April 2020

Books read:

Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
Three Days at the Brink by Bret Baier
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Trails walked:

Bell Pass/Prospector/Windmill Loop in the McDowells (April 3rd)
Alta/Bajada Loop at South Mountain (April 9th)
LV Yates/Quartz Ridge/Ruth Hamilton loop in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve (April 14th)
Dixie Summit/Union Peak loop in the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve (April 21st)

Song(s) of the month (all by the late, great John Prine):

Lake Marie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkz8TnVQSOQ&feature=youtu.be
Hello in There https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zYNPdT1a4&feature=youtu.be
Spanish Pipedream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOoiMtevdY&list=RDMkz8TnVQSOQ&index=8
Sam Stone https://youtu.be/Yxgrl1yx8tg

I hope all of you came through the month of April alright. Perhaps the strangest month any of us alive have ever seen (barring those that were around during WWII). In one of the late great John Prine’s songs he writes:

And all the news just repeats itself

Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen

There seems to be a light ahead in this long tunnel. There’s talk of businesses starting back up in May and June. It is hard to imagine life getting back to normal. Perhaps there will be a new normal. I am sure we will all try to be sold on life getting back to the way it was. I don’t mean to minimize the disaster that we’ve all seen (people dying, losing their jobs and businesses), but I hope we can combine some of the best of our previous normal with the best of what I’ve seen during this pandemic (clear skies, less traffic, family togetherness, picnics in the park, more people walking and biking outdoors). Time will tell.

What's your coronavirus story? Like 9/11, everyone will have a story to tell for years to come. For my wife and I, it will be taking in her parents and living like a pre-WWII extended family. Some may think, how awful for you, but really it's been good. First of all, it's not like there's anything to disrupt these days; we're already disrupted. Second, our house has never been cleaner thanks to my mother-in-law the super maid. We eat dinner together most nights and share stories. We recently talked about what their life was like as kids during WWII. Barry Levinson, whose 1990 film Avalon was about the disintegration of the extended family was quoted as saying, “In my childhood, you’d gather around the grandparents and they would tell the family stories...now individuals sit around the TV, watching other families’ stories. And that has continued even further today. Once, families at least gathered around the television. Now each person has their own screen.” So, we're choosing to cherish this time, even though it's been tough due to my father-in-law's many illnesses. He was exposed to nuclear radiation in his work during the 1960s and he's paying for that with several different cancer battles. We are helping them and they are helping us, the way extended families living together used to do (and still do in much of the world).

Fifty years ago this month was the first ever Earth Day. Those of you who remember what it was like in 1970 will recall the dirty air and water, the LA smog, and DDT pesticides killing animals and endangering human lives. The bald eagle, our symbol of freedom, was declared an endangered species in 1967. Soon after that first Earth Day, Nixon declared the 70s as the Environmental Decade. He passed the Clean Air act in 1970 and the Clean Water act in 1972. Several laws prohibiting certain pesticides and protecting endangered species were passed in the 70s. And the results played out. The air and water in the US became cleaner. The bald eagle was removed from the endangered list in 1995 and they now thrive. That first Earth Day drew 20 million people to the nation’s streets and parks which was 10% of our population at the time. Everyone, it seemed, cared for the environment and action was taken. This is exactly the sort of effort we need now to address climate change. More on this in future blog posts.

This month I read nonfiction accounts of FDR during World War II and the tense relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran. I have also read a Dickens classic (a great remedy for living in bad times) and another intensely passionate and epic Isabel Allende novel.

For my hikes I’ve stayed close to home in order to be as socially responsible as I can during this pandemic. All my hikes have been in the valley, thanks to unseasonably cooler weather during the first 3 weeks of the month. I’ve rambled around local trails in the northeast, south, central, and northwest parts of the valley. The Valley of the Sun civic leaders do a great job providing outdoor recreational areas, and I’ve grown to appreciate these areas even more during this pandemic as a way to get outside, get some exercise, and forget about the world for a few hours.

