Reflections on my hike of Cholla Trail on Camelback Mountain

I’ve been prepping myself for a 3-day hike in the Grand Canyon in May 2014 by taking on some of the more strenuous trails around Phoenix. Camelback Mountain has a reputation for setting the legs on fire, so when I saw that my church had organized a hike up the humps the first weekend of December, I couldn’t pass it up. Below is a quick summary of my experience.

At the time of our hike, the only way to access the top was via Cholla Trail (pronounced choy-ya) which rises up from the east side. In the picture below, envision hiking a trail cut just on the other side of the spine of the camel that runs from the right (or rear) to the left.

Quick stats:

Destination: Camelback Summit – the top of the tallest hump in pic above
Distance: about 3 miles round trip
Elevation gain: 1,300 feet
Time: 3.5 hours; time of day: early morning
Weather: sunny with calm air and temps in the mid-50s

Likes:

Free admission
Views from the top and other vantage points
Desert landscape
That burn in the legs

Dislikes:

Parts of trail require scaling rock walls and navigating back down them
Concern of bee attacks as advised by signs (bees killed a few people on Camelback in 2013)
Volume of other hikers on the weekend resulted in congestion
Parking a half mile from the trail head on a residential street

Conclusion
I’m glad I hiked Camelback so that I can say that I’ve done it, but I won’t be rushing back anytime soon. The single biggest turnoff was the volume of people. Friends have recommended other trails that will help prep me for my Grand Canyon hike, so I’ll place priority on those trails in the future.

If you have hiked Camelback, I would like to hear your thoughts in the comment box below. Questions? Fire away and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Some more pics from my hike (click to enlarge)…

Overlooking the Phoenician Resort

Some members of our hiking party approaching one of many steep segments of the trail.

A cool feeling visual you don’t get very often in the Phoenix area.

A brief stop along the trail to admire the valley view.

Another steep section of trail. Notice the helicopter landing pad for mountain rescues in the upper left third of the pic.

Somehow we need to get to where the gent in the upper right is.

This Christmas tree is at the summit. Another hiker there that day said she saw a couple 20-somethings carrying it up a few days earlier.

Descending Cholla Trail. Good view of a golf course in the upper half of the photo.

Uphill and downhill hikers often negotiate tight spaces on the narrow trail..

I’m sure more than one developer has thought of building a resort up here too.

Nature showing off its amazing ability to adapt to harsh environments.

This is the top of Camelback from a viewpoint several hundred yards before the final ascent.

Me at the summit of Camelback Mountain.

#Flashback Friday: The Philippines typhoon of 1973

As news of Typhoon Haiyan devastates the islands of the Philippines today, I can’t help but remember the most terrifying storm of my life. I was about six years old when my family lived in the Philippines (Clark Air Base) in 1973 when a typhoon roared across the island.

Note in the picture the house was on stilts to allow rainwater to pass underneath.

The wall of the home you see on the exterior in the picture above served as the interior wall too. The brick house pig didn’t build homes here.

We all huddle in my parents’ bedroom with no power for what seemed like an eternity, as the typhoon ripped through the neighborhood. I remember going outside after the storm left and seeing portions of homes crushed by trees.

I’ve lived through some nasty thunderstorms and tornadoes in the Midwest and blizzards in Colorado, but they all pale in comparison to the Philippine typhoon the scarred me for life.

Sending prayers out to all those who are affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

Best reality TV out there: Boat ramp follies on YouTube

I’m a man with simple entertainment needs. Give me a bag of chips and a few thousand 90-second clips of people making fools of themselves at the boat ramp and I’m set.

Boat Ramp Follies was first recommended to me by YouTube after I searched for videos of Lake Havasu, to which we were planning a family vacation. Good call!

As it turns out, “Boat Ramp Follies” is not just a video, but more of a genre; not unlike the categories of Action, Thriller or Drama that we generally find movies organized by. A YouTube search for “boat ramp follies” resulted in over 28,000 videos.

Far better than any other types of sports follies videos that became popular with the advent of VHS tape players, boat ramp follies is reality tv at its finest. These people aren’t there to perform. They just want to have a nice day on the water.

Getting there is half the fun, right? Or half the battle – depending on how you look at it. Mix in steep, wet surfaces, poor driving skills and a little alcohol and you have the perfect recipe for drama.

So intriguing are boat ramp follies that crowds of people are known to line edges of the Site 6 boat ramp at Lake Havasu to watch the spectacle. Thankfully for me, they also post much of the comedy to YouTube.

If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be the redneck in Missouri who didn’t even make it to the lake. He jack-knifed his rig on a dirt road when trying to avoid a puddle of water. The truck ended up in one ditch and the boat in the other.

I can’t stop watching these boat ramp folly videos and just wanted to open your eyes to a whole new entertainment experience. Here is one video for starters (PG-13 warning for profanity):

But please, don’t stop there. If you experience the same internal chemical reaction I did, try searching YouTube for phrases using any mixture of these words: boat, ramp, launch, idiot, comedy, drunk, folly blooper, etc. You won’t be let down, I promise.

The best way to save on airfare you’ve never heard about

I can’t believe the travel geeks aren’t making a bigger to do about this. I stumbled on to the best travel deal I’ve seen in over a decade without even trying.

