Hiking, web development, best practices, and general awesomeness
Bleary-eyed we stumbled along the rocky path to Siphon Draw. Chris and I had agreed to an early start for this hike thinking that we'd be familiar enough with the trail to Flatiron to tackle it in the dark. Knowing the general landscape of the trail does not stop you from tripping over railroad ties…
Usually around this time I have a full list of hikes to tackle for the year, an ambitious list of mountain peaks and waterfalls and other remote areas. A list focused on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, that is. It has been hard to get as excited for Arizona hikes. I've mentioned several times that…
Flushed with recent successes I quickly rushed Noah through his morning routines. Last week him and I had a great time on the Goldmine Loop of the San Tan Regional Park, a fun adventure that I was hoping to turn into a regular occurrence. For today I had picked out a nearby destination (South…
Dim light seeped in from the east over the ridge, just enough to highlight the impressive rocky peaks of the Superstition Mountains. Everything else was dark. Our trail was dark, the cacti surrounding us was dark, and the mid-sized rocks that waited to roll under our ankles were dark. We carefully…
Flowing south from the iron mining highlands of Champion and Negaunee, the Escanaba River spends most of its length trickling through swamps before emptying into Lake Michigan near Escanaba. It has three main branches, the middle and east ones meeting up at Gwinn and the west some ten miles…
Bringing Noah along for a hike has been a long-standing desire of mine. A love for the outdoors, for the dirt and trails and campfires, is something that I largely attribute to my parents. Well, my parents and some family friends growing up. We knew a family who camped and hunted regularly,…
This would be my fourth time up Camelback Mountain. I had previously braved the crowds of Echo Canyon twice and the relative seclusion of the Cholla Trail once with Chris. He had some friends in town this weekend, some friends who were interested in a desert hike, so we decided to take them on the…
For several hikes now Chris had made the drive down the 101 to meet up with me. It's not a long drive from his place up in Scottsdale, maybe thirty miles to our usual meeting spot in Gilbert, though rush hour can double or triple travel time. To balance things out we decided to aim for a hike closer…
After a few city hikes in Phoenix I needed a good challenge. Camelback and Piestewa, each steep thousand-foot-plus climbs, had been good warmups. I needed something to make me sweat, something that I test my limits against. Flatiron, a rock formation high above Siphon Draw, looked like it would do…
Emboldened after the quick hike up South Mountain I eagerly scanned over other quick hikes in the Phoenix valley. If Camelback Mountain, one of the more challenging treks in the city, was doable (climbed back in August) and South Mountain was that easy than I should have no problem on any other…