david's log

More people in the United States attend zoos than they do all the National sporting events. People love to be a part of the natural world, and this is very much a part of us.

There were very interesting studies done on people recovering from surgery (published in Science) which found that people…who faced a brick wall versus people who looked out on trees and nature - the people who looked out on a brick wall were in the hospital longer, needed more medication, and they experienced more complications.

There’s something very restorative about nature, and it’s part of how we are tuned.

— Nancy Etcoff, in her lecture on Happiness at TED 2004.

GPOYW, top of Humphrey’s Peak, Arizona.

I asked someone to snap this photo about three weeks back, standing on the top of the highest mountain in Arizona.  No, it’s nowhere near the tallest mountain in the States.  No, it’s not even the tallest mountain in the Southwestern United States.  It is, however, the tallest thing around for several hundred miles.  From the top, to the North I could clearly see the Grand Canyon, a three hour drive from the peak.  To the South, people say you can see Phoenix on a clear day, 150 miles in the distance.

Funny anecdote: Though it’s quite a stretch for first-timers, 12,000 feet is really not any sort of a dangerous alititude to be at.   I’ve climbed a dozen or so higher peaks in Colorado on a number of multi-day backpacking trips, so I know how to prepare for being well above treeline (11,500 feet - generally considered being “at altitude”), but it was hilarious to see people sucking on oxygen canisters at the peak.  I just kept thinking to myself: “It’s 12,000 feet people!  It’s not like you’re on Mt. Everest!!”

Interesting fact: Though the flag says the altitude is 12,663 ft, the correct height is actually 12,633 ft.  Whoever made the flag wrote the information incorrectly. I just found it in the USGS ammo box at the peak, along with a series of discarded map fragments, ascent registers, and odd’s ‘n ends.

I have more photos, but have been too busy to upload them to Flickr.  Alas, this wil have to do for now.

I die.

If you’re on the market for an extremely dependable pair of backpacking boots, get these.  Now. They’ll only be a on sale for an hour or two, but they will last you forever.

EDIT: They’ve already been sold out.  Somehow, in the 1-plus minutes it took me to post this, somebody swooped in and nabbed the last one’s.

If you’re into the outdoors, in a little or a big way, you’d be foolish not to regularly check out SteepandCheap.com or to follow them on Twitter.

If anyone ever tells you camping or backpacking is “roughing it”, tell them it’s not roughing it if you can have your morning espresso while doing it.  ”Living light” doesn’t mean you have to suffer, after all.  Espresso makes all things, even sleeping on the bare ground, feel a little bit like heaven.

This was taken this past weekend, on an escape to the mountains with a friend.  And I’m using a pot to catch the espresso because I accidentally left my mug at home (whoops!).