Song of the month – John Prine mix: John Prine died this month from complications due to the coronavirus. He had underlying health conditions but was still performing and writing songs. I was really shaken by this news. I cannot think of another singer/songwriter I’ve cared about more. I have sung and played his songs (fairly poorly) since college and continue to do so today. I even re-wrote one of his tunes for a 50th anniversary song I “performed” for good friends. Jason Wilber, long time John Prine guitarist and musical director had the following to say in a beautiful eulogy he wrote: “Both as a songwriter and as a performer, John Prine has a special ability to connect with people on a deep level. Not from a position of superiority, but rather through empathy and commiseration. By laughing at his own foibles, he draws us in. He found ways to tell us things we already knew, but couldn’t quite put into words ourselves….. Gently he points out the absurdity that fills much of our days. Somehow, he does it without judgement or rancor. He laughs, cries, and shakes his head right along with the rest of us. You can tell he’s puzzled by it all, too.”

I couldn’t pick just one John Prine song for song of the month; I didn’t even want to limit it to the songs above, but this will have to suffice as an introduction. His songs aren’t the kind of tunes you play in the background while cooking dinner or working around the house (unless you already know them by heart that is). They are meant to be listened to carefully and taken in slowly, like a great novel. The best way to do that, until now, was to attend one of his intimate concerts, where you’d find Vietnam vets sobbing to the words of Sam Stone or old women nodding their heads with tears in their eyes to Angel from Montgomery or stoners laughing along to Illegal Smile. In the early 70s, he and Bruce Springsteen were deemed as the new Bob Dylans. That was a good comparison, because like Dylan, both artists write deep, clever and meaningful songs about the trials, tribulations, and joys of everyday people. Those of us who knew him so well through his great collection of songs will miss him dearly; and I'm very sad that I won't get another chance to listen to Lake Marie live, but the YouTube link above at least provides a memory of how it was.

When we heard about his death, my daughter asked us all for some of our favorite lines from Prine’s songs. There are so many that even the long list below (sorry, I couldn’t stop) doesn’t come close to showing his greatness. Enjoy this crazy mixed up list of some of his best lines from some of his best songs:

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
and Jesus Christ died for nothin’ I suppose.

Dear Abby, dear Abby
My fountain pen leaks
My wife hollers at me and my kids are all freaks

Stop wishin’ for bad luck and knockin’ on wood

'Your daddy never, meant to hurt you ever'
'He just don't live here, but you've got his eyes'

Sally used to play with her hula hoops
Now she tells her problems to therapy groups
Grampa's on the front lawn staring at a rake
Wondering if his marriage was a terrible mistake

I wish you don't - do like I do
And never fall in love with someone like you

Then you change your mind - for something else to do
And your heart gets bored with your mind and it changes you

You and me
Sittin' in the back my memory
Like a honeybee
Buzzin' 'round a glass of sweet Chablis

Gonna be a long Monday
Sittin' all alone on a mountain
By a river that has no end

Blow up your TV, throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try and find Jesus, on your own

Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve

You may see me tonight with an illegal smile

It don’t cost very much, but it lasts a long while

Many years later we found ourselves in Canada
Trying to save our marriage and perhaps catch a few fish
Whatever seemed easier,

that night she fell asleep in my arms
Humming the tune to, "Louie Louie"

Broken hearts and dirty windows
Make life difficult to see
That's why last night and this mornin'
Always look the same to me

Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown
A life of their own, left us alone
John and Linda live in Omaha
And Joe is somewhere on the road
We lost Davy in the Korean war
And I still don't know what for,

don't matter anymore

I bumped into the Savior

And He said pardon me

I said "Jesus you look tired"

He said "Jesus, so do you,”

But your flag decal won't get you into Heaven anymore
They're already overcrowded from your dirty little war

I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that's grown old
If dreams were lightning, thunder were desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing
And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today
How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say

I know a guy that's got a lot to lose.
He's a pretty nice fellow but he's kind of confused.
He's got muscles in his head that ain't never been used.
Thinks he owns half of this town.

That's the way that the world goes 'round.
You're up one day and the next you're down.
It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown.
That's the way that the world goes 'round.

