Author: Sean

Hike Statistics
Date(s): 5/9/2006
Route: Humphreys Trail from Snowbowl Parking Lot
Distance: 8.25 miles round trip
Elevation Change: 3272 ft. from parking lot to peak at 12,633 ft.
Time: Up- 4 hours, Down – 2-1/2 hours

In my last entry, I told you about Matt’s and my grueling hike out of the Grand Canyon and our struggle to push the gas pedal with exausted legs as we drove an hour to Flagstaff. Well, once we got there, hit the hot tub in the Hampton Inn, ate a steak dinner at Busters, and slept for twelve hours, we were ready to tackle Humphreys Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona. My goal is to reach the highpoint of 49 states (McKinley in Alaska is just too much) and I wanted to get my first West Coast mountain under my belt on this trip. Somehow (with whiskey) I talked Matt into it.

Today’s pic of the day is the mountain. The “lake” is actually the roof of Car 19.

	When I planned the trip, I printed out careful directions so we could find the mountain from Flagstaff. It turns out this is not necessary. Humphreys is visible from much of northern Arizona and it looms over all of Flagstaff. We could see it from our hotel there on the right. This caused Matt to repeatedly say, “Sean! You are f%$#ing crazy!”
	One note on Flagstaff–not a lot going on. This wreck outside our window was the most excitement they had this year. In nearby Winslow, Arizona, the most popular thing to do is stand on a corner and hit on women in Fords. Like The Dude, I prefer no Eagles.
	Humphreys is way up there compared to the East Coast peaks and there was still a decent amount of packed snow in the tree on the approach. In this shot you can see red Grand Canyon dust on Matt’s boot against the snow in the morning light. Neither one of us wanted to die yet, but we both had already gotten altitude headaches during the drive up to the parking lot at 9300 ft.
	The hike is a non-technical (no ropes) climb over a relatively smooth and maintained path. At the treeline there was decent view of the slopes on the adjacent Agassiz Peak. The top of that one is reachable by ski-lift, but that would be a sensible way to get a view.
	The “saddle” is reached right when you break the treeline. That is where the wind begins to kick the shit out of you. The air gets really thin at that elevation. I had read about it, but never experience it. I was huffing and puffing every 40 paces and had to rest after each short advance. For future hikes, I’m going to try and spend at least one day and night at the base.
	Unfortunately there was no USGS medallion at the top for me to photograph for my highpoints quest. There was a ratty registration notebook in an ammo box. I think the park service throws it out once a year.
	Here are the triumphant super hikers, in coats in Arizona in May. If you look close at Matt, you can see his smile is a bit forced. That’s because he is suffering the early symptoms of altitude sickness which are dizziness, nausea, and irritability. Luckily, the surefire cure is to walk down and he took off down the hill after this shot and didn’t die.
	Humphreys sits alone on the arid Colorado Plateau and has a wonderful 360 degree view. That is except when Matt and I visit. Then it rains. Mountains create their own weather, especially when I hike them. We never actually got rained upon, but I did get some snowflakes flying up into my nose, riding the thermals up the side of the mountain.
	Because of the diaspora, ‘Burghers are everywhere (except in Pittsburgh anymore apparantly) and we met this guy at the peak. He carries a terrible towel to the tops of mountains. I wish I had thought of that.
	One long hike, a bottle of Makers Mark, and a night’s sleep later, we visited Meteor Crater National Park, where blessedly hiking is prohibtited. The architect put this hole in the courtyard wall to frame Humphreys, the only detail in the barren desert skyline.
	Distances are weird out there. The crate looks to be a hundred yards across, but it is actual a mile. The Grand Canyon has the same optical illusion. I’m sure this trick of the eye killed many wagon trains long ago. Since hiking in the crater is not allowed, this picture is actually in front of a back drop. In hindsight, there should be Phantom Ranch and Humphreys Peak backdrops downloadable on the Internet. Then, Matt and I might still have some cartilege in our knees.
	This picture is showing the correct way to put moleskin on a blister. Cover it first with nonstick gauze and then cut a hole in a piece of moleskin so that the hole is just slightly larger than the blister. Tape can help the whole thing stay put. NEVER PUT MOLESKIN DIRECTLY ON THE BLISTER. NEVER. NEVER. Doing that can cause even experienced hikers who think they know it all named Sean to end up with a severely painful blister by the time they reach the top of the canyon. Be thankful I did not take a picture of my bloody toenails.

Three days of hiking was great and certainly put me in touch with my limits, but we really needed a change of pace, so we hightailed it to Vegas for the exact opposite of nature. More on that in the next post.

Links:
Humpheys Peak Wiki
America’s Roof – Humphreys Peak
Ten Easy Steps to Happy Hiking Feet

I was on vacation all last week hiking the Grand Canyon and Mount Humphreys and taking on Vegas. A few parties were concerned that I would end up lying in a gully, freezing to death on the side of a mountain, or rotting in a southwestern jail, but I avoided all those fates. My next three posts will be the best pictures of the trip.

Today’s shot is Matt and I representing the Crips in the Grand Canyon Village. We are willing to embarass ourselves for your viewing fun.

