Some years ago, I discovered some boulders on the North Fork of the Red River. What’s significant about these specific boulders is that they were the last group of small stones I found before I took a long hiatus from bouldering due to chronic tendinitis and encroaching adulthood. In late 2002 I climbed three easy problems there and then promptly left the faith for other pursuits.
Nineteen years later I wandered up to the long bench below
the big cliffline knowing full well there were boulders there both from memory
and from notes I made on a map in my climbing journal as well as the entries
for the three problems I did in 2002 in an area I called “Schoolhouse Rocks”
for the cartoon shorts I watched frequently as a kid. While in the same
watershed as Schoolhouse Branch of the North Fork of Red River, the area was
not in Schoolhouse Branch.
In November of 2021 I more fully explored along the bench
and was pleased to find a number of nice looking boulders. What I considered
the main area of boulders was only the central portion of about 20-30 boulders.
At the far eastern end, separated by the remainder by a steepness of the
drainage is a cluster of twelve boulders I am retaining the name “Schoolhouse
Rocks” for. The center sub-area I’m calling “Downtown” and the far western end
I’m calling “City Hall” with the whole overall area called “Boulder City.”
I spent most of the winter of 2025 putting my energy into
cleaning and climbing the boulders in the Schoolhouse Rocks sub-area. Of the
twelve boulders I’ve fully or partially developed eight of them totaling 51
problems. I only stalled out when the rains of spring and the early onset humidity
of this weird summer obliviated decent bouldering conditions. And maybe I
tweaked a joint or two.
The most notable gems are Punk Rock and Schoolhouse Rock.
Both have excellent problems. Punk Rock is one of my favorite discoveries in my
entire bouldering career. There are still some steep, harder problems on it to
be sent, and I hope to have beefed up and knuckled down enough to send them all
by the end of the year. Schoolhouse Rock has a slew of good problems with a
little less variety and loads of consistency.
One thing that’s aided my development efforts most was the purchase of a collapsible 12’ aluminum ladder. That’s been the most distinct improvement over the development of my younger years. With the area being mostly unknown and off the beaten path I’ve been able to leave the ladder stashed amongst the boulders while cleaning. Once I’ve cleaned up the remaining three big boulders I’ll move over to Downtown and focus my efforts there. The 12’ ladder may not be enough on some of the bigger stones in the central section of Boulder City.
The current classics of the area are:
- Tackleberry on the Police Academy Boulder—a crimpy V1 up the center of the main face.
- The Anarchist Cookbook—a V1 arete on the Anarchy Boulder.
- Conjunction Junction V2—a nice, thin pocket stabbing problem on Schoolhouse Rock, and
- Schoolhouse Rock!—the obvious V1 outing on the main arete of the namesake boulder.
- And two V1 slab problems on the north face of Punk Rock called Never Mind the Bollocks and Bitter Divisions respectively.
There are some remaining classics to be sent in this
sub-area and definitely more to be had further to the west. Overall, I’m more
stoked to keep developing this area than to put more energy into Muscle Beach
or the Group W Boulders, both of which are great areas themselves. I spent a
whole lot of time at Muscle Beach last fall until the Indian Creek gates were
closed for the winter. I only hesitated to keep working on Group W because of
the mandatory creek crossing during the winter months and that the Boulder City
area was more south facing and ultimately accessible. The one boulder I am sort
of chomping at the bit to get back to is the War Pigs Boulder in the Group W
area and the “Hero” boulder nearby. I’ll hopefully have more on both of those
projects early this coming fall.
In addition to my bouldering exploits, Tonya and I did a lot
of hiking over the winter, mostly to arches and waterfalls. We went to quite a
few places I’ve previously visited but she had not including Red Byrd Arch,
Hopewell Arch and the Copperas Creek Arches #2, 3, and 4 as well as Snow Arch
and Double Deer Arch. We also visited Noah’s Spout, Devil’s Market House, Room
With a View, Flat Hollow Arch, Sky View Arch, Star Gap Arch, Sky Bridge, Ramp
Arch, White’s Branch Arch, the Hoodoo, Turtleback Arch and Pachyderm Arch.
Our adventures have been run-of-the-mill, mundane,
pedestrian, but satisfying and fortifying. I have an adventure partner who
doesn’t shy from adversity. She will hike in the rain. She’ll wade creeks.
She’ll meet me in the woods after work. There’s a lot more to tell about that
aspect of my life, but I’ll save it for down the road.
Regarding my remaining goals for 2025—once I summit the
Grand I have a few more things I want to try to tick off this year:
Summit Mount Washington, New Hampshire. I was
thwarted on my New England high point trip last fall. I want to go back and do
a full send, hiking up from the valley, and claim the final New England summit
I need. I’m going to try to pull it off in four days later in the summer.
Four southern high points. I still need Brasstown
Bald, Georgia, Driskill Mountain, Louisiana, Magazine Mountain, Arkansas, and
Taum Sauk, Missouri in the south. These four represent a single trip entailing
thirty-four hours of driving between them. We almost ran to Brasstown Bald this
past weekend, but in the end it was a couple hours out of our way and would
only save three hours on the greater southern blitz. I believe I can knock this
trip out in a long weekend. Once I tag Mount Washington and these four the only
high point east of the Rockies I’ll have left is Black Mesa, Oklahoma and I
plan to visit it on a longer western high point trip either in the fall of 2025
or in 2026.
Thru-hike Pine Mountain Trail. I got a taste of it
last summer. I haven’t returned other than to drive over at Jenkins last
weekend, but I want to hike this amazing trail by the end of the year. Worst
case I’ll shoot for Thanksgiving.
Local sends. There are a couple of older boulder
problems I want to send/re-send. I’ve never climbed The Pearl, though I
did work it a couple of times years ago. I want to resend Dreams. It’s
still maybe my proudest first ascent and an iconic problem in the Red River
Gorge. I also have an old aid line I want to reclean and try to free. It’s
basically a 20’ shallow crack boulder problem to a 5.4 two pitch run to the top
of the cliff. More on that to come…
In addition to all of that I want to keep developing new
boulder areas and problems. That’s my real passion. Then I have my writing
projects. I’m trying to reintroduce myself to mountain biking again. There’s a
lot of ADHD detritus floating around that may surface as the months click on.
But for now that’s the summation of how 2025 has gone so far and what I see for
the remaining months of this year. Keep your eyes peeled for a trip report in
the next few weeks from when I return from Wyoming. Flash or fail my next
attempt on the Grand is bound to be noteworthy.
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