Naked as the eyes of a clown.

Ah baby! We gotta go now….

Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas: Immediately after the 9/11 attacks I started reading books about the Middle East. I wanted to try to understand what would drive people to do something like this. I read several books and articles, but it seems that I was too focused on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The view from America always seems to point to that conflict as the base of all trouble in the Middle East. But Black Wave changed that for me. Yes, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a sore spot, but it’s way down the list of things that have disrupted the region over the last 40 years. The author is Dutch/Lebanese, raised mostly in Lebanon during the civil wars of the 70s and 80s. Her father’s family and relatives were raised in a cosmopolitan Beirut that was known as the Paris of the Middle East for a long time. So, she wanted to answer the question: What happened to us? And that is how the book starts. In her opinion everything changed in 1979; and here is a partial list of things that happened that year:

The Iran revolution and the Ayatollah Khomeini turn Iran into a theocracy
A violent takeover at Mecca where hundreds were killed, and the Muslim world starts questioning Saudi Arabia’s protection of Islam’s holiest site
The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
A Syrian revolution against Hafez al-Asaad (father of Bashir from today's Syria)
Saddam Hussein becomes Iraq’s president and expels many of the Shias to Iran
Egypt signs a peace treaty with Israel angering the entire Muslim world

Before this time-frame, Beirut, Cairo, and Tehran were all a mix of religions and political affiliations getting along for the most part. But since 1979, the religious extremists have taken over nearly everywhere. All of those terrorists from 9/11? They were born around 1979, so were indoctrinated with this religious oppression and the fight for control between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

The Guardian said about this book and the years after 1979: “Forty years on, Kim Ghattas has not only drawn the big picture of how those events shaped the region but offers timely and thought-provoking insights into their continuing destructive influence. The weaponisation of sectarianism, women’s rights, the frustrated hopes of the Arab spring, the rise of Al-Qaida and Islamic State are all richly contextualised and illustrated.”

She tells many personal stories of journalists, artists, and activists who have tried to fight this Black Wave of religious oppression. Most of them have been jailed, tortured, or murdered. So, when she hears from Americans the question: Why don’t the people rebel and do something about it? Well she gets frustrated because, they do continue to rebel, but they disappear or die in doing so.

It’s a fascinating study into how Iran and Saudi Arabia have been fighting for the heart of the Muslim world, mostly through proxy wars and religious fervor. Their reach has extended to Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Yemen. The author was a friend of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who was killed and dismembered by Saudi forces in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 (she was writing a chapter about his journalistic activism when she heard about his death). His is one of many many tragic stories in the Middle East since 1979, most of which we never hear about in America.

As the religious fervor began subsiding in recent years, Saudi Arabia and Iran have started to turn to Nationalism to control people (a trend also seen in non-Muslim countries lately). So, instead of being branded an infidel for speaking out, you are branded as a traitor.

The issues are too complex to summarize in a blog post, and probably even too complex to summarize in a 300-page book. But this is a really good start into understanding what has happened in the region in the past 40 years.

Bell Pass/Prospector/Windmill loop in the McDowells: With the stay at home orders in place (with exceptions for exercise….and hiking is exercise!), I try to stay closer to home, but that’s gonna be tough if the weather starts getting hot quickly. Luckily it was in the low 80s for this hike, which is a bit warm, but still pretty nice, especially with a good breeze which I had most of the day. There are 29 different trails in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve totaling just over 50 miles and the western trailheads are only 15 minutes from my house. I had already hiked 23 of the trails and this 13-mile lollipop loop added 2 more that were kind of out of the way (Windmill and Prospector). I combined the following trails to make the 13-mile loop: 104th Street, Levee, Paradise, Gateway, Bell Pass, Prospector, Dixie Mine, Coachwhip, Windmill…whew, that’s a lot of trail junctions! It was in the upper 50s as I started early in the morning heading east on the Levee trail with the sun in my eyes and the city at my back. There were a few folks walking their dogs on the Levee trail and lots of people on the 0.2 miles of the Gateway trail I used to access Bell Pass. But once off these trails I saw only 4 other hikers the entire day. The wildflowers were going OFF! So many of them in so many different colors (some of which I actually know!). The hike up Bell Pass is a good thigh burner with most of the 1,200 feet elevation gain coming in 1.5 miles. The view of the city from here is great, but if you walk down the other side of Bell Pass north for about a quarter mile you get spectacular views of Four Peaks (the mountain, not the brewery), Fountain Hills, and the Superstitions.

