Archive for the ‘Hiking’ Category
Hiking the Italian Springs Trail (April, 2012) — Image by kenne
bushed
a trail cursed
and charmed
taking a breather
in solitude
and shade
alligator junipers
mountain pines
overlooking a
big sky pass
scrambling time
and seasons
whence we came
where we went
Redington road
to the plateau
beneath Mica
mountain summit
till you get there yourself
it remains our paradise
sharing our wanderlust
in this virtual world
— kenne
(This hike was one of many I did with my old hiking buddy, Tom Markey, who passed awayAugust 17, 2022.)
Like this:
Like Loading...
Panther and Sombrero Peaks West of Tucson — HDR Image Taken from Wasson Peak Trail by kenne
Panther Peak sits in the northernmost reaches of the western unit of Saguaro National Park in the Tucson Mountains northeast of Tucson, Arizona. Sitting just west of Safford Peak (locally known as “Sombrero Peak”), Panther Peak is a rustic little desert mountain providing views of the northeastern Tucson suburbs and mountains beyond. — Source: Summitpost.org
Like this:
Like Loading...
Hiking Blackett’s Ridge — Image by kenne
We were hiking on Blackett’s Ridge
When the view called me over
For a moment of meditation —
The existence of a beautiful view
Is to take time to stop.
— kenne
Like this:
Like Loading...
Poppies are Popping In The Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne
I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling
not by his own will.
— Wendell Berry
Like this:
Like Loading...
Shadows In The Canyon — Image by kenne
The sun hit the sides of the rock, creating shadows that swallowed the canyon trail as we hiked the canyon.
Looking left and right, we took a deep breath to appreciate where we are.
There are certain places that have the energetic power to serve as a teacher.
The canyons of the Santa Catalina Mountains are exactly that.
It’s a place that requires no words but can provide untold lessons.
It’s a place that will challenge your perspective without asking anything from you.
— kenne
Like this:
Like Loading...
A Fall Hike On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
A POEM IS A MOUNTAIN
a poem is a mountain
high above the city,
a place of contrasts,
filled with periods of
rain, snow and drought.
a poem is a mountain
filled with expressions of time,
filled with seasons
filled with life and death.
a poem is a mountain
growing old without pity
where God touches earth
bringing forth new life
changing earth’s colors.
a poem is a mountain
where rocks mark places,
silence bringing on sound,
directing the eye
to things not seen —
only then does the
mountain become a poem
— kenne
Like this:
Like Loading...
Moonrise Over The Black Mountains — Photo-Artistry by kenne
We reached Mica Mountain as the sun was setting and set up camp two hours out from Manning Camp; our expected goal where we would get water and spend the evening. However, we did not have enough water to spend two nights in the mountains, so we decided we would turn back in the morning. Before setting up camp we watched the sunset and the moonrise.
Cold out! Feels like winter as we crawl into our sleeping bags. It must be the altitude. The full moon provided light, no warmth. The night was long. The tarp above us was attached at only three corners since Tom wanted one loose to flop in the wind, making noise that would keep the bears away.
After a long night of wind-driven noise and cold temperatures, we broke camp early to arrive back at the trailhead before the expected temperatures in the mid-nineties. As we reached a lower elevation, we could contact Tom’s wife, Pat, to give her our expected arrival time at the trailhead. Once we got our stuff in the car, all we could think of was going to Risky Business for a cold beer and French fries with mayo.
— kenne
Like this:
Like Loading...
Sleepy Orange & Dainty Sulphur Butterflies On Narrow-leaf Aster Wildflowers (Santa Catalina Mountains) — Image by kenne
“And anyway, what is the difference between self-knowledge and self-obsession?
One encourages a defeat of the ego, the other encourages a feeding of the ego.
One a deeper experience of connection to ourselves, which enables a more
nourishing connection to others. The other, disdain for the deeper needs of the self,
which leads to disdain of others.”
— from On Connection by Kae Tempest
Like this:
Like Loading...
Like this:
Like Loading...
Mighty Saguaro — Image by kenne
The Mighty Saguaro
The mighty saguaro,
so majestic and tall,
holds its lifelong secrets
surprising one and all.
The seedling saguaro
begins small and afraid,
hoping it will survive
beneath the nurse plant’s shade.
The tiny saguaro
grows a little each year,
searching for the water
which is precious and dear.
The struggling saguaro
pushes upward for days,
glad it keeps avoiding
a new herbivore’s gaze.
The lucky saguaro
survives the desert heat,
outliving the nurse plant
not knowing of its feat.
The patient saguaro
looks skyward at all hours,
until at age fifty
it produces first flowers.
The giving saguaro
shares its bounty with all
who wait for months on end
for tasty fruits to fall.
The youthful saguaro
knows at seventy-five
that its newly formed arms
keeps desert friends alive.
The aging saguaro
has been a willing friend
to desert’s small creatures
dependent to the end.
The mighty saguaro
grows to fifty feet high,
waiting two hundred years
to almost touch the sky.
— Debbie Emery
Like this:
Like Loading...
Italian Springs Trail Leading To The Base Of Mica Mountain In The Rincon Mountains East Of Tucson (March 18, 2013) — Panorama by kenne
set camp at the top
needing a restful night’s sleep
watching the sunset
— kenne
Sunset from Mica Mountain — Image by kenne
Like this:
Like Loading...
Standing At Nature’s Alter — Image by kenne (Monday Morning Milers — August 29, 2011)
Standing at Nature’s Alter
When we stand at the
altar of nature,
we stand with the greats;
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Henry David Thoreau,
and John Muir,
each having helped define
our relationship
with nature and language —
“Every natural fact is a symbol
of some spiritual fact,
. . . words are signs of natural facts.”
Nature’s beauty becomes
a source of spiritual energy
connecting all things
into a universal whole
with the power of our
thoughts and will.
We stand at nature’s altar
not separate from her,
seeing us in the flowers,
insects, animals, mountains,
creating a unified landscape
of our inward and outward senses.
Like all relationships,
the experience depends
on the degree of harmony
between us and nature,
therefore becoming a gift
granted while walking with nature
as she is embraced in our minds –
Enlighten, she shares her secrets,
making the universe more “transparent.”
Yet, the gift may only offer a glimpse,
to be shared in images and words,
charming all living things.
— kenne
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. — John Muir
Like this:
Like Loading...
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.)
Like this:
Like Loading...
Thurber Cinquefoil Wildflower — Image by kenne
“Love is like wildflowers;
It’s often found in the most unlikely places.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Ladybug on Common Yarrow (July 8, 2022) — Image by kenne
on the meadow trail
few mountain flowers this year
observing the few
— kenne
Like this:
Like Loading...
Becoming is Superior to Being 
Sleepy Orange & Dainty Sulphur Butterflies On Narrow-leaf Aster Wildflowers (Santa Catalina Mountains) — Image by kenne
“And anyway, what is the difference between self-knowledge and self-obsession?
One encourages a defeat of the ego, the other encourages a feeding of the ego.
One a deeper experience of connection to ourselves, which enables a more
nourishing connection to others. The other, disdain for the deeper needs of the self,
which leads to disdain of others.”
— from On Connection by Kae Tempest
Share this:
Like this: