Books read:
- Behave by Robert Sapolsky
- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life by Anne Lamott
Trails walked:
- Bearfoot trail near Pine (June 2nd)
- Good Enough/Pine Canyon/Bearfoot trails near
Pine (June 8th)
- Humphrey’s Peak near Flagstaff (June 19th)
- Weatherford trail near Flagstaff (June 23rd)
Song of the month:
Time to head for the hills! It's June in the valley and that means triple digit temperatures and longer drives to hike someplace cool. This month has seen not only a rise in temperatures, but also a rise in Covid19 cases. There goes the theory that our desert heat would kill the thing. June has seen the virus getting worse, racial unrest throughout the country, and big chunks of Arizona burning up as the wildfire season starts. It sometimes seems like the world is ending, or perhaps changing forever.
Last year at this time I was in Washington DC lobbying congress for action on climate change. This year our conference and lobbying were all via video or phone calls. I was in lobby meetings with one representative and one senator. There were 6-8 of us in each session, ranging in age from college students, all the way up to my age! Although not as effective (in my opinion) as face to face meetings, it still shows our elected leaders that people are concerned about more than just what's in front of us right now. We went easy on them this year though, knowing that they are really swamped with Covid19, racial unrest, and the economy.
This month I enjoyed two nice hikes near the Mogollon Rim and two big hikes in the San Francisco Peaks. My reading included a fascinating look into human behavior, a ghost story that was maybe a person going crazy story, a look at life in Nazi occupied Denmark as viewed from the lens of a 10-year-old girl, and a poignant and funny look at the process of writing.
Song of
the month – Stuff that Works by Guy Clark: How do you pick a favorite Guy Clark song? There are so many great ones; Dublin Blues, LA Freeway, My Favorite Picture of You, The Cape, That Old Time Feeling, Magnolia Wind...But there's something about Stuff that Works which says all you need to know about Guy Clark. He likes comfortable clothes, his guitar, a reliable car, good friends, someone to love, and well, stuff that works. I recently learned it on the guitar and I just love playing this song...especially when I'm wearing an old blue shirt that suits me just fine....
Clark's career spanned from the mid 70s until he died of lymphoma in 2016. He was a major contributor to both the Texas and Nashville folks scenes and he is largely responsible for helping to create the Americana music genre. His songs have been sung by many others and will continue to be as younger people discover his brilliance.
Bearfoot trail near Pine: I planned hikes near Pine early in June so that I could drop by my father-in-law’s place to finish any clean up activity (cleaning out the home and storage units). Hiking Buddy and I chose the
Bearfoot trail (nice play on words) which starts on the southern edge of
Strawberry, Arizona. Last summer we
hiked the Pine Canyon Trail from the Mogollon Rim down to the nicely
constructed foot bridge where the Bearfoot trail ends. The Pine-Strawberry Fuel Reduction Committee
volunteer group built the Bearfoot Trail in 2014. The group installed a really nice bridge
across Pine Creek where it intersects with the Pine Canyon Trail. Due to various factors we weren’t able to
make it the 5.5 miles to the bridge on this hike, but it was nice to spend some
time walking in the pines. One of those
factors was the weather…it was unseasonably hot up here, getting into the upper
80s, and near 90. But we had cloud cover
on and off and the wind kicked up a bit to give us a nice breeze. We only made about 2.5 miles to a nice
overlook of Pine Canyon. I wouldn’t
recommend this part of the trail mainly because you can hear the Beeline
highway throughout most of it. I believe
that the remaining 3 miles to the bridge would be nicer as it seems to head
away from the highway and down into the beautiful Pine Canyon. We saw a Sonoran whipsnake on this hike,
along with a snakeskin from a very large snake (not sure what kind). The short hike enabled me to get a few things
done in Pine. We headed back to the
valley in the afternoon to soaring temperatures and rising covid cases.
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| Lucky #13 trail! |
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| Nice views along the trail |
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| A nice walk in the woods |
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| Someone put work into this makeshift bench |
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| Snakeskin boots material... |
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| Nice of the rangers to provide a mirror to fix your face up before the hike |
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| Some nice homes on the hill here between Pine and Strawberry |
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| Heading back |
Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky: Wow. I thought about leaving my blog post with that one word, wow. The Guardian started its review with this paragraph: “You reach out to touch someone’s arm, or perhaps you pull a trigger. What made that happen? In this extraordinary survey of the science of human behaviour, the biologist Robert Sapolsky takes the reader on an epic journey backwards through time, and through different scientific disciplines. His governing question is: what explains the fact that humans can massacre one another but also perform spectacular acts of altruistic kindness? Is one side of our nature destined to win out over the other?”
