The End of Blackett’s Ridge Trail — Image by kenne
We come to the end
Of the trail on Blackett’s Ridge
Now, we start back down.
— kenne
Archive for the ‘Guided Hikes’ Category
End Of The Trail Leave a comment
Invoking the Full Meaning of Life 6 comments
I’m Just A Traveler In Other People’s Reality — Image by a Fellow Higher On The Trail
Invoking the Full Meaning of Life
How best to express sharing new life
when each moment deserves its face.
What seems apropos for the moment,
when the next moment fosters a unique experience.
Is it in a number?
The number of days?
The number of thoughts?
The number of heartbeats?
The number of turns?
The number of prayers?
. . . you can count the ways,
only to still not know life’s score.
Is it in a word?
Loving?
Caring?
Sharing?
Giving?
Sheltering?
Words to communicate thoughts and feelings
when manifested in knowledge and experience.
Or is it in art?
Transforming thought,
expressing feeling,
experiencing emotions and
the desire to evoke life,
even when distance
appears to separate a lifelong bond.
I wrote this in the 1990s. Since then, retirement and moved 1,000 miles from where we had spent 25 years, putting distance between bonds. In the twelve years since moving, we have watched the bonds drift away, causing me to question the desire to evoke life, even when distance can’t separate a lifelong bond.
We moved to the Sonoran desert with the illusion that friends and family would be beating a path to our new home in the desert southwest — not such luck. So we try staying in touch through social media, often questioning whether the bonds were ever real — confirming that we remain tourists in other people’s reality.
I once read a posting by blogger Old Jules, “These damned ego-warts.”
Old Jules was a 70-year-old hermit, living with three cats somewhere in the Texas Hill Country and writing a blog I enjoyed reading from time to time. Old Jules, who passed away April 21, 2020 at 74, had concluded that he has spent over a third of his life “being insignificant in the lives of others.”
In 1992, after 25 years of marriage and a career of 20 years, he began a new career and life in Santa Fe.
“All secure in the knowledge the extended family and friends remaining behind were part of my life in which I’d been and remained important.”
Over time he concluded it was all an illusion.
“Kids, young adult nephews, and nieces I’d coddled and bounced on my knee pealed out of my life-like layers of an onion. Most I never heard from again.”
He began to realize that he was merely tolerated, “. . . a piece of furniture in their lives.”
Over time he rebuilt his life with a more potent dose of skepticism concerning his worth and place in the lives of others, which resulted in his becoming a hermit.
“I no longer assume I’m important in the lives of other human beings and get my satisfaction in knowing I’m at least relevant to the cats.
Because cats, though sometimes dishonest, aren’t capable of the depth and duration of dishonesty humans indulge regularly.”
Old Jules had come to believe “. . . that life is entirely too important and too short to be wasted in insignificance.”
His new awareness of life is now in teaspoon measurements, “. . . measured in contracts with cats not equipped to lie. A determination in the direction of significance measured in teaspoons of reality,
as opposed to 55-gallon drums of dishonesty and self-delusion.”
“Teaspoons, I find, don’t spill away as much life in the discovery
when they’re found to be just another ego-wart of pride and self-importance.”
Bonds, illusion or not, have difficulty being when the moments are separated by time and distance, becoming gleams of light, for an instant, in the long night.
I understand where Old Jules was coming from and feel his disillusionment. There is, however, a binding force that comes from a homesick longing to be whole, to have completion, as Plato described in the myth of the human halves passionately striving towards one. Like all mythical totalities, humans are subject to the triple dramaturgical rhythm of primal completeness, separation catastrophe, and restoration. The most significant attraction effect occurs between the second and third acts of life’s drama, which is where I find myself today — maybe this is also where Old Jules is. I am learning to understand myself from a new divide, one half experienced, the other inexperienced — in such a way that I’m learning to understand myself in new ways.
But then, there are the darn cats!
Kika, what do you think?
Kika (She passed away December 10, 2011.)
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Hiking Into Dark Clouds Leave a comment
SCVN Friday Hike on Esperero Trail (February 17, 2017) — Image by kenne
A mostly cloudy morning with
sunlight breaking through
over the Tucson basin as we
begin our hike into the mountains
heading into rattlesnake canyon,
first hiking up, then down through
three canyons creating a
breathtaking rollercoaster hike.
Starting as on group, the pace
soon divides us into three groups
as hikers settle in on their own pace
created by elevation changes
and stopping to shed layers of clothing
as the temperatures increase
and the sun begins to break through
deep blue cracks in the desert sky.
— kenne
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Hiking The La Milagrosa / Agua Caliente Canyon Loop — Panoramas 1 comment
Hiking the La Milagrosa / Agua Caliente Canyon Loop is a popular hike offered by the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN). The 6.5-mile loop takes the hiker up the ridgelines and down into two canyons located on the eastern edge of the Santa Catalina Mountains. We usually hike the loop clockwise, taking the Milarosa trail first looping back through the Agua Caliente Canyon, but this morning (December 9, 2016) we reversed the loop hike thereby providing a different perspective for those of us who usually hike the loop clockwise.
