Monday, November 28, 2005
I woke up early this morning with the moon in my eyes - it was only a tiny sliver, but it was bright! Then Savannah burrowed underneath the covers and draped herself purring across my stomach. Made it very hard to crawl out of the warm bed into the cold room.
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Now, I know that the people who post the writeups on Hike Arizona tend to be gonzo hikers, so I make allowances when I'm reading the trail descriptions. Even so, the 14-mile hike from the Peralta trailhead to Canyon Lake looked like it fell into the challenging but fun category. My friends "Skeet" and "Judy", who asked me not to use their real names, accompanied me on this hike on Saturday.
For starters, I severely underestimated the time it would take to drop the one car at Canyon Lake and shuttle down to Peralta. It was after 8 by the time we hit the trail - our target had been 7:00. Still it was a nice morning if a bit humid, cool with shifting clouds. On the way up to the Fremont Saddle we met a hiker in a sombrero who identified himself as a Snowbird from Tennessee. It's a healthy climb to the saddle; we had a quick breakfast and started down the other side with great views of Weaver's Needle as we passed it. We were slowly getting more and more blue sky, but still nice and cool. After the Needle the Peralta goes through an area that was hit by fire long enough ago for the blackened trees and bushes to be sprouting new growth. Following that there's an area with a lot of quartz and what looked like iron-rich outcroppings (red). We passed Palamino Mountain, where we could see another hiker investigating Aylor's Arch, and stopped for lunch around 2:00, near the southern end of Boulder Canyon Trail.
This is where we met one of the 2 other hikers we saw on this trail, a woman coming the opposite direction from First Water. She warned us that the Boulder Canyon Trail was very rugged from there on, and very easy to lose (she had added some extra cairns along the way). Hilarity ensued as we discovered her warning was accurate. Miles of scrambling over boulders, criss-crossing the riverbed, and cairn-spotting. In some places the trail disappeared completely. We kept pushing on because I knew the trail got more civilized at the Second Water junction, and I didn't want to be stuck on this section when dusk started falling.
In fact, we were well past the Second Water junction and at the saddle where you can first see Canyon Lake in the distance when night fell. Coincidentally, this was the point where my past experience of this trail ended. Since "Judy" and "Skeet" were sharing a headlamp, and "Judy" had no depth perception after dark, it fell to me to lead the final 2 to 2-1/2 miles. Stumbling along a twisty, up-and-down trail that you can only see about 10 yards in front of you with the wind rising and the coldest night of the year so far coming on is a needlessly exciting way to experience the Superstition Wilderness. I became convinced that we were on the wrong trail and headed towards Tortilla Flat, except on the rare occasion when the marina lights popped into distant view. "Skeet" pulled a muscle, and then suddenly we topped the last ridge and found ourselves looking stright down at the parking lot. As we stumbled sorely to the car, a gentleman who worked at the marina asked if we were OK - he'd been watching our lights coming down all the way from the top of the mountain.
And I do this for fun.
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Now, I know that the people who post the writeups on Hike Arizona tend to be gonzo hikers, so I make allowances when I'm reading the trail descriptions. Even so, the 14-mile hike from the Peralta trailhead to Canyon Lake looked like it fell into the challenging but fun category. My friends "Skeet" and "Judy", who asked me not to use their real names, accompanied me on this hike on Saturday.
For starters, I severely underestimated the time it would take to drop the one car at Canyon Lake and shuttle down to Peralta. It was after 8 by the time we hit the trail - our target had been 7:00. Still it was a nice morning if a bit humid, cool with shifting clouds. On the way up to the Fremont Saddle we met a hiker in a sombrero who identified himself as a Snowbird from Tennessee. It's a healthy climb to the saddle; we had a quick breakfast and started down the other side with great views of Weaver's Needle as we passed it. We were slowly getting more and more blue sky, but still nice and cool. After the Needle the Peralta goes through an area that was hit by fire long enough ago for the blackened trees and bushes to be sprouting new growth. Following that there's an area with a lot of quartz and what looked like iron-rich outcroppings (red). We passed Palamino Mountain, where we could see another hiker investigating Aylor's Arch, and stopped for lunch around 2:00, near the southern end of Boulder Canyon Trail.
This is where we met one of the 2 other hikers we saw on this trail, a woman coming the opposite direction from First Water. She warned us that the Boulder Canyon Trail was very rugged from there on, and very easy to lose (she had added some extra cairns along the way). Hilarity ensued as we discovered her warning was accurate. Miles of scrambling over boulders, criss-crossing the riverbed, and cairn-spotting. In some places the trail disappeared completely. We kept pushing on because I knew the trail got more civilized at the Second Water junction, and I didn't want to be stuck on this section when dusk started falling.
