - suddenly the trail went from evil-steep-ugly-with-marbles to 4th- and borderline 5th-class scrambling! With some significant distance between him and the valley below, should he decide to slip. He decided to not slip instead.

After a few minutes of this kinda exposed way up high scrambling, Indy popped his head over a rise in the ridgeline and...there was this snowfield that filled the saddle below him. And it required a downclimb to get to, then a delicate traverse along the snowline crest to the other side, where the trail not only picked again - but looked downright civil! Level, normal, flat, standard....nah! Couldn't be. Illusion, had to be. Caver-dude assured Indy otherwise; that was the trail. They just had to negotiate...the dreaded Snow Bridge!

The 'Snow Bridge' and Chicken-Out Ridge

Indy worked his way down to the snowfield that filled the saddle. Didn't look that bad! Hell, there was a trail of feetprints that went straight across, just off the very ridge of the snow itself. Okay, granted, it did kinda go down a long, long, long ways rather steeply on either side, and a slide, while maybe fun for the first thousand feet, would definitely hurt after that. Indy opted to not slip here, too.

With the wind picking up, Indy pushed onward, Caver-dude coming behind him. Indy was concerned. Afternoon was drawing nigh; the Weather God, being that they were in the mountains, would be generating his standard Mountain Torrentials within the next couple of hours. This far above treeline, this far from the treeline, with a lot of exposed ground to cover, Indy was not liking what the possibilities held.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the planet, 3 Virgos pilgrimmaged up a castle at dusk with 3 kebabs. This caused a disturbance in the Weather God's Storm Generation System, and the Weather God...fizzled.

Indy and Caver-Dude reached the final saddle before the summit. Caver-Dude collapsed. Too much time behind a desk, behind a computer, had taken it's toll from the poor boy

"You go," croaked the dying Caver, "you...must...make it..tell the others...in death we salute you...honor our names...goodbye..."

Indy reached over and whapped Caver-Dude upside the head. "Eat a S'Mores pop-tart; you'll feel better. I'm going to break for the summit."

Then, with a spin and sprint, Indy plodded upwards the final quarter mile to the summit, which rose 1000' before him. Like the trail earlier, this went straight up, and was filled with nasty little marble-bits. More slipping and sliding. Indy, still concerned about the Weather, looked to the west...and spied a rather cool cloud...***, and one that told him no Weather God was coming today. Indy also looked up and saw he was only 40' from the summit. Gasping mightily (he hauled ass from the saddle below), Indy crawled and clawed his way to the summit.

There other pilgrims that had passed him earlier looked at the poor flatlander and shook their collective heads. "When did they start letting Easterners visit our mountains?" they asked one another. Indy just lay there, gasping for what little oxygen he could get.

Indy at the Summit of Borah Peak

Finally Indy got up, looked around, and took in the view. He also sought out Ark clue, but found none. Instead he found a small bottle of wine in the summit register box, to which he did not partake. A bottle of oxygen, on the other hand, would have been a different story altogether.

Indy worked his way down the side of the mountain the way he came up. Well, it wasn't so much 'worked his way down' as opposed to a 'semi-controlled slide'. It was that steep and nasty.

Caver-Dude, seeing Indy reach the summit, and recovered from the S'Mores poptart, had already started heading down. But he was caught by Idaho Bubba, and was slowed considerably.

Idaho Bubba is a bubba all to himself. He defines Bubba. He IS Bubba, incarnate. But he's not all bad. Just a Bubba. Unlike any Bubba you've ever seen, or encountered...

Indy finally, a couple hours later, caught up with Caver-Dude and Idaho Bubba near treelin, slipping and sliding all the way. "I want off this f*cking mountain" declared the overly exhausted Indy, &quit;This is just too evil!"

Caver-dude just chuckled, having suffered on this mountain one other time in his life.

Indy plopped down at one point in the trees on some deadfall and took a brief 3 minute nap. Caver-dude took advantage of the break to make a call, and Idaho Bubba turned into an Idaho Ball, and rolled down the rest of the ridge.

Finally the two comrades got going once again...and in short order came to the final steep section of this God-awful trail from Hell. Indy looked at it. It went straight down. Just like when it came straight up. Only this time gravity would help. Indy gauged the steepness of the terrain, flexed his legs, gripped his ski pole, leaned forward...

"No, please, tell me you're not going to-" started Caver-dude, but it was too late. Indy was off! Pseudo-glissading down the trail-from-literal-hell-to-Hell, calling on what limited skiing skills that had been taught him by the Snoopy (who lives now in New Mexico). Caver-dude watched Indy disappear in a cloud of dust, not knowing if Indy was still on his feet, or if he was down and...just sliding. Caver-dude picked his way cautiously down the treacherous slope once the smoke cleared.

Caver-dude finally reached the bottom, and a little ways away he found Indy, his body wrapped round a rather substantial boulder. Daypack off to one side, ski pole laying over there by a tree. He paused, then walked slowly over to see if Indy was even still breathing. Things didn't look good...

Indy woke up. "Wha-? Time to get up?" he muttered, "<yawn!> Okay! Where's my stuff..."

Things collected, the two adventurers worked their way back to the car. There they shed themselves of gear, piled in, and drove off, in search of...FOOD!

A while later (after first stopping to investigate an earthquake fault; no Ark buried in there, either) the famished travellers arrived in Arco, and stopped to eeaaat! Once satiated once again, they headed back to Twin Falls. Caver-Dude suggested maybe finding some hints of the Ark in the ancient lands of Craters Of The Moon.

Indy looked at him oddly. "Dude," he said, "I hate to break this to you, but we are on Earth; the moon, if you recall, is approximately 238,906.5 miles away...give or take 0.3 miles."

