Four Peaks sort of Conquered

From everywhere in the area around Phoenix you can see the Four Peaks. This morning The Commander was chomping at the bit to get to the top. The road up their is eight miles up a very narrow steep road. As brave as The Commander is she was concerned about falling of the edge of the road. The hike was about 1.69 miles to the place where the really hard stuff started. By our calculations we needed another 700ft to make it to the top. Some hikers coming down the trail said the final ascent was icy. Kadizzle was delighted when The Supreme Commander said it was not advisable to make the last 700ft.

However, little did Kadizzle know he would be blamed all day for not completing the task. Kadizzle said to The Commander " I was neutral, I never voted for or against the last 700ft". "I know said The Commander, but if I had asked you, you would have been against it, so it is your fault we did not make the summit"

Well it was a very nice day, and the trail is very good. Would recommend the hike to anyone. If you want to get to the summit get an early start.

Dog Paddling, and snoring in the Sonoran Desert

Today we moved to a new camp. Kadizzle got a brief snore lit. Earlier we took a guided tour of an Indian Cliff dwelling. Parts of the original roof were intact which made it interesting. Patty had to do a little dog paddling yesterday. Ned and Patty returned to Cottonwood with those two blasted rats they call dogs. Cha wa was. Cheech has one of those little rats also. Cat people are insane, and the Cha wa was people are just one step behind. Cats lick their butt, then the butter on your counter. Luckily Cha wa was can't jump up to flavor the food. You can use them to troll for alligators. Patty did not have much luck, but it is too cold right now for the gators to grab the dog.

Visting the Indian Platform Mounds

The Commander, Ned, Patty, and Kadizzle visited the only platform site Kadizzle has seen yesterday. North of our camp site on the other side of the lake is what looks like a miniature Aztec pyramid. It is probably the farthest North site of this type.

At the site, although it has been severely picked over Kadizzle found a couple nice pieces of pottery. Finding painted pottery is always fun. Kadizzle found two nice specimens.

Beach Life in Arizona

The Earth Module and sister Patty's camper moved on to Roosevelt Lake. After settling in the tribe gathered fire wood. Weather has been very nice, and a couple of forays onto the lake were made in the kayaks. Today Ned is going to check out some Indian sites.

Pissing Off the Whole World, one person at a time.

Sister Patty and her husband Ned joined the Kadizzlites on the Salt River for some R&R. Ned showed up with his Pissing People off shirt and Kadizzle could not help modeling it. Many compliments have come in saying it fits Kadizzle perfect.
Yesterday, they turned on the Salt River. Today it looks good for some kayaking. The Commander will not be happy until we conquer the East assault of the mountain up by the dam. This means we will have to wade across the Salt now that it is running strongly.
Back to pissing people off. Once in awhile Kadizzle looks in the mirror. Most mirrors are made very poorly and make Kadizzle look fat. However, mirrors are somewhat educational. Most of us would be very lost in the fog, were it not for a few brave people willing to bring us back to reality. A lot of people are very happy in their bubble wandering around in a wonderful delusion. One could argue " Leave them alone". On the other hand it is sometimes useful to jab a drunk, or drug addict and break their bubble. In the end they may thank you. That is sort of what pissing people off can be about. No one is perfect, not even Kadizzle. The Commander breaks Kadizzles bubble about every twenty seconds.
Kadizzle enjoys breaking peoples political bubbles. Many are deeply offended, but why should they be? If someone insisted the world is flat although you think it is round, are you offended? No. You are not offended because you have a lot off good evidence the world is round. People get pissed off when they realize indeed the Earth is round, but they were deluded into thinking it was flat. They are not pissed at the person that pointed out it is round, they are pissed because they were so easily taken in by the flat Earth propaganda. Have you ever been pissed off at your self when you did something stupid? When you think about it, there no need ever to be pissed off, except at yourself. I am not pissed off at you if you tell me I am fat, I am pissed off because I let myself become so fat.

Never give up, except when it's time to give up.

The Kadizzlites set off on another exploration hike to find a new Southwest Passage. There must be a way to get to the top of the mountain from the back, so off we went up a stream bed. As we climbed over rock after rock, and scratched skin from various parts of our bodies, the creek bed would not yield a path to the mountain top. The Commander could not give up, so Kadizzle and Rodger blocked the trail from behind and patiently awaited the return of The Commander.

