Silent Mind 

FA: me n' Arvind Gupta, summer of '95 on a 100 degree day.

best route at the place! only granite in ventura!

I climbed this line on a hot Sunday in August—much like the first ascent, I imagine—but even though it was baking in Ojai, the rock on this side of the gorge remained cool, crisp, and perfect. This route continues to be one of the better, more sustained 5.11's at the Gorge. A must do. If you can figure out how to pull your rope from the route without getting it in the creek, I'll buy you a beer.

hardest 5.11 in Wheeler.

How to pull your rope from the route without getting it in the creek: the giant M

1. Climb "Cruiser" or "Cobble Climb."
2. Clean the Cruiser/Cobble Climb (C/CC) anchor and rappel.
3. Leave your rope in place through this anchor, with one end just touching the ground and a big pile of rope on the other end.
4. Take the big pile of rope over to Silent Mind (SM), tie into that end, and lead SM.
5. Follower climbs on the same end as the leader in this scheme, so the leader can unclip/reclip draws on the way down to clean up the rope's direction if you choose. Follower climbs, cleans route, rappels/lowers.
6. You have now made a giant M out of your rope. One person now returns to the base of C/CC to pull the rope while another person remains near the base of SM with the middle of the rope in hand to direct it out of the water as the rope-puller begins to pull.
7. Pull the rope from the base of C/CC. First the middle of the rope will go up and the person holding at the base of SM can easily keep this part out of the water. Then, because the two anchors in use are in fact close enough together relative to their height above the water, when the end slips out of the SM anchor it safely avoids the water and lands in the dirt below C/CC after pulling through that anchor.

Viola!

Caveats:
This technique requires at least a 60m rope.
To keep the middle part of the rope out of the water during the lead of SM, clip it taut to the belayer.
The order of C/CC and SM could of course be reversed.
This technique takes up a lot of real estate, so it is not recommended during crowded periods.

Brilliant. Prior to this post, I actually figured out how to pull my rope without getting it wet, and my method was very similar to yours. Great post, Joe.