There's a new mark on the map with my favorite spots: Stinson Beach.
Originally had planned to go to Yosemite this weekend to climb the Dana Couloir and Regular on Fairview, but several circumstances, like a huge fire in Merced Canyon, and the upcoming trip to New Mexico kept me from going. Instead I followed up on something I had been wanting to do for quite some time - bouldering outside.
I had seen some photos of boulders along the Northern California Coast (around Humbolt County), which triggered the idea of bouldering at the beach. The closest spot to the South Bay to do so is Stinson Beach (or perhaps Mickey's Beach, but there's no big difference).
The tide table showed low tide for 6:30 PM, so Dan and I headed up there in the afternoon. Traffic through the city was pretty bad - it took us a full two hours to get there (it's a 60 mile drive). It was worth every second though! The last nine miles along the coast are just amazing! the views from the winding road out to the ocean and down to the coastline were payback for time spent in the stop-and-go traffic. The weather was also perfect. We were a little worried before, since the temps in the city were in the 50's during the last week, but yesterday it was just perfect... Hitting the beach it felt more like Southern California than Marin county!
The boulders are on the southe end of the beach, and although the main stretch was pretty packed there were just a few people hanging out back there. We climbed on the "Old Woman" and "Old Man" boulders, starting out with the V0 arrete followed by some V1-V2's on the Old Woman, and some tries on the V4 arrete on the Old Man. I actually got the start of that one! There were a bunch of other lines we did, but we essentially made them up as we went along.
Bouldering is pretty different to 'real climbing' in that respect...It's not for the gratification to get on top of something, it really is more about finding a way together some moves, and a problem might end half way up the rock... It was fun though!
After wrecking our fingers for about two and a half hours we took a walk along the beach before heading back to the car. On the way we decided to have dinner at the Park Cafe. Their Menu says: "Park Cafe - Eat Well, Be Happy!" It definitely worked for me...This day definitley reminded me of a day I spent surfing almost three years ago: Back then I thought: "This can't be real...Something like this only happens on TV!" The exact same feeling returned yesterday...
A perfect beach, absolutely blue sky, nice rock, good food in the evening... Too Good to be true!
I'll definitely be back!
Photos will follow...
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