Eventually I headed east again on the Prospector trail which was a pleasant downhill walk with the beautiful Superstitions leading the way. I took a gander up at Thompson Peak and the road/trail that leads to the top and just shuddered, because that trail is the definition of steep (so steep you can fall backwards if you try to stand up straight – I wrote about that hike in my December 2018 blog). The Dixie Mine trail was partially on the service road that leads to Thompson Peak and I walked by its namesake mine with the colorful tailings cascading down the side of the hill. The Dixie Mine was established in the 1870s when prospectors found lots of red quartz around the area which is sometimes an indicator of gold. So, tunnels were dug, and mines were claimed, but nothing much ever came of it. In 1977 the county took over the land and created a regional park for all of us to enjoy. I turned north on the Coachwhip trail, which is not in the Sonoran Preserve, but in McDowell Mountain Regional Park (part of the very nice Maricopa County Regional Parks system). Nice views of the back (east) side of the McDowells from this trail. Then it was west on the Windmill trail back into the Preserve which eventually connected to the Bell Pass trail for the steep hike up to Bell Pass and then down to the car. A nice day with a multitude of wildflowers, great views, and lots and lots of fresh air.

Camelback Mountain from the Levee Trail

Casting long shadows in the early morning

A nice, elderly saguaro couple enjoying the view

Trail art

I told this rock a joke...it cracked up....

Winding and wildflower strewn trail

Distant view of Weaver's Needle and the Superstitions

Hedgehog cactus blooms

Remnants of Dixie Mine

Teddy bear cholla bordering the trail

One of many trail junctions

Phloral view of Phoenix

Dinosaur remnant

Flowers everywhere

Mexican Gold Poppies and Saguaro with a view

The fountain at Fountain Hills going off

Steep trail to Thompson Peak in the distance

One of many corona signs I've seen this month at trailheads

Three Days at the Brink: FDR's Daring Gamble to Win World War II by Bret Baier: My wonderful mother-in-law, who I dearly love, has a mission to convert my heathen liberal soul by buying me books from Fox News hosts and Republican ex-presidents. [Full disclosure, I was a Republican for the first 20 years of my voting life until I saw certain forces taking over that party. I switched briefly to the Democratic party; however, I began to see that it was even more of a mess. So, I’ve been happily Independent for the past 20 years, but have to say that my reading over the years has leaned me left on most social issues]. I read every book she gives me and, like all books I read, there is always something to learn from them. This book is no exception. Baier is no historian, and he admits so in his introduction. The best history books are written by historians who have a good writing touch (Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jill Lepore, David McCullough), although there are journalists who have written good history books (Bill Bryson, Walter Isaacson). The title of the book is a bit misleading as only 60 of the 400 pages are dedicated to the three-day Tehran conference. It was mostly an overview biography of FDR and a brief history of World War II. I didn’t love the Introduction, nor the last chapter, where he seems to pay homage to our current president, and even somehow seems to compare him to FDR. All the chapters in between these two are interesting and a good summary of FDR and World War II. I held my breath when he said in the text that only three presidents in history seemed to be blind to political bias in their decision making: Washington, Lincoln, and……Franklin Delano Roosevelt…whew! OK, that’s pretty easily agreed to, I think (although I'd add Teddy Roosevelt to that list).

Every time I read about World War II, it seems that Winston Churchill is the one person most responsible for defeating Hitler. This book didn’t change that view. Stalin, of course, was crucial in stopping the Nazis at Stalingrad after suffering heavy losses (see my review of Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad in my August 2019 blog). FDR was critical in his initial arms support to Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and then of course when the US finally joined the war after Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. But Churchill was the one world leader warning people about Hitler long before the war (nobody listened) and he led his country (many times on its own in the world) against far superior forces in the first couple of years. Baier mentioned the speech Churchill made in the House of Commons in 1935: “With Germany arming at breakneck speed, England lost in a pacifist dream, France corrupt and torn by dissension, America remote and indifferent,… do you not tremble for your children?” He was largely ignored.

