Javelina on Desert Classic (South Mountain) - Phoenix, AZ

I ran into a couple of Javelina on my Desert Classic pedal this morning. It had been a while since I seen 'em, but I they were spotted in the usual spot. They come up from sipping water from the yards near by, and were ready to bed down for the day.

I had just rolled off the water tank, and slipped by the trees when I smelled this horrible stench. And at that moment, I knew it was a javelina. I stopped in my track and turned around, and there was a one sitting in the bushes about 15 feet away.

Here are a few clips of the porkers:

Click to play

GoPro Wide Format Comparison 4:3 verses 16:9

My go to camcorder is the Canon FS100. It has worked out as an great standard definition trip documentary camera. But I just added a GoPro Wide helmet mount edition to my footage grabber options.

Again it is standard definition, but it only records in the square 4:3 aspect ratio, and I like to post in a wider 16:9 aspect ratio.

Currently, I use Adobe Premiere Elements 4 to edit my videos, and they have an option to interpret 4:3 footage into 16:9 wide. It looks like they stretch the footage a little bit, so the it kinda get some distortion.

I'm not sure which aspect ratio to go with???

Here is a quick video comparison of the two aspect ratios:

Click to play

Coyotes on Desert Classic - South Mountain, Phoenix AZ

During the middle of the week, I typically ride early in the morning, but I did a dusk ride tonight. And I was treated to a choir of coyotes on Desert Classic. The sun had just tucked behind the hill, and the howlin started to crank up. The pack consisted of at least a half dozen pooches.

Here's short vid of the coyotes:

Click To Play

Desert Botanical Garden - Chihuly: Nature of Glass 1/10/09

My wife and I met up with couple of her old Air Force buddies and one was a residency partner-in-crime for a tour Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden to view Chihuly's The Nature of Glass exhibit.

Dale Chihuly is a remarkable northwest glass artisan, who incorporates his glass sculptures into the natural landscape of the garden.

We timed it perfectly, because we got to view the garden in natural blazing Phoenix sunlight, twilight and in the dark.

Here's a vid of the Exhibit:

Click to play

High Res Quicktime version can be found here: Desert Botanical Garden: Chihuly
Here are a few pics my beloved wife shot:

Sun sets behind the Sierra Estrella 12/19/08

Here's a 38 second time lapse vid, as the sun sets behind the Sierra Estrella.

Click to play

Here's Google Earth Tour of the Seirra Estrella:

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Boyce Thompson Arboretum 11/11/08 - Superior, AZ

Not much to post lately, with my mountain bike still waiting on parts and other stuff happening. But I did take my mother-in-law and her friend out to the Boyce Thomposn Arboretum on Veteran's Day, for a little stroll around the grounds. Things are alive, but obviously not blooming.

Here's a vid of the day:

Click To Play

A high res quicktime version can be found here: Boyce Thompson Arboretum 11/11/08

Technical Unicycle Riding: South Mountain - Phoenix, AZ

A few us headed us Mormon Loop/National for little ride, and we ran into two doods at the waterfall doing a little sessioning on their unicycles. Chris and Marc were throwing it down on some really, really technical terrain. I was impressed they were hitting stuff that is hard an a mountain bike, but then Chris scrambled over to some boulders that were off the hook. It made for some pretty impressive shots.

Durtgurl has a second vid on her blog: Durtgurl's Blog

Here's a vid of the day:

Click to play

Here's a link to the hi-res Quicktime version: Unicycling at South Mountain

Rattlesnake on South Mountain - Phoenix, AZ

On my way up the Fire Road, about halfway up between Pima Canyon parking lot and the trailhead for National, I spotted good sized rattler just kicking it on the side of the road.

Its not like I see a snake around every bend of the trail, but I've seen quite a few this summer. I'm thinking this due to the abundance of rain this year, providing lots of tasty morsels for vipes to eat.

Update: Bigrigmig made a comment that the snake appears to be a Black-tailed Rattlesnake. It sounds like a good call to me. Now I know. Thanks Bigrigmig!

Here's a short clip of the Rattlesnake:

Click to play (it'll take a minute to Play)

Pikes Place Market - Seattle, WA - 09/01/08

We had a few hours to kill before heading to the Sea-Tac airport for our flight back to Phoenix, so my beloved wife and I took a spin into downtown Seattle to dink around the Pikes Place Market.

