Grand Canyon from Lee’s Ferry to Phantom. Small boats in a big ditch. All the strangers were good people and all the energy pure positive. Bright Angel hike out and hours I could have lived in without end.
Cañón Hi Choo
blue skies and beaches
ribbon of river transects
stalwart swaths of stone
down jackets, dawn breeze
“Sun on Camp 7:30”
now here comes the heat
fresh coffee awaits
garlic and onions sizzle
‘crack’ in go the eggs
side hikes and tapered
trills of canyon wrens. In lieu
of answers, silence
sweat beads on warm skin
and chilled cans—‘Pssht!’—squeeze of lime
Ice cold Tecate
red walls and big waves
brown eyes, heart-melting smile
deep sigh… hopeless crush
circling condors seek
lift from canyon rim updrafts
To be free once more
Short days since noting the lifeless nature of winter twilight—vibrant resurgence. Budding energy permeates the fabled lion winds of March. Emanates from fertile earth after months of benevolent rain. Short days after posting those last photos I found myself east of town in the Peloncillo Mountains, inert up top while blanketed in lively yellow flowers down below. Found myself the next day in the Gila Box, emergent blossoms in all directions. Found myself yesterday to the west, meandering atop Peridot Mesa amidst literally millions of freshly bloomed wildflowers. Found myself in awe, once again.
While much of the world has been experiencing exacerbated effects of climate madness this winter (or scorching summer in southern half) the past several months in SE Arizona have been phenomenal. Lots of rain, cooler temps, even a few flurries now and again. The upper halves of the surrounding sky islands are covered in snow. White capped peaks thousands of feet above the desert scenery. I find daily appreciation in the beauty of it all.
Photos do start to get a bit monotonous, however, with nothing but earth tones—browns, grays, and reds—for miles in all directions. Things look a little dead all over, but the walking around is as good as it gets. Less vegetation, no snakes, perfect hiking weather, and water everywhere. And I’ve been getting out a lot. Hiking, camping, and off-trail exploring. Too many miles to keep track of and plenty of new places. Making sure to maximize the moments before the heat settles in for the summer. Thought I’d share a few photos. Drab as they may seem on a screen, traversing these sparse rugged landscapes continues to inspire.
January 1, 2023. Dos Cabezas Wilderness from Ft. Bowie.
Picketpost Mountain
I’ve posted a few photos of this place before, but still find new trails each time I’m over that way. One of my favorite places to walk around for a day.
Superstition Wilderness
Spent a couple of days hiking and camping in the Superstitions. A short drive from the Phoenix metro area this place is heavily used, but if you get a few miles from the trailheads it’s easy to find solitude. Stark spectacular formations abound. One of the most prominent features is Weavers Needle, visible from miles around.
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area
I stumbled across Whitewater Draw, a state wildlife area, last year while picking spots at random in the Gazetteer and driving to see what was there. I was a bit late last spring, but made sure to get back there this year to check out the record numbers of Sandhill Cranes that winter in this location. SE Arizona provides winter habitat for an estimated 40,000+ Sandhills and around half of those choose Whitewater Draw as their winter home. I suppose I feel an affinity for the cranes as they migrate from southern deserts to northern climes each year, with a large population summering in Fairbanks. For several years I would see the cranes at various locations across the US and Canada while traveling the same route there and back. The draw of the Draw is watching the cranes leave early each morning and return in the afternoon. Huge flocks darken the skies and their unmistakable vocalizations create a surreal sonic backdrop. There are also plenty of other waterfowl that share the area and walking paths around the ponds make it easy to check everything out.
Gila Box
The backyard. I’m here for work all the time and have recently been exploring in my free time as well. So much to see.
Bonita Creek
North Santa Teresa Wilderness
Spent a couple different days in February walking around in the Santa Teresas. Follow the creek for a while then climb till you can’t climb anymore. Your legs may give out before the mountains do.
Jackson Mountain
Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness
I’m out here several days a month. The past couple weeks have been amazing. Side streams in full flow and waterfalls everywhere.
