Lee Blackwell and I will be giving a slide show in about two weeks up in Phoenix.
We were asked by the Arizona Trail Assc. to talk about our 2005 end to end trip on the AZT.
Date: 10/15/08 (Weds)
Place: REI Tempe store
Time: 6:30p
Tons of hike-a-bike, crossing the Grand Canyon with bikes strapped to our packs, 6 feet of snow on the north rim, using cardboard boxes for leg armor… it was a heck of a trip.
In other AZT news, I launched the new Arizona Trail “Build” site:
The old site had become a train wreck, and very hard to update. The new site is all in wordpress (I now own 4 wordpress “blogs”!) and super easy to deal with. Apologies to DH for using the same theme. I thought something was familiar about it, but didn’t realize why until I went to check in on Trans Utah.
This morning I finished pruning the Suburban Assault loop (it was too big a job for a single ride). It could still use a bit more in places, but the main offenders have been taken care of. I was amazed at some of the growth, particularly palo verdes anywhere near a wash. Some of them just exploded this summer.
I get some funny looks from people, riding with full size loppers attached to my tiny camelbak. This morning I was riding through town near school time. All the kids were giving me quizzical looks. Then I realized that from the front you can only see the two handles rising above my shoulder, and it looks like nunchucks or some crazy weapon out of Final Fantasy. They were looking at me like I was some kind of ninja.
Which, it turns out, I am. The TopoFusion page on wikipedia says I’m an author of the program, but that I’m also an “American mixed martial artist.”
Other highlights include:
“Scott Morris was beat up very badly by Patrick Smith, and the knockout was considered the most brutal in UFC history at that time.”
“Ben Perry, the announcer on UFC 2, was famously quoted referring to Scott Morris, “We don’t know much about him, because he is a ninja.”
I got a good laugh out of it. Time to correct wikipedia.
Very cool! You’re an AZT celebrity in so many ways! Love the pic of you being chased down by the ranger. Heh, heh. I bet not many people get it. Well, I’m sure everyone who reads your posts gets it, but the other 99% of the American population would have no clue.
Wish I’d seen this article sooner. That trip had to be awesome and I’d have loved to see the slideshow. Tempe is not all that far from me. Maybe there’ll be a repeat someday?