Not So Hidden Anymore

Sunday, I got to the Roadside Boulders at Munson Lake before the others.  As I drove past Graffiti Block, I noticed the little pond nearby had dried up so stopped the car to have a look.  This is a really cool looking boulder, but it has a deep dark pool of water (that's fed by the pond) around half of it's base –and it's the the half that's worth climbing.  Last fall, I tried tossing a few big granite blocks into the murk hoping to build up a platform to keep the pads dry. They disappeared into the depths.  I rolled the largest blocks I could find to the edge and pushed them over.  They also disappeared well below the surface.  It seemed bottomless.  Many times since, I've made a splash by lobbing rocks from the road to the base of the boulder.

Last month, it was finally dry enough for me to grab the first climb on the Graffiti Block (Sugar Ditch V1), which is to the right of the water hole.  At that time, it was possible to see some of the rocks just below the surface.  Yesterday most were well-above the water.  With some rearranging and additions, I managed to complete a dry and flat-ish landing zone.  I got to work scrubbing just as Shawn and Denise pulled up.

Since these problems looked a little too tough to warm-up on, we continued a bit farther to the Hidden Wall.

Shawn cut limbs and trunks, while Denise and I scrubbed rock and hauled brush.  Then we all scrubbed.  Then they cut a trail and I scrubbed.  Then Shawn built up a landing and everybody scrubbed some more.  Though you still can't see them from the road, these boulders are no longer lost in a jumble of spruce branches and dead birches.  You can actually identify where one boulder ends and the next one begins.  The landings are much improved.  Beer bottles were removed.

The view of Hidden Wall from the new trail.  This face has a long traverse that's been done both ways.

Shawn lacing up for Cow Birther V1 in the foreground, with the middle boulder nicely exposed in behind.

All told, we exposed 8 lines on the southernmost and big middle boulders where we thought there might be 4.  We climbed 4 of them.

On the way out, they asked for a tour of the Slab Area.  Unable to just look, we dragged the pads along as Shawn and Denise quickly dispatched another 4 or 5 problems each before calling it a (9 1/2 hour) day.

***

Monday, I awoke to the sun and songbirds after a restful night in the tent.  After breakfast and a warm-up, I wanted to work a great project at the Cornerstones.  By 10:30, despite feeling that I'd worked out the beta for the one move that was still giving me trouble, and had become more consistent on the rest, I couldn't get it.  It was too hot for the rubber and too slick for my skin.

Back to Roadside I went, but this time to Piled Up.  It was hotter, more humid and with less wind at than on Sunday.  So hot that your hands blister even with gloves on.  Despite this, I managed to scrub 5 new problems and send 2 of them before hunger brought me back to the car for lunch 3 hours later.  Dirty, sweaty, thin skinned, and still hungry I came home.

These boulders are only about 7' high, but have a tricky, rounded topout.  The off-width in is Wrestling Match V1, and the right arete is Baldilocks V3.

As I type this, I can think of a dozen problems on the West side of the Lake that are (nearly, at lest) clean and ready to go.  I am clean now, I've eaten, and it's much cooler in the City, but my skin hasn't grown back yet and I'm hungry again; those twelve FA's will have to wait for another time.

Sometimes You Have To Improvise

P Arsenault not wanting to move out of the shade on Elementary V0, Munson Lake, NB

It was a good couple of days of New Brunswick bouldering.  The sweltering heat and humidity kept us in the easier grades, but most importantly, the bugs were tolerable.


Four of us spent much of Sunday in the shade and on the slabs, and added two new problems to the East side of Munson Lake.  When it got too hot, we broke for lunch and had a little tequila with lime on ice.  Not having a knife, we had to improvise.

As you can see from the middle photo, I had my suspicions, but Dom had the right idea; shears not only work well for clearing paths through the shrub ground covers, they also cut lime wedges with precision.

When the others took off for home, I headed to the shade of the Hardwood Area and put in about an hour-and-a-half of work scrubbing the 5 or 6 chunks of granite that form the Trailside Boulders.  Tired, but with a few hours of daylight left, I set up my tent, then took a bath in the brook before making supper and tucking in for the night.

The Trailside boulders in the Hardwood Area.

Light rain overnight cooled things off for a good half-day on Monday.  Sebastian L met me in the am at the Corner Stones and we dispatched some of the starred problems, before working the long-standing crack project on Colt 45.  Together we (well, Seb mostly) figured out the beta, and each managed to pull off all but one move. For me it's number 2, and for Seb it's the opening move that's the problem.  It has really neat moves between cool holds up an obvious line.  Definitely a 3-star problem that we are both so close to completing that we will likely send it next visit!

S Lancelot executing the namesake move on Enter The Dragon, V4 (Glute Boulder) at Munson Lake, New Brunswick

Just a shot of Inversée for the guide

4:38 pm

I've made three visits to Munson Lake in the past week or so, and all have come to an abrupt end at 4:38.  Earlier in the day, shortly after my (or our) arrival the thin cloud of black flies that formed around any humans was simply curious.  Occasionally one would land and walk along a forearm for a moment, but for the most part they just flied around happy to have some human company.  They wouldn't bite, and we wouldn't swat.  It was a contented relationship.

It's been a warm and dry spring, and even with 5 days of rain to kick off summer, the Lake and surrounding terrain is quite dry. (Dryer than last August when there were no bugs.)  Since then it has been very sunny, hot and humid, to the point that one would expect the biting insects to be done for the year, or at least seeking some shelter in the shade.  Not so at Munson Lake.

So for the first few hours of the day, whether trail building or bouldering, we were happy and warm.  Just look at Pierre's face in the second photo and tell me he's not having fun.

Pierre A. coming out from under Rubberman V1

Pierre A. happy to be riding the top-out jug on Rubberman V1

By 3 o'clock, we'd each been bitten maybe three times.  Considering the amount of exposed skin (temps in the upper 20's and a 80% humidity) this was pretty good.  Around this time, on Monday when I was solo, I put up the first problem on Graffiti Block; a steep but easy line called Sugar Ditch. On Saturday, Pierre and I were putting the final brush strokes on the Hidden Wall in preparation for grabbing a couple of FA's.

At 4 o'clock, the black fly population doubled. At 4:10 it doubled again. At 4:15 the clouds turned into swarms as they went in to feed.   It is impossible to swat everywhere at once, so the best you can do is hope to cover up.  Not only was it too hot for long sleeves, but it takes both hands to pull on a sweater and long pants.  That wastes valuable swatting time, so we tred to do it all at once; dressing, swatting, packing, and scrambling to the shelter of an air-conditioned car.  Meanwhile the black flies had found the openings and were aggressively harvesting chunks of our skin.

We had reached the stage of surrender to the total frustration that arises from being under relentless attack.  We sealed up the windows, squished those bugs that made it inside the car and got out of there as fast as we could.  The car radio showed 4:38 pm.  The time of retreat on 3 separate days was identical.

Graffiti Block.

Hidden Wall Part 1. The pad is below Pierre's new V1, a crack called Cow Birther.  The right arete is Shear Madness, also a V1