telepathic stuntman

Made it to fifty!

Like pretty much all of us, never thought I’d make it, but here it is.

I had an amazing morning to kick things off with a 4:30am hike up Squaw Peak. Made it to the top by sunrise and sat there for about an hour.

The most astonishing thing was my arrival to the summit. The skies were a dull gray with good color at the base, a slight breeze blowing through and a rare steady shower of rain. Hundreds of feet above the nearest plants, a hummingbird flies to a point in front of me and hovers for just a moment – what was he doing way up here?! He darts away and just as quickly, a dragonfly flies into my space and hovers! WTH? I thought dragonflies were supposed to live down low where there’s water. He cruises away just as quickly and now a lizard enters the picture – it’s like the animal kingdom is coming out to say a little good morning!

After that it was just nice calm views of the city and mountains and a couple sips of Midleton – my new favorite whiskey that was given to me by the Yatso family.

Sublime.

On the way down I got comments about my crazy awesome orange boots – the third time in three hikes! This time the dude was the coach for the US International Wrestling team – we chatted all the way down the mountain and were stunned by how many people we both knew – including Nate Carr and Daryl Peterson.

The rest of the day was a good swim, back to bed for a couple hours, breakfast and a couple screwdrivers at Dicks Hideaway (Carne Adovada :WEEP:), a movie (“Inception” – cool), water BBall with Conor (kicked his ass), cocktails with Dorothy and Antoinette (Manhattens!), Cioppino at Tutti Santi (Flaming Sambuca with Debi and Brian!), a family poker tourney (Conor took out all three of us on one dramatic end!), and then chillin out on my mac with a glass of Jameson 18 year (thanks Doug!).

Great day – and the party is tomorrow!

I think it’s tough to gauge the scale and colors of a painting from digital files. Sometimes it’s nice to see how it looks when hanging in someone’s home. Here’s some of my latest pieces – if you own one of my paintings and have it hanging in your home, send me a photo and I’ll post it on the blog!

Breaking in the new Salomon GTX Wings this morning with a hike up Squaw Peak – yes, this is the actual color!

Telepathic Stuntman is five years old! This is the 445th post, and image number 1381!

Thanks to everyone who supports my efforts to keep this going and all the critical feedback on the images.

Drove to Cameron Trading Post, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and Sedona all in one day!

Toured a Medical Skills Simulation Center this week – it was very cool, but also a bit surreal…

The shoulders turned great -probably my best bbq ever. Fed sixteen people and everyone was happy happy!

Final cook time: twelve hours on the smoker, three hours on the grill to bring the temperatures up, then foiled and wrapped in beach towels and stashed in a cooler for three more hours.

Something smells good!

20 pounds of pork shoulder! Last night I coated the roasts with “Kev’s Blend” rub and this afternoon I added another layer of “Tasty Licks” rub that was given to me by Marshall. It all goes in the smoker at 8pm tonight and will cook overnight, then rest foil and beach towels for three hours before being pulled. Will be using a mix of apple and mesquite wood for the smoke.

I shot some prom photos of Emma and her friends – got this one on the first try!

Trying out a few new techniques in Photoshop to add a bit of punch to my images…

Started a new batch with lemons off the tree in the backyard. Start with the zest of thirty lemons, add vodka and let stand for thirty days, then add more vodka and sugar and stand again for thirty days – strain and drink.

Big swarm of bees outside my office window right now – yikes! As I’m writing this, the exterminator guy showed up and wiped them out.

Fossil Springs is a beautiful wilderness area in central Arizona, just outside the town of Strawberry. The fast running springs are located deep within a canyon and surrounded by a lush riparian habitat. As we drove north in the early evening, ominous clouds gathered and sputtered rain. Looking back, I should have realized this was a sign of things to come…

We reached the trailhead about an hour before sunset. The hike into the canyon would take about two hours, so we knew the last half would have to be done in the dark. At least the rain had stopped though, and the cool weather was perfect for hiking. I was loaded down with a LOT of climbing gear – probably about a 55 pound pack – much heavier than I’m used to, but feeling great and striding well.

The heavy clouds were creating a spectacular sunset and I guess I must have been distracted because in the blink of an eye, I lost my footing, heard two loud “POP”s, and landed face down in the trail! I thought for sure I had broken my ankle and gingerly gathered myself up and tested a bit of weight on it. I was able to support my self fine and continue walking for a short distance where we made camp – about two miles from our intended destination, but it would have to do.

Within thirty minutes my ankle had swollen massively – it looked like a tennis ball had been inserted under my skin, and I could no longer put any weight on it.

For the next TWO DAYS, the only thing I could do was lie there, while the rest of the group dayhiked out.  Of course this was the one trip where I had decided not to bring a book – so I spent the days watching nature, relaxing, napping and perfecting some of my camp recipes.

I made a nice batch of “Hobo Potatoes” – a foil pack of potatoes, onions, salami, olive oil, and “Kev Spice” (Cayenne, pepper, salt, paprika, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder)

I also perfected one of my favorite pasta dishes: Pesto filled tortellini with wild mushrooms, walnuts and gorgonzola cream sauce  – YUM!

