HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS :)
I took a much needed trip back to Wyoming for Christmas to spend quality time with the family, snow and a wedding. Happy New Year everyone!
November 2, 2011
EXPLORING RUINS IN THE SIERRA ANCHA WILDERNESS
My good friend Matt Hundhammer came out to Arizona to join me on a trip to the Sierra Ancha wilderness to check out some ancient Salado cliff dwellings. For reasons not fully understood the Salado built these structures 700 years ago in extremely difficult to reach locations. The difficulty of reaching a ruin is generally directly related to how well preserved it is, and these are very well preserved... So it goes without saying that they are indeed extremely difficult to reach. We spent three full days hiking to five different sets of ruins deep in backcountry. There are no established trails, just a great deal of bushwacking and following cairns. The steep slopes, loose rocks and desert plants (everything has spikes) made for some of the most difficult hiking I've ever done, but the ruins and dramatic scenery made for some of the most rewarding.
REMEMBERING 9/11
A couple favorites from events marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
August 22, 2011
NEW BLOG! NEW WEBSITE! CABIN FEVER!
This is my blog's new home. The 365 project is still going (though horribly neglected at the moment), but the other one I occasionally updated now resides here...Summer in Surprise, AZ is right smack in the middle of the dog days, causing me to hide indoors and breathe cool, stuffy, air-conditioned air. In the southern part of the state it's not even hitting triple digits everyday anymore, so meeting up with a college buddy down in Tucson seemed like the right thing to do over the weekend. And it was. Not only did I escape the heat, more importantly I escaped suburbia. Living mostly indoors in a cookie-cutter suburb surrounded by strip malls is quite a departure from college life in Eugene, OR. Not that there's anything wrong with nice quiet suburbs to raise a family, but there's a huge void of twenty-somethings around here. Hanging out in Tucson (with twenty-something year olds) reminded me I still have what it takes to stay out until last call and go hiking the next day.
