September 2019
Books read:
- Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth
- Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
- Rabbit, Run by John Updike
- Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken
Trails walked:
- Arizona Trail Passage 27 north near Payson (Sep 11th)
- Colonel Devin Trail near Payson (Sep 19th)
- Munds Wagon Trail near Sedona (Sep 25th)
- Picketpost Summit near Superior (Sep 29th)
Song of the month:
- To Live’s to Fly by Townes Van Zandt
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| Sedona Red Rocks from the Munds Wagon trail |
September means Autumn.
And Autumn in the desert is the opposite of Autumn everywhere else in
the northern hemisphere. It’s when the
oppressive heat starts to subside, especially at night and in the mornings. I can now sit outside and drink my coffee in
the morning without having to change my shirt afterwards. It’s when kids head back to school and parents
are relieved of trying to figure out what the hell to do with the kids all day
long when it’s 110 degrees outside. It’s
looking forward to the holiday season, with Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving,
and Christmas all within a four-month period.
September also means that hiking closer to home becomes possible and
daily hiking for exercise becomes far less dangerous. It’s also a time when rattlesnakes start
heading back to their dens for the winter so you have a better chance of seeing
them moving, but then you also look forward to not having to worry about them
lurking in the grass for the next few months.
I read three fiction novels and one non-fiction book this month,
and my hikes took me from Arizona’s mining center to the Mogollon Rim to the
spectacular red rocks of Sedona. I hope
you enjoy the blog.
Days, up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
But don't turn none away
Everything is not enough
And nothin' is too much to bear
Where you been is good and gone
All you keep is the getting there
Sabbath’s
Theater by Philip Roth: I’ve read several of
Roth’s books and loved them all. He has
a special skill in describing American families (Jewish families in particular,
but all families really) in all their messy glory. I’m a pretty bold reader and generally am not
put off by just about anything an author is daring enough to write. But I must admit, there were times during my
reading of this book that I was a bit put off by the really graphic sexual scenes. Not that they were in any sense like porn,
but more degrading and kind of gross. I
almost had the feeling he was trying to see how far he could go before the book
banners gathered forces. Since it was
published in 1995, there was little chance of any book banning. Perhaps if it was written in the earlier part
of the 20th century. I guess
the closest analogy I can come to is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov which is the story of a grown man seducing and going on a sexual road trip with a
12-year-old girl. I loved Lolita, even
though I had to grit my teeth at times because, after all, I have a
daughter. But the writing in Lolita is
so brilliant, that I couldn’t put it down.
And that’s a bit how I feel about Sabbath’s Theater, which won the National
Book Award in 1996. The story is about
64-year-old Mickey Sabbath who has just lost his Croatian lover of 13 years to
cancer, whose wife is in rehab for alcoholism, and whose friend has recently
died. The novel looks back to Sabbath’s
past and how he ended up where he now was, which was basically a fat, old, ugly,
brilliant, audacious, destitute man who no longer had any friends or family
left that cared about him. From his
youth, in which he lost his big brother to Japanese forces in World War 2 and subsequently his mom to depression, to his college days where he created a puppet theater
troupe and declined an offer from Jim Henson to play something called Big Bird
in some silly show, to his first marriage in which his wife disappeared after
finding out Sabbath was cheating on her with the woman who turned out to be his
2nd wife. To give you a brief
example of the kind of person Sabbath is, when he was staying at an
acquaintance’s home awaiting the funeral of his friend, he tried to hit on this
person’s wife and stole their teenage daughter’s underwear to fondle at his
leisure. And this is just the very tame
part of who he was. It’s quite a wild
ride, and unlike any book I’ve read (even Lolita). I would only recommend this book for the
most open minded and hard-to-offend people out there. The famous New York Times book critic Michiko
Kakutani gave rave reviews to nearly all of Roth’s books, but could not stomach
this one, stating that this is “...a novel that's sour instead of manic, nasty
instead of funny, lugubrious instead of liberating.” Yet a different NYT’s
critic stated that this was “Roth's longest and, in my judgment, richest, most
rewarding novel.” Also, the MeToo movement sort of makes this a taboo book in
today’s times. But I’ll leave you with a
few of the incredible lines from the book to show that it may be worth reading
anyway:
In his description of the rural, young, poor: …he’d run into
them in the checkout line at the supermarket, each with two or three little
kids and a little underage wife – who already looks as though life has passed
her by – with poor coloring and a pregnant belly pushing a cart piled with
popcorn, cheese bugles, sausage rolls, dog food, potato chips, baby wipes, and
twelve inch round pepperoni pizzas stacked up like money in a dream.
