With the beautiful weather who couldn't be out climbing. Scott his two dogs (Woody and Toby), Tom & his wife Kim, Ron and myself with my dog Brodie (the wonderdog) decided to go out and enjoy the nice weather climbing at The Knobs. We met at Scott's place at 10:00, Tom and Kim rode with Brodie and I, Ron rode with Scott, Toby and Woody. We were at the parking area for the Knobs at about 10:00 and set off for the hike in. The warm weather with the wind blowing made the hike much more enjoyable than during the brutal summer months with humid conditions. The dogs stopped at the bridge to enjoy a drink of the cold stream. We were at the rocks by 11:15. We cooled down for a few minutes and proceeded to put our harnesses on and rack up for some climbing. Scott took Ron and Kim over to Fun 1 - 5.6 Scott led up and belayed Ron and Kim up. They set up a top rope on the bolts at the top of Fun 3 - 5.7. Tom and I proceeded over to Take a Stab - 5.8 and I took off on lead and started up through the tricky bouldery traverse at the beginning. I made the moves and got into the larger crack that continues up to the top. Several moves and 2 pieces of pro later I was at the top. I set up the belay anchor at the top and proceeded to belay Tom. He started through the beginning and quickly found the traverse to be a little tricky. He had a little problem getting the first cam out of the horizontal crack it was in. His fingers were too large to get into the crack to pull the trigger to release the cam, so he unclipped it from the rope and continued up through the larger crack to the top. We went over to the top of Mungo Jelly - 5.10c and set it up as a top rope for everyone to try. From the same top rope we were able to climb Dead Ringer - 5.9- to the right of Mungo Jelly. Tom rappelled down our top rope set up and I went back over to the top out of Take a Stab and set up and rappelled down the route pulling the cam near the bottom. We went over to our top rope setup and Tom hopped onto Dead Ringer. I belayed him as he went through the beginning, making easy work of it. He quickly found himself on the tricky top part. I urged him to keep moving, and he figured out the moves and made it to the top. I was up next I got onto Mungo Jelly. I had led it for the first time last fall and was curious to see if it was any less difficult on top rope. I made the moves up through the horizontal cracks and quickly found myself at the much thinner top part. I made the moves with much more ease and style than I had on my lead of the route last fall. I topped out and had Tom lower me down to the ground. All in all I found it too be much easier on top rope than on lead. Kim was the next to climb. She got onto Dead Ringer and took a direct start unlike Tom who traversed in from the start of Mungo Jelly. She made nice moves up through the horizontals at the beginning and was quickly to the left facing flake. We proceeded to give her small amounts of beta as needed, and several moves later she was at the crux move near the top where Tom had stalled for a moment. Reminding her of the moves Tom made helped her out, and she made the moves to the top. While we were climbing these several routes, Ron and Scott were busy climbing Fun Wall. They came over to where we were climbing and Ron jumped on Dead Ringer. While he was climbing that Scott and I prepared to climb Can I touch It - 5.11c. After stretching out, I started up the route. I took several falls trying to clip the first bolt. I forgot several key holds below the bolt that I used to make the clip a little less straining than the way I was proceeding to use. I eventually got the bolt clipped and made my way up the easier middle section to the second bolt about 10' above the first. I had to take a rest and "Hang Dog" to relieve my arms from the pumpfest below. I made several attempts on the slopers above, but my guns were out of ammo. I lowered down to the ground and Scott decided to take a shot at it. He went up to the high point and took several shots at the small sloper on the right, but with no success. He became a member of the Hang dog club and lowered to the ground. Tom was the next victim to try. He went through the bottom section with several falls on the bouldery start. He eventually got to second bolt and was member #3 to our rapidly expanding group - H.O.K. (Hangdoggers of the Knobs). Scott decided to give Mungo Jelly a try. He hopped onto the start and made his way through the horizontals to the friction top. He had several falls through the tricky top section, but eventually made it and topped out. He waited on top and watched me make a final attempt at Can I touch It. I got onto the route and climbed up to the second bolt where I decided to rest before a final attempt. After a short rest, I started thinking to myself as I did the moves: right hand up to the vicious sloper lock my thumb over my index finger for maximum power, left foot up to the small edge, right toe hooked under the lip for opposition, slowly but surely crank up and reach with my left hand to the small horizontal, keep my body in close to the rock so I don't get my weight too far behind the sloper. I latched onto the horizontal with my left hand and move ever so slowly up with my right hand to the first real hold in several difficult moves. What a relief to finally hit a good hold. I managed to get my left hand up to a reasonable hand hold also. At this point I'm really feeling the burn. I'm beginning to search frantic for another hold before I launch myself into the weightless world. I see what appears to be the next logical hold and go for it, another sloper. I stick it for a brief second while I yell "falling". Tom takes up the slack and makes my fall as short as possible. What a disappointment, only 1 move from completion. Oh well it'll be there another day for me to try. After lowering to the ground I took the easy route to the top and rappelled down the route to retrieve my draws. I looked at the hold I greased off of only to find a much better hold 6" left of where I was. I think to myself next time. When I got to the ground, we packed up our gear and headed down the steep hillside towards our vehicles. With the dogs leading the way we strolled back to the vehicles satisfied with a great day of climbing.

After climbing we drove back to Acme and decided we should go for a little after climbing cuisine. I dropped Tom and Kim off at Scotts house and drove home to drop off Brodie and pick up my wife (who was at home recovering from her vehicle accident). Holly and I headed up to Tall Cedars in Donegal. A little while later the rest of the crew showed up. We promply decided on our appetizers Jalepeno Poppers and Spin Dippers. Dinners were a little harder choice since all the food is soooo good there. Holly and Kim had a Vegetable Calzone, Tom had a plain stomboli, Scott had an Italian Hoagie and Ron and I each had a large Ham Calzone. When they say large, its LARGE. If I may say it was an amazing display of eating power on my part. I proceeded to chow down the entire thing. This was a first for me, I'd been trying to accomplish this task for about a year now. I am extremely proud of this accomplishment although I'm sure its not going to help me obtain the top of Can I Touch It, but what the hell… it was a great dinner and a great day of climbing…..

Tim :-)