I needed to book a business trip to Charlotte next week. In the past I have paid around $700 or $800 to fly there. This time around my fare was only $243 for a round-trip ticket. The plus or minus one day fares were comparable to what I’m used to paying.

It didn’t occur to me until I printed my itinerary that I had booked a departing flight on September 11, with a return flight on September 13 – a Friday.

I’m not superstitious but apparently a lot of travelers are. Seems like these two travel dates are being avoided like the plague by many of my fellow Americans.

You want to save big on aifare in the future? Consider flying on September 11 or Friday the 13th.

A warning to my neighbors about pigeon droppings

Dear neighbors,

Consider yourselves warned. Two days ago, at the advice of a gardening blog, I sprinkled a generous helping of crushed red pepper in a section of my front yard to keep the rabbits from chomping the grass down to the crown. It appears to be working as I haven’t seen a rabbit on my yard since the application.

Neighbors beware: This pigeon was spotted eating crushed red pepper in my yard.

Here’s the problem: The pigeon shown here, which I have not seen in my yard before, spent several minutes this morning pecking around in the same area.

I haven’t researched the effect of crushed red pepper on the digestive systems of birds. But if a high concentration of spicy food has near the impact on this pigeon that it has on my belly, I’m just saying you may want to park your cars in the garage for a few days.

Boogie boarding is an awesome spectator sport

Full disclosure: I am not in this picture. If I were, you would see a board in the air and my arms and legs protruding from the whitewater. 🙂

My kids make it look so easy, that I had to get out there and try it.

On Day One, a lifeguard came down and warned me against trying to ride the breaker waves. Something about risk of a broken neck or back. I wonder how he knew I had no clue what I was doing. Maybe it was the fact that I had the wrist leash strapped to my ankle. Lol! Those waves looked so peaceful, but they threw me around like a rag doll.

On Day Two, I was feeling pain in places I didn’t even know I had muscles, so I decided to just hang out on the beach and watch the younger people do their thing. I might try it again someday, but for now, I’m content being a boogie board spectator from the comfort of my beach towel.

More Advil, please. 🙂

Stunning Arizona sunset from the patio

Snapped a few pics from the patio of a gorgeous Arizona sunset. Enjoy!

My first visit to the Grand Canyon won’t be my last

Two weeks shy of my family’s June 1 anniversary of living in Arizona we finally took a weekend to go see the state’s crown jewel: the Grand Canyon.

So many people ask me if I have been yet, and I always felt a little weird saying no. I have really had no excuse other than, “we’re too busy.” We found an empty weekend on our social calendars, so we took the drive four-hour drive to see it.

In a way, I thought of seeing the Grand Canyon as a bucket list item. Been there, saw that. Check! I had seen plenty of pictures and videos, so I knew what to expect; or so I thought.

What I wasn’t prepared for was literally losing my breath the first time I walked up to the edge of the south rim. If photos are two dimensional and real life is 3-D, the Grand Canyon is definitely 4-D. I can’t explain the fourth dimension, but it’s there.

My first visit to the Grand Canyon definitely won’t be my last. As I stood there at one view point looking down to see a few dozen hikers making there way on the trails like tiny ants, I couldn’t help imagining myself in their shoes. The wheels started turning and I have already begun to plan my next trip.

Our church sponsors a hiking trip each June where you hike down to the bottom of the canyon on day one, then stay two nights in a lodge, and hike back out on the last day. The trip is completely booked for this year but you can bet my wife and I will be near the top of the list when they open it for registration in 2014.

Here is a brief slideshow of some 2-D snapshots of the Grand Canyon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Vintage baseball at America’s oldest ballpark: Warren Field, Bisbee, AZ

One of the things I love about living in Arizona is the virtually endless opportunities for watching baseball. One such example takes place each Spring in the town of Bisbee, not far from the Mexico border. On the south end of town sits Warren Ballpark – America’s longest continuously active baseball stadium according to local historians. The stadium opened in 1909 and has been active with baseball, football and other activities since.

Image: front of Warren Stadium in Bisbee, AZ

Front of Warren Stadium in Bisbee, AZ – America’s oldest active baseball stadium,

Image of vintage baseball team Warren Field infield, Bisbee, AZ

Glendale, AZ vintage baseball team salutes opponent

Player for Glendale, AZ vintage baseball team balances bat on his nose while awaiting the game to start.

View of action on Warren Field (Bisbee, AZ) from the stands.

Image of Warren Field infield, Bisbee, AZ

Warren Park Infield, 2013 Copper City Classic

Intrigued by an article I had read in American Profile tabloid newspaper last Fall, my wife and I made a road trip to Bisbee for the 2013 Copper City Classic – a tournament of vintage “base ball” teams from around the region. They don vintage uniforms and play by the old rules: under-handed pitching, no balls or strikes, ball caught on one hop is an out, and so on.

I wouldn’t say these guys (and a few gals) are stellar athletes, but they are good sports. The players range in age from teens to sixties. Important to them is respect for each other and, more importantly, the game. Scoring appears to be second to having fun in their order of priorities. The announcer livens things up by getting a little animated with the players’ nicknames and applying an appropriate amount of jeering to certain players when necessary. And the community will benefit from the modest amount of money raised to help improve the stadium.