Not-very-early on Saturday morning I met Eric at the Strawberry Lodge, having had their awesome strawberry belgian waffles. He was feeling a little under the weather after a concert the night before. The previous weekend I'd gone up Shasta, and usually during the week I don't get quite enough sleep, so a nice relaxed day sounded like just the ticket for the both of us. We set out for the Hogwild area.
I decided to warm up on the eponymous route -
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 Looking down Hogwild (5.7) from anchor Credit: rhyang |
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We then set out for It's Better with Bacon, having brought suitable tiny nuts, which I just had to use. I linked the first two pitches.
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 looking up the cruiser first pitch of It's Better With Bacon (5.8) Credit: rhyang |
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Eric headed up and linked the next two.
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 Eric leading pitch 4 of It's Better With Bacon (5.8) -- we linked p1/p2 and p3/p4. Credit: rhyang |
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I'd never actually done the last pitch to the top, so I took that one .. it was a little dirty, but certainly worth doing for the views.
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 Main Wall, from the top of Hogwild Credit: rhyang |
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 East Wall, from the top of Hogwild Credit: rhyang |
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 A party topping out on the Hogsback Credit: rhyang |
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We rapped off a tree at the top, and made our way down the rest of the rap stations with our 70m cord. It was starting to get warm, so we decided to call it a day. Good times !
Sunday I met Steve at the lodge, and again enjoyed one of their wonderful breakfasts. We decided to go do Better With Bacon again, since he hadn't done it and I enjoyed it so much the day before. This time he got the first pitch.
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 Steve on It's Better With Bacon (5.8) Credit: rhyang |
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I took the next three, linking p2/p3.
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 Looking down pitch 3 of It's Better With Bacon (5.8) Credit: rhyang |
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We decided to rap off from the pitch 4 anchors this time.
I had a hankering to go do Harvey Wallbangers Right, since the last time I was over there the wide section was wet, and I didn't have a #5 cam with me. It was warming up, and we did some talus-hopping & bushwhacking to get over to the base of the Hogsback. Fortunately no buzzworm encounters, heh.
Steve took the first pitch.
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 Steve on first pitch of Harvey Wallbangers Right (5.7) Credit: rhyang |
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It was a pretty nice pitch for the grade, I have to say ! I was psyched to place my almost-new red Wild Country #5 on the second pitch. Pulling over the lip was as much fun as Rat Race at Pinnacles, and I may have let out a whoop, just for the sheer joy of it.
By the time we were walking off, the heat of the day was really bearing down on us. It was time for ice cream :)
