As most of you who regularly read this blog know, I have been putting together a guidebook to Smoke Hole Canyon, Reed's Creek, Franklin, and the surrounding region for about four years, now.
After many trials and a lot of help and advice from the good folks at KDaniels Publishing, I have decided to publish and distribute the guide on my own, with a local publisher, and without all the ad space that seems to fill so many guidebooks these days.
Turns out, it ain't cheap; after two decades of putting up routes and, in the process, donating several thousand dollars worth of hardware and equipment to the climbing community, it seems that it will cost about half again as much to tell the climbing community about the routes I put up.
That's life.
I'm putting together a Kickstarter project to generate the funds to simply print and distribute this guide, and intend to have it up and running soon.
Proceeds from the guide above and beyond the costs of publication and distribution will go directly toward organizing trail and clean-up days at Franklin, Reed's, and other crags in the region. The book's sales will also support upgrade of substandard gear like un-welded cold shuts and allow us to replace twenty-year-old protection and anchor bolts, something I have been doing, primarily out of my own limited funds, for the last six years.
And, finally, the guide will fund development of new climbs, at new crags, for all of us, and for the next generation of climbers.
Stay tuned for further developments.
(You can also email me wvmgray@gmail.com for more details or to donate to the project privately.)