Bird Brains in abundance

The camp host, and the birders are ver protective of the Eagles. The biggest threat to the eagles are low flying planes and helicopters. On a couple of occasions the local bird police have taken photos of aircraft violating the eagles protective space and reported the planes to the FAA. Besides their own body guards these eagles have a wonderful welfare program any welfare cheat would love. Last year when a single mother eagle was trying to raise the chicks the bird brains thought food may be a problem, so they placed a child's swimming pool with trout in it at the bottom of the nest tree.

Gold Mine off to very slow start.

Today may be another day of hiking and exploring. The crew may take a trail we have used before. A short distance down the trail is a brand new pick, shovel, a rock bar, and a bucket. Who would take that stuff a short distance into the desert and leave it. Why? Perhaps they were looking for gold. Our other theory is they murdered someone and the body has been buried near by.

Bud the camp host here says he would take the tools if we bring them back. So today we may bring Bud a set of gold mining tools, or a hit man's handy kit.

LIving in a war zone.

The Earth Module is in it's comfortable spot on the Salt River. However, no place is perfect. Two sound pollution items are annoying. The gun range is not far enough away, and some days the machine gun fire is annoying. A second problem is helicopters. The company that manufactures military helicopters is about a mile away as the crow flies. Almost every day Black Hawk Helicopters are flying over. Up at Usery a helicopter just sat in one place bout five hundred feet up and apparently was just waiting to run out of fuel, or some other silly experiment. A little higher are the jets. The Goldfield Recreation area is on the approach to the airport. Most of the jest are up just high enough not to be to bad. Around six and early in the day it is like a rush hour for the jets. About every five minutes a jest goes over. After dark it is fun to see them appear off in the distance, and then come down the Salt River for the final turn to the airport. You know it is six every morning when the first jet goes over. At any rate we have ground troops and air support if the Mexicans attack.

Down, and down, and down a little more.

The Grand Canyon is very deceptive. It is actually a canyon within a canyon. Looking from the top it appears as though there is a big ditch out in a field. As you hike into or out of the canyon you continually are deceived that you are near the end of the hike, but always another set of switch backs appears and your hopes are dashed.

The standard measurement for a story, in a ten story building, is ten feet. The Grand Canyon is 5,000ft deep. That means you go down 500 stories, and Up five hundred stories. Now, strap an extra 12 lbs on your back to make it more fun. Of course when the young whooper snapper with a 35 lb pack passes you, you don't feel so good.

It is amazing how fast the mules make it up and down. The mules will go down and back in the time it takes most people to go down. When the mule train passes, you cannot help but think of the young people, often lumpers, on those mules that should be walking. Some of the lumpers that do walk are amazing. One woman we all were concerned about because she had a bit of lumpadiglitis, made it down and back. She said her son would be disappointed if she did not make it. On the way out you see very few human bones, so most lumpers make it including Kadizzle. The employees have to walk to and from work about every nine days. That would do us all good. We are a nation of lumpers because we always want a piston under our ass pushing us where we want to go. Europeans are in better shape than we are because they have embraced mass transit. They have to walk to the bus or subway. Kadizzle was amazed by the New Yorkers that walked a lot. One benefit to mass transit so many of us overlook is that it does force you to move your lump.

Kadizzle said to Rodger, "Moving this cannon ball up and down the canyon is a job", Rodger replied "It looks more like a watermelon". All Kadizzle knows is that watermelon weighs at least 27lbs. and should not get a free ride up and down mountains.

On the Beach at the Grand Canyon

Although it was not a roomy resort, the Indians did have an eight room lodging in a very nice spot by the beach pictured above. If they had a decent supply of food it would not have been a bad life. Yesterday our little group of four hiked out of the Grand Canyon after a two day stay. The hike made it clear you would not go out of your way to pester anyone who lived at the bottom, so when the Indians lived there they must have felt very safe. From one side or the other a person would have a very treacherous difficult hike to attack them. They must have live a happy tranquil life there. Growing a little food, and having a supply of game and fish were their only problems. The climate is very nice most of the year, although it can get very hot during the summer. Temperatures up to 120 are not unheard of according to the cook Archimedes.

