An Incomplete Recounting of My Day
Morning
A fairly normal morning in the shop. I arrived at 8:45am and got things opened up, set bikes out front, and pulled in eBike batteries to recharge. Organized the rental bikes so that the road and gravel bikes were all on one side and the mountain bikes on the other. Caught up on guided trip requests and scheduling them on the guide calendar. Spent the rest of the time entering new products we received into our inventory/POS.
I clocked out at 12:15pm and then heated up my leftover Chinese food to eat on my drive over to the Baker Mountain trailhead where I would meet my clients for…
Afternoon
A half-day rock climbing adventure that they had booked. This was my fifth time climbing with this family. The grandparents booked their granddaughter weekly climbing lessons with me for a month. We spent the first two sessions indoors, working on movement. The next two weeks were outdoors having fun on real rock, and learning the basics of belaying and how anchoring works outdoors. The grandpa always climbs, while grandma watches.
For this fifth session, I took them to Baker Mountain, which I consider my home crag. It’s in the town where I live, and is pretty accessible via a 15 minute hike. I like it a lot for clients that have at least a little background because it two beginner routes, three intermediate ones, and one quite challenging climb. It’s rare for someone not to find something that pushes them.
Today was no different. After doing a belay review with grandpa and granddaughter, they belayed me while I led up one of the easy climbs to set up the anchor for a top rope. They each played on the easier climbs (5.4 and 5.6) for warm up. Granddaughter flew through them, and grandpa had fun figuring out an efficient way up. Then granddaughter was ready for the harder stuff. I climbed back up, reset the anchor, and then rappelled down so I could belay her on one of the intermediate climbs (5.7+).
This route pulled together everything she had tried so far — face climbing, crack climbing, and even some overhang — and it proved to be the challenge she needed. Instead of flying up the route, she had to reason her way through the best way forward. She took time to hang, scout things out, and try different techniques to make progress. In the end, she was probably on the rope for close to an hour, and while most folks would have given up long before that, her determination was absolute. She did eventually make it to the top, but I’m sure she’ll want to go back to get it more cleanly.
I had to climb once more to retrieve the anchor, so maybe she’d picked up on some tips watching how I climbed the route. (I’ve done that particular climb dozens of times.)
We hiked back to the cars, made plans to get them out climbing again next month (yay!), and said goodbye. I headed home to feed the pets and grab my wife’s eBike so that I could…
Evening
Ride the 11 miles back into Lake Placid to catch the last live music show along the lake. The weather was perfect, and I didn’t want to miss out.
It was my first time riding my wife’s eBike for that kind of mileage, and having the pedal-assist sure was nice for commuting. I wouldn’t want to use an eBike every time, but if the objective is to get from Point A to Point B (and not specifically for exercise), the electric motor helps get you there faster, and you arrive less sweaty.
After locking up my bike by the music amphitheater, I wandered up and down Main Street looking for a restaurant where I could get a quick sandwich for takeout. I didn’t find one, but I did pick up some chocolates for my wife (who had a bad day at work) and a box of novelty-flavored popcorn (salt and vinegar, hint of lime, and dill pickle). As I wandered back to the music, I popped into the pizza shop to find that they sell pizza by the slice. Perfect grab-and-go food to enjoy out on the lawn in front of the show.
I plopped myself down to enjoy my slices, the popcorn, and conversation with a friend who happened to be seated right in front of me. And the music of course! It was a nine-ish person band playing what I’d call “dad rock”. But they were energetic and talented. My favorite bits were the solos played by the trombone, trumpet, sax, and electric guitar players. They played right up until 9pm, at which point the huge crowd dispersed, I grabbed my bike and started the long journey back.
Probably because it’s mostly downhill on the way back, but the return trip didn’t feel like it took very long at all. The eBike’s battery held out (with some babying of it) riiiight up until the very last bit of the huge hill that leads up to my house. I thanked the bike for its service as I peddled sans assistance the last few hundred yards.
As I carried the biked to our back deck where we can recharge its battery, I spooked my wife who heard my rummaging and thought I might be that bear, back for seconds. It’s been a notably good day, with tomorrow promising to be just as good. I’ll be taking a different family out climbing for the third year in a row, we’ll probably jump into a lake when we’re done, and then I’m planning on doing some personal climbing with a friend in the afternoon on some routes that are new to both of us.
But first, sleep.
This is post #13/31 for Blaugust 2024.