Because of Covid-19, schools across the country have had to find new ways to interact and learn, and as a result my school cancelled Spring Break and elongated Easter Break. However, to replace Spring Break, they introduced two “Wellness Days” to the academic calendar which are scattered evenly through the year to help alleviate some of the stress and overwhelm of homework by offering a day of no classes. Most students at my school decided to go hiking together or spend the day outside in some way, and so did I. I decided to ask my friend to join me bouldering at Stone Fort which sits right on the edge of Soddy-Daisy, TN. Ironically, this bouldering site also follows the length of a golf course.

My friend readily agreed to go climbing with me. It ended up feeling like one of the nicest days, in respect to weather, I had seen: it was sunny and warm.

It’s about an hour drive from campus to this site, and once we got there it was already almost 11 AM. We signed in and borrowed one of the guide books to help us navigate the area. Lord knows we needed that baby because even with it, I felt a little lost trying to find specific problems or figuring out which one we were doing.

Stone Fort is a home to over 300 climbing problems ranging in rating (difficulty) from V0 to V12. While my friend has been climbing longer than I have, we are both very much beginners, and we climb the same grade which makes everything on a whole much easier since we are looking at the same problems and can help each other figure out a way to finish each one.

On the whole, that afternoon was very relaxing and exciting. As my friend and I were sitting and resting chatting about our favorite movies when, since it’s located next to a golf course, suddenly a golf ball comes flying over another boulder and practically takes us out. We could see it in the headlines: Climber Hit in the Head by Golf Ball. The ball subsequently rolls down the hill and stills on the walking path where I run down to pick it up and keep it as a souvenir.

The rest of the day, the two of us goofed off together trying to climb, but since our skill is lacking significantly, we decided to take it easy and not worry about our accomplishments. We did, however, almost successfully climb a v1, but we could not top out or figure out a way which we could confidently execute it. We finished the day going off the beaten path and playing around just for the heck of it on top of an unmarked boulder.

Driving back, our stomachs were growling at us, and we both felt a satisfaction and joy from the day we had just experienced.

We will definitely go back some day.