Sam's Throne- October 4-6th, 2002

The plan was to meet at my place at 5:30 on friday, and try and leave as soon after that as we could. After fitting a whole bunch of gear, 3 tall people, and one average height guy into my jeep we were off.

It was (in alpabetical order) Andy, George, Gus and Kirstin out to conquor the world. Or at least a tiny little part of Arkansas. There were also 2 other folks who were to meet us down there- Dan and Eddie. They had never been to Sam's before, so I had to give some detailed instructions on how to find the camping area.

The ride down there was pretty uneventful- the usual 6 hours of tunes on the iPod, and little games that we came up with to pass the time. Ah, life on the road. We did however make a couple of stops- once in Lebanon to eat some subs at Blimpies, and once in Harrison (Arkansas) to stock up on food at Wal-Mart. And as we were leaving Wal-Mart I got a call on my cel phone... Dan and Eddie had just left the parking lot of the very Wal-Mart we were in, and wanted some better directions. So I just told him to turn around and follow us. Talk about timing.

About 40 minutes later, we took the long windy road up to the campsite (4.3 miles from the turn off at Mt. Judea to be exact) and found a good spot to pitch our tents. Well, we would pitch the tents as soon as we came back from a stargazing trip down on the bluff anyway. Super cool, and Andy even learned where Orion was.


....zzzzzz....

The next morning, I got up about 7:30 and proceeded to make enough noise so that everyone else would get up. We ate some grub, and got on the trail. It isn't all about just sitting in the woods with insects- we had some climbing to do. Some routes to send. Some blood to spill.


a climb named boston rag

The first stop of the day was to the main outcrop called the Throne. This is where I was going to lead a 5.7 trad climb called "Boston Rag". This wasn't the first time I had done this, so it was a pretty good warm up. George belayed me, and I setup a rope once I was at the top.

Next up was George, and then after that it was time for Kirstin to do her very first outdoor climb. It obviously wasn't much of a challenge for her since she cruised right up it. I guess we were going to have to put her on something harder next.


kirstin topping out boston rag

And so the day continued- and we climbed, climbed, and did some more climbing after that. So instead of writing 50 more paragraphs about it, I'm just going to post some more pictures with commentary.


george looken' fly


eddy fishing out a piece of gear


kirstin giving her first lead belay on albino rhino. that's me up there placing some pro'


andy giving his seal of aroval up top with kirstin and myself snacking in the background.


dan working out the moves on "instant karma"


kirstin entering the patio on "patio direct"


D. Longlegs, Jr comming to get me because I creamated his father the night before. And his uncle. And his brother, and probably about 40 other of his relatives


kirstin hanging out on ... um.. some climb I can't remember the name of


George taking a once in a lifetime chance to drive wayne home, for which he was very greatful


And that's it- I guess I should mention that I finally redpointed "Spank Me" - a climb that I'd been working on this past summer.

All the rest of the pictures, in hi-res format can be found over at photos.gusmueller.com