The only time I’ve been shot at in my life was thirty years ago today. That sounds melodramatic considering the nature of the shot. But it’s true, a guy shot at me and my best friend Andy from a quarter mile away. We heard the bullet pass between us and then the report from down in the valley.
We both dropped to the ground and crawled into the woods from the open area on top of the southernmost of the See Rocks on the South Fork of the Red River. We made our way back into the woods and down to the valley, across the field and back to my car where it was parked on the side of the road. There was a note on my windshield that read:
If you don’t get permission it’s trespassing.
~ William King
I kept that note for a long time. It was the only memento I had from the day I started rock climbing. We weren't trespassing. Andy knew who owned the land where we parked and crossed the fields and the rocks themselves are National Forest.
Andy and I were at the See Rocks to climb. I’d gotten the bug after seeing some rock climbers at Military Wall while hiking. It was all I could talk about. And Andy had scrambled around on the See Rocks growing up nearly in their shadow. He suggested the See Rocks as an objective, and I was game.
We bushwhacked around through the Keyhole (the big arch which nuevo-archbaggers have misnamed) and on around the northwest end of the massif.
Andy had been up there with someone else and knew the way, so I trusted and followed him up a semi-exposed fourth class move to a higher tree ledge. And then we launched up the exposed upper north face of the north rock. When the ledges and handholds ran out we grabbed a steel cable dangling from the sky and yarded up and over a sheen of ice on the upper slabs.
Once on top we marveled at the view for a few minutes in the pale January sun. And then reversed our route. It was the only viable way down. To this day I have no idea how the cable got up there in the first place. Fell from a passing airplane? Grew from a seed dropped by a bird? Lassoed by space cowboys? Maybe just some rednecks hauled a ladder up there. There were some big brass orbs involved, let me tell you!
High from our experience we drifted over to the nice, exposed overlook on the southern rock. Whereupon we were shot at.
It’s been an interesting adventure—this rock climbing. There have been times in my life I’ve not climbed much. Other times it’s all I can think about. I’ve met many good friends and interesting people. I’ve met some people I wish I hadn’t. I’ve learned a lot about myself and about life in pursuit of summits.
Here’s to the next thirty years…
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| The See Rocks from the east |
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