Oh Say Can You See ...

This weekend, I am in Washington DC to see the museums and monuments around the capital. I scheduled 2 days, but mostly got it done with an early start today. Tomorrow will be the trip to the Air and Space museum by Dulles airport, which has all the cool stuff in it. The heat index hit near 115 degrees today, so after walking around from about 8:30-3:30pm, I was done.

I stopped first at Arlington National Cemetery. I've always enjoyed visiting cemeteries, they seem to embody calm reflection on your life and the past. The endless repetition of those small, white grave stones sends a clear message to me about the inevitability of death. I journeyed over the Arlington Bridge to main National Mall area afterwards. Initially I planned to walk around to all of the monuments, but the heat beat that idea from me. The Lincoln memorial was massive and seemed to be a somber reminder of a dark time in our nation's past. I envisioned the vietnam war memorial as a free standing granite wall, endlessly long. In reality it is quite different, inset against the ground and changing in height between the narrow ends and high middle. Its effect, however, did align with my expectations. All those names. So many, many people. Each person an entire story, with people irrevocably affected. During my walk of the wall, I saw 2 people with paper and pencil taking rubbings of a particular name on the wall.

As I walked to the White House, I thought of the various 'leaders' gathered in there today to argue over our impending doom. It all seemed like such a terrible waste to have a country with such an amazing legacy last such a short time before being taken over by selfish, incompetent, lazy, and greedy people. I thought that today all we as Americans do is work and die for reasons that don't matter, for people that don't deserve.

I finished up with trips to American History, Natural History, Native American History, and Library of Congress. The American History provided for me the most interesting experience. So much inginutiy combined with an ability to make and do great things in our past. Air and Space was packed, line way out the door to get in. Since I've been to it once before and the good stuff is out by Dulles airport anyway, I just skipped it. After that tomorrow morning, I'll be heading over to Shenandoah National Park for a night and hike the next day.

A Grand Hike

The Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim hike went very well for me. When I arrived on Sunday, the wind was blowing at around 25mph, with 38mph gusts. I considered just driving back home, but decided to give it a go. The shuttle ride to the North Rim from South went well, with the driver giving some interesting information about different areas as we past. The North Rim was very cold with the strong winds, so I went into the Cabin to wait for my 5am shuttle ride the next day. I only slept 4 hours that night, and got up thinking it would be extremely cold. However, I did bring my jacket this year and the hike down went very quickly and the wind was calm. The entire hike had very little wind, so it would appear the canyon shielded me from the worst of it. My last 3 hikes at the Canyon were all done between 110-115 degress coming out from the bottom. This one was only around 80-85 and it was overcast for most of the day. This made for much easier going. After getting down the first 14 miles to Phantom Ranch without stopping and in about 5 hours, I completed the final 9 miles in just under 6 hours, making a total trip time of about 11 hours. Other than my calves and feet being sore/tired, I didn't have any big problems coming out. I managed to go up with only stopping once at Indian Gardens. Definitely another memorable Grand Canyon trip for me.

Lost After Dark

Yesterday I went with a group on a Hike on Finger Rock Trail to Mt. Kimball in the Santa Catalina Mountains. This was a Grand Canyon training hike and it lived up to that goal. Round trip was about 10 miles, with 4000' of elevation gain in 4 of the miles going up. I did fairly well, except for some leg cramping near the top. On my way back down, I ran into the group's leader who let me know that 2 of the hikers had taken a wrong turn up top on the way back down. We had spotty cell phone coverage with them. After giving him my cell phone and map, I went back down, as I was out of water. Unsure of the situation, me and the other 2 hikers waiting at the bottom went to the store to get some more water and food. When we got back, the lost hikers had again found the trail after a couple of hours of looking around. Another hiker on the trail had also given our leader more water and a head lamp, so we didn't need to go up with more supplies. It took awhile, but about 1.5 hours after sunset, the 2 lost hikers and the leader made it back down. Waiting for them ended up being quite an enjoyable experience for me, as we just sat out under the stars and talked until they arrived. Next week is my Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike. I should be in fairly good shape for it, although I perhaps should have done a few more training hikes.

Gila Monsters Galore!

Hiked Two Bar Ridge trail in the Superstitions yesterday. Just over 15 miles round trip and over 4000' total elevation gain. The trail had lots of ups and downs. I was concerned that the trail might be difficult to follow, as it is quite remote, but surprisingly it was mostly well marked and only had a few spots of confusion. I ran into 3 Gila Monsters along the trail, which is about as many as I've seen in all my hikes combined. I really like these little guys. They are really slow and chill looking on the trail. When they 'run' away its like this slow motion movement of each leg as they move. I about stepped on another snake that was laying across the trail. I'm not sure what kind he was, but I am pretty sure from the head he was not poisonous. The snake was completely unconcerned with me. He didn't move at any time. The hike was a bit more difficult than I expected, although running out of water about 4 miles out didn't help. The elevation gains and losses made it good preparation for the Grand Canyon hike coming up. Pictures in the gallery - http://picasaweb.google.com/wordofrob.

Stepping on Rattlesnakes

I hiked out to Black Top Mesa in the Superstitions yesterday. Along the way there, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. I was walking along when I heard a short buzz and looked down to see a snake tail within about a foot of my foot. Startled, I jumped off to the other side of the trail. I don't know if a better reaction may have been to freeze there, but I definitely didn't think at all when I looked down. I believe the snake must have been sleeping or something, as he seemed somewhat startled as well. Normally when snakes have rattled at me before, they do so rather noisely and for a much longer time than a quick buzz. For whatever reason, I am glad that the snake did not decide to bite me and he wandered off instead.

The cloudless sky warmed up the 60-70 degree air nicely and the wind was mostly calm for all but about 30-40 minutes of the hike. This winter had much less rain than the previous few, but the grass at the top of Black Top Mesa was still thick, although slightly less green than in years past.

Marsh Valley Loop and Wise Man's Fear

Last Wednesday, I got out for a long 15 mile hike in the Superstitions. Originally I planned to do the shorter 12 mile out and back to Black Top Mesa, but decided on doing the 3rd trip of Marsh Valley Loop. I finished in rather quick time to for me, about 7.5 hours. After not doing a long hike for some time, I was concerned that I may have difficulties, but time flew by and I was not very sore at the end. I thought about another long hike on Sunday, but weather was not with me for that.

I started listening to the second book from the Kingkiller series from Patrick Rothffus, The Wise Man's Fear. This is the sequel to the Name of the Wind, which was a fabulous book. So far the new book is just as engaging, even if a bit repetative at times to the original book. This one took him over 4 years to write, I imagine the next book will be just as long and the 3 book series will turn into a never ending mess.

Selling some games

I recently decided to get into a new miniature game, Flames of War, which is based on WW2. As I don't like having hordes of junk sitting around my house, I wanted to get rid of something in order to make room for the new game. I decided to sell my Tyranid army off, which is the first time I am selling a whole army that I had painted. Warhammer 40k was the first game I got into and really isn't something I am interested in playing any more. I sold the army fairly quickly on eBay and shipped it off to someone in France. I am still waiting for it to arrive, hopefully there will be no problems with the shipment. I also sold of my (unpainted) lizardmen army from Warhammer Fantasy, another game system I have not been very interested in lately. I spent a lot of time painting up all those minis, but I don't feel bad about having gotten rid of them, which will allow me to sell other armies in the future.