It is an epic journey, lasting 800 pages. I want to read it again and again, but I only have so many years left and many more books to read. The author starts the book out with an arbitrary behavior occurring. Something either wonderful or reprehensible or something in between. The next chapter explores what happens neurologically in the one second before the behavior; subsequent chapters explore what happens seconds to minutes before the behavior (sensory cues), hours to days before the behavior (hormones), days to months before (neuroplasticity), adolescence (a LOT happens here), postnatal experience, prenatal experience, fertilization, then centuries and millennia of evolution.
Once he finishes describing the multitude of things biological, social, evolutionary and environmental that impact our behavior, he gets to the really fascinating parts: Us vs Them (pertinent in today’s world of seemingly irreparable politics), socio-economic disparity, morality, empathy, religion, the criminal justice system, and war and peace.
It is not an easy read. You must invest in it. I wrote 16 pages of notes while reading. He includes 3 appendices on neuroscience, endocrinology, and proteins that he considers mandatory prior to some of the early chapters. You really do have to invest in this learning to come close to understanding all that he’s trying to lay out. But don’t worry, his sense of humor will help make the learning fun. And once the learning and technical details are out of the way, buckle up for a fascinating ride through human behavior.
Some of my favorite lines (among many):
No gerbil works hard at school to get good SAT scores to get into a good college to get a good job to get into a good nursing home.
The amygdala thinks it knows what it’s seeing before the frontal cortex slams on the brakes, an innocent man reaches for his wallet and dies.
Hurricanes arbitrarily given female names kill more people than hurricanes with male names. Why? Because people unconsciously take male-named hurricanes more seriously and comply with evacuation orders.
Judges hand down harsher sentences with they are hungry.
Stress causes illness because certain stress hormones can kill cells in the immune system.
The prefrontal cortex continues to develop into our 20s. The greatest crime fighting tool is a 30th birthday.
Poverty is not a predictor of crime nor health as much as poverty amid plenty (disparity).
Religion…
- reflects the values of the culture that invented it and very effectively transmits those values
- fosters the best and worst of our behavior
- is complicated
We have entered complicated terrain when we can make sense of an interchange where a masochist says, “Beat me!” and the sadist sadistically answers, “No!”
Mother Theresa: “If I look at the mass of people I will never act; if I look at the one, I will.”
Josef Stalin: “The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million men is a statistic.”
Having your pain validated is swell, but having it alleviated is better.
Good
Enough / Pine Canyon / Bearfoot trails near Pine:
What a difference a week makes.
Last week, on the Bearfoot trail, we were searching for shade to keep
cool; this week I was searching for sun to stay warm! Temperatures were in the low 60s with a stiff
breeze as I started a long day, forming a giant U-shape around the town of
Pine. I started off on the Good Enough
trail which has a small parking area at the trailhead (3-4 cars maybe). I’m
pretty sure that “Good Enough” was named so because someone was hiking the very
long Pine Canyon trail, and decided to take a shortcut into Pine rather than
hiking all the way to the Pine Canyon trailhead….this is good enough! It’s about a mile of rocky footing and steady
uphill to the intersection with the Pine Canyon trail. From here, it was north for 4 miles to the
bridge at the end of the Bearfoot trail.
The Pine Canyon trail winds through forests of pine, juniper, and
manzanita with nice views of the Mogollon Rim, Pine, and the Mazatzal
Mountains. The trail eventually descends
into the beautiful Pine Creek area near the LoMia LDS camp. This is the big payoff as the scenery here is
beautiful. A rippling creek and lots of
lush, green plant life. It is one of the
prettiest places on the Mogollon Rim. I crossed the bridge and then headed up the
part of the Bearfoot trail that HB and I didn’t get to the previous week. This is certainly the prettiest part of the
Bearfoot trail compared to the 2.5-mile section at the top where you hear the Beeline
highway the entire way. I ran into only
one person on the entire 14.6-mile hike and he was doing some trail
maintenance. We chatted a bit. Nice guy,
he is a local who lives near one of the access portals to the Bearfoot
trail. Every now and then he decides to
grab his shovel and head up the trail to do repair work whenever he feels like
it. Awesome.
