Devil's Lake Gumbys (part 1)

Well, it had been quite a summer, and after a few more trips down to the red, the weather was begining to cool down just a bit. Seeing as the red is 8 hours away from our current location, we have to make due with what wisconsin has to offer. A.K.A. The Dodge, Devil's Lake, Rib Mountain, etc. A day trip had been set to The Lake.

Being the hard worker that he is, zach had to work till 12:30, meaning that we left at about one aclock. We got there at about 3:00, and enjoyed the "nice" hike up the CCC trail. We met up with our friends Lindsay and Dave, along with rachel, who was teaching a class there that morning. We set up a rope on stretcher, hour-glass, and mouse tracks. After climbing these routes, Dave decided that it was about time for him to lead something, so over to Brintons Crack we went...

Sitting atop brintons bluff at sunset, overlooking the lake is quite a sight to see. The sheer beauty of the forest is enough to send chills down your spine. That is until a random man carying a flute come up and obnoxiously starts asking me to take his picturee while he plays his flute. I took the picture, and thought that that would be the end of it, but instead, he decides to serenade the gang, and Dave, while he makes his way up on the sharp end.

Long story short, this man decides that we are going to be best friends. After talking with our group extensivly about his political views, past girlfriends, climbing partners, and favorite climbs, he decides to climb brintons crack. By this point it is almost dark, and we only had one head lamp. He insisted that it would be a quickie, so reluctantly, we let him use our rope.

almost 20 minutes later, he decides that he has had enough, and comes down. We hurry to the top and begin taking gear out, when we are greeted by a friendly Puerto Rican man who wants to climb at the lake. He seemed pretty legit. He explained that he had a 5.4 mm rope, and he intended to pound in spikes at the top, and swing down. In return, we told him that it was illegal to pound in pitons at the lake. He whould have none of it. After 5 minutes of arguing with this man, we finally could proceed with pulling our gear out, and making our way over to the trail.

---TO BE CONTINUED---