You know how some movies start at the end, and then jump back and work their way forward, explaining how that initial scene came to be?

Scene 1: The end of the day yesterday (Wednesday April 20). Abby and Meghan show off some rocks. Suspense builds. Where did these rocks come from? What do they signify?

Scene 2: Backstory--3, maybe 4 years ago. Bill learns how to belay as an adult volunteer at a youth conference. He decides he wants to be a rock climber. He doesn't know any rock climbers (He's not the social type). Eschewing other human beings, he turns to the great ally of the introvert--the internet. He does a lot of reading. His birthday is coming up, and, despite the worry and concern of his wife, also does a lot of spending. Luckily, the spending does not include the $3000 that he submitted as a bid on ebay for a climbing harness after misplacing a decimal and winning the bid before he could figure out how to retract it. Happily, he only spent 5 dollars more than he had hoped to spend.

Bill's brother in law Joe has some experience rappelling and takes him out on two rappelling trips--one near family camp at Sterling Lake and one in Auburn where climbing has been banned some time between Joe's days as a youth and the time of our trip. A quick commando rappel occurs before a hasty retreat back to the cars. They may not have been pretty, but Bill's anchors hold.

Bill goes back to Auburn once more before putting his climbing plans on hold. He keeps the dream alive with the occasional netflix or internet climbing video and assorted purchases, mostly at REI, although, to avoid interacting with other people, and to take advantage of  sweet offers, the occasional Steep and Cheap and Sierra Trading Post online purchase is made as well .

Scene 3: The year leading up to the present: Bill gets in some limited bouldering opportunities and finally gets the courage to enter an indoor climbing gym and climb in front of people who actually know what they're doing. He still lacks formal training but the visits to the gym serve to greatly increase his desire to be a climber, as do the Dirtbag Diaries, a podcast series to which Bill has recently become addicted .

Intermission: The audience takes a break, gets a drink, wonders what all of this has to do with the adorable girls and their rocks and wonders when the director will return to them.

Scene 4: A few days before the present: Bill decides it's time to make another attempt at climbing--on real rocks. Again shying away from contact with other human beings, Bill consults the internet. He reads of some top rope and bouldering opportunities around Placerville, but the beta (Bill attempts to use the language of the climber when he can) is incomplete--mainly because the source is trying to sell guidebooks and doesn't want to give away too much info for free; otherwise, who would buy their books? Bill breaks down and buys their book.

Scene 5: Earlier in the present day, midway through Spring Break: Bill loads the family and his climbing storage bin into his whip: a white Honda Odyssey minivan. He consults his Supertopo guide book, spends too much money filling up the gas tank at Costco and heads out on an exploratory mission. He has two potential climbing sites and his wife is in the passenger seat with the guidebook and the occasional reminder to keep his eyes on the road rather than off to the side at potential boulders on private property. These comments seem to occur mostly on the narrow mountain roads with steep dropoffs while large trucks are passing in the opposite direction, but Bill is not immune to the need for reminders while on the freeway either.

Bill finds what he believes to be the first climbing spot in the guide book. It's fenced off with "no trespassing" signs posted in regular intervals. There are houses nearby and Bill is with his family. It's no time for a commando mission.

Still hopeful, Bill pilots the Odyssey in the direction of the second climbing site. Despite missing the exit, the first time around, Bill is able to follow the directions to the spot. In the climbing book it's known as "Mosquito Coast." In his attempt to find free beta on the internet, Bill learned earlier that there's an area in Nicaragua known as the Mesquito Coast.There is also a film starring Harrison Ford with the same title. While the information is no doubt interesting, and any movie with Harrison Ford worth watching, it doesn't make searching the net for beta on the climbing site very easy.