I headed back to the trailhead and the last mile back to the
car on the Good Enough trail after 14 miles of hiking was really tough. It’s downhill and rocky and I had to be
careful since my legs were very tired.
But I made it injury free and it felt good to push my body that hard for
a day. I stopped by at my
father-in-law’s house to clean up a bit and then headed down the hill back to
the valley, my body tired, but my mind happy and relaxed.
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| Natural arch |
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| Trail art |
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| Dead tree shot |
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| Newly sawed wood creating a clear path |
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| I looked everywhere but didn't see any bears near this tree.... |
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| Tree huggers |
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| Pine Creek |
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| Bearfoot bridge |
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| Fern gulley |
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| Pretty good trail signage, but some of the mileage was wrong |
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| Lots of trails up here |
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| Nice vews of the Mogollon rim |
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| Trail art |
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: After reading an 800-page description of human behavior, this 120-page novella was a breeze. James came from quite a family. His brother William was a famous philosopher and his sister Alice was famous for the diaries she published about her tragic life. The Turn of the Screw is, I suppose, a ghost story, although perhaps it’s really about a person going mad. I was never quite sure. And even the ending didn’t bring light on this for me. Afterwards I read that this topic has been debated for years (ghost story or person going crazy story?). The story is set in the English countryside in the mid-1800s. A governess is hired by the uncle of an orphaned niece and nephew. The uncle hires the governess on the condition that she never bothers him about the children, no matter what may occur. She wonders at this request but takes the job and initially discovers that the children are wonderful and the home where they live with various hired help is beautiful. However, from her first night in the house, there were clues that things would not be normal. The kids seem too perfect. She begins to hear strange noises and eventually sees apparitions of people who used to care for the children but had since died under mysterious circumstances. A tension builds between the governess and the children about these apparitions which they seem to know about but when she tries to carefully raise the topic, they deflect and redirect. At first the housekeeper believes her and appears to want to be her ally, but this changes. The tragic ending is a bit ambiguous and you still can’t tell if the governess was insane or if she was a hero. Overall, I liked the story ok. I’ve read The Ambassadors by James and it suffered from the same long, drawn out sentences. The Ambassadors was a much more enjoyable story in my opinion, but The Turn of the Screw has been adapted 28 times into plays, movies, and TV shows including the highly acclaimed 1961 movie The Innocents starring Deborah Kerr.
Humphrey’s Peak: It’s been several years since I’ve climbed the highest peak in Arizona. With all the things going on in the world and my personal life, my physical fitness isn’t at its best, so I was a bit worried going into this one. There’s the 3,300 foot climb in 5 miles (from 9,300 feet to 12,633 feet), then there’s the high altitude with its chance for acute mountain sickness which could lead an ugly mountain sickness (edema), plus there’s the fact that the entire length of the trail hardly has a flat spot to place your foot; the first 4 miles are strewn with tree roots and lava rocks, while the last mile is a very steep tundra rock pile with 4 false summits. But I was determined to give it a go and I’m glad I did. The first four miles through the forest is pretty, (temps were in the 60s on this day) with some good views. At mile 4 you reach the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz Peaks and the views here are breathtaking. You can see the Inner Basin and Lockett Meadow 4,000 feet below, plus the other peaks with a bit of snow left. Behind you are views of the Grand Canyon area which were hazy on this day due to fires on the North Rim. I was tempted to just stop here and call it a day with this great view, but no, my inner competitiveness took over and I marched on up. The last mile was tough as I was starting to get a headache and had to stop 4 times to catch my breath. But I made it and it’s the longest amount of time I’ve spent at the peak itself. On previous trips it was either raining or too cold or too windy or lightning was threatening. This day the weather was great, so I had my lunch, signed the peak register and just took in the spectacular views of all of northern Arizona in a 360-degree panorama. The hike down was much easier except that slippery mile from the peak to the saddle. I ran out of water with about a mile left but it was cool and I was hiking downhill so it didn’t matter much, but I’ll have to remember to bring 4 liters instead of 3 next time. My hike ended with a deer stopping on the trail to stare at me. I just stared back, and we had a little connection. I didn’t even reach for my camera because I didn’t want to lose the moment. Nice way to end a big day.
