King of the Mountains

Here in the valley you can take a turn going whichever direction and you inevitably end up heading toward some set of mountains. Though they are all different ranges and individual mountains, they basically box in the metropolitan area and make for some great sunrises and sunsets in the vast desert sky pierced with a few sky scraping peaks. These ranges include the Superstition and Usery mountains to the east, South mountain to the south, the Sierra Estrellas to the southwest, the White Tanks due west, the McDowells and Mazatzal mountains to the northeast and the Hieroglyphics to the northwest. And they all have some great summits, like the Mazatzals' zenith Four Peaks (namesake of a brewery here), among others.
But in the center of the valley is a lone tall mountain,...Camelback, seen here with the Buttes glowing red as always in the foreground. On Saturday after a Friday night out on the Mustache Bike Ride and Bar Hop, I got out and literally jogged my way up Camelback. It is named this because of its obvious resemblance to a sitting camel and its hump. It was a great climb with some steep, slippery portions that one has to sprint up if they don't want to use the hand rails.When I reached the top, I found a Christmas tree,...a great view of mountains to the north,...and a police helicopter chasing after me.
Another mountain that stands tall in the valley, though small in comparison, is A mountain which I hiked last weekend.As you can see, the planes fly close by. Since moving here I have seen more airplanes than ever before. At night you can see them from far away in the sky blinking like the star that the three wisemen are heading to on the top of A mountain.

While climbing this mountain and riding my bike around town, I captured some scenes of the valley.

Sun Devil stadium and the other athletic facilities from atop A mountain. The stadium is awesome tucked in between two hills.

A view of the Mill Avenue district in downtown Tempe, with part of ASU campus on the left and Phoenix's city park (largest in the country), South Mountain, in the background.

The old Hayden Flour Mill for which the infamous street is named. It is just an empty building with a now non-connected railroad track cutting through.

A view from A mountain of the Mill and Phoenix in the distance.

Gammage - the performing arts center at ASU.

More of the geometric buildings on the southwest arts corner of ASU.

A tucked away statue showing the Native American and artistic histories of the southwest.

I hope that these views offer you some picture of where I am, at least until Thursday morning when I head to Las Vegas and will exit the mountains of the valley and catch a flight to the almighty Rockies and the wonderful world of snow.

frisbee, bicycles, and a bloody toe

This past weekend was another relaxing and fun one. Since I am staying so far away for the moment, I have yet to actually hang out on the town in Tempe, Scottsdale, or Phoenix and thus the latest I have stayed up has been around 11:30 p.m. and that was to watch Saturday Night Live. But that doesn't mean I haven't been getting to know the area. I've been out meeting a lot of new people and taking part in some new and old activities.

After sleeping in from a great meal at Lo-Lo's, I woke up to some college football before heading to ASU to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament with Eric, Katie's boyfriend. I was ready with my white and dark jerseys, some sunscreen, a Nalgene of KoolAid, some coffee, and a CamelBack full of water. Eric and I joined a team of some of his Fall League friends and got right to work beating the first ASU team we played significantly. What I didn't anticipate was the effect of the heat on my energy and my old cleats on my feet. After playing the first game I had already developed a blood blister on my right big toe and my asthma was in full gear (even though I have been consistently running "long" distances since my return from Cameroon) and I was lucky that we had a bye for the next slot. We won our second game and my level of play increased as well. The good news is that my shoulder is feeling good and I was able to throw with it throughout the tournament. However, I only used my left hand for long distance pulls. As I got back into the groove and the tournament moved on I just ignored the pain in my toe. Our third game was a classic which we lost 14-15 and after this a lot of our team left because the sun was setting and so we faced the Northern Arizona University team almost savage and lost in a game to 7. All in all it was a great day but my legs were definitely feeling the soreness of an entire 7 hours of running. After, Eric and I left to his house to clean up and when I took off my right cleat this is what appeared:


I had been playing with a bloody sock which was caused by a bloody toe.

Sunday consisted of watching some NFL before heading in the afternoon to Bike Saviours bicycle Co-Op where I left my bike to begin refurbishing it. I arrived at 3 p.m. and spent 2 hours checking and cleaning my stem and fork and the crank and pedals. I set it aside to work on the front and back rims and axles next Sunday and left to meet Katie and Eric and Katie's sister Leslie, her baby daughter Louisa, Louisa's dad Steve, and Katie's friend Erin at Cafe Boa for Sangria Sunday. Though not a good experience because they only had two servers, we drank some sangria and I called it a night watching the end of the Tampa Bay/Red Sox game.

I spent the day at home on Monday and today working on my project and on some course work. As I continue to set up interviews with the former Tillman Scholars, everything else with my project is running smoothly. And I have taken a few photos and plan to take more as the time comes.

Camelback Mountain, at an angle

back from the future