Even though there’s been record heat in the desert for the past week or so, I was still able to get a hike in this past weekend. I went up to the Mount Lemmon Summit Trailheads for the first time this year and enjoyed the beautiful views and cooler temperatures.
I captured the experience in my latest episode on my YouTube channel; I hope you enjoy it! And if you feel so inclined, please subscribe to my YouTube channel to give the algorithm a boost but more importantly, so you are sure to catch new content when it becomes available.
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I was originally planning on hiking in the snow on Mount Lemmon last weekend, but the Pima County Sheriff’s department had a different plan, as they weren’t allowing anyone up the mountain unless they were a resident or an employee.
So, I went hiking in my familiar stomping grounds and tried to capture some decent landscape shots with new camera settings.
There are plenty of fantastic views along the Green Mountain Trail in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Mount Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona. Join me on my hike as I explore the Green Mountain and Maverick Springs Trails, and take in the wonderful sights of this beautiful area of the American Southwest.
Earl and I are on United flight 5531, en route to O’Hare in Chicago. From there we will fly to Philadelphia. This is so we can attend the memorial service of my (step)mother-in-law.
While the reason for our trip is rather somber, I am looking forward to the trip simply because it’s a change of pace. Our master bathroom has been under reconstruction since the beginning of the year, the news has been overwhelming, and I feel like I’m in my post holiday rut. I’m actively trying to get out of that rut and avoid it as much as possible but I’m also a realist.
I decided to try a different approach with my latest hiking video. This episode has no music track, it’s just me walking or hiking and talking. All the sounds of nature (and local airports) and my breathing and my steps and everything are in this video. The whole experience feels a little more ‘raw’ to me.
Earl and I decided to go for a little road trip to celebrate New Year’s Day. We weren’t looking to put hundreds of miles on the car; I wanted to see what was south of the fairly nearby community of Sonoita. I had heard there was some good storm chasing down in those parts during Monsoon Season, and this would be a good opportunity to get a lay of the land so I know what my options look like when lightning shot opportunities move into the region.
Parker Canyon Lake is in the Coronado National Forest. It’s fairly close to the Mexican border, but not close enough where you can see the wall or anything. The area is quite scenic and there were quite a few campers doing their thing in the various campgrounds. I love the fact that people can go camping in January.
I took a bunch of photos in the area.
On the way home we stopped at a brewery some friends recommended. Situated in the small town of Sonoita is the Copper Brothel. We had a nice lunch before making the trek back to Tucson.
Earl and I decided to go for a road trip today. I am using my last vacation day of 2024 and it seemed like a great opportunity to get out there and do something.
We drove across the bottom of New Mexico along Interstate 10. If you haven’t done this before you should do it once in your life to say you’ve done it.
There’s often a lot of dust.
And it’s very flat.
We ended up in El Paso, Texas for the night. We just had a drink and some grub at a place called the Hoppy Monk.
I felt really off center at the end of the work week, especially Thursday night and all of Friday. I had been paying closer attention to politics than usual during this election season, especially around the response to the debate on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, I also got sucked back into my Twitter account and I was really being pulled down by much of the rhetoric on there. After re-activating my Twitter account to defend Gus Walz after the convention, I went and re-deleted it yesterday morning. Any views of my YouTube channel that I garner from Twitter would probably be from bots, so I decided I don’t need that exposure.
All of this consumed turmoil was bubbling around in my head and quite frankly made me feel very burned out by Friday night. For many, it’d be just a matter of “just ignoring it”, but my brain doesn’t quite work that way. The chaos had fallen into the over processing department.
So, I decided that my hike on Saturday would focus on seeing and enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature in these parts. I brought along my camera without any real script or plan. I wasn’t going to spin the video into tips for a great hike or talk about what equipment works best for me out there. If I shot some video, it’d be just what I was seeing. I wanted to share what I hoped would be a positive experience with anyone that wanted to see it.
The hike was amazing. I feel much, much better as I write this on Sunday morning. It was a good workout, both mentally and physically. I’m feeling good.
I hope you enjoy seeing what I’m sharing here in this video.
This is the type of life I strive for. Who wouldn’t want to be able to travel around the world in 80 hours? With a clever balancing of budgets and airline miles, it can be done. Now, if someone could convince my husband that we need to take this approach to our retirement, that’d be swell.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