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| Trail starts at the base of the Snowbowl chairlifts, with Humphreys Peak in the background |
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| Pine and Aspen trees up here |
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| When you're hiking at high elevation, this looks like a bear and your heart rate increases |
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| Big avalanche happened here |
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| Agassiz Peak on the way up (that's the ski area maintenance road you see) |
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| View from the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz |
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| Northwest views from the saddle |
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| Agassiz from the hike up to Humphreys summit |
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| Wildflowers clinging to life in the tundra |
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| The scree slope ridge up to Humphreys (you can see the "trail" left of the ridge) |
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| Great views as you rise up |
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| Doyle saddle on the right is where I would be the following week |
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| So beautiful up here |
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| Now that is a fashionable hat and sunglasses combo if I do say so myself.... |
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| Doyle Peak on the left, Freemont on the right |
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| Trail art |
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| Trail art with view of the ski area |
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| The meadow near the trailhead |
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry: I read recently that adults who choose not to read young adult and children’s fiction are missing out on some of the best literature around (I discovered this in 2018 when I finally got around to reading the Harry Potter series). I’ve heard of Lois Lowry and wanted to read this book and also The Giver. Both books won the Newbery medal for children’s literature. She is known for writing about difficult topics such as terminal illness, racism, grief, murder, and the Holocaust. Number the Stars was set in Denmark in 1943. The Nazis had taken over the country three years previously and were just now starting their purge of all Jews in Denmark. Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen’s best friend Ellen Rosen was Jewish, but at the time Annemarie couldn’t know what this meant. It turned out that Annemarie’s parents, uncle, and a family friend are all part of the Danish resistance movement to help Jews escape into Sweden which was a neutral country. Although the specific events in the story are fictional, they were all based on actual events in Denmark (and across Europe) during this harrowing time. My heart was pounding in the scenes when the Nazis were searching homes and questioning children in the street; they were terrifying. Lowry really captured the fear that children felt in their encounters with these horrible people. She also captured the camaraderie of the Danish people in their goal to help their friends and neighbors, even in the face of death. What bravery.
Here are a few lines from the book:
“The whole world had changed. Only the fairy tales remained the same.”
“Surely that gift—the gift of a world of human decency—is the one that all countries hunger for still.”
“It is much easier to be brave if you don't know everything.”
Weatherford Trail near Flagstaff: I guess I didn’t punish my body enough the previous week on the hike to Arizona’s highest point. On this day I decided to see what Humphreys Peak looks like from the other side of the Inner Basin. To do this requires a very long hike at high elevation. I started at the Schultz Pass Trailhead (8,000 feet) and headed up the Weatherford trail for 7.5 miles and 3,000 feet. The grade is steady and not too steep, making it a good workout for elite runners as opposed to me, a very non-elite walker. The Weatherford trail ends at the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz, but I wasn’t up for a 20-mile hike today; 15 miles was plenty. The trail starts in ponderosa forest typical of the Flagstaff area. I saw very few people on this hike, less than 10 the entire 15 miles. At around 2.5 miles you enter the Kachina Wilderness area where this beautiful meadow opens up around a bend in the trail. There I saw a young girl with a butterfly net chasing butterflies; what a beautiful scene. I couldn't take a picture because the moment was too perfect. In another couple of miles, you get some great views of Flagstaff and the volcanic peaks east of town. Eventually at 7 miles you reach Doyle saddle with terrific views of all 6 major peaks, the six highest peaks in Arizona; to your right is Doyle Peak, to your left is Freemont, then Agassiz, Humphreys, Aubineau, and Rees. I went another half mile past Doyle saddle to some avalanche areas with spectacular views of the Inner Basin below. This is where I had lunch, at 11,000 feet with incredible views below and above me. On the way back, just below Doyle saddle I spotted an old wrecked yellow vehicle on its side wedged between 2 trees. What the heck?! Turns out that the Weatherford trail started out as a road built by John Weatherford in the 1920s to take tourists up to the peaks in model T Fords. Evidently this vehicle (which was NOT a model T Ford) didn’t make it back down the road. The hike back was easy enough downhill, and the footing was a bit rocky but much smoother than the Humphreys summit trail. My legs were getting tired that last mile and I was happy to see my car waiting for me.