--
--
“Why are you so racially prejudiced against the Japanese?” “Because of what they did to Alec Guinness in
The Bridge On the River Kwai. Putting
him in that f’ing little box. I hate the
bastards.”
--
--
“Are you always attracted to damaged women?” “I didn’t know there were any other kind.”
--
--
She had done her mothering the way she did everything, as
though she were breaking down a door…all that rash energy without a restraint.
--
--
That we don’t perish of understanding too late, that is a
miracle. But we DO perish – of just
that.
--
--
In her laugh was the admission of her captivity: to her
husband, to menopause, to work, to aging, to everything that could only
deteriorate further.
--
--
She drank herself to death for two reasons. Because of all that had not happened and
because of all that had.
--
--
Cheery huh?
Arizona
Trail Passage 27 North: Due to extreme early
September heat (and helping my wife recover from her ankle surgery), my first
September hike didn’t occur until the auspicious date of September 11th. I can’t believe it’s been 18 years. I can still remember that Tuesday morning in
2001 like it was yesterday. My daughter
was in high school and as she headed out the door to leave, she shouted “Hey
dad there’s something on the radio about planes hitting a building in New
York. Bye, love you!” I turned on the television and proceeded to
watch, stunned, along with the rest of the world. My wife was on a business trip in San
Francisco and ended up renting a car and driving home since no planes could
fly. I’m sure nearly everyone has their
story of where they were when…. It was a
day that changed the world forever. So, it was a good day to take a nice, reflective
walk in the woods. Hiking Buddy (HB) and
I decided to walk part of the northern section of the Arizona Trail Passage
27 near Blue Ridge reservoir. But before
I write about this nice hike, a word about the reservoir. Blue Ridge was such a great name, that it was
decided in 2005 to change it to C.C. Cragin reservoir which rolls right off the
tongue right? C.C. Cragin was a Salt River
Project (SRP) employee in the 1920s who helped pioneer hydroelectric power in
Arizona. In 2005, SRP took ownership of
the reservoir from Phelps Dodge which no longer needed the water due to declining
mining operations. The Arizona Water
Settlement Act of 2004 played a part in all of this. Among many other water issues, it allocated a
percentage of the reservoir’s water supply to Native American communities
nearby. Eventually an agreement was also
reached to provide around 25% of its supply to the growing town of Payson, just
below the Mogollon Rim from the reservoir.
And part of these agreements includes the need to thin the forest
because if a massive forest fire hits the area, it could impact drinking water for
thousands of Arizona residents. On our
hike we saw several trees labeled for removal with various colored
ribbons. So, the hike, yes! A perfect day on the rim with temperatures in
the 60s and breezy. First day this
summer I’ve had to start out with a sweater!
