Books read:
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Trails walked:
- Goat Camp - Mesquite Canyon loop in the White
Tanks west of Phoenix (Feb 6th)
- Lost Goldmine trail at the base of the
Superstitions (Feb 12th)
- Willow Springs Canyon near Apache Junction (Feb
25th)
Song of the month:
As you may recall, last month was a bit scary and hectic with the emergency delivery of our first grandchild. Thankfully February has brought much better news. Our grandchild came home from the hospital and our daughter-in-law has healed from the emergency C-section. My wife and I spent a much more relaxing week in Denver this month where we quietly wrangled over which of us could hold and feed the baby the most amount of time (she won). So now our son and daughter-in-law are down to the normal level of chaos entailed in caring for a newborn. This month also saw our daughter moving to our childhood hometown of Albuquerque as part of her traveling nurse program. We've already visited (she suspects the real reason for our visits to be the delicious New Mexican food, but you all know that's not true, right? right?). And the Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50-years! We had fun watching the big game at our Sister and Brother-in-law's house where they have been avid (and exasperated) Chiefs fans for years. There may have been some celebratory drinking involved.
This month I read fictional accounts of the underbelly of New Orleans, a quirky family and relationship drama set in Cleveland, and the murder of a 14-year-old girl and its aftermath. My one nonfiction book was a beautiful set of blog posts from one of Science Fiction's great authors.
I was only able to get in three hikes this month; one in the White Tanks, west of Phoenix, and the other two just outside of the Superstition Wilderness.
March is coming! That means Spring Baseball and desert wildflowers! Tune in next month.
Song of
the month – Feeling Good by Nina Simone: In recognition of a happier February, I've listed Nina Simone's cover of Feeling Good as song of the month. This song was written in 1964 by English composers Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. Several artists have covered this song, but it's tough to beat Simone's version. It starts out acapella with that smokey and pain-filled voice of hers, then you're hit hard with the horns and piano, and finally the strings come in and her voice gets stronger (if that's even possible). What a song and what a performance! The chorus is perfect for this new life of a grandchild that has entered all our lives:
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good
A
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: This book’s publication has an interesting
story. More interesting, in my opinion,
than the book itself. The author
committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 31.
He had written the book in 1963, but it was never published. His mother found a smudged carbon copy of the
manuscript and hounded a Loyola University professor to read it and to help her
get it published. It was finally
published in 1980 and won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1981. Some say it’s the best depiction of New
Orleans ever written, including its many different dialects. I will say this about it, the characters were
interesting and like no others I’ve read.
The main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is a 30-year-old highly educated
lazy slob who lives with his mother and refuses to get a job while he works on
his never-ending convoluted set of notes on Big Chief tablets. He treats everyone around him poorly,
including his mother. He’s mean-spirited
and sharp-tongued. His mother is an
endlessly complaining woman with no friends.
Other characters include an African-American vagrant who finds work as a
janitor in a shady bar, the bar owner who seems to be hiding some illicit
activities, a barfly employed by the bar owner to get customers to drink more,
a trouser production plant manager, the trouser factory’s 80 year old
accountant who has dementia of some sort, an anarchist ex-girlfriend of
Ignatius’, a hapless police officer, and on and on and on. For me, there wasn’t one character that I
cared about even remotely. The main
character was so delusional about his self-importance (purposefully so by the
author I assume) and so mean to others that I didn’t care at all if anything happened to him, good or bad. Reilly
eventually finds different jobs, but spends his time there doing anything but
the work, acting like some sort of incompetent anarchist. The only character I really enjoyed reading
was Burma Jones, the African American vagrant-turned-janitor. He was smart and funny. So many reviewers consider this to be a
classic that I feel like I’m missing some inside joke. There have been other deemed classics that
I’ve not enjoyed (Last of the Mohicans) but that is an anomaly. I guess this wasn’t the right novel at the
right time for me.
Goat Camp
– Mesquite Canyon loop: The
White Tank Mountains frame the western part of the valley beyond Luke Air Force
Base and west of the newly constructed 303 loop. The
Hohokam Indians lived in the canyons of this region from around 500-1,100 CE
back when there was year-round water here.
These days, you normally only see water in the springtime or after big
rains. The White Tanks got their name
from the large white bleached granite rocks, many of which form basins or
tinajas to hold water. The elevation
here ranges from 1,300 to over 4,000 feet (Barry Goldwater Peak is at
4,083ft). My Hiking Buddy (HB) and I had
walked two other popular loops in the White Tanks, including the Ford Canyon –
Willow Springs loop (February2019)
and the Willow Springs - Mesquite Canyon loop.
