Viva Las Vegas! (and Don't Mess With Texas)

Since last time I've mostly been mountain biking and hiking around Las Vegas. The outdoor recreation opportunities near Las Vegas are surprisingly good. Just west of town, literally a two minute drive past the last suburban neighborhood, there's Red Rocks. This is a sweeping valley bordered to the west and north by colorful 1000 ft+ cliffs. Road riding is poplar on the highway that runs through the valley. There are plenty of hiking and mountain biking opportunities on old horse trails. Then there are the cliffs themselves, which are a popular rock climbing destination. Some of the routes exceed 20 pitches and require use of big wall techniques (eg sleeping in a portaledge hung on a vertical cliff). Beyond the cliffs, washes turn into canyons which lead up into a wilderness area. This a great area for wilderness backpacking. A bit further (maybe 15 minutes drive) northwest of town there is a mountain range with 11,000 peaks along it's crest. Old mule trails offer epic level mountain biking in the same area. The peaks themselves offer winter sport opportunities. There's a ski lift for downhill skiing and snowboarding, plus trails for cross country and snowshoeing. I ran into some local climbers who showed me a photo of a three pitch WI5 ice climbing route which is located in the area.

More than anything I mountain biked. I did a couple of all day rides, one of them with local riders I met. I think I actually preferred the biking in Vegas to Moab. The surface seemed to be more uniform. It's made up of packed granules of sandstone, sometimes embedded with boulders. It doesn't beat dry coastal Oregon clay, but it's pretty good. A plus is that it doesn't get ugly when its wet, which Oregon's clay often is. Most of the trails are old mule and horse trails which head out into the desert that surrounds Las Vegas. The abandoned mines along some of the trails reminded me that Nevada was and still is a place where people go looking for fortunes, but often come back with nothing. The trails spanned the range of difficulty. Some were better suited to long travel downhill bikes, but there are plenty of epic level cross-country rides as well.

While waiting for wheel repairs (I had to hike-a-bike for three hours due to mechanical problems) the mechanic told me about Bootleg Canyon, just southeast of the city. I arrived there on an early Sunday afternoon. It was pretty packed, with maybe forty vehicles in the parking lot. Bootleg Canyon is a mountain bike park, in the same vein as Blackrock near Falls City, Oregon. The trails are on either side of a canyon bottom. A road runs up the canyon bottom to the top of a peak. The canyon was used to smuggle spirits to Hoover Dam construction workers during the prohibition era, hence the name. The county owns the land and actually pays someone to maintain the trails. Part of the parking lot is paved. There is a covered picnic area next to the lot, along with flushing toilets, water fountains, vending machines, and even a dumpster for your garbage. On the weekends there's a shuttle that will run you to the top for a small fee. For sure, in terms of facilities, Bootleg is better than Blackrock. The trail surface was similar to the other Las Vegas trails. There's an extensive "stunt park" where you can practice dirt jumping, drops, and gap jumps. The trails were pretty good, but lacked the large stunts and ramps of Blackrock. My favorites were fast, roller-coaster like trails, with the occasional boulder for use as a take-off ramp. I rode here often with a couple of bikers (Louis and Brian) who I met in the parking lot. They were more novice bikers than I am, but Brian in particular got a lot better even during the time I rode with him. Brian turned out to be a pretty good (5.11) rock climber. He told me about Red Rocks and what it was like. I hinted that I'd like to go for a climb there, but I think he was really liking mountain biking, so we mostly did that.

I spent one day hiking in the Mt Charleston area I mentioned earlier in this post. I'd hoped to reach the summit of Charleston but was turned around by increasingly deep powder snow. Great for skiing, not great for hiking in leather boots without snowshoes.

I enjoyed the Las Vegas area. Besides the outdoor activities the food and lodging is cheap. The "anything goes" character of the city appeals to me. I was surprised at how diverse the population was. It seems like a place that, more than most places I've visited, represents all of humanity. Somehow they all manage to get along and run a prosperous city despite the barren environment. The city's youth probably helps. 100 years ago downtown Las Vegas was a natural oasis with no permanent human habitation. In Las Vegas, everyone is a newcomer, and there's plenty of desert for new arrivals. The city seems to exist solely because of its ability to stand out and attract attention from the rest of the world. More than any other city it's size, Las Vegas seems to me like a city founded and sustained by a single, simple idea. There's good reason that standing out in Las Vegas is more challenging than it is in most cities.

