bcskier
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2004
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26' Soling Sailboat between Jackson Hole & Chi town
O.K. this needs quite an explanation. I was 19 years old. My best friend and climbing partner and I hitchiked out to the Tetons the summer of '72. We climbed for a couple of weeks and with our money running out decided we needed to find a way back home.
We thought we had a ride lined up with a fellow climber who'd been sharing the same cabin at the Climber's Ranch but instead of returning to pick us up after his last climb he just disappeared (not on the mountain, just afterward.)
Needless to say we were kind of discouraged. We especially didn't relish the idea of hitching back through Wyoming. We'd almost gotten beaten up outside of Laramie.
It was my idea to cruise the campground at Jenny Lake and ask drivers with eastern plates if they wanted to give a lift to a couple of people on their ride home. We didn't find anyone who was willing or able and were trudging our way back to the C.R. when we passed a station wagon with a sailboat in tow parked outside of the hdqtrs building. My friend was a pretty competitive sailor so he went inside to see what the story was behind the boat.
Not too long afterward he came running up to me and said that if we could get all of our gear together within the next half hour we had a ride lined up as far as Chicago. We raced back to the C.R. and I just grabbed a tarp and we threw every piece of gear we had onto it. We gathered it up like some kind of gargantuan hobo's bag and dragged it out to where the station wagon was waiting. The driver of the wagon was named Scott Stokes and had been a crew member for the owner of the Soling which had been out in the S.F. bay area for the Olympic trials. He was taking it back to Chicago. He was happy to have the company on the remainder of his ride.
Scott wound his way home through northern Wyoming seeing the sights in places like Cody. We took at least three days and two nights to get as far as Chi town. At night Scott slept in the back of the wagon. He suggested we sleep in the cockpit of the Soling. My rainfly, guyed out over the shipped mast and boom covered the cockpit quite nicely and we slept warm and dry for those two nights.
We actually managed to get another ride all the way to the Lee exit on the Mass. Pike from just outside of Chicago without ever having to get out of Scott's car (but that's another part of the story.)
The nights I spent in the Soling popped into my head with Roadtripper's thread title. I'm not sure my friend Roger would have the same reaction since it competes in his mind with such later things as nights spent in a Portaledge on El Cap among other places.
I've attached a picture of a Soling in case you're wondering what it looks like.
O.K. this needs quite an explanation. I was 19 years old. My best friend and climbing partner and I hitchiked out to the Tetons the summer of '72. We climbed for a couple of weeks and with our money running out decided we needed to find a way back home.
We thought we had a ride lined up with a fellow climber who'd been sharing the same cabin at the Climber's Ranch but instead of returning to pick us up after his last climb he just disappeared (not on the mountain, just afterward.)
Needless to say we were kind of discouraged. We especially didn't relish the idea of hitching back through Wyoming. We'd almost gotten beaten up outside of Laramie.
It was my idea to cruise the campground at Jenny Lake and ask drivers with eastern plates if they wanted to give a lift to a couple of people on their ride home. We didn't find anyone who was willing or able and were trudging our way back to the C.R. when we passed a station wagon with a sailboat in tow parked outside of the hdqtrs building. My friend was a pretty competitive sailor so he went inside to see what the story was behind the boat.
Not too long afterward he came running up to me and said that if we could get all of our gear together within the next half hour we had a ride lined up as far as Chicago. We raced back to the C.R. and I just grabbed a tarp and we threw every piece of gear we had onto it. We gathered it up like some kind of gargantuan hobo's bag and dragged it out to where the station wagon was waiting. The driver of the wagon was named Scott Stokes and had been a crew member for the owner of the Soling which had been out in the S.F. bay area for the Olympic trials. He was taking it back to Chicago. He was happy to have the company on the remainder of his ride.
Scott wound his way home through northern Wyoming seeing the sights in places like Cody. We took at least three days and two nights to get as far as Chi town. At night Scott slept in the back of the wagon. He suggested we sleep in the cockpit of the Soling. My rainfly, guyed out over the shipped mast and boom covered the cockpit quite nicely and we slept warm and dry for those two nights.
We actually managed to get another ride all the way to the Lee exit on the Mass. Pike from just outside of Chicago without ever having to get out of Scott's car (but that's another part of the story.)
The nights I spent in the Soling popped into my head with Roadtripper's thread title. I'm not sure my friend Roger would have the same reaction since it competes in his mind with such later things as nights spent in a Portaledge on El Cap among other places.
I've attached a picture of a Soling in case you're wondering what it looks like.