Like all my wildlife pics I took this one with a potato, but if you look close you can see a tree full of coatis.
Winter Tribulations
Krissy covered in Shooting StarsCatclaw Acacia. The worst!Getting up too early (after 13 hours in the tent) and waiting impatiently in 20° temps for the sun to crest canyon walls. Rough!
Redfield Canyon Wilderness
This is another area I cover for work, but it’s so remote that visits are rare. For a year now I’ve been planning a trip to try and see what the canyon is really about. Finally made it happen last weekend. Three days and 30 miles of isolated wilderness travel. A special place.
Hidden in the cliffs of the canyon is the Hope Jones house. A relic of the area’s ranching history.
And that’s that. Will finish with a flare of fabricated color. Purple skies and green walls. Just for fun. Upper stretches of Hellhole Canyon in the Aravaipa Wilderness.
Three weeks in the state of Chiapas, a place of lush jungles, little known rivers, and drastic mountains. A land known as ‘Forgotten Mexico’ due to a history of government neglect and outright abuses of the prominently indigenous populations throughout the region. It took years of social unrest and the Zapatista uprising to finally draw attention to the area, and only recently has the government begun to invest in basic infrastructure and health services for the people of Chiapas.
The name seemed fitting on a personal level as well, as it’s been several years now since I was able to travel for any significant amount of time. This was my first extended trip (relative to life as I now know it) since I switched my world all around. It was certainly nice to sink into something different for a while.
The basics were broken up into two parts: a river trip down the Rio Jataté, part one; and a bunch of traveling around, part two.
The whole idea for Chiapas started back in the summer. I knew I wanted to do an extended river expedition somewhere in the world in the December time frame. I didn’t really have any strong opinions as to where, just how long and when. I knew I wanted to run some whitewater and sleep in a tent for a while. And I wanted to do something with Sierra Rios, an outfitter with the potential to operate in various spots across the globe. The owner is a guy named Rocky Contos, and Rocky runs trips, organizes trips, and outfits trips. The company also works to raise awareness of river issues around the world, though it seems like a lot of times it’s often running rivers for the last few times before they die behind inevitable dams. I started talking to Rocky in August, checking out the website calendar, and viewing the potentially available trips. In the end, the Jataté, which I’d never heard of, seemed the best option. And I think it certainly was.
Short section of the Rio Santa Cruz leading into the main river.
The Jataté (pronounced something like hah-tah-te) is a guides’ river and an expedition style trip. Most of the folks that sign up for these trips are small groups of guides or kayakers, and Rocky puts them together with one or two of his guides that know the stretch. The company provides requested gear, and organizes all logistics of food, transportation, and safety (which became a major issue in the 90s due to civil unrest in both Chiapas and Guatemala).
When committing to the trip Rocky asked me to try and promote the trip. I told him it was unlikely I would find any interested individuals, but in the end my awesome friend Emilie E., who I met on the Kongakut River a couple years ago, decided to fly down from Fairbanks and join. Her presence is what made the trip super special, and it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without her around. In the end it was she and I, a group of three Hungarian kayakers, two guides from Mexico, and another kayaker from the States that’s working on guiding for Sierra Rios seasonally. Emilie, myself, and German rowed gear boats while the other five kayaked.
Jonathon and Roberto; Hungarian Dream Team (Bivi, Gyula, Kitshi); Me and EmilieNothing but good energy from both these dudes. Roberto and Bivi. Photo: Bivi.
The trip was everything I wanted it to be. It was eight days total, though lots of travel and sitting around for a couple of those days on either end. After a slow relaxing start, the canyon and rapids began on day four, and the whitewater continued until the morning of the last day. And there was a lot of whitewater. The run was mostly Class IV, but there were a few more difficult rapids, two of which we portaged—an arduous time-consuming process, but part of what makes the trip an expedition. What also makes the trip an expedition is that things are probably going to go wrong, requiring boaters to use skills they may have only trained with in the past. Things certainly got hairy in several places. Rope skills, mechanical advantage systems, quick thinking, and teamwork were critical in a couple of those situations.
