First Female Solo Ascent of Half Dome.. in this outifit.. with the name Taylore Renee Beatty.

 I finally have something to blog about again!

5 days camping and climbing in Strawberry, CA near Lake Tahoe and then back to Yosemite for 4 days.

For my climbing friends, Lake Tahoe is AMAZING. Definitely one of my favorite places to climb so far. The camping is cheap, secluded, and practically at the base of the climbs. A poor and lazy hikers dream come true. Viet and I climbed a few classic routes, checked out the lake, and spent some time in South Lake Tahoe.  The trip started on a very high note due to magically running into my van-living camping partners from Red Rocks 2 months earlier, Carol and Becca, minutes upon arriving at the camp site. I was so happy to see familiar faces. They were unfortunately ending their stay as we were beginning ours, but we had one overlapping day. So wonderful how the Universe works!

We drove from Tahoe into the Eastern entrance of Yosemite, made a stop for a sunset dip in a hot spring, and then drove for hours in the dark on a longg winding road to arrive at Yosemite in the middle of the night, missing the scenery, but oh well.. we made it!

I was so preoccupied with the events involving Viet's big wall climb preparation, that I neglected to make any plans for myself! I woke up early to go get a spot at the standard valley walk-in camp site, Camp 4, for the rest of the weekend and the line was about 50 people long. A girl like me does not have time for that, so I immediately left to get a coffee : ) After two cups of coffee, 20 or so text messages, and 2 hours of people watching, I came up with a sort-of plan and headed to the wilderness center to find out more about getting a back country permit.

Some people plan months ahead for their half dome adventure, applying a year to 6 months prior for their hiking permit, or waiting in line all morning with nervous hopes of getting that precious piece of paper that allows you to by pass the ranger check station a half mile from the summit.

I casually showed up 20 minutes before permits were issued for the next day, wondering why there were a bunch of people sitting outside the office with lawn chairs, and left 45 minutes later with Half Dome permit in hand! I chose the half dome hike while standing in line with my free map of the valley (not the wilderness area, because that cost money) for the sole purpose of being able to camp at a designated backpackers camp located half way up..to avoid being alone with the bears of course.

...and 2 days later I arrived!

Yosemite is the perfect place to backpack alone for the first time, why?.. because you are never really alone. There are so many people, and on a long hike you run into the same groups over and over again. Many noticed I was by myself and were helpful and encouraging. The view was well worth the 8.5 mile hike to the top and sleeping in the woods by myself for 2 days..with the bears : )

Nevada Falls and Half Dome on Left. Hike up Day 1

Cables to Summit!

Getting close to backpackers camp

Mist Trail,  2 miles to the bottom!

NOM NOM

On a lower note, a climber in the group of hard core Yosemite climbers that I met and mentioned in a previous post (not pictured) passed away a few weeks ago due to a rock fall at the base of a Yosemite climb. Viet and I stopped by his memorial, held at Yosemite over Memorial Day weekend, where his friends and family gathered to celebrate his life.  Just reminds us to keep exploring and living like there is no tomorrow...and hopefully we can all move on doing what we love to do.

Peace out girl scout!

Floating

Hello!

Now that my planned travel arrangements have ended and I am now simply floating from place to place with little direction or purpose trying not to run out of money : ),  I am not sure what to write about on here! I will try my best to keep the blog going so that when exciting miraculous occurrences take place, I can quickly post them on the internet for all the world to see.. or just the 5 people who read this.

Walked on the Berkeley Pier

Tasted wine in Napa

China! or at least China Town in San Francisco (very similar)

I got bangs!

 

Had a drink with this country guy in Austin, TX

Attended University of Texas graduation

and made some trail mix at the original whole foods

Despite the farm work, occasional rock climbing, yoga, and weekly jog.. I have been eating well beyond my energy requirements. What is a girl to do when living amongst some of the best and culturally diverse food in North America?! Vietnamese home cooked meals for a straight week, sushi here and sushi there, China town donuts, raw chocolate, no shortage of Korean restaurants, avocado shakes, home-baked granola, three cakes in one week, and.. this is the song that never ends.. it goes on and on my friends..

Due to my over indulgences, I have gained a a handful of unnecessary pounds that are making it that much harder to pull myself up the granite cracks of Yosemite. I am starting a little health challenge, mostly because I do not have money to buy new clothes, but also because I love being healthy!

If you feel the same then lets do it together, especially that it is now summer time!!!! My goal is to do two physical activities a day and cut back on carbs and sugar (less honey in teas or coffee, less beer and wine, less white rice and flour). Yesterday I biked to a coffee shop, an interview, the grocery store, and to the climbing gym and then went climbing of course. What did you do?! I will try to post some recipes and health tips here and there.

Love your body and take care of it!

Jujube Therapy

Top of the morning!

Just returned to the Bay Area from a week at Gauchito Farms an hour and a half north east of San Fransisco. Emy and I sorted dried Jujubes under a walnut tree for two days, weeded the strawberry field and worked on the orchard one day, and harvested for the farmers market two days.

