after my landlord told me in mid july that sydney (aka squiddypup) had to go, i started to hatch a plan. i was already taking the girls to yellowstone for a summer/fall vacation, so it seemed like getting a place before we got back from that would just be a waste of money.
it looked like the three of us (me, nacho, and the squiddypup) would be staying at the outback lodge, a subaru resort, for the better part of september.

while being homeless has some challenges, it definitely keeps you motivated. after all, sitting around the house just isn’t an option. what follows is a pictorial of what ended up being closer to 40 days of homelessness.
the first benefit i noticed was that i could decide where i wanted to wake up based on my plans for the next day. but i had my favorites and some requirements.
one requirement was a nice sunrise
the parking near the crystal bay boulders

waking up at the angora ridge fire lookout

the other requirement was that i could just roll over, open the door and release the hounds

cuz the puppies be cray cray

i had a week in tahoe before our trip to montana, and except for the never ending smoke from the rim fire, the september weather was perfect for climbing.
so climb i did. anna came to town and we spent a day clipping bolts at luther rock
anna on betty ford’s route (5.9)

anna on the crux of daily prayer (5.10c)

pulling the roof was no walk in the park either

me pulling up to the pew on daily prayer

then anna gave leading with draws (5.11a) a shot. you can keep up with anna’s adventures on her blog

next we moved over to distillery wall. where i led 5.9, which is a fun 5.10a

next up was anna on the sharp end

on the way out, nacho does what nacho does

the next day we headed to woodfords. anna works a route on bandit crag

then maggie and her boyfriend colin came for a visit. we headed back to luther rock. with three of us i was able to anchor on the wall and take some pics. here’s maggie leading betty ford’s route

me leading on methadone (5.10a). don’t do drugs

maggie follows

not only can you not sit around the house doing nothing during the days, but you can’t sit at home on the computer at night. i spent several nights up at angora lakes taking photos

my least favorite constellation, the orb weaver

then it was time for the outback lodge to hit the road. destination yellowstone.

our itinterary would take us through cali, nevada, utah, idaho, wyoming, montana and then the reverse order minus utah. our first stop was city of rocks, idaho for a couple days of climbing adventure.
elephant rock in the early morning light

our first climb was on the back side of bath rock. a route called roller coaster (5.8/9)

it offered a nice spot for me to anchor and shoot some pics. jasmyn getting after it

skylyn working out the moves on roller coaster while jasmyn belays.

shortly after taking that last pic with my iphone 4, i started climbing up to the anchors. the leg loop of my harness squeezed the phone out of my pocket. as it first hit rock i was terrified thinking it was a necessary piece of equipment and i would be falling next. so for an instant i was relieved it was just my phone.
the music was still playing though. 2 days later i cashed in on my upgrade at an att store in pocatello, and was able to get my contacts from it, but two days with no phone O-M-GEEEEE! 😉 after returning home, i was able to get everything else from it as well

then the rains started, and would be with us in some fashion for the next 5 days. we were chased from bath rock (and i had to leave a biner behind on coffee and cornflakes) but were back at it later in the day on practice rock, which surrounded our camp site.
jasmyn cleaning up my new 4.5 on first lead (5.6)

across the road some folks just finished a route on elephant rock. this is one of the things that will bring me back to city of rocks

also nearby was this cool formation that i call book of skulls

meanwhile, back at practice rock. jasmyn on original left (5.7/8)

as sunlight was waning we headed to window rock, which looked to have some easy trad routes for cameryn. me starting up pure pleasure (5.6) before moving left to good times (5.6).

cameryn approaching the top of good times, which she was not having. 😉

the next day, the sun rose again

illuminating today’s destination, upper breadloaves

the route we chose was fred rasmussen (5.8), named for graffiti at the base of the route. cool shot with the birds overhead

jasmyn laying it back, cause we lack the crack… technique. you can see the graffiti at the base

skylyn’s turn to lay it back

as if climbing wasn’t humbling enough, this guy showed up and soloed the route when we were done

it was time to be on our way. by the end of the day we had to be at our site in grant village, yellowstone. we took the eastern route past the mighty tetons

turns out, the sun rises in yellowstone too. 2 minutes from our camp site was yellowstone lake

we watched old faithful from the traditional spot, but just before she blew the wind changed and our view was completely obscured by steam. so we hiked up for a different view

morning glory pool

what castle geyser sees all day every day

bison and geysers

bison and geezers

small geyser off firehole lake drive

grand fountain geyser with white dome geyser erupting in the background

the yellowstone wildlife tour continues. we were able to photo every animal on the yellowstone list except the grizzly, wolf and fox

the next day we made it to the grand canyon of the yellowstone. yellowstone falls

a better look at the falls without that stupid family in the way

downstream and down the trail

a pronghorn in hayden valley

undine falls

we saw no elk until we got to mammoth hot springs. then they were everywhere. bull elk above mammoth hot springs.

