Saturday, January 4, 2003

On the last day of 2002 .....I took a bit of a hike. Using the map I picked up at REI the day before I took my trusty hiking stick, the new pack I got for Christmas, the Canon D30, my cell phone and GPS (good ol' GPS) and went to climb one of the local peaks to shoot down at the house. I followed the map and the well-used path, to find the Kay Mine, an abandoned mine on the west side of the Aqua Fria river. That part was easy. Then I had to find a way up the sides of the river. Fortunately a defile came down to the Kay Mine from the west, giving me a way around the scree of crushed slate (?) which makes up most of the rock. The slate sits in vertical layers and easily flakes off - leaving bits and pieces the ranging from the size of dinner plates to a playing card. Over time it breaks down into a kind of rude sand. I scrambled up the defile which was fairly straightforward to climb although finding a handhold in the rocks was difficult because the slate would break off without a lot of tugging! Fortunately I had the trekking stick I bought yesterday which gave me something to push against. I climbed about 150 feet (according to the GPS) above the Kay Mine and turned north, making my way along the hillside. The hill was covered with trees and shrubs - most of them with thorns. Huge pieces of quartz were scattered around the surface. The trees made the climb the most difficult - they often were close enough so their spiny branches made for difficult passage. My aim was to go north to the big pile of gray tailings I could see due west of the house. But I soon saw that another steep defile was blocking my way. I could tell from the map that if I went a half-mile or so west I might be able to find a path around it -- but that would take more time than I had, so instead I chose to climb to the top of the hill I was currently traversing like a two-legged side-hill gouger. Along the path I found an ocotillo laying flat and limp, very like you'd imagine a huge humboldt squid, the kind with teeth on its tentacles, lying on the ground, it's body sunk deep into the earth leaving only it's arms lying along the ground in some last par axiom of dying agony. Which reminded me that there were serpents in these hill that might not be as benign as the kind I'm used to. I paid more attention for the sound of warning rattles. The only sound I heard was the wind and the chiding of birds. Far off was the sound of Interstate 17, coming and going as the wind pushed played with the roar of the trucks climbing up the Colorado Plateau. Finally I reached a local maximum in the terrain and could look north and east toward the house. There it was although not as close as I would have liked it to have been. Next hike I'll see if I can get up on the other side closer to the house. The return was more difficult and less obvious than it might have been. Instead of using the GPS to find my return track I Lewis and Clarked my way to a tor that stood over the river. The descent was more difficult than the climb from the mine had been. I often found my way blocked by slippery scree with cactus at the bottom to welcome a mis-step. I thought better of those paths. Eventually I made my way down to find myself south of the Kay Mine! I pondered the map my GPS drew for me - which told the story accurately if I had been wise enough to read it! I used it religiously to find my way home - and would have gotten lost more than a few times if I had not had it. I came home tired, having climbed and descended over 1,500 feet. Amazing since the summit of the hill was only 400 feet higher than the house I left! I've never been big on hiking and trekking - but I find this country calls to me, that it wants to be explored, understood, photographed. I took a few photos on the trip which I'll download to my computer and, when I get a chance, I'll post them to the web to share with you all. Happy New Year! Adam 7:42:01 PM    comment []

I went to the movie today, "Star Trek: Nemesis" if you must know (don't ask, I'll tell later), doing my first "typically male" thing for the New Year. It's supposed to be a guy thing to go to action movies with space ships or massed alien invasions, or fast cars laden with vast quantities of high explosives, and special effects so good that you actually believe that the hero and his girlfriend can fall 28 stories, bouncing off flag poles every story or so, and land on a first floor awning and walk away after a quick quip and the long deep kiss that clearly involves tonsils. So I did my guy thing. There were other, younger, guys doing their thing, too. I don't know what they were watching, maybe the "guy thing" prep movie: "Treasure Planet", but whatever it was there was this group of youngish guys in front of me as I walked into the theatre, and again in front of me as I got my popcorn and soda, and again right there as I walked into the mens room. With them was a younger guy. A little guy in training. Someone's little brother who they had to drag along or else they couldn't come. I'm sure you can see the conversation in the kitchen. The mom who just wants two hours to herself so maybe, just maybe, she can wash the kitchen floor and it will stay clean, take a shower, and actually wash her hair so when her husband makes it home to plop down in front of the TV and watch the Fiesta Bowl he won't tell her how tired she looks. He just won't say anything except maybe "Are we out of beer?" So there are these kids. The oldest is maybe eleven or twelve. They have formed a pack. There is the pup on the outside. They have all used the urinal except the pup. Clearly he has issues because as I walk in I hear "yeah, if you use it right you don't have to flush it, it does it itself." And another who says "Well sure IF you do it right." And then I see the little guy who is now looking uncertainly at the plumbing - white porcelin with a 6 inch piece of stainless steel over with a red disk that might, now that I think of it, be inspired by the eye of HAL in "2001: A Space Oddessy", a movie none of these kids has seen or even heard about. The pup approaches cautiously. "How does it know?" he asks. Eyes are rolled. "It WATCHES, dummy" and the whole group, like a school of sardines, heads to the door, tossing behind "We'll meet you outside. Hurry." Walking the ten feet to the urinal one over from the low one the guy-in-training is contemplating with a growing look of horror. I can almost see the wheels turning: it watches. It's going to see him pee. What If I Don't Do It RIGHT??? He takes a step back. But this does not solve his problem. The commode isn't even in the equation. He looks, wide eyed, at the red dot. "It just measures how far you are away," I said. "When you back up it will flush." This was supposed to be one guy helping another fledgling guy. You know, sorta showing him the ropes. Now there was a real look of panic. Someone had noticed. An adult someone who is old enough to be his father or maybe grandfather. I quickly looked the other way and walked to the sink with my back toward him. I heard footsteps, a zipper, and later after drying my hands, as I walked out the door, the sound of water flushing and a moment later a blur headed out into the lobby to join the guys. Some he will thank me. Or his therapist will. It is, after all, a guy thing. Oh, yes, I promised I'd mention the movie. Well, there was a space battle where unexpected help fought with honor. There was a nasty guy. There was a song and (almost) dance number. And mostly it was dark. Go see "Treasure Planet" instead. Make it so, Number One. 7:27:50 PM    comment []