A couple of other interesting tidbits from the book:

Stalin’s second wife, and mother to his daughter and second son, shot herself dead in 1932 (can you blame her? Look who she was married to...).

Churchill and FDR exchanged nearly 2,000 letters during their relationship.

FDR, Churchill, and Stalin started the United Nations, which first met in San Francisco in October of 1945, just after the end of the war.

And as a nod to the tremendous toll the presidency takes, in 1887, when FDR was 5 years old, he visited the White House with his dad who was friends with Grover Cleveland. Cleveland, who was in the last year of his 2nd term, told FDR: “My little man, I am making a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be president of the United States.”

Alta/Bajada/National loop at South Mountain: The 16,000-acre South Mountain Park is one of the largest city parks in the country. With 3 mountain ranges (Ma Ha Tauk, Gila and Guadalupe), 29 trails covering over 50 miles (interestingly very similar to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve), it’s a great local resource for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. I’ve never hiked from this northwestern trailhead just east of 43rd avenue and Estrella drive. There is parking along the dirt road for maybe 20 or so cars, but on this Thursday, there were only 4 other cars. The residential area near this trailhead is really nice; some ranches and farms, some big rich homes, some small poor homes, lots of trees, and it’s hidden from the city by hills to the north and South Mountain to the, well, south. The area is called Sunset Cove and it’s like a little oasis in the city. The trail junctions are not very well marked in this immediate area, but you get on the National trail’s western terminus and hike uphill and southeast for half a mile until you reach the well-marked San Juan trailhead. Weirdly, the San Juan trailhead can be reached by a paved road through South Mountain Park that is only open one weekend each month. I suppose this is to keep this central portion of the park quiet most of the time for the park’s animals and humans. From the San Juan trailhead, there is good signage pointing the way east to the Alta trail or south to continue on the National trail. I started east on the Alta trail and finished on the National trail, doing a clockwise loop.

The Alta may be my new favorite South Mountain hike. First of all, you get your cardio early on by climbing 1,100 feet in just over a mile. Next, much of the hike is along the ridge-line of the Ma Ha Tauk range which provides great views north to the city, west to the Estrella Mountains, and south to the inner valley between the Gila and Ma Ha Tauk ranges. Plus I added a little half mile off trail scramble to the top of Maricopa Peak with even grander views, and rock etchings from the 1930s (presumably by prison inmates who built this trail). I was able to find the US Coast and Geodetic* marker which was placed here in 1947. And to add to all of this, the desert wildflowers were still blooming.

The Alta trail eventually heads down the south side of the range and then connects with the Bajada trail which is a completely different experience. I’ve read descriptions calling the Bajada trail a boring hike, but I wasn’t bored one bit. Bajada is Spanish for slope, which is appropriate because this portion of the trail follows the bottom northern slope of the Gila range and takes you in and out of dozens of interesting washes as you view the Estrella Mountains to the west. There were many more wildflowers on this trail due to the amount of water that gushes down these washes when it rains. The other view you get looking west is the brand new section of the 202 freeway that diverts I-10 traffic away from downtown Phoenix and around South Mountain and the village of Ahwatukee Foothills whose upper-middle-class residents were not too crazy about a freeway being built in their backyards.

The Bajada trail eventually ends on the National Trail taking me back to the San Juan trailhead where I stopped to eat an apple and enjoy the scenery before heading the final half mile back to my car. Another great day in the desert springtime.

