14 miles to Black Mesa

Today I did a hike at the Superstition Wilderness, AZ to the top of Black Mesa. I wrote the following bits while I was on the trail. I also forgot to mention that I did see a coyote while I was going on the wrong trail, so it was not a total waste. Total hike was about 14 miles, I'm ramping up for Grand Canyon nicely! I started about 9:30am and got back to the car just before 5pm

Sitting by a stream in a rare patch of grass littered with large, white boulders, I anticipate the final 1.2 miles of staircase steep hiking left to the top of Black Mesa. So far hiking provided me with time to plan future events and remember past ones. Going over the invite list for a BBQ and game day leaves me wondering when the best day will be. Currently I am considering the end of march or 3rd week in April. The superstitions lay in complete calm today. The sun high overhead now warms but does not cause discomfort. Quietness prevails even with the bubbling of the nearby stream. The wildflowers must hide elsewhere in this land, as I have seen very few of them.

The smell of grass fills my world here at the top of the mesa, reminding me of other worlds when I played in my grassy yard as a child. Sitting atop the world I see weavers needle large and straight ahead. Surrounding that most impressive peak is a small string looped around, showing me where I hiked a month ago. The journey here took longer than planned due to taking the Boulder Canyon trail, instead of Bull Pass. After backtracking I crawled up the final section of trail, which at its end is quite benign. Getting an early start makes hiking much more enjoyable, as I do not have to rush or worry about sunset. I have 4.5 hours to go back 5.7 miles. Now between sun and grass, I shall enjoy life's senses.

Now That’s Entertainment

The weekend flew by for me. I was busy running around cooking and gaming. Friday and Saturday my work kept me tied to a computer for on call, which fortunately did not cause many problems at all for me. Friday I went over to Erik’s place to play some Return of the Heroes and a game of Queen’s Gambit. Saturday Joe came over for a few games and then Jesse and Jade came over for dinner and games. I cooked up some crab legs, pork chops, and mashed sweet potatoes. We played an entirely too long game of Super Scrabble and then jammed on Rock Band until about 1 am, when I did get a call from work. Today Brian, Jeff, and Jessie came over for some home made veggie lasagna and to give my home made version of Merchant of Venus a whirl. We then played a few games of Pandemic. Overall a great time, but I am somewhat ready for a break from cooking and entertaining now.

Hiking Picacho Peak

This past weekend started out with Jeff, Brian, and myself playing a game of Merchant of Venus. I decided to do a home made edition of the game as well and had the counters (using Scrabble letters) done in time for our first game. I’ve got most of the game built now, except for the playing board. Saturday night I went over to Game Depot for their game night. I met some very fun people and we played party games (Apples to Apples) for the most part. Amy brought the games and is dating the guy who designed the game High School Drama, so she spends a lot of time in Tucson. Her friends, Joe, Sara-[something], and Chris[tian] also played with us. Tom from Gamer’s Inn was also there as was Jake. Joe was interested in getting together again at some point, so he got my number and I sent him an e-mail. He and Amy both work at Borders, while Sara-X had worked their previously. Today I drove down to Picacho Peak State Park, AZ to hike the Sunset trail to the peak. Its about 3.1 miles up and about 1400’ elevation gain. I had forgotten how steep it was, although my memory of the steep climbs requiring the use of cables was accurate. I came back down on Hunter trail, which is about 2.1 miles to the road and I imagine another 2 miles at least to the trail head that I parked at. Walking along the road was not bad, though, as I was able to take a number of pictures with some back lighting. The winter here has been wet, so the grass and flowers are really starting to come out. It felt great to be out hiking again after 2.5 weeks of being on call.

A Super Super Bowl

This past weekend I got to play some Doom with Erik on Friday night, along with his friend Nat. The game had enough differences from the play of Descent that I think it may be enjoyable to own. On Saturday I had 10 people over Heroscape. John, Michelle, Jake, Erik, Max, and Joe were the veteran players who attended. I also invited Taylor, Brian, Jeff, and Jessie who were all fairly new to the game. I grilled up some burgers and brats and had a really fun day. Sunday I went up to Peter’s for Super Bowl sunday. Everyone there was pulling for the Giants, so it was pretty wild when the Giants actually managed to win at the end of a great game. I got to see Rich and Denise again. I also spoke to Tony for a bit, who is trying to start up her own food cooking business. Another new person I met was Kim, who originally is from Colorado but has been in Arizona for the past 30 years. Chris and Ray were a younger couple from his neighborhood who were recently engaged and both work in commercial real estate.