The Goat Camp – Mesquite Canyon loop is longer (13 miles) and steeper
(2,100 feet) than the others, but we picked a perfect 50-degree day for the
long walk. Although not nearly as
spectacular as the Superstitions east of the valley, the White Tanks are
nice. There are fault ridges between
steep canyons that make it an interesting walk. The bulk of the climbing is done in the first
3 miles on the Goat Camp trail (aptly named), but once you reach the top it’s
flat or downhill most of the remaining 10 miles. Lunch spot today was 4 miles in, underneath
the looming cell phone and microwave towers with a great view of the interior
of the White Tanks. We saw a few people
climbing Goat Camp for workout purposes, but after 3 miles we had the trail to
ourselves until we hit the junction of the popular Mesquite Canyon trail at
about mile 7. We found a stone wall on
the Mesquite Canyon trail, just above the creek bottom on the west side, but
could find no particular reason for that stone wall. I’ll have to ask a White Tanks expert about that
someday. The last two miles were along
the park road back to the car. A better
solution would be a car shuttle or mountain bikes for that road portion because
there is no trail parallel to the road and you must keep an eye out for cars
that aren’t keeping an eye out for hikers!
Overall a nice walk with a good workout near the start and a cool day in
the desert with temps in the low 50s.
 |
| Bleached rocks in one of the many washes we crossed |
 |
| Trail art |
 |
| More trail art |
 |
| Some green grass along the trail from all the winter rain we've had |
 |
| Cell phone and microwave towers looming |
 |
| View of the valley from on top |
 |
| Shrunken head saguaro |
 |
| Nice flagstone rock at a trail turn |
No Time
to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin: I’ve yet to read one of this author’s highly
awarded science fiction novels, but I plan to this year. Frankly I had just heard about her recently
from HB who was telling me about the plot of one of her interesting novels. When
she turned 80, she decided to start a blog, and this book is a compilation of
some of the blog posts she had written between 2010 and 2016. She passed away in 2018 at the age of
88. Her writing career spanned 60 years
and included 20 novels, and several short stories, children’s books, poems, and
letters. She was the first woman to win
both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Science Fiction/Fantasy. The U.S. Library of Congress named her a
Living Legend in 2000, and in 2014, she won the National Book Foundation Medal
for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. I enjoyed reading her views on various topics
of life from growing older to social issues to emotions to writing and
reading. I’m always interested in
others’ views of life, especially when they have lived a long and interesting
one. I will say that her entries about
her cats were not so interesting to me, but I’m sure they would be to cat
lovers. I will leave you with one of her
entries that I could relate to and which inspired the title for her collection of blog posts:
“I cannot find anywhere in my life a time, or a kind of
time, that is unoccupied. I am free, but
my time is not. My time is fully and
vitally occupied with sleep, with daydreaming, with doing business and writing
friends and family on email, with reading, with writing poetry, with writing
prose, with thinking, with forgetting, with embroidering, with cooking and
eating a meal and cleaning up the kitchen…..with meeting friends, with talking
with my husband, with going out to shop for groceries, with walking if I can
walk and traveling if we are traveling,…with watching a movie sometimes, with
doing the Eight Precious Chinese exercises when I can, with lying down for an
afternoon rest…..None of this is spare time.
I can’t spare it…I am going to be eighty-one next week. I have no time to spare.”
Lost
Goldmine trail at the base of the Superstitions: This is a relatively new trail,
christened in 2002. It connects the
Peralta, Hieroglyphic Canyon, and Cloudview trailheads. And since it also intersects with the Jacob’s
Crosscut trail, you can connect to the Lost Dutchman and First Water
trailheads giving you access to all of the Western Superstitions. The name of the trail references a mine from
the late 1800s claimed by Jacob Waltz (who was actually from Germany, not the
Netherlands). Waltz came into town with
the purest gold folks had ever seen and he told them he found a mine in the
Superstitions. He died before anyone
could obtain the location of the mine, and folks have been searching for it
ever since. We hiked the 6-mile section out and back for 12 total miles between the Peralta trailhead and Hieroglyphic Canyon. We
actually started at the Don’s Camp trailhead which is about a quarter mile
south of the Peralta trailhead (fewer cars and slightly shorter walk). Since it’s an east-west trail we wanted the
sun at our back in both the morning and afternoon, so we started on the eastern
end. This trail is just outside of the
wilderness boundary so you will see mountain bikes. We passed a group of 10 bikers huffing and
puffing up and down the trail. Trail
etiquette is that mountain bikers must yield to both hikers and horseback
riders, but in reality, it’s much easier (and safer) for hikers to yield to
these crazy, speed-obsessed mountain bikers (I’m talking to you KL). The trail itself takes you in and out of countless
arroyos with the cliffs of the Superstitions towering to the north, and the far
eastern part of the valley fading out to the south and west. We saw quite a few hikers on this Wednesday
(especially near the Hieroglyphic Canyon side), so it’s a popular trail and I
imagine weekends would be like Grand Central Station. We ate lunch at a spot with great views of
Hieroglyphic Canyon. We had hiked up to
the Superstition Ridgeline from Hieroglyphic Canyon a couple of years ago and
we were reminiscing about all the injuries we received on that hike. The
walk back was nice, with the sun lowering behind us and the saguaros rising
above us. A really nice Sonoran desert
walk.
