> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.novaugust.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Season's End - URL: https://blog.novaugust.net/seasons-end/ - Published: 2017-02-16T02:21:49.000Z - Updated: 2017-02-16T03:29:36.000Z - Author: Matt Enlow - Tags: Arizona, @cstebbins024, post, Oak Flat, @megsmegge, Monument Valley, @steele, Phoenix, denver, beer, Desert Season '16, #Import 2026-06-21 14:43 ### An Interlude Back Home When I got back from the blur of long nights out on the town on my business trip in Denver (so close to home, yet still two weeks from it) - ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380553.jpg) *who* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380554.jpg) *are* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380620.jpg) *these* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380627.jpg) *people?!* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/DSC_4396.JPG) *me!* \- I met up with some acquaintances that I had met through rather strange circumstances. I don't think the tale's been told on the blog yet, so: #### Origins One summer evening at the 'Voo Stebbins and I jumped in front of a crew waiting to get on Ed's crack, promising we'd be *really* fast. Stebbins racked up and I fed out about fifty feet of rope and "put him on belay". While Stebbins ran up the start of the climb I switched off my shoes, completely ignoring him. When he ran out of rope, I put out more. "He better not just solo it," I told the kids next to me. "If I put him on belay and he doesn't place a piece I'm going to be pissed." Stebbins pulled the final moves sans pro. "God dammit." I took him off belay and started up the route. "Hey, I don't think you're on belay yet?" someone back on the ground called up at me. "No worries. I will be at some point," I replied. A few days later, either I found those people on Instagram or they found me. A few *months* later we met up to boulder in Oak Flats outside of Arizona. Savannah and I had bonded talking lovingly of Ten Sleep, and struck a deal to try to meet up someday. And yes, you heard that right. *Boulder*. ### Oak Flat(s?) Unlike me, Savannah and James are strong like bull, and pull hard on the tiny holds of tiny rocks. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380701.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380705.jpg) Me, well. My hardest bouldering send remains a V2 if I don't get to count the things I've sent with a harness on... ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380713.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380722.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380723.jpg) After we said goodbye to each other (a cold goodbye, the heat quickly running from the desert after the sun sets) I spent two more nights in the Phoenix area seeing other friends - Wes! Bri! Wade! Alicia! - and doing a bit of 0-&-1-ing before I fled back to Flagstaff to hang with [Mr. Steele](https://blog.novaugust.net/the-waterfall/) and Megan a few more times. And then, on December 20th, desert season ended, and I ever-so-slowly drove back to Wyoming. ### Monument Valley Driving 160 from Indian Creek to Flagstaff about three weeks earlier I'd nearly driven myself off the road half a dozen times while eye-fucking gargantuan stone monoliths off to the Northwest of me. I had to know what those were! The answer: I was looking at **Monument Valley** from afar. So on my way back north, I detoured through the giants themselves, catching them early in the morning. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380743.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2017/02/P3380744.jpg) And I went home.