October 5, 2024 -- The Return To Smith Rock State Park

Madras, Oregon

October 5, 2024, 6 PM

I returned to Smith Rock today to see what it could show me on a sunny morning. It was WOW!

And so many rock climbers! 100? 200? A few were scaling tall sheer faces. The majority appeared to be skilled but not crazy and scaling less hard rocks with the encouragement of groups of other climbers. And then there were some who were apparently learning to rock climb under the watchful eye of guides.

It was wonderful to see how many people were hiking today. The parking lot was 60 percent full when I arrived at 830 AM and by 1230 PM the parking lots were full. I gathered from talking with several people -- including a gentleman about my age from Kentucky -- that Smith Rock is a mecca for rock climbers and they come from out of state to climb.

After my brain exploded I headed back into Madras and went and hit range balls. I used a training aid of rolled up tools to encourage me not to swing outside in and it seemed to work pretty well. I never hit the towels.

In a moment that would make my son cringe, there were a couple of teenage boys on the range -- I would say hitting balls but they were wiffing more than they were hitting. I slyly )hopefully) watched for a few minutes. These poor kids were hopeless -- they had no idea what they were doing. I gave into my impulse and asked them if I could give them a few pointers. Fortunately I don't think they had see me chunk my last swing! They were of course trying to hit drivers and I showed them ball position, spine angle, swing speed .... I tried using a baseball swing as a reference point but I don't think either kid had ever played baseball.

One kid hit a few decent balls after about five minutes -- the other young man could not get the his right arm to bend -- he kept trying to hit the ball with straight arms.

I apologized for inflicting myself on them, but they seemed genuinely happy that someone had shown interest. Later I saw them on the first tee; hopefully they broke 100 for nine holes.