The first few days and Rock Garden portage early in the canyon.Piton Falls, The Slide, more drops, riverside flowers.
Most of the rapids in the first canyon are very technical, with a lot of precision moves leading into sizeable drops. One right after the next. On day five we were seriously running and scouting rapids for seven hours. It was amazing. At the end of the first canyon things opened up and the confluence with another river significantly increased the flow, changing the nature of the rapids to big water runs with huge waves and holes to crush or avoid at all costs. The run was at the extremes of what Emilie had done previously, but even though she was anxious throughout (we later determined she got five years of experience in five days) she killed it with a smile. As for me, I wrapped a boat (for the first time in my life) in the second rapid; I got an unexpected vicious tube suck in another rapid, was ejected from the boat, and broke a fiberglass oar in half with my ribs (still not healed) on my way out—my first swim in years; I also got surfed hard in a sticky hole above a nasty strainer… But the only really bad line I had everything turned out to be just fine.
The following blocks of photos courtesy of Attila ‘Bivi’ Hubik. Thanks Bivi!
Emilie!!!Making moves.Worn out at the take out.
The day after the trip Emilie and I hung out in Palenque all day. Ate a mellow breakfast, drank local coffee, went and visited the famous ruins, which were under construction somehow, walked around in the jungle with the amazing Pablo, an 11-year-old self-proclaimed guide, and finished it off with a feast of traditional Chiapan food. The following day we said ‘for sure a next time’ and went our separate ways. Emilie flew to Colorado and I spent the day busing it over to the capital of Tuxtla Guitierrez.
Pablo convinced me to hire him to guide us through the jungle. Best decision of the whole trip.
Part two of the trip was meeting up with a girl from Globe, renting a car, staying in nice hotels, eating a lot of wonderful food, and freewheeling it around the western side of the state for a week. Started the run with a boat ride into Cañón del Sumidero, spent a night in the cool little pueblo of Chiapa de Corzo, headed over to San Cristóbal for a couple days where we walked and biked, climbed down a couple hundred stairs to El Aguacero waterfall and then back up, spent several days on the beach of Puerto Artista, took a boat into some mangroves, took a boat over to Boca del Cielo for dinner, made the journey to the Zoque ruin site of Iglesia Vieja and had the place completely to ourselves for the afternoon (actually after leaving San Cristóbal we were often the only people around), swam in the Pacific, strolled in the sand, rode a 4-wheeler miles down the beach, spent a night in Tuxtla and danced to live marimba music in the park.
Crocodiles and Cañón del SumideroPeregrinos, craft cerveza, Iglesia San Juan ChamulaChiapa de CorzoIglesia de Guadalupe, San Cristóbal Rallying the rental car…Iglesia Vieja RuinsEl AguaceroOtro cumpleaños en una playa mexicana. Puerto Artista.
We finished the trip with a day and night in Mexico City where I met up with Isaac, an online Spanish tutor that I’ve been talking to a couple times a month. He showed us some of the sights and then we ate a memorable lunch up on the rooftop patio of Hotel Zócalo Central. This is probably one of the best times to be in the big city as the weather is nice, everything is lit up and decorated for Christmas, there’s live music in the plaza, and happy people everywhere.
El Zócalo
Once Isaac went home, we headed over to the Templo Mayor ruin site and museum, listened to mariachi music in Plaza Garabaldi, walked through the huge park adjacent the Bellas Artes building, browsed Chinatown, and called it a night. The next morning we admired the sun rising through the smog while we ate breakfast on the same rooftop, took a cab through empty Sunday streets to the airport, and flew back to Tucson. There it was a goodbye hug in the economy lot and back to disparate realities. Asi es la vida…
Back when human sacrifice was fun!Isaac and Bellas ArtesSunday morning sunrise.
And that was it. Forgotten Mexico and remembering what the authentic self feels like at its best.