*In 1807 Thomas Jefferson formed the Coast Survey in order to chart the coastlines of the United States. The first survey in the US was done at New York harbor. As the country grew west across vast amounts of land, the Coast Survey was changed to the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In 1970 it was changed to the National Geodetic Survey within NOAA. There are over a million and half survey marks across the country, measuring horizontal and vertical space. The Survey has used everything from clay pots to bottles to metallic pins to mark survey locations. The bench mark I found on Maricopa Peak was a metal marker that they started using in 1903. This one was placed in 1947 to measure South Mountain heights. Maricopa Peak is the 3rd highest point in South Mountain and the highest point in the Ma Ha Tauk range. I enjoy locating these markers and thinking about the people that installed them and what life was like for them. This would have been 2 years after World War II and perhaps former soldiers were doing the hard work of climbing, digging, and placing survey marks.

Nice little community near the trailhead

Sunset Cove protected by hills and South Mountain

My loop started left and ended on the trail coming from the right

Views to the west climbing up the Alta trail...the two little puffs of steam in the middle are from Palo Verde Nuclear Plant

Downtown Phoenix from the Alta trail

Blooming cactus above the city

Scramble to Maricopa Peak (background) started here

View towards the Estrella Mountains from Maricopa Peak

Some etchings on Maricopa Peak from the 1930s crew that built the trail

Maricopa Peak bench mark from 1947

The inner valley between ranges in South Mountain

Alta Trail heading down to the inner valley

Cholla Hill?

Nice contrast between the poppies and black rock

Wildflowers and mountain shadows

This trail gets an A for it's great workout and views

Classical Sonoran desert shot

Road through South Mt Park - only open one weekend per month

The imagery here I leave to your imagination

Bajada and National trail junction

One of these is a Snake Stick and the other is a Stick Snake.....

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: After reading non-fiction accounts of the troubles in the Middle East and the horrors of World War II, I needed a respite. A good Dickens novel is just the ticket. It takes a few pages to get into the rhythm of his writing, but once you do, it’s a joy to read. He is funny and sarcastic, and his depictions of the poor parts of London in the mid-1800s are vivid and dark. The character names are clever and many times descriptive (Mr. Grimwig, Mr. Bumble, Mrs. Mann). I found myself cringing when he referred to the infamous Fagin as “The Jew” along with fairly negative physical and behavioral descriptions. I later read that he came under quite a bit of fire for possible anti-Semitism which he poorly tried to defend. In the end, the last 15 chapters rarely referred to Fagin as the Jew compared to the first 38 chapters (the book was originally a magazine monthly serial). So, in his defense, Dickens tried to change this due to the criticism. It doesn’t seem that there were any indications of anti-Semitism in his personal life, and in a later novel, Our Mutual Friend, he created a benevolent Jewish person named Riah (for this, one of his harshest critics sent him a Hebrew bible in gratitude).

Back to the novel. My remembrance of the successful 1968 musical Oliver! was that it was lighthearted and fun (maybe I remember incorrectly). But this book was dark. Spousal abuse, murder, child abuse, and general mistreatment of lower classes is rampant. Oliver was born an orphan when his mother died in a workhouse (poor house) while giving birth. He was raised in this poor house on a starvation diet with corporal punishment. Eventually he upsets the managers of the house when he famously asks “Please sir, I want some more." They shuffle him off to an undertaker as an apprentice where characters there plotted against him which resulted in his running away to London in a harrowing adventure. He is found starving and destitute by the Artful Dodger and led to Fagin who tries to turn Oliver into a pickpocket. But his naturally kind demeanor was never suited to that life. Eventually a fascinating story enfolds after a botched burglary gets Oliver injured. The story involves Oliver’s deceased parents and the possibility of his receiving a large inheritance. Many of the people he encounters in his adventures turn out to be acquaintances or relatives of his deceased (and previously unknown to him) parents. The many plot twists of Oliver Twist make it a fun and enjoyable read. I suppose it’s a generally happy ending, even though Nancy (a hardened thief with a soft heart for Oliver’s well-being) meets with a very unhappy ending.

I love getting lost in the worlds Dickens creates.

