We got started a little later than I had planned but the hike was great. Not only does my son Dan play poker all of the time, he’s good at it. He was the person that dragged me out to Calico Basin for a mean climb up one of the ridges years ago, and forever has me hooked on hiking and climbing in the desert. I blame and thank him for that day. Now add the fact that we get to kick around poker play, hands, strategy, and advice while we spend time together, it just adds a level to the whole mix that is very hard to beat. My body is sore and tired today because we spent around three hours climbing up and around trails and rocks to move a little further up in the canyon than most people go. What a way to punish your body though. Love it!

The reason the locals call it Fern Canyon:

This is how it all begins. Park in Red Rock Canyon, on the loop road, and venture in. The middle mountain with the deep red top is called Little Mescalito by the locals. Yes, I know there’s a way to climb it – from the backside – but it’s about a 10 to 12 hour climb and I ain’t even in shape for it.

We took the right hand side of the canyon once we got in past Little Mescalito. Little Mescalito holds Black Velvet Wall, a favorite place for climbers. The real climbers, the ones that stick their fingers and feet into tiny crevices and ledges and just keep going up. *Gasp – Choke – Shudder* The thought makes me sick to my stomach.

I made this same hike with Wayne about a year or so ago, it was misting rain when we trekked in and we saw climbers going up the wall that day too. We also saw a lot of big horn sheep. There were too many people and too much noise going on in this section for any sheep to be dancing about the terrain today. Besides, we were about two hours late for the time they would be coming across to water. There’s water all year long in this canyon.

These people were getting ready to climb:

And this fat cat was approximately 400 feet up – above our heads – and I seriously doubt that he was fat…just an expression.

This is what it really looked like, without the zoom. He was a helluva long way off the ground and there were more people getting ready to go upbehind him. Scary Wary. I can do some rock climbing and bouldering but I can’t even begin to handle this shit.

In this shot, on our way up into the canyon, he was about 200 feet up above us. Every now and then one of them would shout something down or across to each other, It comes off more as a yell and I instantly expect to see bodies careening down the face of the rock. Kee-rist! And how do they get off calling it Black VELVET Wall?

Dan and I went on up, bouldering our way up and around the water pools and brush, leaving the climbers far behind. It was a beautiful day. The way becomes more treacherous and hard to navigate. The bottom of the canyon is choked with heavy brush on theright side and eventually we ran into these giant boulders that block theroute.

There is a way past these and I’ve been up past them. Higher up in the canyon is an incredible 30 foot dry falls that’s fairly easy to navigate. I took a horrible fall just past the dry fallsa few years ago. I almost broke my hand off of my arm. Brutal. Good thing I was smart enough to go with a partner, I would have never made it down out of there alone after that fall. Today was not the day to keep going…we were both ready to head back. All in all, we were out for over three hours and had plenty of time to discuss poker and the play of the game. It was kind of comical to be climbing up in the rugged canyon, passing people on the trail and saying hello, in between talking about A-K and certain plays from certain positions. Of course if they play poker, we weren’t speaking greek. If they don’t…well if they don’t, what the hell’s wrong with them???

*****

I went bust on FullTilt that night. Ugh! I played the $.50-1.00 PLO 8 or better. I didn’t have a huge bankroll anyway and the first half of it I blew off by calling with horrible cards. The last half I lost with the best hand until the river…but that’s the poker life kids. Any day I can’t handle the heat, I’ll just go climb Black Velvet Wall. In the meantime, hello TonyG. Poker, here I come. C U there!