CJ & Autumn Miller

This past weekend we flew to Jasper, AR. We agreed to help out with a rock climbing competition at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. It was called 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell, & you guessed it, it lasted 24 straight hours. We arrived Friday evening at the Harrison County Airport in the C-182 where Josh & Ruedi picked us up in the truck. We made it back to the ranch just in time for the free spaghetti & beer dinner & an entertaining slack line competition. We snagged some free swag & pitched our tents in the dark. Our first volunteer shift started at 10am Saturday morning after the rule meeting/ 80s climbing spandex freak show. It was an absolutely beautiful day! Met lots of people (hippies) & watched lots of amazing climbers. We especially enjoyed Brittney tackle the rock – she was sponsored by Patagonia. Ate plenty of free Peanut Butter Crunch Cliff bars & Killer Buzz. The boys cooked dinner back at camp – yummy chicken, broccoli, macaroni & cheese & we ate with our new friend Rachael. The guys went climbing that evening & I enjoyed a good book – in the dark. I was glad to see them come back before our night shift. After much contemplation we decided to buy a lantern to survive the trails since our headlamps were running out of juice. The 10pm to 4am shift was a complete different experience. The participants were climbing by head lamp only & exhausted from an already full & exhausting day. We drifted around the Far East, Roman Wall & Cliffs of Insanity trying to keep people awake & conscious enough to be safe, reminding them to double check their knots. CJ brought his beloved camp stove & we enjoyed some middle of the night coffee. We told jokes over the 2 way radios & enjoyed the stars. Despite all the fun, we were glad to see the clocks chime four. The free Patagonia fleeces were ours & we were deliriously happy! We slept hard & fast for what remained of the night & woke to a herd of mountain goats rummaging through our camp site. We packed up camp, rode back to town with a hitchhiker in the back of the truck, ate brunch at our favorite Diner, & visited the little coffee shop for some liquid energy. Despite that, I fell asleep early into our flight home & awoke  to CJ asking me to be the safety pilot while he flew an approach into Gilmer. Nothing wakes you up faster than realizing if you don’t, you could die in a mid air collision, so I cleared my eyes & proceeded as requested. Another great weekend in the woods as far as I am concerned.