Short on words, once again. Past couple months been visits with family, camping with friends, little bit of roaming around. Headed down south tomorrow. Mexico way. Hoping to find a bit of that way things once were. Ojalá que sí.
Ft. Bowie, Chiricahuas, Mt. Graham, Boyce Thompson, Arizona Trail, City of Globe
It’s been some time now and no time now. There is but vague recall of weeks long gone. Hazy recollections of months spent living in heat induced fugue. A compilation of obscure frames replayed in fast-forward—compressed memories of life condensed.
I don’t have much to say at the moment. Not a lot to report. It’s been hot. It’s still hot. Life has been a lot of time at work for lack of anything more inspired to do, regular siestas in the scorching afternoons, occasional attempts at being active. There were some day hikes, a couple river trips, a month plus of monsoons, lots of flowers, weeks of historically low water followed by a 100 year flood, numerous sunsets… There was a week in Sacramento for work, an oppressively hot weekend in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, local wanderings…
I don’t know if cooler temperatures will change the format, but I’m certainly hoping to find out soon. Thought I’d go ahead and post a few of those stop motion shots in the meantime.
Big changes for certain. One extreme to the next. Back in the desert after several years away. AK to AZ. 49th state to 48th. Deep negatives to upcoming triple digits. Not sure how I’ll handle that.
What’s good? New job. Lots of time outside. Sunshine. The chance to contribute to the protection and conservation of public lands. A position with autonomy and plenty of opportunities to hike and paddle both. Wild places. Wildlife.
Everything else? Same same but different. Starting over once again.
Was -30 most of the week before I flew out of Fairbanks on the last day of January. Got in a few final ski outings, saw a couple last light shows, said goodbye to a few good friends. Not easy. It will always be hard to not be in Alaska. Stayed a night in Anchorage as I didn’t want to leave the state all at once.
Flew into Texas on February 1st just in time for a solid snow storm. Was in Arizona a week later and already over 80° in early February. Hit 90°+ when I was in Phoenix that week and I was about to meltdown physically and mentally. Thankfully, things have cooled off since then. Been off and on, a little warmer each week. Wind and heat, wind and cold. Chilly nights, hair dryer days. Mountains all around. Sky islands with crazy names: Chiricahuas, Huachucas, Gilas, Dragoons, Peloncillos, Pinaleños, Dos Cabezas… Have been out and about for certain. Dirt road driving, wilderness hiking, desert camping, shallow water boating, small town visiting, border crossing, solo missioning…
Mt. Graham. Doing the rounds at work. Sunset strolling spot and nightly sightings of Great Horned Owls.Life finds a way.Gila RiverBighorn Sheep at Orange CliffsGila Monster!Yep. They everywhere all the sudden!Bisbee, Douglas, Naco, Agua PrietaIt’s all happening.Coronado National MonumentInspiration Point, Chiricahua National Monument. Photo: R. Poginy
Having made it a goal to create one post each month in 2021, and seeing as how it’s the last day of the last month, I guess I better get on with it. And boy, what a month it’s been, though really more of a continuation of the couple before it. For many weeks now, Alaska has been keeping things interesting, firing from multiple barrels. The barrage continues to keep me pinned down, spending way too much time inside a little cabin where only a few hours of daylight filter in this time of year.
Climate madness is in full effect up this way. All sorts of records being broken on the daily, from warmest to wettest, but plenty of cold in the mix to add to the experiment. All the craziness has made it tough to spend much time in the elements, and impossible to know what trails or terrain might look like when heading out. The basics entail rapid fluctuations from one extreme to the next. Days of deep negatives, followed by quick warming and moisture. Last Friday, Christmas Eve, it was -27 when I went to work. On Christmas day the temperatures started to climb and the flakes began to fall in earnest. The next day, we saw temps in the 40s and heavy snow turned to icy misty drizzle, which showered steadily for 12 hours. By the end of the rain, everything was covered in several inches of ice. Ice that most likely won’t melt until April. Then the wind came and down went a bunch of trees. Power outages, collapsing roofs, etc. Without pause, an even stronger storm blew in, dumping almost two feet of snow on top of all the ice. A day later, we’re headed right back into a week of -30 and below.