Jujube's

My favorite little strawberry man

My body did not respond well to the the 90 degree temps after enduring a snow storm in Yosemite, and was caught by the farmers several times sprawled face down my yoga converted nap mat.. but I acclimatized by the end of the week. Never quite adjusted to the itchy rash that strawberry plants apparently give me and the endless mosquito attacks, but hey.. what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Not easy to capture, but the susnset's were amazing!

The farming portion of this adventure was decreased immensely.. roughly 67%. Due to adverse weather conditions in Utah, Emy and I's reluctance attitude towards manual labor, and life realizations.

Farming is HARD! Farming to make a living is even HARDER! and doing all of this ORGANICALLY in the midst of large scale American agriculture.. chemical sprays, cheap labor, false advertisements and all, makes for an uphill battle.

I have not been scared off completely from the farming world, only have a much greater appreciation for small scale organic farms fighting to make a difference in the health and environment of their communities. 

I encourage everyone to try to shop at local markets! Ask how they grow their produce, what they are feeding their animals, and if they are doing it in a healthy and sustainable manner, buyyyyyyyyy lots!



 Check out this video that Viet made!   http://vimeo.com/94019747


Thanks for reading!

 

The Classy Dirtbag Life

Top of hike to Glacier Point

 
 Hello from Berkley, CA. I am showered with clean clothes and ready to get dirty again at Gauchito Farm. I plan to be there for a week to help kick start the farmers market season.

I am so proud of myself.. for surviving a Yosemite snow storm. I thought about stealing a car and running away from the 2 straight days of rain, snow, puddles and slush that covered the Yosemite valley, but just decided to whine about it a lot.

We spent the first full rainy day in the Cafeteria meeting the author of a Yosemite big wall climbing guide book and his hardcore posse = inspiration. After hours of chatting/ slow internet surfing we took a long tissue reviving shower and then went to our next warm dry spot, the hotel.  $10 glasses of wine got us a window couch seat in the grand ballroom, and our neighbors leftover cookies. We stayed there for several hours.. watching the snow fall and trying not to think about going to bed in our cold wet tents....

Yosemite the musical

It's about that time again for another episode of Taylore Tales! Who's still with me?! Leave me comments! I want feedback : ) This is a TWO way relationship people!

Mexican food and Mariachi band

Running across the Golden Gate Bridge

Since my last posting while sitting in the comforts of a San Fransisco apartment, I have been living at Camp 4 in Yosemite! I can not believe that I have yet to visit this amazing creation. Dear parents, you have failed me! haha just kidding. Wouldn't be here without you!

Waterfalls, rivers, and endless granite that make me never want to leave horizontal ground.

View from the base of Washington Columns

I woke up early the first morning  to hike with Viet and his climbing partner Geordon to the base of their climbing attempt of Washington Columns.  The approach left me sweating and panting intensely and I was the only one not carrying 100 lbs of gear! I spent the rest of the day hiking around with my friend Sam and soaking in the sights of Yosemite valley. 

Top of my first lead multi pitch trad climb!

I fill nights by entertaining friends with my fireside angelic vocal abilities and cooking the most delicious car camping meals of my camping culinary existence.

The internet is pretty slow so I will add more to this post later! My patience for technology is very limited at the moment.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Continuing.... now
 I am at the Yosemite Lodge cafeteria once again. $5.95 for 3 days of slow wifi! Yayyy

Yosemite has been challenging me to the max. I had my first mid climb breakdown yesterday trying to FOLLOW a 5.8 crack! haha. Learning about all the gear and rope management is hard for me after 4 years of mindless sport climbing. But I am so grateful that this is my greatest daily challenge. It is a challenge that I choose to take on.  I love my life right now. I miss family and friends but do not miss living indoors.  After a month of spending 90% of my time outside, I can barely be inside for a few hours before I start sweating with cabin fever.


Some of you may be wondering, what do I do allll day long while unemployed and homeless?!
Well I wake up with the sun.. get out of my tent..to relieve myself (I am too scared to pee in the middle of the night because of the bears). Make coffee and breakfast. Sit still and wait. Walk to the bathroom. Brush my teeth and wash my face. Then go climbing or h
iking until the sun goes down. Make dinner. Sit by the fire (that I have yet to start myself). Hang with my friends and then go to bed.

Cooking in the rain

Very simple but fulfilling life!

Live in the moment!

Next stop camping in Napa/Sanoma and then a week at farm in Brooks, CA.

Taylore

Sunshine get on me

Whatttt uppp?!!

Since my last post I have finished up an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G week of climbing in Red Rocks, stayed at my first couch surfing home, visited Joshua Tree National Park, camped in Los Padres National Forest and drove along the coast from LA to San Fran. So much in such a little amount of time! I am now sipping coffee and lounging in the missions district of San Fran.