Hello, my lovelies. Or I should say, “See you later.” I’m off on vacation to have adventures and discomforts with which to amuse you with. My intrepid partner in crime Matt and I are going to hike the Grand Canyon, Humphreys Peak (if time allows), and the Luxor Pyramid in Vegas. If you are reading this next week and you wonder where I am, check out our intinerary.

I bought a Sites of the Day:

– Metafilter
– Fark
– Yahoo Odd News
– Thighs Wide Shut
– The Morning News
– Boing Boing
– Deadspin

If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it. If you were Googling to find out info on Sony’s PSP Media Manager software, save your time and money. I swore here that I would never buy, but then I did. Big mistake. Here are the reasons it sucks:

1.) It does not support VOB files (ripped DVDs)
2.) You have to re-encode a movie every time you put it on the PSP. This take hours.
3.) No intergration with any sort of playlists for music.
4.) It only encodes about half of the AVI files I have from BitTorrent.

I recommend PSP Video 9 now. Eff Sony.

On my way home last night I happened to wander through what felt like all of the immigrants. All of them. They we peaceful, cheering, and traded many smiles with me. Quite a scene.

This was ironic, because yesterday was supposed to be a day without immigrants.
Here’s Gothamist’s coverage.

Seeing as how every establishment I favor with my patronage seems to be staffed by people who appear to be immigrants, my office is loaded with wonderful folks who were born somewhere else, and I am descended from some wandering Germans and Irish, STC.com officially supports immigrants. As long as they are not British.
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Site of the Day: Times Square to get a stairway to nowhere.

Happy Birthday to my big brother Jer. He doesn’t do much, but he makes beautiful babies, vodka sauce, and 70’s style love. Look and dream ladies, he’s caught.

Search the site for more Jerry.

Site of the Day: What have you been up to lately? I have been exercising and watching movies. Need a movie suggestion? While you wait for me to get motivated and write some, check out the list of 102 movies you should see.

In this picture I am congratulating new employee D.B. for a job well done. This post is also a shout out to all the fine 2006 graduates of Boston University’s executive MBA program. Go Terriers!

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Site of the Day: What I want for Christmas, via MartyZ, the Better Off Dead camaro. I would also take a Muddy Waters CD. I am a mannish boy.

Just like I foretold in an old post, I can now see STC.com on my new Sony Playstation Portable. I bought it on Tyler and Mike’s hearty recomendations. Here is my review:
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100 WORDS ON THE PSP

Too big for a pocket, but much lighter than the laptop in the messenger bag, the PSP offers a lot of fun in a small package. The games are on par with the PS2 and can be networked through WiFi—this pleases the geeks. With an expanded memory card, the PSP can play music (via a crappy interface) and also movies—ideal for long flights. The screen is huge compared to all other handhelds (squinting at you, video iPod) and the battery life is stellar. Only downsides are Sony’s proprietary road blocking of adding content and the web browser sucks.

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Here’s a rant that is an addendum to the short review. After shelling out $250 for the PSP, Sony expects you to spend another $20 for the Sony Media Manager, which is required to do anything on your PSP. That is just in poor taste, like a plate sharing charge at a really expensive restaurant. Why don’t they just charge $270 and put the damn CD in the box?

This this cartoon sums up my feelings on the product. It pisses me off. iPods piss me off. Microsoft pisses me off. Sprint pisses me off. I want my parepheral devices to appear like external drives that I can drag and drop my media into anyway I want. If you have no idea what that means, then fine. You can go watch American Idol and pay ten cents to vote. Me, I’m going to hack that shit and download like mad forever. I’m going to fastforward commercials. I’m going to save things from my DVR. I’m going to copy DVDs and post files that work on the iPod or PSP. And eventually I’ll make money from you by making easy what they try to make hard. They can annoy me but they can’t stop me.

UPDATE 4/26: Sony released PSP frimware version 2.70 today which addresses some, but not all, of the issues I have with the device.

Today’s picture is the last thing my dinner sees before it meets my stomach. During this cold and rainy weekend, I hung this paper globe above my table. I can’t decide if it looks cool or college. Please let me know.

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The weather this weekend blissfully kept me indoors (I hate sun) other than one trip to the gym. Here are the movies I watched and a rating:

– Godfather (A+)
– Godfather II (A)
– Godfather III (C-) Spike had a marathon. I only watched III to see the San Gennaro scenes.
– Junebug (C-)
– History of Violence (B)

I think I have couch sores.

Note, “Green Lantern” is the lamest name for a super hero ever.

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Site of the Day: From Muncle Steve, if the GF won’t allow a motorcycle, I plan to take to the skies in an Air Scooter. How awesome would it be to buzz Manhattan (until the cops shot you)?

This delightful little Cape Codder cottage sits atop the apartment building on the northwest corner of 1st & 1st. How is that possible? Who lives there? Curbed did a whole thread on these little homes on homes and one of the blurbs claims Betsey Johnson lives there. Crazy.

Does anyone know anyone who lives in one of these things? I heard there is one on the Chelsea Hotel. Would you live in one?
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Site of the Day:
Would someone with a PC and an X-box 360 controller download and play this game for me. No screen is necessary as in the game you are a monster in a pitch black pit that eats people who fall in.

Don’t like today’s post or site? Here’s 366 photos of Jennifer Love Hewitt, via Marty.