Lord Kadizzle has met the two people with the strangest names this year. Archimedes, and Duries. Duries was in our pheasant hunting party. Well, the adventure is over and the little party of Kadizzlites is recovering from a long hike down and a long hike up. Rodger has crossed the Canyon off his bucket list, and Kadizzle thinks his next trip will be by raft.

Young Cheech returns to NYC Today.

After her fist experience in the desert young Cheech will hop about the big bird later to day and head back to fashion headquarters in New York. Rumors abound that there could be a desert theme in her next collection. Cheech may come out with a special line of clothing for fat guys that hike. This collection will feature a lot of elastic and light weight clothes treated with sweat proof chemicals.

Kadizzle turns Teabowing into Trailbowing.

Yesterday to show gratitude for a nice Hike with Cheech, The Commander, and Kadizzle. Kadizzle stopped along the trail and did a Trailbow. The hikes the Kadizzlites undertake are not easy. The crew contends with cactus, rattlers, mountain lions, loose rocks, and a host of dangers, so unknown lands near Mesa can be opened up to Americans. Busting trails into new territory is not a job for the weak or timid. It takes courage on a sunny day to climb to the top of a peak and eat a chicken sandwich. With temperatures as low as 68 degrees and howling winds up to 5mph, you can imagine the hardship we endure. We can all be thankful there are people willing to spend up to four hours exploring this wilderness only to come back to a nice shower, and a whiskey and coke in the shade. It was tuff people with GPS's, light back packs filled with goodies, and nice hiking shoes that opened up the west. We are proud to be part of this tradition.

Cheech in desert garb returns from hike

The sun is blasting in the windows and Cheech has crawled in bed with The Commander back in the master bedroom. Last night fueled by too much wine Cheech and Lord Kadizzle went back and forth on politics. Cheech has taken a bit of a turn to the right. Most of the the discussion revolved around social security. As Cheech pointed out most young people are clueless about how it is funded, or how it is supposed to work. Means testing will be a major topic when Americans begin to face the reality of what has to be done with social security.
The humming bird nesting by the window thinks social security is sitting on your nest with the Earth Module humming bird feeder three feet away. Nice to leave the nest and get a drink of sugar water with just a few flaps of the wings.

ChiChi comes to the Earth Module

Last night the Kadizzelites picked up the famous New York designer ChiChi at the airport. Cheech has never been in the desert so she got to wake up for a spectacular view of cactus and see the little humming bird with her nest by the window.
In the Earth Module the first thing one must do is get up to date. That means you have to run the bases on the computer and see what the Hoopleheads are up to. Cheech was very amused that Lord Kadizzle named The Commander's little laptop the pineapple. Lord Kadizzle has a big Apple Laptop that he uses and The Commander got a little Asus laptop for Christmas, so her's is the pineapple. Going to be a perfect day on the desert and Cheech will have a great time in a different habitat.

Lunch in the Desert

The Kadizzlites and Ruth took a rugged hike in the desert today. Rodger was not feeling too good and stayed back to guard the camp. It was a long hard hike through some rugged country, but well worth it. Flowers were blooming and the temperature was perfect.
For a short rest we stopped by a little pool of water for a snack. Later we had lunch by the trail. The GPS said we went 9.5 miles. Kadizzles shoes are about shot from walking for hundreds of miles on rocks, time for some new ones.

A weird noise at the door

Sitting in the comfort of the Earth Module watching television the Kadizzilites heard a strange high pitched noise at the door. It turned out to be coyotes. They seem to be all over the place here. They don't seem to be to shy. The incident reminds us of the time we were in the Mohave Desert. No sooner had Cissie set some hamburger out to thaw than a coyote came to steal it.

R&R after a move not far

This morning we moved to a different site. The Usery Mountains make a nice backdrop out the window. We are set up in great anticipation of Chichi's arrival (our daughter Megan). Putting three people in this little box will be close quarters. However, we are close to the rest rooms which are some of the finest you will ever find in a public park. The showers are nicely tiled with all the hot water you want, and the rest rooms are cleaned daily.

The number of Canadians here is amazing. About half the population of this park is Canadian. According to folklore they are all supposed to broke or dying because of their expensive health care, which actually works way better than ours. Canadians are buying up a lot of housing in AZ.

Temperatures and weather have been great here. Tomorrow we will hike with Ruth. Rodger is not feeling well and may have to take the day off.