 |
| Looks like smoke rising from the butte on the left |
 |
| Sign for the Wave Cave trail, which was made popular due mainly to Instagram |
 |
| This saguaro has eyes! And a tall baseball cap? And is posing? |
 |
| Superstition ridge line looming above us the whole way |
 |
| Sonoran desert scenery |
 |
| An early spring wildflower! |
 |
| Some rain puddles left in the washes |
 |
| This saguaro has some mutant growths it's dealing with |
 |
| Interesting trail sign presumably courtesy of the Superstition Area Land Trust |
 |
| Rock monster with eyes peering at us |
 |
| Desert wildflowers! |
The Broom
of the System by David Foster Wallace: David Foster Wallace seems to be a 'hate him' or 'love him' kind of author. I had
previously read his masterpiece, Infinite Jest and it put me squarely in the 'love him' category. I couldn’t even begin
to describe the plot of Infinite Jest to someone, but I know incredibly
fascinating writing when I read it, and that book had phrasing on every page
that wowed me. He wrote that book when
he was 30 and it got published a few years later. The Broom of the System was his undergraduate
thesis at Amherst College in Massachusetts, and it got published in 1987 as he
graduated from the University of Arizona with his Master of Fine Arts
degree. Eventually he went on to study
Philosophy at Harvard but left before graduating. Wallace gave what Time magazine recognized
as one of the best commencement speeches ever given: (https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/). So, all of these add up to a pretty smart guy. But that doesn’t always translate to great or
successful; and it sometimes ends up being a burden. He committed suicide in 2008
at the age of 46.
Broom of the System centers around 24-year-old Lenore Beadsman,
who is a switchboard operator in Cleveland, Ohio. Her family started a famous baby food company
along the lines of Gerber and is wealthy, but she refuses that wealth. The story heads off in multiple directions and is
told in various formats (novels within the story, transcripts from psychology sessions, etc.). Her great-grandmother
goes missing from a nursing home, along with several other patients; Lenore is having
an on-again off-again relationship with her boss who is 20 years her senior;
her pet bird suddenly starts talking due to some mysterious food it was fed and
the bird’s speeches combine religious philosophy with a woman’s speech to her
boyfriend about breaking up; some nefarious people from her past enter her life
as surprisingly kinder and interesting personalities; a Texas company creates a desert
in Ohio called the Great Ohio Desert (G.O.D) and a famous Russian gymnast comes
to town to sponsor a competitor’s baby food.
So, yes, try to explain that plot to someone…..
Like Infinite Jest, I enjoyed every part of this novel. Here are a couple of selections to show you
what I mean. If you enjoy reading these,
you’ll love the book, if you hate reading these you will hate the book:
“Veronica was beautiful.
But a beauty like a frozen dawn, dazzling and achingly remote. She was cool and firm and smooth to the
touch, decorated with soft, chilly blond hair wherever appropriate, graceful
but not delicate, pleasant but not kind.”
“After Darwin’s Origin, the bible has to retreat. The bible ceases to be a historical record of
actual events and instead becomes a piece of moral fiction, useful only as a
guide for making decisions about how to live.
No longer purporting to tell what was and is, but only what ought to be.”
Lenore, talking about her anorexic brother: “He’s the stranger who drops in from
Auschwitz every Christmas…he wants to write this book arguing that Christianity
is the universe’s way of punishing itself, that what Christianity is really, is
the offer of an irresistible reward in exchange for an unperformable service.”
