Despite living in Southern California for almost five years, Joshua Tree has mainly meant for me the awesome 1987 U2 album of the same name. (I saw them on that tour, at the legendary L.A. Coliseum. Yes: I'm old.) I had never been there until last week.That got remedied because I had another conference in …
Category: rock climbing
Burros, My Ass
Sandstone Quarry in the evening sun. It's maybe a bit ironic, for someone who hates Las Vegas, to go there three times in a year. But that's what's happening: two trips this fall, in addition to the one last February. The first of the fall trips was last weekend; the second one is coming up in …
The Scariest Easy Climb in the World
That's how lots of people describe some of the easy routes on West Virginia's Seneca Rocks: the scariest easy climb in the world. The "scary" had given me pause; the "easy" had appealed. Also, my climbing friends Jay and Abby had done their first climbing ever at Seneca Rocks, when Abby was thirteen to boot, …
An Escape to Smith Rock
Back in late March, work took me to Portland, Oregon, to the Western Political Science Association's annual conference. As far as academic conferences go, the WPSA is a nice one, and you don't need Portlandia to convince you that Portland is an awesome city. But there is also great rock climbing in the Pacific Northwest, …
Oh, how I hate Las Vegas. But…
Here is how a typical morning in Las Vegas begins: you take off your wedding ring and head out to the Panty Wall.In this case, though, the typicality also ends there. After all, Panty Wall is a climbing area in Red Rock Canyon, right outside Las Vegas but a couple of million lifestyles away. And …
Devils Tower, or the Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Done
A colleague who knows Wyoming's and South Dakota's Black Hills area well said Devils Tower gives off an edgy "not for humans" vibe. That is exactly right. This volcanic oddity rising about 800 feet above rolling hills of prairie grassland and Ponderosa pine forests had been regarded as sacred by Northern Plains tribes as sacred …
Continue reading Devils Tower, or the Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Done
Into the Not So Wild 