after mammoth hot springs, we headed north, mostly so the kids could say they had been to montucky. along the way we saw a number of bighorn sheep above the gardiner river

mammoth hot springs has more to offer than just wildlife. there are some awesome formations here

while we saw a moose on our entrance to the park (he bolted out from the woods and ran in front of our car), we hadn’t got any pictures. so our last day started with a rainy early morning hike to riddle lake, prime moose habitat. we got skunked, but did get this awesome pic of a whitetail

our last stop in yellowstone was moose falls. there were no moose here either

jackson lake in grand teton national park is purdeee

if you missed some wildlife in yellowstone, you’re likely to find it in grand teton, like this black bear here and the moose below

we were even treated to a double rainbow (omg, a double rainbow!)

ok, enough with the wildlife and scenics. we left yellowstone and the tetons behind and began to work our way back to tahoe. first, a stop at rodeo wall, just east of hoback junction

me leading rodeo queen (5.8)

jasmyn on rodeo queen

there were some other climbers there too. they got a piece on top of the roof section of thelma (5.9) but couldn’t get the next move. worked out good cause i’m pretty good at pulling roofs, but probably wouldn’t have gotten to the first bolt if they hadn’t already done that. i got a chance to lead the second half, and everyone got their gear back

skylyn following

we stayed climbing a bit longer than we had anticipated, so instead of heading to the ruby mountains of nevada, we opted for a campground we found online in nearby swan valley. we didn’t notice the campground was closed until after we had paid. we stayed anyway, but were a little scared of axe murderers and such.
the beautiful swan valley and the snake river

the previous picture was taken from the top of falls creek falls, a truly beautiful place

as we were driving away the next morning, we saw a couple ducks. not sure what kind though

we made excellent time to elko and were able to get some post lunch climbing in at the sports rock in lamoille canyon. skylyn on sports rock’s easier climb with lamoille creek below

jasmyn topping out on sports rock

cameryn got into the action as well

back in tahoe, on a day i probably would have been sitting at home, i headed up to the north shore to hit the climbing gym. on the way, i came across some dudes turning their lemons into vodka and lemonade

by this point, i was already supposed to have moved into a place, but my previous landlord has not been forthcoming with my deposit, so three more weeks of homelessness ensued. i couldn’t have the girls living in the car with me too, but i was occasionally able to pick them up from school and naturally, we went climbing. jasmyn on unknown 10c (5.10c) at berkeley camp

me on the same route

me on leflie (5.12a), which is very easy for the grade

other days were spent soloing with a ghetto technique i was later to find out is, ummm, unsafe. jane’s spy (5.7)

lots of days were spent climbing with britney, who was my inspiration for living out of my car. she did it all summer, and seeing that is what got my wheels turning. here she is leading mixed emotions (5.10a) at luther spires

the outback lodge even has property in tahoe city. i woke up with snow on the ground just under twin crags. this is me on chris toe, a somewhat committing 5.7

britney rapping down off scissor kick (5.12)

me on flirting with disaster (5.10b)

we made it over to mayhem cove for a short but fun day. the camera failed me though (wasn’t the camera’s fault). britney on car jacker (5.9)

then it was off to yosemite for me and josh, a buddy from work. our goal was to climb the east buttress of el cap. it was a lofty goal since the crux (5.10b) is at or above our current abilities and the 5.9 sections would likely be slow for us. but for our first day we had an easier goal, nutcracker, a 5 pitch 5.8 on the manure pile buttress
josh following up the easy part of the first pitch

then we got to the belay ledge after the second pitch, where things were a tad backed up with four groups waiting to go up. at least it was an awesome ledge

four hours later we started pitch 3. josh cleaning the route

after the crux of the route on the 5th pitch, i looked over and saw this. had to pull out the camera

that night, we were ninja camping which means find an out of the way place, drop your sleeping bag and close your eyes. we found a spot, i went to the bathrooms in curry village, and then spent hours trying to find our spot again. never found it. slept in the freezing car on a pile of climbing gear with no sleeping bag. it didn’t go well. we woke at 5:30 and got our gear ready to head to the base of el cap to get on the east buttress

despite the initial stoke of being at the base of this most awesome piece of granite, the ‘me feeling like shit’ soon returned. we arrived at the base of the route to find a leader out of sight near the top of the first pitch. the sound of him falling twice and then whimpering that he was coming down reeeeeeallly had me pumped.
nevertheless i clawed and scratched my way to the top of the offwidth. even climbed a little. josh followed behind

but the way things went we were at the top of pitch 3 and it was likely we weren’t going to make the top while there was light, and this was the last point to be able to retreat with just one rope, so retreat we did. the retreat was quite the adventure as well since we weren’t sure if we were on the right track so it was a matter of rappelling off a tree hoping it lead to another tree below. in each case it did

besides, i missed nacho. so i came back to tahoe and took him fishing

and took the girls climbing. skylyn on unknown 5.8 at spooner crag

then the pups started to show some signs of living in the car

so we got a place