R.I.P. Jason Molina

VICE - Willis and Geiger

Next time you cram your silicon nylon jacket into a tiny stuff sack or throw on your favorite Marmot fleece, think of Willis and Geiger, a company that pioneered expedition clothing. The company was born out of an arctic expedition in 1903 and continued to produce excellent adventure clothing until the late 1970's when they briefly went out of business, only to be revived by Burt Avedon and continued for another twenty years until their current owner, Land's End (yep, the crummy Sears brand), liquidated it in 1999. VICE recently interviewed Avedon. You can read the whole thing here.

Gates Pass Sunset

Suspicious Spam

If you received a spam e-mail from me, I apologize. Obviously, I didn't send that. I got one too at my other e-mail address. Strange stuff has been happening since I posted the anti-Rosemont Mine video below. People don't comment on my posts that often, but I got a negative response and a link to a video defending Rosemont and Augusta (obviously funded by them, too) literally minutes after posting. I also got a weird spam email asking to buy ad space for a "self defense" client on mocs1986 at an email address that's not associated with the blog at all. I'm not saying that's related, but it's kinda fishy...

Anyway, I sorry for any inconvenience. I don't suggest you click on the link.

1980's Paragliding

I found these over on this fellow's Flickr page. Go check out more of his cool shots.

 

Cyanide Beach - John Dougherty Exposes Forces Behind Rosemont Mine Effort

More here at Save the Scenic Santa Ritas.

Sign the petition against the Rosemont Mine in the Santa Ritas here.

Danny Macaskill - Industrial Revolutions

Reverse Flatiron

 

The Flatiron is a notable mountainous formation in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. It towers over the popular Lost Dutchman State Park. The most popular way to the top, Siphon Draw, is noted for being a tough, but fun, hike. Going up the backside of the mountain, however, adds a whole new dimension. You start in Tonto National Forest and end in Lost Dutchman Park. It's a vertical bushwhack up the side of the mountain and over a couple really treacherous scree shoots. It's a blast and the views of Four Peaks and the surrounding wilderness are breathtaking. Click on these panoramic shots for full views.

Mantis Visitor

It's been raining a lot here in Tucson, so sometimes interesting critters take shelter in the house. I found this little mantis on the floor of our office before the cats did. I subjected it to a few pictures in a big pickle jar before transferring it outside to a bush for a final photo. When I was a kid I raised mantises in ten gallon tanks filled with grass. I caught grasshoppers and crickets and fed them to the mantises. I kept them alive all summer until they mated, the females ate the males, and laid egg sacs on the grass stems that hatched into enormous broods of ant-sized mantids too small for the mesh cover of the tank to contain. Those mantises grew to be much larger than this fellow. Maybe it has growing left to do.

Cave Creek

A Hohokam site.

Tonto National Forest, Cave Creek, Arizona.