ARIZONA June 13- June 20

June 13
With Ryan gone the little Honda Civic had room to spare which meant less bottom outs and less packing time because we no longer had to tetris piece the gear into the car using a shabby diagram for consultation. Thus, with a lighter car, and more feet space, we left Las Vegas and continued our adventure to Arizona.

Before making it to Phoenix we stopped at the Hoover Dam- totally not worth it even though transformers hyped it up---Megatron is no longer in the building. Then we went four hours out of the way to check out the Grand Canyon which was incredible and totally worth it. Unfortunately we rushed through the Grand Canyon because it was already getting dark - after Hoover Damn Elan and I pulled over at a convenient store and napped for a few hours (keep in mind the 6:00am wake up call that the parking lot attendants gave us that morning). Finally we pulled into my dad's place in Phoenix around 11ish that night and saw something we hadn't seen for a long long time....a bed.

June 14-15
Because we chose the least practical time to go to Arizona to climb- the summer- it meant no climbing for us in Phoenix. By mid day the heat was sweltering, it was hard to breath, the elderly were advised to stay at home, and we thanked god that Elan's parents fixed the air conditioning (thank you!!!) because the temperature rose to about 115 (around 40 something celsius for all you Canadians out there that don't understand Fahrenheit). So we took another vacation and played in the pool all day, hung out with my dad, ate some good meals, and ran some errands...oh yah and we got to shower a few times which as great to.

June 16
We left Phoenix and headed even further south down to Tuscon where our destination was Mount Lemmon which had surprisingly beautiful weather because of its higher elevation. At the bottom of the mountain was a cactus dessert but by the time you got to the top there was a ski resort- it is said that the geological distance between the top and the bottom is comparable to driving from Mexico to Canada. Tonight we camped out at a well groomed campground that required fees which obviously we never paid.

June 17
Today we got lost trying to find free parking (what else is new) and parked instead at a parking lot where we refused to pay again. We went to a popular crag called Munchkin Land and worked a few routes. The climbing here is granite but it's very crimpy so it took some getting used to. Later we went back to our car which had a ticket on it that gave us the "opportunity" to pay but didn't require it..soo we chose not to take the opportunity. Later we saw two movies for the price of 1 (The Happening and The Incredible Hulk). And we ended our night at the same campground which we refused to pay for again. Pretty much a typical day in the life of a dirtbag.

June 18-20
Went to a crag called Ridgeline and did 4 amazing routes- 1 with a beautiful top out. Almost got lost getting to this one to even though their were cairns pointing the way and a detailed approach description in the guidebook. Next day was a rest day and we saw 3 movies for the price of 1 (Sex and the City, Narnia, Don't mess with the Zohan). Next day after that we woke up with the intention of going to fortress wall (an awesome looking crag with tonz of multi pitch sport routes) but when we realized the approach was 45 minutes we backed out considering how much room there is for getting lost again. Once we cut out Fortress Wall we decided that we had enough of Mount Lemmon and that it was time to move on to California. So just like that we packed up and headed for L.A.

Quotes
Elan while climbing: "So then I put my foot on nothing, and it worked...it was amazing"
Elan to Sam while climbing: "Control your breathing...think like the Hulk"