Every Road from now till Spring
It’s all a kind of metaphor for the last couple of years I guess, and probably all the years before those ones. There is no back to normal. No untroubled days ahead. There is only this. The what’s happening now. There is opportunity to find solace in acceptance. To appreciate the in-between moments, the work outs, good meals, companionship, spots of sunshine, an afternoon spent gliding along a well-groomed trail. A few hours to revel in a freshly cleared driveway.
I suppose the biggest adventure of the month was taking my turn with ‘the covid,’ as my mom refers to it. Not to be trifled with, but part of life and our world all the same. Honestly, I’m actually happy to have had the experience, to finally get it over with (at least for the first time… though the virus lingered for weeks and may be lurking still). No more fear of missing out on that critical piece of current affairs for me.
But the best day, by far, in December was the only one where I spent all day outside, which was the Winter Solstice. The sun barely rises this far north in December, and this year on the 21st it sat low between a thick blanket of clouds and the horizon for but a few hours. Hours of punishing beauty. It truly is almost too much to take in at times. The layer cake sky, profound unearthly hues that hurt the heart to look at. Weight pressing deep into the chest, a sigh you can’t get out. To fully exist inside of that world, which IS a fragment of the world we live in, even if only for a few hours, is privilege. The privilege of being alive. The ephemeral nature of existence raw and exposed. Cold wind whipping across the frozen landscape. Unnecessary excuse for the tears in your eyes.
Anyways, the end of an additional calendar year is upon us. Another circumnavigation of the sun. The only certainty for 2022 is assuredly more change. Deeper sorrows? Greater awareness? Increased frustration? Projected enlightenment? Change and more change.
Speaking of, this will probably be my last post for quite some time. Changing things up a bit. All the best to you and yours. Happy New Year.
Hot Water Instantly Evaporating in Cold Air. Photos: Yi Wang
-26° as I type, and lower on the way later this week. But it may not be only the temps that are down this month. A lack of snowfall has certainly induced a lack of motivation, though I try my best to stay out of the negatives myself. Unfortunately, however, it’s the outdoors I’ve been staying out of, quite possibly spending more days inside over the past weeks than any other month in my adulthood. There’s been a lot of gym time, book time, and guitar time, but with only a couple exceptions there has been very little fresh air and frolicking. Unfavorable conditions for skiing did provide the opportunity for a couple of interesting hikes, and with Birch Hill being the only decent place to get out for some snow sliding—it’s important to be thankful to have that option. I am.
Gunnysack Creek
Sean and I drove down south a ways to check out Gunnysack Creek. I’d never heard of the place, but thanks to Sean’s penchant for dreaming up out of the way, and often ambitious itineraries, I got to go see something new. Early in November things were actually eerily warm, so the creek wasn’t nearly as frozen up as it might have been. We decided to do a little adventuring anyway, and spent a pleasant afternoon post-holing along the creek bank, and hopping back-and-forth across questionably stable ice bridges. Was a beautiful little canyon, and quite unlike anything else in that area. Finished the evening with a quick stop at the Delta Brewery. A successful day and a good scouting mission for future forays into the area.
Tolovana Hot Springs
I had been hoping to visit Tolovana for a lot of years. Not sure when I first heard about the place, but by the time I arrived in Fairbanks a couple years back, getting to the hot springs was already etched in my mind. I almost committed two years ago, but this is one trip that didn’t seem like a good solo mission in the middle of February, or any other time for that matter. The trailhead is a couple desolate hours from Fairbanks on what is for all purposes a trucker’s ice road in the winter time. While the Elliot is one of Alaska’s main highways, it’s difficult to keep it clear of drifts, and impossible to do anything about the ice. The trailhead itself is alongside a remote ridgeline that is notorious for high winds and extreme temperatures. Perhaps the most fearsome part of the trip is knowing that you have to leave a car there for a day or two, and that if it doesn’t start when you get back you may be in serious trouble. It’s imperative to prepare for the worst contingencies imaginable, and to bring along all the winter gear you may need to shelter in place, along with a jumper kit and portable stove to warm the engine.
