Arizona | Don Sorsa's blog

Chiricahuas, perfect camping and hiking

May 6, 2013 2 Comments

Incredible rocks and hoodoos, beautiful skies, clean air, night-time temps in the 50s, and no mosquitoes – this is a great, powerful place. We drove through Willcox (the people there might be very nice but the town is zero except for the excellent coffee shop) and then put the convertible top down to drive through the valleys and mountains to the Chiricahua National Monument campsite. Few real trees grow in the Valley of the Sun, so seeing the Apache Pines, Oaks, Arizona Sycamores and Madrones, and Alligator Junipers, even these twisted dwarf versions, was a refreshing change of pace. (Two days later we drove to Jerome and saw giant pines and other trees at 7000 feet.)

Filed under Arizona, Travel Tagged with Arizona, camping, Chiricahua

Geronimo, Ft. Bowie, Gila Monster

May 6, 2013 1 Comment

In the southeast corner of Arizona, the Chiricahuas are one of the mountain ranges and valleys inhabited by First Nations for centuries before the Europeans. Fort Bowie was established close to Apache Spring to attack Apaches led by Cochise and then Geronimo. (The “official” history portrays Fort Bowie as protecting settlers and travelers but we can read between the lines.) In any case, here are pics of a two-foot+ Gila Monster at Apache Spring, the grave of Geronimo’s son, and the fort’s ruins, its decay accelerated because locals looted it for wood and other materials when it was disbanded a century ago.

The Fort Bowie ranger said she’d only seen two small Gila Monsters in her 18 years on the job, so seeing this big monster was unusual and very lucky.

Gila Monster

Fort Bowie in a beautiful valley. Click for larger version.

Filed under Arizona, Travel

Full Moon, McDowell Mountains and Sonoran Desert

May 5, 2013 1 Comment

Filed under Arizona

Great Arizona Picnic, reason #many to spend time in the Valley of the Sun

April 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Scottsdale – A beautiful afternoon at the Great Arizona Picnic. This annual event is one of many at the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall: 21 acres of trees, flowers, water, and a manicured lawn surrounded by restaurants, cultural and civic centers; in short, an unlikely spot in the middle of the desert, but then the same can be said of Scottsdale overall.

Sunday afternoon, 88 degrees, and the fiesta is a 15 minute bike ride. I straddle up the Bianchi and float, north west, lock up and pay the ten buck admission donation. Four hours later, I feel great, unworried about retirement or unemployment thanks to a couple snacks, great people watching, and rock-and-roll memory bands that cover everyone from Johnny Cash to southern rock to Adele and those other Irish and English bands old folks recognize.

April is the heart of the spring festival season here. Everyone is outside and many of us are enjoying free or inexpensive weekend events. The Great Arizona Picnic is part of the Scottsdale Culinary Festival, and this casual, un-ironic event is packed but never crowded.

The food I sampled was tasty: a deep fried quesadilla with beef picadillo from Distrito was three bucks and delicious. (I ate at Distrito once, a Catalan waiter and excellent meal, and left just when the tables were disappearing and the dancing was starting. I am the age for early retiring.) The jalapeño pecan pancake from Orange Table was another three bucks and another delicious. Good food always cheers me up, and the $4 cherry shaved ice cooled me down so I exited content. Ten bucks to enter, ten bucks for food. A little high for the fixed income world so I’ll scrimp tomorrow, rice and beans and maybe a banana! (Isaac told me to peel them bottom up like monkeys and apes, so that’s what I do now, when I remember.)

Filed under Arizona Tagged with Arizona, Great Arizona Picnic, Scottsdale

Sunrise Trail: colors are popping

April 12, 2013 1 Comment

Scottsdale, maybe the first day of my retirement but definitely the fourth day of unemployment. Quick drive to the mountains and then a 45 minute hike to the top, Sunrise Peak, and 40 minutes coming down with photo breaks. This desert lives well, and right now life is abundant and apparent: Flowers, cactus, lizards, bunnies, birds and bees and one skinny solitary snake. My first hike on this trail was Christmas day: Cold, rainy but man, it blew me away even with those poor conditions so I’ve returned often. Acrophobia delayed me reaching the top, but the tenth attempt succeeded; now I hit it every time. More rigorous than my other regular hikes – Pinnacle Peak, Go John, Shaw Butte – more beautiful, less crowded. This might be my last April in the Sonoran Desert so gotta soak it in.

I hike at a decent, old guy clip for this 1800 foot elevation gain over two miles; today nobody passed me going up and I only passed one couple: Non-American elderly folks (meaning my age, sigh) on their first Sunrise Trail hike, stopping every ten minutes to admire views, plants, boulders, everything. I greeted them again on the descent where the woman told me about a red striped snake. I said maybe it was a baby snake, and my ignorance disgusted them, “Babies are born in the fall.” Oh. Three runners passed me on the down road, a young dude and then two young women, probably in a hurry to get out of tiny, tight tops that forced their womanliness into unnatural bulginess.

Meditation isn’t part of my daily life, but maybe hiking qualifies, assuming that thoughts about money, people, beauty, sex, travel, family, sex, and food can arise in a meditative state. What the heck – I’ll mark this as two hours on my meditation diary. And pay the cosmic price later.