Words about science and hiking
I’ve avoided writing up the last day of my hike. It was a fine and lovely and uneventful walk. I retrieved my last water stash, followed a gully up and through the Diablo Range and down again and back to the Arch Canyon trailhead. Pleasant and uneventful, but also deserving of a reckoning. It was Read More …
Camped in an alluvial canyon on the west side of the Bates Range last night, right under Kino Peak. These are volcanic mountains and the peak itself is such a steep sided ellipse that it must be a lava plug. Like so many desert mountains in SW Arizona, it is nearly naked of vegetation, a Read More …
The skies cleared and the views of the early morning eclipse were spectacular. Right on cue, a pair of coyotes began howling just as totality began. My focus on the moon was disrupted by a light flashing on and off every five seconds in a wash about a quarter mile south. I stopped taking pictures Read More …
Up early for what I knew would be a challenging hike. My sleep was disturbed last night by a pair of vehicles that pulled up to the trailhead at Alamo Canyon around 3. They got out and conferred casually in Spanish, like tourists rather than smugglers, then left on foot. They returned about an hour Read More …
Out here again. Under the moon, under the stars, surrounded by saguaros and chollas. Feels like home. Everything went smoothly today, getting from Boulder to Denver to Phoenix with minimal brain damage. Other than having to wait for a sporting goods store to open so I could get a canister, I had no trouble getting Read More …