Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center Don Coyote Society event

Here's video of my talk (also embedded below) at the event on March 17. Here's the SWCC website, and here's the SWCC donation page. Take a tour!

Quartz Peak

Another hike that had been on my internal list, Quartz Peak in the Sierra Estrella Wilderness southwest of Phoenix. 2,500' elevation gain to over 4,000' in less than 3 miles. Photos by friends, as my phone locked up from trying to search for a signal in this remote location.

SGC R2R NS 2023

Another one from the list of things I always meant to do but hadn't done yet: see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and do a rim-to-rim hike. Based on how I still feel, I'm glad to know this was "an extremely difficult hike." With special solar eclipse fun, too. 11:30 all in, with all the rest stops and with hiking as a group.

The (Increasingly) Old Band Returns!

We're back (more or less), and the undergrads (the "real Band") were great.

Humphreys Peak

Highest point in Arizona. I'd never been before, and now I have.

All downhill from here (as some would say, and as my birthday cake at 19 actually did say - thanks, college roommates).

AZ Open Water Swim

Simon and Suzanne Percy, of Swim Devils and Swim Devil Masters, took over the AZ Open Water Series in 2023, after a 4-year pandemic hiatus - and the first race had to be cancelled due to the algae bloom this spring at Bartlett Lake. But the second race went off not-exactly-smoothly at Bartlett on August 19. 4000 meters, "more or less"; probably 4200 but they adjusted one of the turn buoys after our first lap, so we didn't get to 5000 after all.

I finished in 1:32:06.9. I'm not sure that kind of precision is warranted but 1:32 seems right; I had 1:35 on my watch but stopped only after getting out of the water. That put me 35/41 overall (35/43 with 2 DNFs), 17/22 men (17/24 with the DNFs) and 9/12 in men's masters (9/14 with 2 DNFs), but in swimming they lump everyone 45 and over in the masters category, and if there was a 65-69 age group (or even just 65+), I would have been 1/1. If there had been a 60+ age group, I would have been 3/3 (3/5 with the 2 DNFs). Not the best time, but not the worst, as 6 people finished behind me, and all of them were under 60. Results here for men's masters, and here for overall.