What an amazing place. I've never been there when there wasn't buzz going on. It is a cacophony of hustle and bustle, interesting people, amazing colors and smells.

Since it was Labor Day, several of my go to shops like Delarenta and the world famous Pikes Place Fish Market were closed. World Spice was open, but I never put together a list of spices I was running low on.

We did have a couple of tasty crepes at Crepe de France.

Anycow, here's a short vid of some of the sites and sounds of the market.

Click To Play

A high res Quicktime version can be found here: Pikes Place Market

Harbor Days - 2008 Tugboat Races - Olympia, WA

My beloved wife and I headed back home to Olympia, WA for the Labor Day Weekend for a short visit to celebrate my dad's 75th birthday, to catch up with some friends and family, and to see some tugboats.

Olympia hosts the annual Harbor Days festival down on Percival Landing, which includes tugboat races on Budd Inlet. Good times. Big Brother Scott is an operator on a number of tugs, but today he was driving the Cedar King. The Cedar King which is still a working tug, routinely shuttle rafts of logs from out in the front of my Dad's condo, which overlooks the bay, over the the ships at the port of Olympia.

It was great to see everybody again. Loads of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and friends. And for 75, my old man is really enjoying life.

Happy Birthday Dad. We love you.

Here's a vid of the Tugboat Races:

Click To Play

A high res Quicktime version can be found here: Harbor Days 2008 Tugboat Races

Here's a vid my dad's Birthday Party:

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A high res Quicktime version can be found here: Dad's Birthday Party

The Dirtbag Diaries - Showcase the Hummel's, Sky Sjue & Ben Manfredi

You gotta check out this post over at The Dirtbag Diaries. It showcases some buddies from back home. At age 29, twin brothers Josh and Jason Hummel, are gathering some big time attention for some pretty amazing backcountry ski excursions. The trip reports and photography located at Cascade Crusades are web 2.0s resource for going big in Cascade ski mountaineering.

The story told on this video documents the relationships of the Hummel Twins, Ben Manfredi,and Sky Sjue, and how they've skied some historic lines.

Get on the Bus, Gus

Not much of an adventure here, but I did get in get a quote in the neighborhood newspaper today. It can be found here, in the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

I've been taking the bus to work the for exactly two years, and just to show that I'm an uber-dork, I've kept track of the mileage I've traveled. A week or two ago, the day that I counted as my 10,000 mile on the bus I got a heads up from my bus driver that Valley Metro is planning on making some pretty drastic changes to my bus route. Boo! Hiss!
Anycow, the story came about, because I contacted the journalist to see if he had any info the bus route changes. He was interested on how much I saved by taking the bus verse driving in to work.

The way I see my monthly bus pass costs me $45, but I average over 415 miles per month on the bus. The current IRS mileage reimbursement rate is 58.5 cents/mile. So by driving my car in it would cost me about 245 bucks a month. Net difference of $200.

Plus, I'm not getting any gray hair by driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-10, and my car is keeping nice an protected in the garage all day.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum: Superior, Arizona

My wife, two doggies and I split from the house at about 10:00 for the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, located about 3 miles before the town of Superior, AZ. The drive from our house, in Phoenix, took about an hour. This was a later start than you can usually get away with in Arizona this close to the end of May, but today was an exception. The skies were clear, but the temp was a somewhere in the low 80s.

I've been wanting to check this place out after my prior few trips up to Globe, AZ for some mountain biking. That, and I knew my wife would really dig the place.

I was really surprised on how big maintained grounds are. Not big time mileage, but I'd say the loop we walked around, including the High Trail, was around 1.5 miles. Filled with manicured beds that transitioned to natural landscape. We kinda lucked out, because being it was late in the year, the blossoms were still out.

Anycow, Here are a few special pics my wife took and a vid I put together.

Click To Play

Family Trip to the Grand Canyon

Liz, Ellie and I jumped in the car earlier Saturday morning for a little family get together at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We got there about 1:00, and met up with my dad, Aunt Vickie, Aunt Mickie, Uncle Walter, Cousin Cheryl and her husband, Ryan, and their son Jack Ryan. The weather was awesome, low seventies. Nice change up from the heat in Phoenix.

They camped at Trailer Village in the park, and Walter flamed up a huge stack of burgers. TASTIE!

