Viewing posts about Miners Needle.

Lower Red Tanks Trail

Predawn light on the hills

Sleep came in hour-long chunks at best near LaBarge Spring. The temps dropped under the clear night sky to the point where I, fully dressed in the hammock, was rolling uncomfortably around by midnight. Perhaps a sleeping bag would have been a good idea after all. Every time I opened up my Kindle to…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted August 10, 2016
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Dripping Springs Loop: Whiskey Springs

Morning moon hanging out with the cactus

Temperatures dropped unnaturally low that night in the little valley near the Hoolie Bacon and Red Tanks Trail junction. Chris was in a sleeping bag rated to forty and I was in one rated to fifty and we both froze. When his alarm started going off it was a real struggle to get up and moving, to…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted May 19, 2016
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Dripping Springs Loop: Race to Reed's Water

New signs at Peralta Trailhead

Several months had passed since Chris and I had a good adventure together. Outside of a quick afternoon outing with the boys over in the McDowells we have each been doing our own thing this year. He went out on an overnight in Bryce Canyon and on a few ski weekends while I've been venturing into the…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted May 9, 2016
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Rainy Supe Loop: Final Haul up the Coffee Flat

Where the trail meets the wash

A warm breakfast can do wonders. After yesterday's all-day rain, missed dinner, rough night of sleep, and frosty pre-dawn start this morning, I had been feeling pretty beaten up when I finally reached JF Ranch. I was also on mile thirty or so for the weekend, with thousands of feet climbed under a…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted January 11, 2016
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Moonrise Visit to Miner's Needle

Shade falling down Dacite Cliffs

Since moving to Arizona my hikes have taken on a predictable pattern: start in the early morning (sometimes in the predawn), hike until mid-day, and then escape back to civilization before it gets too hot. It's how one rolls when the afternoon temperatures soar into the triple digits and there is no…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted July 4, 2015
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A Hot Climb Up Miner's Needle

On a normal walking path again

A dusty path wound north away from my tired feet. I strode along it, thankful for the flat route and the chance to stretch my legs in a normal walk. For the last few hours I had been bushwhacking up and down Bluff Spring Mountain, over rocks and through prickly brush, and this narrow footpath was a…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted May 12, 2015
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Bluff Spring Mountain

Dim morning light over Perulta Trailhead

It was weird to see sunlight on the hills around Peralta Trailhead. Chris and I had been to here several times before, using the trailhead as an access to the southern lands of the Superstition Wilderness, and each time had been hours before sunrise. Today I stood alone and gazed up the steep,…

  • Category Hiking
  • Posted May 9, 2015
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Activity Stream

  • Read Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson.
  • Read Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4) by Brandon Sanderson.
  • Pushed some code at jacobemerick/advent-of-code-2023.
  • Pushed some code at jacobemerick/advent-of-code-2023.
  • Pushed some code at jacobemerick/advent-of-code-2023.
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