We began on the Arizona trail about a half mile west of Rock Crossing
campground on forest road 751 (about 2 miles east of SR87). We headed south on the Az Trail and soon had
some great views of the canyon which holds one of the arms of the reservoir. Then it was down 600 feet in three quarters
of a mile to the canyon bottom which was dry this time of year (I suppose in
the Spring and during heavy rains there could be water here). Then it was up 400 feet in a half mile to the
other side. After around 3.5 miles we
headed cross country for a half mile or so to what looked like a nice viewpoint
on a ridge, but the view wasn’t as great as it looked on the map. We found some nice flat rocks to sit and have
lunch with the wind whispering through the pines. Headed back the same way to the car for the
drive back to the valley.  |
| Forest views from near the trailhead |
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| Walking the canyon bottom now dry |
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| Breakdancing fairy? |
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| Canyon bottom view |
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| Nice meadow with wildflowers |
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| The hand of the Grinch? |
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| Ready, set, go! |
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| Natural Arch |
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| Heading back |
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| East Verde rippling waters |
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| Only 481 miles to Mexico! |
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| Nice views to the southwest |
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| Railroad Tunnel |
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| Colorful tunnel graffiti |
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| Enticing trail |
…the one good thing if the Russians take over is they’d make
religion go extinct. It should have gone
extinct a hundred years ago. Maybe it
shouldn’t have, maybe our weakness needs it….
--
--
The ObGyn is thinking:
He seems to see Harry as just another in the parade of more or less
dutiful husbands whose brainlessly sown seed he spends his life trying to
harvest.
--
--
Or maybe just being a father makes everyone forgive you,
because after all it’s the only sure thing we’re here for.
Munds
Wagon Trail: The weather is
finally turning as we officially reach Autumn.
This means that Sedona hikes are cool enough to enjoy. Sedona is a jewel that has been seriously eroded
by over-tourism. Weekends in Sedona (especially
as the weather cools) are one big traffic jam and trailhead parking lots are
full by 9am. This certainly doesn’t remove
any of the beauty of the place, but it sure makes that beauty harder to
enjoy. Luckily for us retirees, weekdays
are still somewhat reasonable. Yet even
on this first Wednesday of Fall, the Visitor’s Center was busy and there were
only 3 or 4 parking spots left at the trailhead. The Schnebly Hill trailhead services 3 trails: Huckaby, Marge’s Draw, and Munds Wagon.
Evidently most of the people in these parked cars were on the Huckaby or
Marge’s Draw trail because we only saw 4 or 5 people on the trail. The trail was named after Jim Mund, a Sedona
pioneer who carved out a cattle trail to move his herd between winter and
summer feeding grounds (not sure what happened to the apostrophe in the trail’s
name but if there ever was one, it has disappeared). The trail follows the famous Schnebly Hill
road for 4 miles and even crosses this jeep road 5 or 6 times, however on this
Wednesday we weren’t bothered by jeep noise with only a few tour groups driving
by. There were puddles of water along
the way from a rainstorm that passed through the area a couple of days previous. You can see where large waterfalls would form
if you were on this trail during, or right after a storm. We hiked 3.5 miles to Merry-go-round rock and
ate lunch with spectacular views of the famous Sedona red rocks. After lunch we hiked the remaining half mile
to the end of the trail and then headed back down. So, the total walk was around 8 miles and
1,600 feet of elevation gain. It’s
always a joy to hike in the Sedona area; to turn a phrase, “Sedona is always a
good idea!” |
| Some puddles left in the slickrock after a storm |
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| Merry-go-round rock on the right (Where we ate lunch) |
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| Red Rock views |
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| This was the view from our lunch spot |
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| Lunch viewpoint |
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| Colorful lizard on the trail |
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| Rock and water art carving |
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| All kinds of rock formations |
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| Next time we'll be more socially conscious and hike only trails with cage-free cairns.... |
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by
Paul Hawken: Although I
checked this book out at the library, I ended up purchasing a copy for
myself. It’s a comprehensive list of the
100 most impactful solutions to address climate change. Project Drawdown (https://www.drawdown.org/ ) was founded in
2014 by environmentalist Paul Hawken to measure and model the most substantive
solutions to stop global warming, and to communicate those findings to the
world. This book was published in 2017 from their findings. Each solution is measured and modeled to determine
its carbon impact (gigatons of emissions reduced) through the year 2050, the
total and net cost to society, and the total lifetime savings (or cost). There
is also a "Coming Attractions" solutions section, which describe emerging
technologies for which measurement/modeling is not yet possible. If you’re like me, and like a growing majority
of people in the world (including 70% of Republicans under the age of 40) and
97% of climate scientists, there is no longer any doubt that the climate is warming
due to human caused actions since the Industrial Revolution. What we need now are solutions and
action. This book is a great place to
start in understanding what the solutions could be. I was surprised at the solutions available which
I had never heard about and was doubly surprised to hear about the number one
solution (proper handling of refrigerants).
