Lauren and I decided at about 11pm last night to get up early and try to make it out to Sabino Canyon for an early-morning short hike near the enterance to the park. We woke up at 5am, drove out to the canyon, and were off walking by 5:30am. Sunrise was slated to be 5:39am this morning and it was already getting light out when we got there.

Since this was our first time at the canyon and we knew we wanted to expore it a touch, I stayed up a bit last night to find trails and geocaches that would allow us to have a quick 2 mile hike. There were two very close to the enterance with small trails leading to them, so I figured it would be the perfect way to go. The trails were relativel easy, the views were magnificent, and we enjoyed the morning chill. We are, also, both looking forward to going back to explore more of the canyon and it’s neighbor Bear Canyon.

Click here to see pictures from the hike.

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help the aliteration in the title!!

Introduction:

The Wilderness of Rocks Trail #44 is located within the Pusch Ridge Wilderness of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson and south of Summerhaven. The trail can only be reached by taking one a hand-full of other trails in the region.

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I’ve noticed that not many of the hiking guidebooks for the Tucson area are thorough enough to be worth buying a single one. Since that’s the case, I’m going to start compiling details about hikes online to make it easier to get information about the hikes in the future. From now on, as I do a hike, I will be putting up a post about it with detailed information about how to get there, what kind of hiking conditions are there, pictures if I bring my camera, maps, etc…

Aaron, Jenny, Lauren, and I went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival a number of weeks back and saw a bunch of their kick ass films ranging from rock climbing, to mocumentaries, to really neat documentaries. By far the best of the movies was a film called “Balancing Point” produced by Sensei Studios. It’s a number of clips where various people balance rocks in a number of interesting ways… you can see a version of it at Sensei Studios (hopefully they pull it back online) or here.

The gas prices are going up again. Even Costco is selling it for above $2.60 when just a month ago it was $2.12 a gallon. To top it off, apparently, Exxon’s CEO made $144,573 average per day over the last 13 years… yes, PER DAY!!! In his last year of service, which ended in December, he made over $400 million; makes me think he’s taking our money for himself rather than trying to help the American public.

When will the gas/oil tycoons learn? There’s change on it’s way (in the form of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles and nuclear power plants) and they won’t be the Kings of the Hill for much longer.

Smart companies like Toyota, Honda, and VW are paving the way with their vehicle offerings and will leave the SUV and wasteful-car producing companies in the dust. I predict that, within 5 years, there will be so many people moving away from sub-30-mpg cars in favor of over-50-mpg vehicles that the only way to keep customers will be to produce cars that are greener and more efficient and possibly reach for the 100-mpg mark OR to pass legislation limiting the strangle-hold that the gas companies have on the public (I’m hoping for the first case).

I’m looking forward to trading in my current Toyota Rav4 for the hybrid version when it comes out in a few years! Until then, I’m going to look into carpooling or biking to work again.