A girl in...Joshua Tree National Park

Drove out to Joshua Tree National Park for a rock climbing tour with the great folks at Joshua Tree guides. On the way to our meeting point at Intersection Rock, we couldn't resist the urge to stop and take pictures of the unbelievable scenery and awe inspiring rock formations.

 

Joshua Tree National Park encompasses two deserts - the Mohave and the Colorado desert and as such, the landscape at the North entrance varies from that in the South entrance. For this trip, we entered and exited at the North. It's such an interesting place and while one has the tendency to think of a desert as barren and well, deserted, there really is a lot of life and activity just underneath the stark veneer.

Our guide was Miriam and she was wonderful - a wealth of knowledge and really friendly. We started our first rock climb (a level 5) at a location close to Intersection Rock and got re-acquainted with tying the rope to our harness, belaying techniques and general safety procedures.

We then moved over to Reggie Dome. It's located east of the Key's Corner parking lot (about a 10 minute walk). There, Miriam led us through a variety of climbs: regular rock climbing using the rock's natural cracks and crevices to climb, rappelling, and slab climbing. We rock climbed up a route called "Pops goes Hawaiian" - gotta love that!

Slab climbing definitely took some getting used to since it involves putting your feet in small cracks on nearly flat, slab-like rock (hence the name) and slowly climbing up its face. See picture below:

All in all, a really great day - felt great pushing myself physically and mentally and couldn't ask for better weather. :)

A girl in...her spiffy Barefoot Merrells

I'm getting geared up for an upcoming trip to Costa Rica (so excited!) and one of the decisions I made was to purchase a multipurpose shoe that would be good as both a walking and water shoe. Our Costa Rica itinerary is pretty packed with all sorts of fun adventures, including a volcano hike, night jungle hike, canyoneering, white water rafting and zip lining.

In ticking off my mental packing list, I realized I'd be bringing five pairs of shoes: hiking boots, waters shoes, tennis shoes, flip-flops, and a dressier pair of sandals. That's a definite no-no for me, so I thought I should try and find a shoe that will serve multiple functions. Enter the Merrell Pace Glove Barefoot running shoe.

Though I was initially drawn to the shoe for its cool styling, light weight and breathability, the friendly gal at REI spoke really highly of the shoe and espoused the benefits of barefoot running. Granted, I'm not a runner by any means but even I was tempted to take the shoe out on a few trial runs around my neighborhood. Verdict: I still haven't developed a great love for running but did notice the difference in that I take lighter steps.

I also took the shoe out last weekend for a trip to Joshua Tree for a guided rock climbing trip. While I didn't climb with them on, they came in handy for running around and taking breathers from having my feet squished into tight rock climbing shoes.

The Merrells hanging out with our climbing ropes.