telepathic stuntman

This adventure started six months ago when I first thought about doing the JMT as a way to celebrate my fiftieth birthday. I applied for a permit and was thrilled to receive one on the dates I wanted! From that point on, I gradually tweaked my equipment, started conditioning and did some research. I also [...]

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Yes! The John Muir Trail was a fantastic adventure and I’ve arrived back home recharged and loaded with photos! I started in Yosemite National Park and finished 150 miles and 12 days later in Bishop, California. Along the way I climbed stunning mountain passes, walked along crystal clear lakes teeming with fish, saw lots of [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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I’ve been getting a number of questions about my typical setup so here’s a rundown of what I’ve been using lately: Osprey Aether 70 Pack Big Agnes Seedhouse SL1 Tent Kelty Khamsin Sleeping bag Nalgene Bottles of Water Cooking Pot/Spatula/Fry pan/Cup/Titanium Spork Thermarest Pad First Aid Kit Katadyn Hiker Pro Water Purifier Duckback Rain Cover [...]

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On Friday we rented a couple kayaks and headed to Goat Mountain, located in the Tonto National Forest on the north shore of Apache Lake. We were able to fit both of the twelve foot kayaks inside Big Blue! We arrived at the lake in the late afternoon, strapped our packs to the kayaks and [...]

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There’s a popular story around here about a man named Jacob Waltz, better known as “the Lost Dutchman”, who in 1891, while lying on his death bed, told a story of a gold mine that held untold riches. He had said that it laid deep within the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. Treasure hunters have [...]

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Sycamore Canyon drains a large area of the western Mogollon Rim and often floods during the spring snow melt. Our plan was to descend down to Sycamore Creek and follow it to Parsons Spring, about four  miles from the trailhead. The autumn colors were still stubbornly hanging on to their branches and provided a gorgeous [...]

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This weekend we explored Aravaipa Canyon, cutting through the Galiuro Mountains near Winkleman, Arizona. This is a classic desert riparian habitat for a wide variety of animals and plants and wow did we see them! As we entered the area, a family of Coatimundi marched across the road in front of us – members of [...]

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Just returned from a terrific trip to Aravaipa Canyon (trip report to come). It was an incredibly scenic place, but teeming with rattlesnake! I was less than a foot away from stepping on this one – I noticed some movement on the ground as he was cocking his head back for a strike – that [...]

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A couple of years ago, I walked across the Grand Canyon from rim to rim in 16 hours. We began on the South Rim at night and made our way across under a full moon, carrying only food and water and stopping only for a brief rest from time to time. It was an epic [...]

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“It’s going to be below freezing tonight, the trails are muddy, you need to pack out all waste including toilet paper and human waste and it’s supposed to rain today.” The Park Ranger looked across at me as though that should be sufficient to send me away. No way! This trip has been in the [...]

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I arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park late in the day after negotiating through a wild winter storm in Flagstaff and sandstorms throughout northern Arizona. It was bitter cold and icy snow flurries pelted Big Blue as I entered Red Canyon, about thirty minutes outside the park and the first view of the region’s colorful [...]

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Our latest adventure took us to Bell Canyon, just south of Sedona. The plan was to mountain bike the White Mesa Trail as far as we could go, stash the bikes in the brush and then travel on foot along Beaver Creek until we find a good spot to camp for the night. Riding a [...]

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My goal this weekend was to locate and document a wall of petroglyphs I had stumbled upon a couple years ago near Cherry Creek. My son and a couple of his friends loaded up Big Blue and we headed off toward Globe, Arizona. After about an hour of driving on a lumpy dirt road and [...]

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About a year ago, Conor and I were hiking the Dutchman’s Trail in the Superstitions when we stopped to shoot some photos of a large saguaro well off the trail. While I was bushwacking through the scrub desert, I discovered a great little campsite at the base of a huge saguaro, completely hidden and surrounded [...]

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On the day after Thanksgiving, Conor and I backpacked down into La Barge Canyon in the Superstition Wilderness, about an hour and a half east of Phoenix. The trail began at Canyon Lake under a sky that threatened to storm at any moment. The first hour was all uphill, leaving the panoramic view of the [...]

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We spent three days hiking down to Tonto Creek through the Hellsgate Wilderness and man it was brutal! About fourteen miles roundtrip, but a lot of climbing and descending – about 4000 feet of elevation gain. The first day we hiked about six hours to the creek. Storms threatened and surrounded us for the entire [...]

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Spent the night on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon last night – crazy crazy high winds at Cape Final that nearly blew us off the edge!

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