Red Rocks put a love spell on me.. I considered dropping everything and moving to Vegas.. kind of, briefly.  California will probably change my mind on that one, but we will see.  Emy and I went to some new areas that were completely opposite of the busy and touristy climbing of my first 3 trips. We had climbing walls to ourselves on multiple occasions, enjoyed the shade of freshly green trees, and savored the sights and smells of the dessert flowers. Well mostly I did all of this.. in a slightly obsessive way. My past trips to Red Rocks have been in January where it is nice during the day, but with the sun setting at 5.. long durations of freezing temps must be endured.  I have always been grateful of the winter climbing opportunity, but going here in April rocked my world! The sun set around 8.. making for a long relaxing day of climbing and time for naps and yoga and reading and landscape gazing. I climbed my first multi pitch AND led my first traditional climbing route (with the assistance and gear of our camp mates).  I won't go into too much detail for my non-climbing readers, but I can not see why climbing is a life long sport and I am psyched to learn new skills and collect more gear! It might take me 10 years to get a trad rack but lets do this thing!

So seductive

5.5 crack.. Holla!

After leaving Red Rocks, Emy and I stayed with a climbing family who recently moved to Vegas. The dad met us for some quick climbing then we got to use their kitchen, hot tub, and best of all BATHROOM! We then headed in a round about way (missed a turn) to Joshua Tree, which is another climbing destination. We knew ahead of time that we lacked the proper gear for this trip, but we wanted to check it out regardless and continue to enjoy the hot dessert weather (don't forget that we froze our arses off in Utah!) Our friend Sam met us there for a couple nights of camping and Joshua Tree exploration. It is a really interesting place. I got on one boulder problem that almost led to the skinning of my whole front body.. so that was the ONLY climbing I did there. We boogied out of there Sunday morning to make our longest drive yet... past LA and up the coast. We stopped for lunch in Santa Barbara and then got probably the last camping sight in the Big Sur area! It was a site for bikers or hikers only, but the camp host saw us driving around and around looking like zombies and offered for us to stay there. What a change in environment! Woke up in the hot hot dessert.. went to bed in the moistest lands of Cali.  Mist for days, dew on the ground, and ocean views.  We loved it!

Crazy cool cactus + surprise bee

Top of Ryan's Mountain-Joshua Tree

DANG J tree sunset.. you da bomb

Eye Candy yummm @ Big Sur California

More fun to come. Stay in the present, there is no day like today!

Will just be doing my job of moving Viets car around to avoid parking tickets .. every two hours to be exact! 

Blogging Life

Hello!

Sooo about this blogging thing.... I suck! So much has happened in the last two weeks! Working at the vineyard in Southern Utah was a unique experience.. I pruned rows and rows of stubborn, tangled, overgrown grape vines, climbed and clipped the water suckers off a variety of fruit trees, shoveled and unwillingly became covered in compost, and pruned some more.  I learned that I need to be in much better shape and that southern Utah is NOT warm in March.  The farm welcomed us and bid us farewell with snow flurries. I wore ALL of my long sleeved clothes in as many combinations as possible for the entire week.  On our two days off a few of the volunteers drove an hour and a half to Moab (for climbing) only to be welcomed by a power outage causing dust storm and more frigid temps.  Despite hours of indecision and multiple full campsites, we finally joined a spot with some brothers from Montana who were also road tripping the Utah hoping for some t-shirt weather.  They were very nice and saved us the trouble of sleeping in our car in a random parking place.  We checked out a climbing spot in the morning and went to Arches National Park in the afternoon.  Definitely worth the previous nights storm and confusion. I had some great laughs with the other volunteers, especially two girls from Portland and Ohio, but then Emy and I got out of Utah faster than you can say Utah.
We may or may not have taken a nice hike in canyon lands and stay at a hostel where I made friends with a group of youngsters from the Philippines.

Landscape Arch

The farm

Canyonlands

Now I am in Vegas once again! And the weather is perfection (minus the tent rocking wind speeds that have led us to relocate to the back of Emy's car). Sunny all day and one sleeping bag conditions at night. We are sharing a camp site with a lovely couple from Northern Cali, who pimped a utility van into a fully functioning house and are taking the ride of their lives.  They have given Emy and I tons of information about where to head next on our trip and seem to have a guide book for every sporting destination.. surfing, climbing, hot springing and maps to accompany.

Ohhh, well I guess I will tell you this too.. But I had my first American hitch hiking experience before getting to the farm but after spending 6+ hours at the only coffee shop in Green River, Utah.  I tried going to the library..lugging who know how many lbs of stuff across the town, but obviously that would be closed on a Wednesday afternoon.. so then I stood doubtfully on the corner with my thumb half way up.  I ended up 3-5 miles away from the coffee shop, fishing on the Green River (which is very brown) with some nice whisky drinkin folk and their two dogs. Can give more detail in person.. but I survived.. thank the universe!

I miss everyone! Thanks for reading!

Taylore