Today, Saturday, May 6, there are 56 vehicles parked in every nook and cranny in and around the MV parking lot. There are between 180 and 220 climbers here – my best guess.
Folks are out there having a ball on routes put up by Jared Hancock (J-Rock) and Karla Carandang (Squeezindelemmon) and other MV developers. Karla and Jared, in particular, have put in many hours of backbreaking, dirty, sweaty work to put up a large number of incredibly high-quality routes in a short period of time for all to enjoy.
Unfortunately, too often, they read on this forum a few whinning self-proclaimed experts' opinions of this or that route that K & J have done. What they don't hear enough of is the compliments we hear from MV visitors. We wish there were a way they could hear what we hear.
Recently, Jared and Karla have grown discouraged, especially over the most recent round of MV developer bashing on this forum and decided to take a well-deserved break from developing. Also, they have another much more important event coming up.
It is one week before their wedding! At this time, I think it would be really nice (and certainly appreciated by Liz and me) if all of you who climb here in the Valley and freely enjoy the fruits of their labors, send them a thank you note, and better yet, a little contribution to the Friends of Muir Valley. This separate-from-MV group is headed up by Karla. Funds are used for trail maintenance and route development hardware.
Liz and I will start off by extending a big heartfelt THANK YOU to you two for all the classic routes you've created for RRG climbers!!
Next week is hereby declared Karla and Jared Appreciation Week.
Rick and Liz Weber
FoMV Address:
FoMV
c/o Karla Carandang
3610B St. Thomas Lane
Indiananpolis, IN 46214