For instance, this past wednesday, I went rock climbing after work, and got home at around 1am.
The trip was organized through UAF's incredible Outdoor Adventures office, so we had qualified guides, awesome equipment, and the whole nine yards (seriously, why doesn't W&M have something like this?). Right after work, we met by the Wood Center, and drove a little over an hour to the north to Grapefruit Rocks.
Once you get more than a few miles outside of the center of Fairbanks, there's not really all that much in terms of civilization. I didn't realize this until passing the "Leaving Fairbanks" sign about an hour into our trip, but Fairbanks is huge (7,444 mi^2 to be specific). Bigger than Connecticut, and just slightly smaller than New Jersey. The road we took, the Stesse Highway, parallels the Alyeska Pipeline along much of its route.
Once we got to our destination, there was a short hike to the rocks, and then nothing but incredible climbing. The views from the top of the cliff were also pretty spectacular. I don't suppose there's all that much to talk about with regards to the climbing itself. There were rocks. We climbed them. It was fun. Etc, etc, etc. There's a two-night climbing trip next weekend that I'm strongly considering signing up for (although it's a tad bit pricey).
Over the course of the week, I kept seeing fliers for a Critical Mass ride on Friday night. For those of you unfamiliar with the organization, it's essentially an advocacy group that seeks to promote cycling as a viable means of transportation (mostly in urban areas). More or less, they try to cause traffic jams with bicycles in protest of the lack of bike lanes or legal protection/recognition for cyclists. Because these things tend to be huge, and take place in large cities, I was intrigued from the start.
I showed up, mingled with a few of the local hippies (which I must say was great fun), and we embarked on our ride -- all twelve of us. At the very least, it was a pretty fun bike ride through town, at a nice relaxed pace.
Thus far, the weekend's been pretty uneventful. On Friday night, we took one of the ARSC interns out to Chili's for her 21st birthday, and on both Friday and Saturday night, we've begun to play volleyball on one the sand court in front of the building where we all work, which tends to be great fun. Yesterday, we went to see the matinée showing of the new Die Hard, which I highly recommend to anybody who enjoyed the first movie -- we tend to prefer the matinées simply because they're cheap, and the difference between the daytime and nighttime out here is pretty minimal.
The trip was organized through UAF's incredible Outdoor Adventures office, so we had qualified guides, awesome equipment, and the whole nine yards (seriously, why doesn't W&M have something like this?). Right after work, we met by the Wood Center, and drove a little over an hour to the north to Grapefruit Rocks.Once you get more than a few miles outside of the center of Fairbanks, there's not really all that much in terms of civilization. I didn't realize this until passing the "Leaving Fairbanks" sign about an hour into our trip, but Fairbanks is huge (7,444 mi^2 to be specific). Bigger than Connecticut, and just slightly smaller than New Jersey. The road we took, the Stesse Highway, parallels the Alyeska Pipeline along much of its route.
Once we got to our destination, there was a short hike to the rocks, and then nothing but incredible climbing. The views from the top of the cliff were also pretty spectacular. I don't suppose there's all that much to talk about with regards to the climbing itself. There were rocks. We climbed them. It was fun. Etc, etc, etc. There's a two-night climbing trip next weekend that I'm strongly considering signing up for (although it's a tad bit pricey).
Over the course of the week, I kept seeing fliers for a Critical Mass ride on Friday night. For those of you unfamiliar with the organization, it's essentially an advocacy group that seeks to promote cycling as a viable means of transportation (mostly in urban areas). More or less, they try to cause traffic jams with bicycles in protest of the lack of bike lanes or legal protection/recognition for cyclists. Because these things tend to be huge, and take place in large cities, I was intrigued from the start.
I showed up, mingled with a few of the local hippies (which I must say was great fun), and we embarked on our ride -- all twelve of us. At the very least, it was a pretty fun bike ride through town, at a nice relaxed pace.
Thus far, the weekend's been pretty uneventful. On Friday night, we took one of the ARSC interns out to Chili's for her 21st birthday, and on both Friday and Saturday night, we've begun to play volleyball on one the sand court in front of the building where we all work, which tends to be great fun. Yesterday, we went to see the matinée showing of the new Die Hard, which I highly recommend to anybody who enjoyed the first movie -- we tend to prefer the matinées simply because they're cheap, and the difference between the daytime and nighttime out here is pretty minimal.
2 comments:
The rock climbing looks awesome! Did one person climb up and then back at a time, or did you move as a group up the rocks, taking turns with the equipment?
i heart rock climbing...we have a rock wall at wm but that's about it...an awesome rock gym in richmond tho ;)
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