And so it begins…
Thankfully, Melissa and I didn’t have to worry about any of that on this trip. We considered ourselves quite ‘lucky’ to have a steady -5° the whole time we were out there, and only a mild breeze along ‘Windy Gap’ and the top of the dome. The route itself is a TOUGH 10-miles or so. Lots of elevation gain and loss, plus carrying a backpack, wearing all your winter gear, and walking in the snow. Along with all this you have to try and keep some water usable so you might have a little sip now and again, but only when you stop and dig it out of your pack, because otherwise the bottle will be frozen shut along with half its contents. You will overheat regularly while on the move, and instantly feel the shivers coming on if you stop for more than two minutes. On the way in, you immediately drop almost 1000’, then climb it all back plus some, then drop right back down again. On the way back, it’s climb, descend, and climb, and climb, then scream profanities to the birches, maybe weep, and then climb some more. The last mile might have been one of the more demoralizing (but funny, if you can laugh at your own weakness) experiences I’ve had in recent years.
It would have been really nice to spend two nights out there in order to have a day of rest between the hikes, but then it also wouldn’t have been as brutal, so probably not as much fun. I did drag an empty sled attached to my pack, which we took turns riding along the way. Some exciting, but sketchy descents. On the way out, Melissa managed to get an uninterrupted entire mile of riding coming down from Windy Gap. Having already had my share of sticks to the eyes, and a sore tailbone from the landing part of airborne experiences, I was happy to walk behind admiring the sled tracks in support.
The destination itself is comprised of three cabins (the reserving of which is the most difficult part of making this trip happen), and three hot springs. The springs are really incredible, and spread out along a small creek. Somehow, most likely due to the nonsensical reservation process, we were the only ones out there. We arrived with plenty of time to stoke a fire, warm up the cabin, do some exploring, and then soak in the upper springs, which has an impressive view of the valley below. After, was an evening of bagged wine, card games, curry, and deep sleep. In the morning it was breakfast followed by a dip in the middle springs, and then the long walk back. A truly awesome trip.
The only hard part is getting out! Photo: Melissa B.
‘Sitting here in limbo, like a bird without a song…’
How does one go about effecting change? Initially, as in goal setting, the intentions must be clearly identified, as well as attainable. It’s all about figuring out where desires align with possibilities. Since signing on to my current position here two years ago, I’ve been living in that first stanza of the Serenity Prayer—that is, searching for the ‘wisdom to know the difference’ between the malleable and the fixed. Making attempts to alter aspects of individualized reality, but also practicing patience and acceptance, and waiting for opportunity. A balance of proactive behavior combined with tolerant resignation.
Acceptance has also been part of the new abnormal with regards to climate everywhere. The first snow of the year here was on the 24th of September. This was shadowed by a big storm a week later, which dumped over a foot of powder across the Interior. Immediately after, however, a warming trend brought rain and melting, and it’s been nothing but weirdness ever since. Today, Halloween, we started the morning at almost 45°. Thus, ‘sitting here in limbo, waiting for some snow to fall…’ Not a lot going on as far as getting out there. Gray skies combined with nothing but ice and mud make for gloomy conditions.
This past month was a hike in to Nugget Cabin with Emilie after the first snow fall, a bit of ‘skiing’ around after the second go round, taking some folks out to the Reindeer Ranch, too much indoor time, and a trip back to Texas to visit family and soak up a bit of sunshine.
Mastodon Trail and Nugget Creek Cabin
First tracks of a short lived season
Running Reindeer RanchSwear this thing was purring.
Armadillo! Rare sight in these parts.
Lake Meredith, TX
New trails in Borger, TX
Amarillo Botanical Gardens, the Big Texan, and Rashod attempting the 72oz steak challenge
Palo Duro Canyon, TXHome again. Home again. Jiggity-Jig.
Like Water 