In fact, we were well past the Second Water junction and at the saddle where you can first see Canyon Lake in the distance when night fell. Coincidentally, this was the point where my past experience of this trail ended. Since "Judy" and "Skeet" were sharing a headlamp, and "Judy" had no depth perception after dark, it fell to me to lead the final 2 to 2-1/2 miles. Stumbling along a twisty, up-and-down trail that you can only see about 10 yards in front of you with the wind rising and the coldest night of the year so far coming on is a needlessly exciting way to experience the Superstition Wilderness. I became convinced that we were on the wrong trail and headed towards Tortilla Flat, except on the rare occasion when the marina lights popped into distant view. "Skeet" pulled a muscle, and then suddenly we topped the last ridge and found ourselves looking stright down at the parking lot. As we stumbled sorely to the car, a gentleman who worked at the marina asked if we were OK - he'd been watching our lights coming down all the way from the top of the mountain.
And I do this for fun.
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Friday, November 25, 2005
This post contains a minor spoiler for HP & the Goblet of Fire the movie, but if you're enough of a Pothead to care then you've already read the book so who cares.
I celebrated Thanksgiving this year by going out with friends for southern Indian vegetarian food and seeing the latest Harry Potter movie. It's visually stunning and has a great sense of wonder, which I think is sadly lacking in films these days. However -
Why the heck didn't Voldemort's lackey just wait until Harry was alone, conk him on the noggin and stuff him in a sack? I got the impression that Rowling wrote this great story, then said "Oops I left Voldemort out! Better horn him in with a hasty rationale!" Why go through all this elaborate rigamarole just to get the hero to the graveyard when a taxi would do? Honestly, it makes the villain look a bit like Vold E. Coyote.
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Every year that I try to celebrate National Buy Nothing Day, it doesn't work out. I don't deliberately target the Black Friday sales, but I have the day off, the stores are open, and if nothing else I always seem to need groceries on this day...
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I celebrated Thanksgiving this year by going out with friends for southern Indian vegetarian food and seeing the latest Harry Potter movie. It's visually stunning and has a great sense of wonder, which I think is sadly lacking in films these days. However -
Why the heck didn't Voldemort's lackey just wait until Harry was alone, conk him on the noggin and stuff him in a sack? I got the impression that Rowling wrote this great story, then said "Oops I left Voldemort out! Better horn him in with a hasty rationale!" Why go through all this elaborate rigamarole just to get the hero to the graveyard when a taxi would do? Honestly, it makes the villain look a bit like Vold E. Coyote.
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Every year that I try to celebrate National Buy Nothing Day, it doesn't work out. I don't deliberately target the Black Friday sales, but I have the day off, the stores are open, and if nothing else I always seem to need groceries on this day...
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Peaseblossom finally got her teeth cleaning on Monday. They had to take out two teeth, including one of her upper fangs that had gotten chipped and the gum infected. She's actually in good spirits, considering. Monday night she was acting pretty loopy from the anesthetic. After she'd finished rolling and wriggling all over the carpet, she went around "marking" everything in the house - that's "marking" with the scent gland on the side of her mouth. She even marked Savannah, which brought joy to my heart because that means she accepts her now as part of her territory - even if they do have a battle royale on my bed almost every night, and hiss has become a regular part of Peaseblossom's vocabulary.
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I can't believe it's less than three weeks till I leave for Fiji and Australia; I went for another swimming practice at the gym this evening. A month ago I quit Pure Fitness and joined Fitness Works, which is only a couple miles away and has a lap pool. I've been practicing with my fins and ankle weights, so I can get used to the extra weight on my feet. They also have a jacuzzi and two saunas. Tonight the dry sauna was so hot I had to flee after only a few minutes. Either they cranked up the heat today or, since I normally go later in the evening, they start it up during the day and it cools off at night.
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I can't believe it's less than three weeks till I leave for Fiji and Australia; I went for another swimming practice at the gym this evening. A month ago I quit Pure Fitness and joined Fitness Works, which is only a couple miles away and has a lap pool. I've been practicing with my fins and ankle weights, so I can get used to the extra weight on my feet. They also have a jacuzzi and two saunas. Tonight the dry sauna was so hot I had to flee after only a few minutes. Either they cranked up the heat today or, since I normally go later in the evening, they start it up during the day and it cools off at night.
1 comments
Saturday, November 19, 2005
I was out in Massachusetts this week, another business trip. When I was getting on the freeway to head back to Logan Airport, I noticed a sign at the on-ramp saying "Breakdown lane in use", with a baffling list of days and times. The bell didn't go off until I was actually on the freeway, and saw cars zipping by on the shoulder. So Boston deals with traffic by letting people drive on the shoulder during rush hour! Somehow I can't see that going over here in Phoenix - it'd be a matter of minutes before some yahoo on his cell smashed into some guy changing a tire at 90 mph.
Since this was a quick turnaround, I didn't get to see much of the surrounding area except from the air. Even so, the fall foliage was spectacular, with lots of reds. One cold weather front was just just ending its sweep across the country, so it was solid clouds out the plane window for the first few hours out of Newark. Somewhere over the plains states the cloud cover disappeared, revealing snowy white farmscape.
Speaking of Newark, I'd like to take the persons responsible for the perpetration of the quaint and antiquated notion that an hour (or less) is still sufficient time to make a connecting flight and drop them in NWK or LAX or some other airport where you need to book it down a never-ending terminal, out past the security checkpoint to catch a bus or train to a terminal at the other end of the airport, go through security again... and don't get me started on international connections. ...I spent 2-1/2 hours in Newark because the only alternative connection was a scant 50 minutes.