We also put together a geocache (my first one!) and stashed it near the campsite. I’ll post the coordinates later. The geocache was made by filling an old ammunition canister with the following objects (we all donated one object each):

Matches
Foot/Hand Warmer
Saguaro carved from ironwood
Reflector
Cord
Backpack Pin

And a small notebook with our names, and a place for all those who find it to sign in.

On Sunday morning, I packed up my gear as early as possible and made the long journey out of there, stepping very carefully and slowly, vowing the entire way to be much more careful the next time out!

It was a gorgeous evening for an artwalk and loads of people strolling about. The paintings were very well received – Thanks to all who came out and supported the arts!

Finished a pretty large piece to day, this one is inspired by the nights spent in the Superstition Wilderness east of Phoenix. This was painted over a painting that was given to me by my neighbor, so it’s really good quality, with a white wooden frame.

“Superstition Moonlight”
Acrylic, 36″ X 48″

Finished!

Acrylic 24″ X 24″

Wow! What a great adventure! We’ve just finished a four-day trip that took us 400’ underground in the Cave of the Bells and then 8000’ above sea level toward the summit of Mt. Wrightston in southern Arizona.

The Cave of the Bells is a very cool, but dangerous underground wilderness, known for its unique and varied minerals and formations. The cave is located at the end of a rocky four-wheel drive road, deep in Sawmill Canyon. Poor old Big Blue got beat up pretty good, and it required a good bit of searching, but we finally did make it to the entrance.

Immediately upon entering we noticed the air was warmer and moister, and continued to get warmer as we descended. The floor of the cave was covered in slick gray clay, and seemed to fall away in all directions into deep unforgiving pits of darkness. As we picked our way through the early sections of the cave, all of us were wondering, “perhaps we’ve bitten off a little more than we can chew here”. It was VERY intimidating and I was concerned for the safety of the group.

We eventually found a small tunnel that we could navigate with basic ropes and webs – and were thrilled to discover an underground lake about 250 feet below the entrance level!

We continued on down, down, down, deeper into the cave. Progress was slow and cautious, and required so much exertion that I was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath from the difficulty. At the deepest point, while Tim was making his way across a crevasse, he suddenly slipped! In an instant he was hanging from the rope with one hand, with a deep crack below. Fortunately I was very close and instantly grabbed his free arm and pulled him out of there – but it was a bit of a scary moment.

We decided that was enough excitement for one day and made our way back out. It was a bit un-nerving to realize how easily we could get lost in this maze of crazy tunnels, but after a few wrong turns here and there, we finally did emerge into the cool clear air – free at last!

We made camp that night about a mile from the cave, near a beautiful creek, playing cards and sharing stories and thoughts about the caving adventure we had just shared.

The next morning we traveled to Florida Canyon (pronounced Flo ree’ da, Spanish for “flowered”).  The trailhead is located at the Florida Work Station which is a research station operated by the University of Arizona, the oldest continuously run research area in the nation, dating back to 1903!

Riparian areas, seeps, springs, and desert hillsides make up a good portion of the habitat here. As we gained elevation, stands of large Douglas-firs provided a cool canopy to shade.

Views along the trail are big and broad. Looking back toward the trailhead we could see the entire Santa Cruz Valley. Further up the canyon, the Santa Rita Crest and the summit of Mt. Wrightson, the highpoint of the Santa Rita range standing at 9453’.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. Hot in the direct sun, nice for mid-March, but this was one of the most strenuous hikes I’ve ever been on – harder than climbing out of the Grand Canyon! The trailhead elevation starts at 5100’ and we then ascended another 3000’+ in three miles!

The first part of the hike consists of desert grassland: mesquite, manzanita, oaks, pinyon, junipers, catclaw, prickly pear, ocotillo, soap tree yucca, agave, staghorn and hedgehog cactus. At about the midpoint to the saddle, an overgrown trail goes off on the left to an old mine, this is also where the environment transitions to the Upper Sonoran zone of larger oaks, pinyon, junipers, and manzanita. After the mine, the trail heads west briefly and switchbacks up onto another ridge, which is where we decided to camp.

Perched on the edge of an exposed ridge, buffeted by heavy winds and surrounded by crispy lightning-fried junipers, this is home for the night. The snow covered peaks of Wrightston are behind us and 100 mile views of the desert, reaching all the way to Tucson and the Santa Ritas, are on the opposite side.

The night sky is incredibly bright and clear – there is no place as crisp and clear as a southern Arizona starfield! We all sleep under the stars with no rainfly – lying on our backs, staring upward  – until the demands of the brutal hike bring us to a quick slumber.

At around 1am, I’m wide awake and realize I’m already well rested. I’m loving my new Thermarest Neoair pad and grinning broadly as I take in the entire sky – picking out constellations, making up new ones and thinking about all the people I love. After about thirty minutes of pure bliss, I finally see the one thing that would make this trip perfect, a shooting star! Directly over my head and blazing across the sky…yes. I fall back asleep incredibly happy, with fantastic images and memories of a wonderful adventure.

Having a productive weekend of art! Finished the background on this very large piece – next is the saguaros, moon and stars…

Getting very close to calling it good with this one – just some touch ups and smoothing to go!