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Excellent weekend! I thought it was going to be dreary all weekend long, and I stayed out late on Friday playing board games with John, Melissa, and Paul. John and Paul and I played Khronos (wherein I taught them how to play by soundly winning), Mhing (which was enjoyed by all), and Santiago (which was a hit, though I got crushed!). I didn’t wake up until 9ish on Saturday, and around noon I realised that it was really nice outside, contrary to expectations.

Hiking West Peak

I’d missed out on the AT hike Kevin & co were doing (since I’ve needed to have left around 7am to make the trailhead), so I went to my trusty West Peak around 1:30. I used my small Mountainsmith lumbar pack and Go-lite jacket (which soon found itself strapped to my pack, since it was so “hot” out), and the Marmot shoes I’d picked up over winter to deal with the rain and snow.

There’s this side trail off the main trailhead (the one that branches on to the road up the mountain) that goes steep up the cliff, and that’s the one I took. After a couple of rests going up the bluff, I found myself at the pavilion. There was a turned over, full sized propane grill inside of it (sans tank). I was pretty tired, and the sun was bright and the day was pleasant, so I just laid down on the rough mulch that’s been spread in that area and took a rest.

Saturday Climbing

I went climbing on Saturday. I couldn’t hook up with my climbing partner Michael, so I went for some bouldering. It was like 5ish when I went and the place was only lightly populated. I worked a bit around in the boulder cave, then on the walls of the gym where people weren’t roped up.

They cleared away a lot of the holds in the boulder cave and it’s much nicer now. It was too chaotic before – way too many holds. It was hard to figure out where the route went, and you’d be on the wall looking for the next holds in the midst of a bunch of rudely tagged stuff. Now the wall is much more clean, and it’s easier to identify where you can “legally” use holds in a tagged climb.

So in the middle of my climbing session I tweaked my left shoulder. I was on the ceiling of the boulder cave and I went for the last hold on a new route with my left hand, and something went wrong because it just hurt and I dropped down and felt nauseous. I climbed a bit on the slab wall, giving that arm a rest, and moved it around until it felt better, and later went and completed the climb; apparently I had missed this one large red hold immediately prior to the last hold.

Anyway, on Sunday my shoulder was painful to move. I even tried putting my arm out the window driving (since it was fairly nice out) and that hurt too much to do.

What an awesome, full weekend.

Housatonic Range Trail

(pics)

Saturday morning came and I headed up to a portion of the Housatonic Range Trail north of Danbury. I jumped in my car and listened to a book on the way up there. I left early just in case I got lost; most of the other people going were car pooling from near Hartford. I chose not to join them in this because they were scheduled to be returning at 6pm, and I had a gaming session scheduled for 6pm in West Haven. So I ended up getting there like a half an hour or 45 minutes early.

We were scheduled to meet at the trailhead for Tory's Cave. I found the trailhead, and hung out. I busted out with M­aelstrom and checked out some of the factions I hadn't seen before. I did some pushups. I went across the road and down over the bank and filled up my purifier water bottle from the river. When 9:15 came around and they hadn't arrived, I went back to the directions and made sure I was in the right place. I was, but that didn't stop me from scouting around in the car. I came back, waited a little longer, and Kevin came up in his caravan.