"Turn here!" exclaimed Caver-Dude, and on squealing tires, Indy swung the Indymobile around on two wheels and entered...Craters Of The Moon.

As the sun sank low in the West, Indy and Caver-Dude poked around the ah-ah, and pa hoi hoi lava flows, sought clues behind lava towers (careful not to touch those made of ah-ah; they weren't called ah-ah for nothing!), surmounted a giant cinder pile, poked their heads into the mouths of cinder cones, and even went underground, exploring several lava tubes...but no Ark. Finally, in the dim twilight (with dim flashlights that hardly worked anyhow), the two Seekers made their way back across this alien landscape (made even more alienesque in the evening hours) to the Indymobile. From there they returned to Twin Falls, Ark-clueless, and exhausted.

July 21st - To Visit The City

The next morning, a few hours after sunrise, Indy finally roused himself from his slumbers. Several hours later Caver-Dude stirred and crawled out into the kitchen. "Dude, what are you doing up already??" he asked of Indy. Indy reminded Caver-Dude that he's one of those wonderous Morning People; can't sleep the day away when the sun's up!

A couple hours later Caver-Dude was moving at a more normal pace, and suggested that perhaps clues to the Ark could be located in the mythical City Of Rocks.

"Wonderful!" replied Indy, who was studying a map of Idaho, "Which one?"

It turns out that the early inhabitants of Idaho foresaw this day, and to keep Indy confused, called three seperate places in the state 'City of Rocks'.

After some dilliberation it was decided to head south and east, to what is known by locals as the 'Silent' City of Rocks.

Indy thought...rocks...rocks...there be rocks there...maybe climbing...

Indy packed his climbing gear. Caver-Dude just looked at him. "You're going to kill me," he said sadly, and went to get his own gear.

Kissing his wife good-bye Caver-Dude followed Indy out the door like a man heading to the gallows. "No, no, we're going to the City, not the gallows," assured Indy. Off they drove.

Caver-Dude recalled from a local contact of his that this place, this 'Silent' City of Rocks is no more than a 45 minute drive from Twin Falls. Indy looked at the map. "Uh-huh," he said skeptically, "More like an hour and a half, maybe two."

A couple hours later they had left the highway, passed through some small towns (out there if you blink, you missed 'em), and were in some foothills, travelling along a rocky 'unimproved' road. Up and up in altitude they rose, higher and higher in the foothills they went. Soon they passed through a saddle and...spread before them...was...

The City Of Rocks is a hardman-climber's mecca of granite boulders, domes, and towers in the middle of an extensive valley, kind of a cross between Joshua Tree in California and Vedauwoo in Wyoming. There is so much here to climb that one could not do it all in a month (well, maybe, if one didn't sleep). It is also a fairly hard-core place. Most routes running from 5.10 to 5.12, with a liberal dose of 5.13s here and there. Very few routes are easier than 5.10.

Caver-Dude hadn't climbed in nearly 2 years, and the easiest thing on Practice Slab was around 5.7 in difficulty. A nameless route, at that. Caver-Dude was hoping for something 5.4 or so, not several grades higher. But that's what was available. At Caver-Dude's behest, Indy climbed first.

Once Indy was done, Caver-Dude went next...and to his surprise, made it to the top without any real falls! He came down, ecstatic. He could still climb!

The two played on some variations to the route, and then, again, the sun began to set on them. They packed up in the late afternoon shadows (for the sun had gone behind the ridge) and headed out, assisting a couple of stranded motorists along the way. Finally, they made it back to Twin Falls, late that evening. They watched the Olympics for a short bit, then retired for the evening. Another day done.

July 22nd-23rd - Moving The Prueheart

The next day Indy repacked his Indymobile again, and ran about town doing the 'errands' thing. He ended up back at Shoneshone Falls for the afternoon, resting, relaxing, and getting buzzed by birds (there were hundreds of them in the cliffs). Unbeknownst to Indy, this was A Sign...

The next day Indy said farewell to Caver-Dude and Crystal, and headed East, to visit a co-adventurer, Prueheart. A few hours later and getting lost for a moment, he pulled into the driveway. Prueheart came dancing over to him.

"Oh, Indy!," she sang, "You're just in time - I'm moving today!"

Indy suffered a blond moment. "You're wha-?"

"Moving!!" she exclaimed, "I got a new house; they just finished pouring the concrete steps a couple days ago. You can help me move stuff over - you're just in time!"

"I think you said that already," replied Indy, as he followed her to the multi-car garage behind the house. Multi-car...as in it can hold 3+ cars or trucks. And then some. Prueheart opened one of the doors. Indy's heart sank. The garage was full!

"I'll bring my pickup around!" Prueheart said as she pranced away. Indy turned back to the garage and took in its contents. 'And I thought I had a lot of stuff,' he thought.

Under Prueheart's careful supervisory eye Indy loaded up the truck and they took things over to her new place. Once they were done they returned to Prueheart's parent's place, where Prueheart pointed out that the Grand Teton could be seen poking its sharp peak over the horizon, far to the east. Night came and Prueheart's parent's permitted Indy to sleep in the New Wilderness Cafe. Maybe in a future adventure Indy will meet it again, in the wilderness.

July 24th - Desolation

The next morning, after breakfast, Indy said his goodbyes. Prueheart returned to the Work World, Indy headed East, making an almost beeline for the Teton Range in Wyoming.

July 26th - Air Aces!

July 27th - Jump-On Shiny

July 28th - X-M

July 29th - "Bad Lands! No biscuit! Bad Lands!!"

July 30th - A driving blur...

July 31st - A Return to Normal(acy?)

August 1st-3rd - Ohio

August 4th - The Final Return

[Continued...]