The vistas from the ridges provide hikers beautiful panoramas of Tucson, the Catalina Foothills and the Santa Catalina Mountains through which the lower segment of the Catalina Highway can be seen. Since this was a beautiful clear morning, I decided to take the time to take photos that could be merged into panoramas in Photoshop. ENJOY!
kenne
Images by kenne
“When you travel towards your objective
be sure to pay attention to the path.
The path teaches us the best way to arrive
and enriches us while we are traveling alone it.”
— Paulo Coelho
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View from Sunset Rock On Mt. Lemmon 1 comment
South View from Sunset Rock off of Sunset Trail on Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains (August 12, 2016)
— Images by kenne
Standing on Sunset Rock, Paul Kriegshauser, who has a cabin in the Mt. Lemmon community of Summerhaven,
shares some of his knowledge of Mt. Lemmon with Tom Skinner, Ricki Mensching (partially blocked by Tom),
Alice Bird and Phil Bentley.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
— Frank Lloyd Wright
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Leopold Point 4 comments
Hikers at Leopold Point signing, JOY, to my wife who is recovering from surgery — thanks for the kindness. (June 24, 2016)
— Images by kenne
Leopold Point
We hike the Catalina trials
around bid boulders
under the giant ponderosas
opening to fern meadows.
We reach the ridge
above the pine tops
sharing our unceasing
love for the splendid views.
We are nature enthusiasts
devoted to nurturing our senses
connecting more deeply
with life’s experiences.
We follow the trial
to Leopold Point
a special place to sit
in group solidarity.
We chatter away
while being mindful
to capture a moment
in brief solitude.
We have learned
the value of moment
by moment awareness
in connecting to nature.
— kenne
Click on any of the following tiled images to see in a slideshow format.
“Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.”
— Richard Louv
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Capturing The Moment — Mexican Vervain Leave a comment
Mexican Vervain (Ventana Canyon to Maiden Pools Hike, February 26, 2016) — Images by kenne
(Click on any of the images to see larger view in a slideshow format.)
Only Earth. Earth.
Earth for trembling tablecloths,
for a cloud’s vicious eyeball,
for recent wounds and dampened thoughts.
Earth for everything the flees from earth.
— from Earth and Moon by Federico Garcia Lorca
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Milagrosa Loop Trail, December 4, 2015 1 comment
Milagrosa Loop Trail — Images by kenne
(Click on any of the images for larger view in a slideshow format.)
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Forgotten Dreams In An Abandoned Ranch House 2 comments
Forgotten Dreams In An Abandoned Ranch House — Computer Art By kenne
Forgotten Dreams
Every trail has a past.
Hundreds of hikers have
walked its rocky path
sharing stories laced
with embellished truths,
myths and legends.
Combining several trails
that loop through
the La Milagrosa and
Agua Caliente Canyons,
we began our hike
walking down Horsehead Road
through a gated community
before taking a rocky 4WD road
to the La Milagrosa Ridge trail
passing by an abandoned ranch house —
light now shines through its roof,
giving exit to forgotten dreams.
— kenne
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Hiking Green Mountain Trail To Guthrie Peak 3 comments
A fun hike with beautiful views north and south of the Santa Catalina Mountains can be experienced by hiking the Green Mountain trail out of the General Hitchcock campgrounds to the Guthrie Peak trail. The hike was the last scheduled hike for the SCVN Friday hikes at the cooler temperatures in the mountains before beginning our winter hikes in Sabino Canyon next week.
The morning forecast was for rain in the mountains, spreading to the lower elevations by late afternoon. This might explain why Tim and I had only one hiker (Deborah) with us, the least number in our experience guiding the SCVN hikes. Reasons for such a low number are sheer speculation at this date, however we will continue to evaluate the service SCVN is providing through our scheduled Friday public hikes.
Regardless, the weather was great and as you can see from the photos in this posting, we had another excellent hiking experience. This was Deborah’s first Guthrie Peak hike and what better way than with Tim and I giving her all our guide attention.
kenne
Panorama View from Guthrie Peak of Storm Clouds Moving Into The Tucson Area — Image by kenne
(Click on any of the images below for a larger view in a slideshow format.)
Tim, Deborah and Kenne
Deborah & Tim On Green Mountain Trail
Deborah and Tim Climbing Guthrie Peak
Deborah and Tim Climbing Guthrie Peak
Tim & Deborah Descending Guthrie Peak
Tim & Deborah Descending Guthrie Peak
Southeast View From Guthrie Peak
View Of Thimble Peak From Guthrie Peak
Cutleaf Evening Primrose
Cutleaf Evening Primrose
“Hot Cross Buns”
“Over Easy”
“Over Easy”
Arizona Thistle
Wildflowers Along Green Mountain Trail
Mountain Marigold
Images by kenne
Guthrie Peak Computer Art by kenne