While the van remained in Las Vegas I flew to Houston for a ten day visit of family and long time friends. I left the van at the house of one of the locals I'd met in Vegas. The flight was cheap (another nice thing about Vegas) so not driving to Houston was a no brainer. It seemed like I mostly ate, slept, and talked to people while in Texas. I went on an almost daily bike ride with my six year old nephew, which I enjoyed. After telling him a Frank story I convinced him that wearing a helmet is a good idea. I met my nephew and his sister at their school one day for lunch. Inevitably, when they introduced me to their teachers and friends, the first thing they mentioned was "He eats dog" (see the "Thit Cho" story). I don't think their teachers believed them, but their friends did. Its funny to learn what my sister's kids consider to be my crowning achievement.

I also visited with Elmo, a high school buddy who is now a detective on the local police force. We tentatively planned on getting together in Colorado in late February along with another buddy. Elmo seemed to be doing okay until his in-laws arrived. After that the only place I saw him was in his driveway next to a fire pit with a beer in one hand and, more often than not, some dead animal (as Tim would say) over the fire. As a sign on Elmo's house says: "Texas Ain't For Amateurs." Elmo's wife had given him a 40" flat screen TV for Christmas. Of course, it arrived shortly after his in-laws did. As of the day I left Elmo still hadn't sat down and watched it. To make matters worse, the visit coincided with time off which Elmo had taken from work. It gets even worse (really) but I'll spare additional details. The bottom line is that, by Texas standards, the whole thing was a tragedy. If you don't feel that way then you aren't fit to live in Texas.

I enjoyed hearing Elmo's stories about the criminals he's dealt with. After hearing them I couldn't help but think how true the sign on his house really is. If you're going to commit a crime, my advice would be to stack the odds in your favor by doing it somewhere other than Texas.

While I was in Texas my sister and I spent a lot of time planning an expansion for her bakery business. We're going to turn her garage into a dedicated bakery. I'll be back in the Houston area in the spring (this time with the van) to help with the start-up. Right now I'm on my way to Phoenix. Matt is there visiting his parents. We plan on spending a day hiking in the mountains. After that I'm heading to Palm Springs, California to pick up Chris and Al. They're flying in from Oregon. We'll be spending a week rock climbing and backpacking in Joshua Tree National Park. After that I'll be heading into Baja, Mexico.

Enjoy the New Year celebrations. Recent photos are at this link. I've included the photo my mom probably doesn't want you to see.

More Canyons & Dunes

The past few weeks have become something of a blur. Moab seems like a very long time ago. I've visited so many places I'm having trouble keeping track of them all.

Since my last entry I've taken two additioal backpacking trips. The first one was along the bottom of a canyon. The canyon started out as a river bed which gradually dropped down, until the walls became fairly high. Besides the typical rock formations I came across a couple of abandoned cliff dwellings (with old corn cobs still lying about), and encountered pools of water big enough to swim in.

My next backpacking trip was into the Grand Canyon. I started out at the north rim and gradually made my way down a subsidiary canyon to the Colorado River. The trip involved a lot of elevation loss, something like 6000 ft. This trip was quite memorable. Topography-wise, the canyon I dropped into reminded me of the deep valleys I saw during my Ptarmigan traverse trip in the North Cascades. From a vantage point within the canyon, the rim, which is actually flat on top, can't be distinguished from a mountain range. Of course, there are no glaciers, but it's much colder at the top of the rim than at the bottom of the canyon. The bottom is a desert, while the rim top is a pine forest reminiscent of some of Oregon's mountain forests. There were traces of snow on the rim, and overnight temperatures on the rim were around 10 F. On the way to the bottom I passed through layers of rock which spanned most of the Earth's existence. The canyon bottom was initially dry but about a quarter of the way down a spring rushed right out of the bottom of a rock face. The lowest point was the wide, muddy Colorado River, which was spanned by a suspension bridge. Certainly, there's good reason for the Grand Canyon's popularity. My trip had been undertaken during what must have been the north rim's off season. Everything on the north rim was shut down for the year. Although it meant tolerating low temperatures, I had the north part of the park to myself. I didn't encounter anyone else until I got near the bottom, where people had hiked in from the south rim. The weather was mostly clear, with occasional high, wispy clouds.

More recently, Ann flew into Las Vegas for a visit. We went to Death Valley and Zion National Park. As most people probably know, Death Valley is the lowest point in the western hemisphere. It's extremely dry. The weather report I saw indicated less than one inch of rain year to date. Death Valley is another place with some impressive topography. Although the bottom sits below sea level, it's surrounded by peaks, some of which reach 11,000 ft. There is a good sized sand dune, many canyons, and the dry lake bed itself. As with the Grand Canyon, temperature and plant life depends mostly on elevation.

Sometime during the past few weeks I ran into a kindred spirit named Mr. Kim. I was taking photos at a park lot when I met Mr. Kim. He was walking towards me from a small group of vehicles. Mr. Kim was wearing what looked like army fatigues, including a cap. His fatigues seemed a bit too large for him. I started wondering what I had done to upset the authorities this time. Whatever it was, it must have been bad if they were sending the military after me. Mr. Kim came up to me and asked if the Westfalia (referring to my van) belonged to me. Mr. Kim had a heavy accent. I guessed he was of Korean ancestry. I noticed that the fatigues appeared to be genuine government issue. His jacket was embroidered with "U. S. Air Force" on the left and the name "Choi" on the right. The authentic looking uniform made it seem more plausible that I was in some kind of trouble. Unsure of whether I should admit to it, I told Mr. Kim that the van was mine. I was a bit relieved when he said that he also owned a VW Westfalia camper van, then proceeded to ask questions about my van.

Eventually introducing ourselves, we talked for a few hours. It turns out Mr. Kim and I had a lot in common. Mr. Kim had bought a van, left his job, and was on a road trip. He'd been on the road for three months and was now on his way home to southern California. Like me, he was doing most of the trip solo. At his wife's insistence he had bought a new van for the trip. We showed our vans to each other, exchanged stories from our trips, and shared "best practices" (good places to park your van overnight, where to get cheap food, etc.) I showed Mr. Kim photos from my trip. He was fascinated by them. Although we were both on road trips, it was clear that what I'd been doing during my trip was different than what Mr. Kim had been doing during his. At one point I said something that produced a strong reaction in Mr. Kim. It was like he had suddenly realized something. He tried to explain it to me, but I didn't fully understand what had happened. Later, bowing his head, he gave me his remaining food. I took it only because he insisted. He then requested a photo of the two of us. I accepted, but asked for a photo in exchange. After taking the photos we said our goodbyes. Mr. Kim thanked me, then bowed again, this time more formally, before returning to his van.

I've kept trying to deduce what it was I said that caused Mr. Kim's reaction and why he had reacted so strongly. I'm still bewildered as to what it was. Oh well.

Another memorable experience was spending a few days in a Navajo reservation. I guess I've never been in a large reservation. It was like visiting a foreign country, which is not what I had expected. It reminded me of trips to Mexico when I was a kid. Many of the Navajo continue to use their native language as their primary language. There were few non-Navajos in most of the reservation, so I stood out. The reservation looked more impoverished than most places I've visited in the US. I saw many street and parking lot vendors. I remember stopping at a parking lot early in the morning. Shortly after my arrival a beat up truck deposited an old Navajo woman, her grandson, a small folding table, and a folding chair. She set a bunch of jewelry out on the table and sat down, waiting for someone to purchase her wares. I assume she sits there all day most days.

I'm in Las Vegas at the moment. I'll be flying out from here in a week and a half to visit family and friends near Houston over Christmas. Between now and then I'll be exploring the wilds near the city. After returning from Texas I plan on starting my trip into Mexico.

The weather's been pretty nice in Vegas. Today was the warmest day they've had in a while. I heard that the northwest has experienced some nasty storms lately. Hopefully everyone's doing okay.

Happy holidays!

Photos from the past few weeks are here.