We had about enough Cochise time after a week of trying to figure out what the completely out of date guidebook was trying to tell us. Plus the routes were all soooo sandbagged (graded easier than they actually are). So we'd get up something, barely, and then figure out the grade was something in the 10 range. After a while we figured it out, everything should be bumbed up a couple grades, AT LEAST, to be somewhat correct. Anyways we did meet some nice horsey people from Peachland. They pulled in their motorhome, with a horse trailer, on a pretty rough 20km gravel/washed out road. We thought that was pretty funny, apparently the trail riding in that park is amazing. So one night we got invited for a beer (into the warm motorhome!) and they wanted to know everything about climbing. We would spend the day climbing right beside/above their campsite and they were pretty intrigued.
Now we're staying in another National Forest, camping on the rim of Jacks Canyon. The climbing here is great, limestone pockets and steep, short routes. Just what we needed after a demoralizing times in Cochise. The canyon is in the middle of nowhere though and at about 6500 ft it gets pretty cold again at night. The closest town is Winslow, a really rough, run-down town with a giant state prison. In fact the prison is the first thing we saw on the horizon as we drove in from our campsite! Good thing we are at least 20 miles away from that.
Not many people seem to climb here in Arizona. No one else is camping at Jacks and so yesterday we were also the only ones climbing. It's pretty sweet having a place to yourself I guess. I didn't mind coming in to town today though, a bit of civilization feels good, even if it's a derilict Route 66 town.
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