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, Ellie, Liz check out of our hotel and made our way back into the national park to meet up with the crew again. And from there we jumped in our rigs drove up to The Desert View Watchtower. Dad hadn’t been feeling so hot the past few days, so he decided to opt out from the rest of the camping trip and head back to Phoenix with us.

Click To Play

Here's a link to a High Resolution version: Grand Canyon H264 Quicktime

Two Javelina at Pima Canyon - South Mountain

I had my alarm set to wake me up at 5:00 am and be on the trail at 5:15, but I forgot turn it on. Starring at my alarm clock at 5:20, I say to myself, "Am I supposed to be on the trail right now???". I scrambled outta bed so I could at least gets some goods in before I work. Upon rolling into the parking lot at 5:30 I saw a rather large animal scurrying behind a boulder, and I had a hunch it was a Javelina. I rolled a little closer, and yep it was. I hadn't seen any Javelina since last summer up on the Corona Loma trail at the other end of the park.

Javelina or Collard Peccary aren't pigs, but the sure do resemble 'em.

I had my digi-cam with me, so I quickly grabbed it from the back of my car. I flipped it on, only to find I had no available memory left. I used it up on filming the sunrise on my previous post. I quickly deleted everything the drive, and started shooting. At this point I noticed it was a pair of Javelia, but I only had small glimpses of 'em.

Don't expect much, but here's a one minute vid:

Click to play

Sunrise over Desert Classic: South Mountain - Phoenix, AZ

Not much to see here, but a sunrise over the desert. I shot this, this morning on my ride. I set out about 5:15 am, and got to my vantage point about 5:30 to set up for what I knew was gonna be pretty neato sunrise. I left my camera recording for about 20 minutes, while 5:40 came and went. Don't worry, I sped it up so takes under 4 minutes.

Click to play

Horseback Riding - South Mountain (Phoenix)

It was a beautiful morning, and it was my wife's Birthday, so we headed around to the other side of South Mountain for a little horseback tour with Ponderosa Stables. We showed up about 9:30, but the it took us until about 11:00. It was really busy, but it was pretty chill.

My wife's ridden a bunch, but I had only been on a horse once, and that was well over 20 years ago. I had Beavis and she had Guinness, and we were at the end of the line of nearly a dozen other riders.

The tour tromped us around the little sandy trails I wouldn't be caught dead biking on or walking on either. But on a horse it was pretty kewl. We gotta see the really neat rock formations and saguaro cactus with out all the effort. We did see a roadrunner, but other than that no other wildlife. No galloping, just a bunch of dust.

Here's a short vid of the ride:

Click to play

Black Canyon Trail Building - Arizona

Yesterday the equestrians, hikers and bikers all got together to continue the work on the Black Canyon Trail system north of Phoenix. We had about 20 people show up to bash on rocks and lay down some really great trail. We added about 1,300 feet of new buff trail.

Not the most exciting way to spend a day, and the cramps in my arms weren't all that pleasant. But truth be told it was a great day. The cooperation and guidance leads me to believe we are creating something very kewl.

The most interesting part was routing the trail around an archaeological site that contained pieces of broken pottery.

Here is a vid that shows the pottery, and some other hi jinx.

Click To Play

Grand Canyon - South Rim

We've been here about 18 months,and we hadn't taken the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon. So my wife, mother-in-law, and her friend from N.Y. decided to drive up there and see what this place is all about. I can truly say that I was amazed.

Our first destination on this road trip was a quick stop to Sedona, where we visited the Chapel of Holy Cross, and then we hit up a couple of shops and grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was a little over cast and hazy, but the rock formations were remarkable.

From there we continued up scenic 89 and interesected with 40 at Flagstaff.

We pulled into the Grand Canyon (Mather Point) at about 5:00 pm, anticipating that the sun would set about a half hour later. Unfortunately, we had high clouds and it was hazy from a controlled burn on the other side of the canyon. So no amazing sunset, but the view was still incredible.

We stayed at a hotel back in town (just outside the National Park), and the next morning we headed back into the park, for day of awesome views and shuttle buses.

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Providence Canyon - Georgia: September 2005

Here are a couple of pics from the State
of Georgia's alternative to the Grand Canyon. Kind of an interesting trail, but I see no need in going back. At the end of the trail, some trees grew through an old truck. Only in Georgia, only in Georgia.