The bipartisan organization I volunteer for (Citizen’s Climate Lobby) is
working to enact political will to place an increasing fee on Carbon emissions
with proceeds going directly back to the American public in the form of monthly
dividends. Per Project Drawdown: “Carbon
pricing is a policy mechanism to implement solutions and not in itself a
solution to global warming. It is the single most impactful policy proposal
that would accelerate the adoption of every solution enlisted (in the book).
Project Drawdown focuses on technological, ecological, and behavioral
solutions.” Addressing Climate Change is
a perfect bridge issue in these divisive political times. We need to come together as a society and
implement most, if not all, of the solutions described in this book so that we
can make this planet a more livable place while also reinventing our economy
with renewable energy. The Department of
Energy released a report in 2017 (https://www.energy.gov/downloads/2017-us-energy-and-employment-report
) showing that the number of paychecks going to Electric Power Generation jobs in the
renewable energy sector outstrip the number of paychecks going to Electric
Power Generation jobs in the fossil fuel industry by almost 5 to 1. That disparity is going to increase, and we
need to help it along. 
Picketpost
Summit: My daughter was in
town for a few days and wanted to do “a hard hike”, so we headed east towards
Superior, Arizona and climbed Picketpost summit. If you’ve ever driven east on US60 towards
Globe, you’ve seen Picketpost Mountain on your right, just before Boyce
Thompson Arboretum. One look at the
mountain and you think “there’s no way you can climb that without ropes.” But
you can, and many people do. They have
rerouted the trailhead as part of the Arizona Trail project. You start out on the Arizona Trail headed south for
around a quarter mile and eventually you will see a skinny post sign for Picketpost
Summit and a trail heading east. Then it’s around 2 miles and 2,000 feet to the
top. There is a bit of scrambling and
route finding required and there are plenty of cairns and painted arrows to
keep you sufficiently confused and many times they are competing for your natural
instincts on the best way up. Presumably
somebody left these markers who had actually climbed this trail and survived,
but just use your instincts and the most worn path and you’ll eventually be at
the summit. This is the second time I’ve
hiked this summit. The first time I left
with a badly sprained ankle, this time I only end up with a banged-up knee and
cactus spines in my arm. These are like
participation badges for this adventurous and fun hike. On the summit you have 360-degree views that
include the Superstition Wilderness, the town of Superior, the Pinal mountains,
the Mescal mountains, Apache Leap ridge, the city of Phoenix, and even Picacho Peak 70 miles south. There is a mailbox and a metal bench on top
that some energetic souls hauled up for our entertainment pleasure. On the mailbox there is a metal-engraved story
of how it ended up there. Evidently it
had been hit a couple of times by cars where it was residing in the state of
Washington (*see my story on cars hitting mailboxes below). The owner relocated to Superior, Arizona and moved the mailbox to this summit, feeling that it was finally safe here from being
run over by cars. Inside the mailbox it
is crammed full of summit journals, bumper stickers, and business cards along
with miscellaneous other objects that hikers felt a need to leave. It’s sort of like a community cultural repository. We saw less than 10 people on this hike on a
nice Sunday morning, so it’s a good place to escape crowds, get a good workout,
and have great views of the desert mountains in the area. * this reminds me of a story. A few years back our son's girlfriend at the time backed into our mailbox and broke it. I headed to Home Depot to get a new one. This giant American Indian guy helped me out and I told him the story of how my mailbox was damaged. I asked him if I should buy this cheap one or this expensive one. He stopped to think, and then asked, "Does your son still have this girlfriend?" I responded yes. He said, "Then you should get the cheap one." Classic.
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| We're gonna climb THAT? |
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| Views on top |
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| Father and Daughter! |
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| Daughter posting mail |