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.

Knoll Lake/ Mogollon Rim

There's a vulture in there somewhere.

Storms

Mosquitoes in the Rain

Scientists have used high-speed videography to reveal how mosquitoes withstand getting hit with raindrops. It appears their small size and ability to go with the drops, rather than get hit by them. Read a lot more from the Smithsonian.

West Clear Creek

 

I bought a plastic Vivitar Focus Free PN2011 panoramic camera at a Savers in Worcester seven or eight years ago. Actually I bought two and they were a dollar each. The only control on the camera is the switch between regular and panoramic photos. It's a lot of fun because you can't miss the view trying to adjust the camera. It works on film and faith. Sometimes you get a lucky shot.

These were shot near West Clear Creek in central Arizona where you can go swimming under a canopy of cottonwood and sycamore, watch phainopepla and their flycatcher kin feast on flies clustered just above the stream, see plenty of fish and crayfish as big as your hand. No shortage of scorpions or gnarly spiders either. Great place to escape the heat. Click on the photos to see bigger, better sizes and more panoramas.

WTF

’Evil mind’: Spiked boulder meant as booby trap for unsuspecting hikers?

R.I.P. Earl Scruggs 1924-2012

Bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs revolutionized banjo playing with his syncopated picking style. He started playing banjo at 5 years old, developed his signature three-finger style when he was 10, joined Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys in 1945, and left the group with Lester Flatt in 1949. They performed together as The Foggy Mountain Boys or Flatt and Scruggs for 20 years. Scruggs won two Grammies, was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and even has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

First Day of Spring

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so
pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.

He that walks among briers and thorns will be
very careful where he sets his foot; and he that passes
through the wilderness of this world had need ponder all his steps.

- Anne Bradstreet

Meditations, Moral and Divine

1664

Wasson Peak

A modest 4687 feet gains Wassan Peak the title of the highest peak in the Tucson Mountains, which are partially protected by Saguaro National Park West. The walk to the summit is about seven miles or so, easy to follow, and popular. Lots of good desert plants and birds and a nice view at the end. I might suggest going during the week if possible. It's worth the trip out there because you can also visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and see the raptor presentation. 




Unfortunately, my long-suffering camera is fading fast. The lens doesn't communicate with the camera body and I'm not sure the light sensor is quite right. I can usually finagle a few good shots out of it. Sometimes I get weird ones like this above, which is pretty cool.

Crested saguaro are uncommon. Desert four-leaf clovers.

Old mine shaft for what I think was the Gould mine...