LV Yates/Quartz Ridge/Ruth Hamilton loop: It was already mid-April and still no sign of 100-degree temperatures! It was in the upper 70s today with a breeze which made for a beautiful day hiking. Still staying close to home, I decided to ramble along some of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve trails which I had never hiked before. I started at the trailhead on 40th street south of Shea and headed towards the LV Yates trail, named after a gentleman who moved from Texas to Phoenix with his wife in 1946 and started Yates Army Navy Surplus, which turned into Yates Sporting Goods and was a fixture in the valley for 30 years. Yates was a generous guy who held classes for inner city kids about the outdoors and helped keep the Phoenix Mountains preserved so that we could all enjoy them today. After around 2 miles I turned left on the Quartz Ridge trail and took this all the way down to the trailhead at 32nd street and Lincoln. Next I headed west on the Mohave connector trail (202) and had planned to take this all the way into the main parking area for Piestewa Peak, but I “discovered” a steep trail that headed northwest and so I took this up to a couple of peaks for some great views of the city. Eventually this trail headed down the north end of these peaks and dropped me off at the Piestewa Peak parking area afterall! I trudged up the park road for a quarter mile to hook up with the Nature trail and then onto the Ruth Hamilton trail which was pretty steep! Ruth Hamilton was an interesting woman. In the early 70s, she and Margaret Hance took the then Phoenix mayor on a horseback ride through this area in order to prove to him how important it was to preserve it and keep it this way. Hamilton fought lawsuits by various land developers for years to keep the mountain preserve intact. By the way, Margaret Hance, who went on that horseback ride, later become a very popular mayor of Phoenix for four consecutive terms (she was mayor when we first moved to the valley in 1981) and then served in both the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations.

The trail eventually intersected with the Quartz Ridge trail, but I continued on the Ruth Hamilton trail until it ended at a closed off street (evidently 36th street from the map). I followed the street north a bit and a trail picked up where the street ended. I followed this unnamed trail until it connected back with the LV Yates trail, and then back to my car. A very nice 8.5-mile figure 8 loop trail with a couple thousand feet elevation gain (including all the unnamed peaks I scrambled up). Some wildflowers were still blooming, but a lot of the brittlebush had already dried up. It’s the succulents’ time to bloom now in the valley.

Piestewa Peak glimpse from an arroyo near the trailhead at 40th street south of Shea

The view opens up

Winding my way through the lush arroyo

Quartz Ridge trail meets the Ruth Hamilton trail

Precarious cairn with view of Phoenix

Big hunk of quartz

Closeup of the above rock - would make a nice countertop...

View of Camelback Mountain from near the 32nd St and Lincoln trailhead

The climb up one of the unnamed peaks and a nice view

View of Camelback from higher ground

Straight down that road on the left will lead you to Matt's Big Breakfast!

Piestewa Peak from the hills to the south

A fence for perspective...