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| This would be a great fall hike with all the Aspens |
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| So does this rock look like a bear to you or is it the altitude again? |
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| Don't believe this sign, Doyle saddle is closer to 7 miles from here... |
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| The AZ trail skirts around the base of the peaks...I'm glad they didn't add Weatherford and Humphreys to the AZ trail |
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| Nice views to the south on the way up |
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| This hiker didn't make it.... |
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| Mountain wildflowers |
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| The views kept getting better |
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| From Doyle saddle: Humphreys on the right, where I was the previous week |
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| Inner basin from the trail between Doyle and Freemont saddles |
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| Inner Basin |
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| The 3 largest peaks in this photo are left to right: Humphreys, Aubineau, Rees |
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| Looking up toward Freemont Peak.. hoping no rock slides start... |
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| Still a bit of snow on the trail |
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| Between Doyle and Freemont saddles |
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| Near Doyle saddle - this car didn't make it |
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| No cars were allowed after 1984, so it happened before then. There is a 1959 Manufacturer's date on it... |
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| Trail art |
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| Christmas trees! |
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| Crooked aspens |
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| There are so many horny toads up here... |
Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life by Anne Lamott: I had heard of Anne Lamott, and I'm not sure how, but I've lately read that she is considered a sort of "people's writer" for the honesty and humor she unveils in her work. I believe she's also popular on Facebook and was featured in a 1999 documentary titled Bird by Bird with Annie: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott. I don't have any aspirations of "being a writer", but I enjoy writing and of course I especially enjoy reading. So I thought I'd learn a bit about the process of writing. She teaches writing in college and so decided to write a book based on her classes. She's got a great sense of humor and I chuckled my way through much of this instruction book. She has several pieces of advice for wannabe writers that seem solid. One of them I've heard many times and that is to set aside a time every day to write, no matter what. Get into a rhythm. It's like anyone with any other job going to work; you have to put in the hours. One bit of advice I found interesting was to focus on developing and understanding your characters, because that's when the plot develops. She doesn't believe in having a plot in mind at the beginning; she believes the plot will reveal itself once you've uncovered all you can about the characters in your book. And if you think about how life works, that's really brilliant. Stories involve people and people's lives and tendencies are what led up to whatever story it is that's taking place. Another suggestion she makes is to observe the world around you closely for ideas. Most of the great books I've read (sort of like great comedians) have a knack for revealing something interesting and fascinating about everyday items, people or events. She believes strongly in writing about your childhood to help resolve any writer's block you may have (it's emptiness rather than blockage that occurs). I really enjoyed reading about her crazy and incredible life mixed in with helpful instructions on how to write and even how to read in a different way to see how the author of a book may have developed their characters or story. Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:
Perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting, each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you,and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.
You are going to love some of your characters, because they are you or some facet of you, and you are going to hate some of your characters for the same reason.
When you have a friend like this, she can say, "Hey, I've got to drive up to the dump in Petaluma -- wanna come along?" and you honestly can't think of anything in the world you'd rather do.
Don't look at your feet to see if you're doing it right. Just dance.
I like to think that Henry James said his classic line, "A writer is someone on whom nothing is lost," while looking for his glasses, and that they were on top of his head.
A critic is someone who comes onto the battlefield after the battle is over and shoots the wounded.
..everything we need in order to tell our stories in a reasonable and exciting way already exists in each of us. Everything you need is in your head and memories,in all that your senses provide, in all that you've seen and thought and absorbed.
Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life.
Until next month,happy reading and rambling!
Bearfoot trail near Pine: I planned hikes near Pine early in June so that I could drop by my father-in-law’s place to finish any clean up activity (cleaning out the home and storage units). Hiking Buddy and I chose the
Bearfoot trail (nice play on words) which starts on the southern edge of
Strawberry, Arizona. Last summer we
hiked the Pine Canyon Trail from the Mogollon Rim down to the nicely
constructed foot bridge where the Bearfoot trail ends. The Pine-Strawberry Fuel Reduction Committee
volunteer group built the Bearfoot Trail in 2014. The group installed a really nice bridge
across Pine Creek where it intersects with the Pine Canyon Trail. Due to various factors we weren’t able to
make it the 5.5 miles to the bridge on this hike, but it was nice to spend some
time walking in the pines. One of those
factors was the weather…it was unseasonably hot up here, getting into the upper
80s, and near 90. But we had cloud cover
on and off and the wind kicked up a bit to give us a nice breeze. We only made about 2.5 miles to a nice
overlook of Pine Canyon. I wouldn’t
recommend this part of the trail mainly because you can hear the Beeline
highway throughout most of it. I believe
that the remaining 3 miles to the bridge would be nicer as it seems to head
away from the highway and down into the beautiful Pine Canyon. We saw a Sonoran whipsnake on this hike,
along with a snakeskin from a very large snake (not sure what kind). The short hike enabled me to get a few things
done in Pine. We headed back to the
valley in the afternoon to soaring temperatures and rising covid cases. 
