Smoking green on a dance with Red Death

I love being there. With friends of gold. With sweets of green. Skies of grey tuned blue. There at Red Death, a hillside deep in the Grey County National Forest. The dusty dirt beneath my feet. Looking out on the horizon, seeing the hills in the distance, the stars over my head, viewing the vast amounts of trees and thinking, "Yup. I've shit many times in those woods." I think that is the only spot on this Earth that has bits of my diet contributing to the local ecosystem. That is obviously not the point. The point is that I was with some of the most incredible people on this trip. My best of friends and a few budding golds. There were many laughs; some drug induced. Then again, Where there is LSAD and I, there is usually much giggling to be done whether green is present or not.

This trip marks the first of hopefully many outdoor rock climbing excursions. We visited Metcafe Rock just a few clicks from our dumping ground. The difference between out & indoor climbing is far more dramatic than I thought. When they say it is at least a grade higher than indoor, they're right. I was a little intimidated by the rock at first. For example: when you find a loose hold, you cannot ask management to tighten it for your safety. So we worked on traverses. Mostly because there was a concern about going much higher than six feet. Something about a small crashpad and brutal rocky landings... I don't know. I do know that coming off the wall, missing the crashpad completely and landing on a corner of a slanted rock does smart enough to make you use every ounce of nightmarish crimping madness you can muster to stick that fucking move and thereby realize that you could do more than you thought possible. Also, when you succeed in doing this you tend to get that great encouragement from your companions like "Clink-clank. You hear that? Dude's getting balls of steel." Thanks man. That feels real good.

Then on to the other side and down into a crevasse. A beautiful semi-hidden place bearing trees a thousand years old. Wander to the right spot and you will find an opportunity for a little spelunking. I was down there a year ago. The rock has indeed shifted since last year. Okay... That was a little unnerving for sure. Still it was just as worth it to go down there again.

The only thing that upset me this weekend was the nature-rapists who were there the week before. We're talking garbage- the kind you cannot burn. They just trashed the place. Coils of wire, countless beer bottles, pots n pans, plastics, styrofoam... and as if that was not enough, they cut down dozens of saplings in the area. NOT EVEN TO BURN. They used it to build a fucking Tee-pee. Not that that is any better, but the structure was pointless. It could not have provided sufficient shelter at all. They even used a live sapling pulled way over and tied down as the keystone of sorts at the top. And seriously. Is there really not enough dead wood on the ground for your nefarious plans?! A part of me hopes that they choked on the McDonald's food they ate before casting the garbage from it into the woods. Donkey raping shit eaters the lot of them.

As for the rest, I've no complaints. Stunning nature, beautiful friends, good laughs, good food, beer, green, climbing, spelunking, and cleaning up after assholes. What more could a nice guy like me want?

Thanks everyone.