The
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: This was an intense story. Sebold was 33 years old when she wrote this,
her first novel. It’s the story of a 14-year-old
girl (Susie) who is brutally raped and murdered very near her home (all this is
revealed in the first few pages). From
this very chaotic beginning, the story unfolds as Susie (from a heaven-like place) narrates the events
leading up to her murder and the story of how her friends and family coped (or
didn’t) with their loss. She also
narrates the story of her murderer before and after the event. Sebold has real life experience to bolster
what she writes. As a college freshman
she was brutally raped. In her sophomore
year, she spotted her rapist walking down the street, notified the police and
he was eventually convicted and sent to prison.
After college, Sebold struggled with depression and drug abuse
(understandably). She overcame all that
and wrote this chilling and easily readable book. The movie adaptation was very choppy compared
to the book. It had a star filled cast
(Saorise Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, and Susan Sarandon)
and was directed by Peter Jackson, but it came off as a bit hokey. However, it’s watchable because of the
interesting premise and the acting of Tucci and Sarandon. But
read the book instead, it’s far more interesting and satisfying.
Until next month, happy reading and rambling!
Song of
the month – Feeling Good by Nina Simone: 
Goat Camp
– Mesquite Canyon loop: The
White Tank Mountains frame the western part of the valley beyond Luke Air Force
Base and west of the newly constructed 303 loop. The
Hohokam Indians lived in the canyons of this region from around 500-1,100 CE
back when there was year-round water here.
These days, you normally only see water in the springtime or after big
rains. The White Tanks got their name
from the large white bleached granite rocks, many of which form basins or
tinajas to hold water. The elevation
here ranges from 1,300 to over 4,000 feet (Barry Goldwater Peak is at
4,083ft). My Hiking Buddy (HB) and I had
walked two other popular loops in the White Tanks, including the Ford Canyon –
Willow Springs loop (February2019)
and the Willow Springs - Mesquite Canyon loop.
The Goat Camp – Mesquite Canyon loop is longer (13 miles) and steeper
(2,100 feet) than the others, but we picked a perfect 50-degree day for the
long walk. Although not nearly as
spectacular as the Superstitions east of the valley, the White Tanks are
nice. There are fault ridges between
steep canyons that make it an interesting walk. The bulk of the climbing is done in the first
3 miles on the Goat Camp trail (aptly named), but once you reach the top it’s
flat or downhill most of the remaining 10 miles. Lunch spot today was 4 miles in, underneath
the looming cell phone and microwave towers with a great view of the interior
of the White Tanks. We saw a few people
climbing Goat Camp for workout purposes, but after 3 miles we had the trail to
ourselves until we hit the junction of the popular Mesquite Canyon trail at
about mile 7. We found a stone wall on
the Mesquite Canyon trail, just above the creek bottom on the west side, but
could find no particular reason for that stone wall. I’ll have to ask a White Tanks expert about that
someday. The last two miles were along
the park road back to the car. A better
solution would be a car shuttle or mountain bikes for that road portion because
there is no trail parallel to the road and you must keep an eye out for cars
that aren’t keeping an eye out for hikers!
Overall a nice walk with a good workout near the start and a cool day in
the desert with temps in the low 50s. 
Willow
Springs to Bagley Tank in the Goldfields near Apache Junction: As you drive on AZ88 (aka The Apache Trail)
towards Canyon Lake, the first thing you notice are the rugged Superstition
mountains on your right. But if you
glance to your left, you’ll see the very colorful, though much smaller
Goldfield mountains. The Goldfields are
like the poor stepsister to the Superstitions; not many people notice them or
explore them, but they have a glowing personality and make for a nice walk in
the desert. The first thing you notice
are the bright colors of the rocks which were formed from porous volcanic rock
containing colorful lichens. There are
not many established trails here, but there are several dirt roads left over
from the mining and ranching days of this area, and also several washes you can
follow (otherwise it’s off trail hiking).
You may occasionally see ATVs in this area, but since a special permit
is required, the area is not overrun with them; we only saw two on this weekday. We started at the Willow Springs parking area
just south of mile marker 204 on the west side of the road; headed down a jeep
road towards Willow Springs Canyon and alternated between the wash and the jeep
road until we turned right to follow another jeep road to Bagley Tank (an old dug out dirt tank likely established by ranchers for their cattle). From Bagley Tank we headed down the ominously
named Disaster Canyon which eventually washes down into Saguaro Lake. We didn’t go far down the canyon since we wanted to make this
an easy desert walk (8 miles total). Lunch
was in Disaster Canyon which seems like a terrible place to be during a flash
flood. But it was pretty and relaxing,
and the weather was a perfect upper 50s with a breeze. Another beautiful day in Arizona!