Nature trail junction with Ruth Hamilton trail

Still some Mexican Gold poppies blooming

People randomly leave these beautifully colored rock sayings along trails

Saguaros framing Piestewa Peak

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende: An epic historical novel of love, adventure, and personal discovery which takes you from the port city of Valparaiso, Chile to the Canton region of China, and then to Northern California's Gold Rush. The version I read was translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden. I reviewed Allende's House of the Spirits in my February 2019 blog. I enjoy not only her storytelling, but also her lively characters, strong women, and social commentary. Eliza is the daughter of fortune in this novel and started life as an orphan in Valparaiso, Chile in 1832. She was left on the doorstep of a well-off British brother and sister (Jeremy and Rose Sommers) who lived in the segregated white section of town established by the British Import and Export Company. Eliza was raised in two worlds; the proper English world of Rose Sommers, and the Chilean indigenous world of their cook and servant Mama Fresia. She grew into a woman who could live both in proper British society (reading books, playing piano, wearing stiff and uncomfortable corsets) and in the South American indigenous culture (cooking, planting, cleaning, and wearing simple and comfortable clothes). However, even in both these worlds, she saw that women did not have the same freedom and opportunity as the men. At 16 she fell in love with Joaquin, one of the men that worked for Jeremy Sommers. But Joaquin (like many other Chileans at the time) eventually leaves for California in 1849 to strike it rich in the Gold Rush. Eliza is devastated, but eventually decides to stow away on a ship to California and find him. A Chinese healer and cook named Tao Chi'en helps her when she offers her pearls as payment. Before describing the miserable voyage, Allende takes us to China to tell the fascinating story of Tao Chi'en, who as the 4th son of his family was worthless to them and was sold into servitude. Luckily for him, he was sold to a zhong yi, or Chinese physician, who taught him all he knew about his trade. Tao became a great healer, but his story took a different turn when he was Shanghai'd on a boat that was captained by John Sommers (brother of Rose and Jeremy). This was the connection for how Eliza came to get Tao to help her stow away. She somehow survived the voyage to California hiding in the ship's hold with Tao's help and the help of a Chilean prostitute who was headed to California to sell her services to all the miners making it rich there.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, Tao helps her get well from the difficult voyage and the two become very close friends. Tao wants her to stay in San Francisco with him, but she has to find her lover. Eliza disguises herself as a young boy in order to make her way through the river valleys near Sacramento searching for her lover. She has many incredible adventures and comes to enjoy her life as a young man, with greater freedom and way more comfortable clothes. On one of those adventures, she travels with a band of performers, gamblers, and prostitutes, led by a gender bending woman named Joe Bonecrusher. So many subtexts about gender, racism, and equality throughout the story.

Does she find her lover? Does she go back to Tao? Does she go back to Chile? You'll have to read this entertaining book to find out (or you can just Google it).

Dixie Summit and Union Peak loop: Phoenix has a 100-year history of preserving land for use by its residents. In 1920 when the city was only 5 square miles, our leaders saw the benefit of acquiring mountain areas for picnicking, horseback riding, and hiking. Barry Goldwater saved the summit of Camelback mountain in the 1960s from the developers’ shovels. The Phoenix Sonoran Preserve was first planned in the late 90s and in the past 10 years three main trailheads and 36 miles of trails have been established in the area bounded by Cave Creek Road, Carefree Highway, I-17, and Happy Valley Road. There is a northern and southern section of the preserve and for this day’s hike I created a 10 mile “loop” in the southern portion. I combined the following trails: Hawk’s Nest, Dixie Loop, Dixie Summit, Valle Verde, Great Horned Owl, Union Peak, and Desert Tortoise. Just a few yards up the Hawk’s Nest trail there is a huge great horned owl nest in a giant saguaro. I guess the nest has been around for some time (maybe the trail namers couldn’t tell a hawk from an owl?). The momma and babies were peaking their heads out of the nest, but my terrible phone camera couldn’t get a good shot. I stood around a while with a couple of professional photographers who were out early in the morning trying to get the perfect shot. Very cool sight to start the day. I then headed up to Dixie Summit for a nice early morning workout of the legs and lungs and a nice view of the west valley. Next, I headed down the Valle Verde trail (where a garter snake startled me as it crossed the trail right under my feet) towards Union Peak for my second workout of the day. Ironically, Union Peak is actually SOUTH of Dixie Summit (the people naming the landmarks and trails here could have used some consulting). After enjoying my breakfast of a power bar and an orange on Union Peak, I made my way down to the Great Horned Owl trail which circles Union Peak. There were no great horned owls on this trail, but I did see a hawk (more trail naming troubles). On my way down I heard what I thought was a small airplane but turned out to be a HUGE swarm of bees. I stood still and watched them pass just overhead, hoping they wouldn’t notice or care about me; luckily, they didn’t, as they were practicing safe social distancing. As I made my way around the 3-mile circumference trail I ran into a couple of ladies who where obviously lost. They thought they were on the Dixie Loop trail but took a wrong turn. After showing them the map and making sure they had enough water I pointed them in the right direction…I saw them when I ended my hike, tired and hot, but alive, so my work is done here. I ended the trip hiking out on the Desert Tortoise trail which skirts around some really nice homes in the area. I went up to check out the owls again and then headed back to the car. A great day in the desert before the weather started turning hot. There were a few wildflowers left, but most were shriveling up in the warming weather, making way for cactus blooms and palo verde tree blooms to come.