Bill eventually arrives at the second climbing site. He parks the car in a tiny spot next to a one lane bridge that crosses the South Fork of the American River and gets out to survey the area. He crosses the bridge, finds a small overgrown path that seems to be covered in three leaved fauna and is a bit too steep for young children to safely cross on their own. But he still hasn't learned to identify poison oak correctly. He always thinks he sees it but his kids haven't come down with any rashes in any of their previous hikes, and he can help them one by one on the steep sections. He makes his way down to the bottom of the rocks and sees what to his untrained eyes look like climbable boulders. Bill is beginning to rethink the idea of setting up his novice version of top rope anchors to belay his wife and children and he can't find the anchors the guidebook promises anyway, but he knows his kids will love to scramble around the granite slabs and throw rocks into the swiftly flowing river. He snaps a few pictures for the family blog and makes his way back to the car to bring back the family and the gear.

When he returns to the car, his wife doesn't seem committed to the adventure or motivated by Bill's report, even though he makes no mention of the poison oak and minimizes the steepness of the trail. But she's always been a good sport and she only needs a minimum of persuasion to get out, wait for a couple of vehicles to alternate turns across the one lane bridge and then follow Bill and their children to the awaiting adventure

Some random lady showed up while I was getting the kids out of the car, but this is the only picture in which Lennon isn't hiding behind Rachel so I had to use it.

Here's one without the random lady, but also without Lennon's face

Here's the steep part of the trail. It was slippery too.

This is where the kids waited for me to help them down the last steep section

Abby took this one

There's a little waterfall in the back that I thought was really pretty

The same waterfall and riffles from a different angle (right side now)

We just got Rachel some climbing shoes. She's testing them out.

Meghan spent her time throwing rocks as big as her head into the river. It brought her a lot of enjoyment.

Abby got into the bouldering too

Lennon loves to get to the top

And Abby isn't going to be left behind

Look at Rachel doing a little stemming

Of course I got a little bouldering time too.

The family makes their way down to the riverbank, Bill's oldest child, his son, quickly goes off rock hopping and scrambling. Bill reminds him not to wander too far and to please be very careful. Meanwhile his youngest child makes her way right to the bank of the raging surge that is the river to throw rocks into it. Bill decides to stay near this one. Bill's wife and middle child both put on their climbing shoes and start exploring the rock.

When his wife decides she's ready for a break, she takes charge of the rock thrower and Bill laces up his climbing shoes. After 15 minutes and a few different attempted lines, Bill is forced to admit that his skills are  no match for the rock and neither is his nerve. If only he had a crash pad, he thinks to himself. Then he would have more confidence to try some of the sketchy holds that would be necessary to get himself further up the rock. Bill senses another internet purchase looming in the near future.

Before leaving, Bill sits his family on the rocks and turns on the camera's auto timer. They smile as Bill races the blinking orange light back to his place next to the wife and three children that he loves as much as he loves being outdoors, trying to be adventurous. And then, just to be safe, Bill repeats the process three more times. These pictures are the proof that at the very least Bill made the attempt. His family adventures don't usually turn out the way he envisions them in his mind. After all, what really does? But isn't that part of the adventure, and part of the sense of adventure and willingness to experience life that he hopes to install in his young children?









A gentle rain begins to fall as Bill and his family make their way back up the trail towards the white bridge and the white minivan parked on the other side of it. Along the way Bill notices that the pockets of both of his daughters' jackets are bulging. The girls have stuffed every pocket they can with rocks and are now trudging up the steep hill trying to keep those rocks from both falling out and being spotted by their parents who will surely tell them to leave the rocks there. After all, what are they going to do with them? But the girls know what they're going to do with them: they're going to add them to their collection of rocks, shells, pine cones, twigs, and a stick chewed by a beaver that they've collected on other adventures. Bill thinks to himself that maybe those rocks and shells and sticks and pine cones serve the same purpose as his pictures. They remind the girls of their adventures with their mom and dad and brother. And they're proof that their parents are trying. And if the girls want these souvenirs of family adventure, then maybe, just maybe, their parents are succeeding.

Or maybe they just really like rocks, Bill thinks, after they've returned home from the trip and he's snapped a few photos of the girls posing in the front yard with their new rocks. He smiles to himself and walks over to the computer to blog about the latest family adventure.

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