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Since this was a quick turnaround, I didn't get to see much of the surrounding area except from the air. Even so, the fall foliage was spectacular, with lots of reds. One cold weather front was just just ending its sweep across the country, so it was solid clouds out the plane window for the first few hours out of Newark. Somewhere over the plains states the cloud cover disappeared, revealing snowy white farmscape.
Speaking of Newark, I'd like to take the persons responsible for the perpetration of the quaint and antiquated notion that an hour (or less) is still sufficient time to make a connecting flight and drop them in NWK or LAX or some other airport where you need to book it down a never-ending terminal, out past the security checkpoint to catch a bus or train to a terminal at the other end of the airport, go through security again... and don't get me started on international connections. ...I spent 2-1/2 hours in Newark because the only alternative connection was a scant 50 minutes.
1 comments
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Hmmm...
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| Your Hair Should Be Purple |
 You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights. |
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Whatever happened to...
....backflips in figure skating? A few years back, they were the New Hot Thing. All the competetive men had one, or were working on it. Surya Bonaly had at least one in each routine, even though they didn't count in women's competition. Then suddenly the backflip completely disappeared and it was all quad quad quad. What happened? There was no high-profile injury involving a backflip, despite the much-hyped potential, and I never heard anything about the ISU banning it. So WTF?
....recommendations from Amazon that mean something? Once I bought Harry Jenkins' Textual Poachers from Amazon, and it recommended a wonderful book called Nasa/Trek, a feminist critique of NASA as pop culture compared and contrasted with the society of women who write Kirk/Spock fanfic. Nowadays I buy a book by an author, and Amazon recommends every other book that author has ever written, as if I were incapable of saying to myself, "hey, this person writes good stuff", and typing the name into their simple search function. Buy Tales of the South Pacific? Here's every other book by James Michener! Purchase the complete extended-cut edition of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy? Amazon recommends every other edition of all three movies, as box sets and individually!
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Boy, I'm sounding like an old fart tonight. I'm just stupidly tired today, for no reason. I even slept through my alarm this morning. No gym for me tonight - I'm sacking out early.
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....backflips in figure skating? A few years back, they were the New Hot Thing. All the competetive men had one, or were working on it. Surya Bonaly had at least one in each routine, even though they didn't count in women's competition. Then suddenly the backflip completely disappeared and it was all quad quad quad. What happened? There was no high-profile injury involving a backflip, despite the much-hyped potential, and I never heard anything about the ISU banning it. So WTF?
....recommendations from Amazon that mean something? Once I bought Harry Jenkins' Textual Poachers from Amazon, and it recommended a wonderful book called Nasa/Trek, a feminist critique of NASA as pop culture compared and contrasted with the society of women who write Kirk/Spock fanfic. Nowadays I buy a book by an author, and Amazon recommends every other book that author has ever written, as if I were incapable of saying to myself, "hey, this person writes good stuff", and typing the name into their simple search function. Buy Tales of the South Pacific? Here's every other book by James Michener! Purchase the complete extended-cut edition of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy? Amazon recommends every other edition of all three movies, as box sets and individually!
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Boy, I'm sounding like an old fart tonight. I'm just stupidly tired today, for no reason. I even slept through my alarm this morning. No gym for me tonight - I'm sacking out early.
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Sunday, November 06, 2005
When I was a kid, I was really into Led Zeppelin - I didn't know the name of the band, but I liked all their songs, even though I could only catch bits and pieces of the lyrics on my AM clock radio. The remastered box set doesn't have lyrics sheets, so I was still in the dark - until this site.
Well, one song anyway.
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I had a business trip out to Cedar Rapids last week, another quick turn-around so that I didn't get to see much of the area, other than to admire the autumn foliage on the way to the airport in the morning. Yes, in Iowa they have trees that actually change color! I found the local TV news interesting, though. Well, not the news itself. Where Phoenix news runs commercials for oh, car dealerships and medical centers, in Cedar rapids the ads are for combines, big-time farm equipment, "limited-use" chemicals to increase your crop yields...
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I did a hike yesterday along Second Water Trail and partway up Boulder Canyon, probably 8-10 miles. Today I painted the west wall of the kitchen. Tonight I'll sleep real good, you bet.
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Well, one song anyway.
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I had a business trip out to Cedar Rapids last week, another quick turn-around so that I didn't get to see much of the area, other than to admire the autumn foliage on the way to the airport in the morning. Yes, in Iowa they have trees that actually change color! I found the local TV news interesting, though. Well, not the news itself. Where Phoenix news runs commercials for oh, car dealerships and medical centers, in Cedar rapids the ads are for combines, big-time farm equipment, "limited-use" chemicals to increase your crop yields...
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I did a hike yesterday along Second Water Trail and partway up Boulder Canyon, probably 8-10 miles. Today I painted the west wall of the kitchen. Tonight I'll sleep real good, you bet.
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