Good
Enough / Pine Canyon / Bearfoot trails near Pine:
What a difference a week makes.
Last week, on the Bearfoot trail, we were searching for shade to keep
cool; this week I was searching for sun to stay warm! Temperatures were in the low 60s with a stiff
breeze as I started a long day, forming a giant U-shape around the town of
Pine. I started off on the Good Enough
trail which has a small parking area at the trailhead (3-4 cars maybe). I’m
pretty sure that “Good Enough” was named so because someone was hiking the very
long Pine Canyon trail, and decided to take a shortcut into Pine rather than
hiking all the way to the Pine Canyon trailhead….this is good enough! It’s about a mile of rocky footing and steady
uphill to the intersection with the Pine Canyon trail. From here, it was north for 4 miles to the
bridge at the end of the Bearfoot trail.
The Pine Canyon trail winds through forests of pine, juniper, and
manzanita with nice views of the Mogollon Rim, Pine, and the Mazatzal
Mountains. The trail eventually descends
into the beautiful Pine Creek area near the LoMia LDS camp. This is the big payoff as the scenery here is
beautiful. A rippling creek and lots of
lush, green plant life. It is one of the
prettiest places on the Mogollon Rim. I crossed the bridge and then headed up the
part of the Bearfoot trail that HB and I didn’t get to the previous week. This is certainly the prettiest part of the
Bearfoot trail compared to the 2.5-mile section at the top where you hear the Beeline
highway the entire way. I ran into only
one person on the entire 14.6-mile hike and he was doing some trail
maintenance. We chatted a bit. Nice guy,
he is a local who lives near one of the access portals to the Bearfoot
trail. Every now and then he decides to
grab his shovel and head up the trail to do repair work whenever he feels like
it. Awesome.
Humphrey’s Peak: It’s been several years since I’ve climbed the highest peak in Arizona. With all the things going on in the world and my personal life, my physical fitness isn’t at its best, so I was a bit worried going into this one. There’s the 3,300 foot climb in 5 miles (from 9,300 feet to 12,633 feet), then there’s the high altitude with its chance for acute mountain sickness which could lead an ugly mountain sickness (edema), plus there’s the fact that the entire length of the trail hardly has a flat spot to place your foot; the first 4 miles are strewn with tree roots and lava rocks, while the last mile is a very steep tundra rock pile with 4 false summits. But I was determined to give it a go and I’m glad I did. The first four miles through the forest is pretty, (temps were in the 60s on this day) with some good views. At mile 4 you reach the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz Peaks and the views here are breathtaking. You can see the Inner Basin and Lockett Meadow 4,000 feet below, plus the other peaks with a bit of snow left. Behind you are views of the Grand Canyon area which were hazy on this day due to fires on the North Rim. I was tempted to just stop here and call it a day with this great view, but no, my inner competitiveness took over and I marched on up. The last mile was tough as I was starting to get a headache and had to stop 4 times to catch my breath. But I made it and it’s the longest amount of time I’ve spent at the peak itself. On previous trips it was either raining or too cold or too windy or lightning was threatening. This day the weather was great, so I had my lunch, signed the peak register and just took in the spectacular views of all of northern Arizona in a 360-degree panorama. The hike down was much easier except that slippery mile from the peak to the saddle. I ran out of water with about a mile left but it was cool and I was hiking downhill so it didn’t matter much, but I’ll have to remember to bring 4 liters instead of 3 next time. My hike ended with a deer stopping on the trail to stare at me. I just stared back, and we had a little connection. I didn’t even reach for my camera because I didn’t want to lose the moment. Nice way to end a big day. 
