Highlining in July '09!

It's been a wonderful few weeks for highlining! Jerry, Pierre, Eric & Julien came through while on their 45 day highline trip for Jerry's bachelor party...now that's a badass party! They four of them stayed @ the gym and did local highlines for about two weeks and I got to tag along.

Highlines that we did:

Wildcat Canyon, Richmond CA. 90 feet long...full-babe! Longest line I had sent @ that point...so great! I even tried a few drop-knee's and some turns. It wasn't too high off the ground so it was a great line to practice feeling comfortable. This is a pic of Damian on the line @ sunset.

Riots Ruins, Marin CA. 180 foot highline with a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. A gnarly approach but worth it, except that the boys got busted and were fined $75 dollars each for "walking off trail"!!! BLAH. Here's a pic of my attempts...didn't get very far, but had a blast trying.


Mt. Tam Highline, Marin CA. Approximately 110-120 foot highline on the top of Mt. Tam. Beautiful exposure...the fog was rolling in from the ocean over the hills, it was like we were somewhere else looking down on earth. Didn't send this line.. I tried so hard and got so bruised up!! I even went back the next week w/ Damian and some other highliners from Germany (Sebastian and Samuel)...and still didn't send. AH! This is my new project, for sure. When Andy gets home from his travels I'm gonna make him go back w/ me :)


Hole Rock, Calistoga CA. 75 foot highline near Napa Valley...full-babe. This is the most beautiful highline I've done. I know...you might expect that the Spire would always be my favorite because it was my first real highline and it's just....the Spire! But this one just took my breath away. There was something about it. It was a challenge for me being so exposed so I had to push myself a lot. It was at sunset when I sent with a slight breeze....perfect.


Longlines:

The boys set up a bunch of longlines while they were here...I only really attempted one, 210 feet. We set it up near Lake Anza in Berkeley, CA. I tried a bunch of times and kept falling off right in the middle. All the boys sent, and then when they were about to start de-rigging they asked me if I wanted to try once more....and I sent!!! Such an amazing feeling, it's hard for me to put into words how it feels when you send a line you didn't think you could...


Anyway! That's just a little synopsis of the past couple weeks...I'm sad the boys are gone, it was fun having them around!

haaaappy 4th

happy fourth of july! it turned out to be nice sunny day here in the bay, a little too sunny! got a bit of a burn :-/ but i had a good time at the fair in el cerrito where bridges had a booth set up. we got to spend the day outside slacklining all day! god i love my job. i have the next two days off....what shall i do with my time?!? i guess we'll see. d and i might set up a 250 ft. line which should be fun; i hope i can even stand up on it! the longest i've walked is probably about 80 feet or so.

the house in NH has been sold....makes me sad. i don't think i will be able to get back there before the family moves out. it's amazing how things change! when there's no more house, where is home? i guess home is here now.

scratch, scratch...who's there?

so after the lost arrow spire trip, i just couldn't resist going back YET AGAIN to Yosemite! some guys from the gibbon slackline tour were headed up that way, so andy and i decided to join them. yet another 3 hour hike with excessively large packs, but yet another great time! this time i even encountered my first bear (named number 6 due to the tag on his ear). number 6 was ruthless with the stealing our food thing! unfortunately andy and i didn't have a bear box and so were hoping to shove our food into other peoples...but there was no room. SO, we hung our food in andy's bag from a tree hoping that nobody (meaning bears) would get to it. apparently number 6 was quite hungry! he dragged andy's pack into the woods, spewing everything in every direction. he even clawed our tent leaving lovely holes, AND stole andy's apple from INSIDE his coat pocket. fabulous. freddy made the best joke..."scratch scratch...who's there?...number...number who?...number 6!!"

besides number six, it was a fabulous time! the Yosemite Falls Line got rigged in about 3.5 hours, which was faster than we expected. so we got about 8 hours of daylight to play around. andy sent and jeremey sent, the rest of us gave lots of go's! i went out and sat on the line & tried a sit start, but just couldn't get myself to stand up! the rushing water underneath and the fact that the line was a bit long for me was too much! i can't wait to try again. i did crawl out to the middle though and play around. fun stuff!! (see my facebook photo albums for fun pics). patrick went out and sat on the line, mike made it about 3/4 of the way (then sent it a few days later) and freddy tried some sit starts. i met some great people on this trip, so much fun! i wish i could slack all day every day.

we had to head back after only 2 days because i had to work, but it was so worth it!! yosemite is like heaven for those of you who haven't been yet.

so, now i am back in the bay working at bridges. i love it, but for some reason i am really down. i'm guessing it's because i had so much fun in yosemite that i wish i was still there! and the fact that i am struggling to let go of a certain person who really only causes me grief. i know that there are so many things in life to be happy about, i have such great friends and the best job ever...i just can't help but feel a bit lonely. but aren't we all? i mean- even when i was in a relationship that was almost perfect, i never felt quite right and was always searching for more. maybe we'll never feel like everythings in the right place. or maybe it's just allowing yourself to be happy regardless of your situation. i am also pretty upset because theres a very large chance that the footage of my walk of the lost arrow spire has been lost. i know in my heart that it's not the footage that matters and i also know that i will never forget that experience as long as i live, i just can't stop thinking about the stupid tape!

anyway, i think the beatles sum it up in only a few words: "pools of sorrow, waves of joy". that's life, right? truly happy one minute, devestated the next. it's such a cycle. my goal is to allow myself to ride life's emotional ups and downs with ease rather than falling so deeply into my emotions. wish me luck.