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry: I read recently that adults who choose not to read young adult and children’s fiction are missing out on some of the best literature around (I discovered this in 2018 when I finally got around to reading the Harry Potter series). I’ve heard of Lois Lowry and wanted to read this book and also The Giver. Both books won the Newbery medal for children’s literature. She is known for writing about difficult topics such as terminal illness, racism, grief, murder, and the Holocaust. Number the Stars was set in Denmark in 1943. The Nazis had taken over the country three years previously and were just now starting their purge of all Jews in Denmark. Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen’s best friend Ellen Rosen was Jewish, but at the time Annemarie couldn’t know what this meant. It turned out that Annemarie’s parents, uncle, and a family friend are all part of the Danish resistance movement to help Jews escape into Sweden which was a neutral country. Although the specific events in the story are fictional, they were all based on actual events in Denmark (and across Europe) during this harrowing time. My heart was pounding in the scenes when the Nazis were searching homes and questioning children in the street; they were terrifying. Lowry really captured the fear that children felt in their encounters with these horrible people. She also captured the camaraderie of the Danish people in their goal to help their friends and neighbors, even in the face of death. What bravery. 
Weatherford Trail near Flagstaff: I guess I didn’t punish my body enough the previous week on the hike to Arizona’s highest point. On this day I decided to see what Humphreys Peak looks like from the other side of the Inner Basin. To do this requires a very long hike at high elevation. I started at the Schultz Pass Trailhead (8,000 feet) and headed up the Weatherford trail for 7.5 miles and 3,000 feet. The grade is steady and not too steep, making it a good workout for elite runners as opposed to me, a very non-elite walker. The Weatherford trail ends at the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz, but I wasn’t up for a 20-mile hike today; 15 miles was plenty. The trail starts in ponderosa forest typical of the Flagstaff area. I saw very few people on this hike, less than 10 the entire 15 miles. At around 2.5 miles you enter the Kachina Wilderness area where this beautiful meadow opens up around a bend in the trail. There I saw a young girl with a butterfly net chasing butterflies; what a beautiful scene. I couldn't take a picture because the moment was too perfect. In another couple of miles, you get some great views of Flagstaff and the volcanic peaks east of town. Eventually at 7 miles you reach Doyle saddle with terrific views of all 6 major peaks, the six highest peaks in Arizona; to your right is Doyle Peak, to your left is Freemont, then Agassiz, Humphreys, Aubineau, and Rees. I went another half mile past Doyle saddle to some avalanche areas with spectacular views of the Inner Basin below. This is where I had lunch, at 11,000 feet with incredible views below and above me. On the way back, just below Doyle saddle I spotted an old wrecked yellow vehicle on its side wedged between 2 trees. What the heck?! Turns out that the Weatherford trail started out as a road built by John Weatherford in the 1920s to take tourists up to the peaks in model T Fords. Evidently this vehicle (which was NOT a model T Ford) didn’t make it back down the road. The hike back was easy enough downhill, and the footing was a bit rocky but much smoother than the Humphreys summit trail. My legs were getting tired that last mile and I was happy to see my car waiting for me. 
Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life by Anne Lamott: I had heard of Anne Lamott, and I'm not sure how, but I've lately read that she is considered a sort of "people's writer" for the honesty and humor she unveils in her work. I believe she's also popular on Facebook and was featured in a 1999 documentary titled Bird by Bird with Annie: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott. I don't have any aspirations of "being a writer", but I enjoy writing and of course I especially enjoy reading. So I thought I'd learn a bit about the process of writing. She teaches writing in college and so decided to write a book based on her classes. She's got a great sense of humor and I chuckled my way through much of this instruction book. She has several pieces of advice for wannabe writers that seem solid. One of them I've heard many times and that is to set aside a time every day to write, no matter what. Get into a rhythm. It's like anyone with any other job going to work; you have to put in the hours. One bit of advice I found interesting was to focus on developing and understanding your characters, because that's when the plot develops. She doesn't believe in having a plot in mind at the beginning; she believes the plot will reveal itself once you've uncovered all you can about the characters in your book. And if you think about how life works, that's really brilliant. Stories involve people and people's lives and tendencies are what led up to whatever story it is that's taking place. Another suggestion she makes is to observe the world around you closely for ideas. Most of the great books I've read (sort of like great comedians) have a knack for revealing something interesting and fascinating about everyday items, people or events. She believes strongly in writing about your childhood to help resolve any writer's block you may have (it's emptiness rather than blockage that occurs). I really enjoyed reading about her crazy and incredible life mixed in with helpful instructions on how to write and even how to read in a different way to see how the author of a book may have developed their characters or story. Here are some of my favorite lines from the book: