#80 - Hiking roundup

Although I haven't posted on it in awhile I'm still engaged in #80 - working my way through the 60 Hikes with 60 Miles book. This post is a collection of hikes I've done since my last hiking post.

1) Hawn State Park (February 15, 2010) - Took a winter day hike with my Dad and his friend Gary along the relatively new White Oaks Trail and the adjoining connectors. Probably did about 6 miles total. The major hike in Hawn is the Whispering Pines Trail, and while I haven't been on that in awhile, I'm considering this one done. I realized that my goal with this task is, when asked, to be able to offer useful suggestions on hikes (length, scenery, difficulty, etc.). Enough knowledge to have an informed opinion. Which is actually come to think of it the reason I'm doing most of this list.

2) Meramec State Park (October 24-25, 2010) - Another hike with Dad and Gary - this one an overnight along the 10 mile Wilderness Trail in Meramec State Park. Good hike, great sleeping weather. Meramec is nice because you can have fires in the backpacking camping sites along the trail. Though I did get a spark hole in my brand new convertible hiking pants.

3) Matson Hill Park (December 2009) - Solo dayhike at a secluded little park out in St. Charles County. Easy walking around the 2.75 mile loop. Very pretty and didn't see a soul.

4) Powder Valley (January 2010) - TL and I took a little walk around this suburban park. It has 3 paved trails totaling 2.2 miles. Saw a bunch, bunch, bunch of deer - very tame deer. Certainly not the most challenging trails but like Emenegger a quick retreat if I ever just need to be outside.

5) Rockwoods Range (December 2009) - Two separate hikes here. The Round House Loop at 3.6 miles which is a nice hike, which I took on a cold day that froze over the nipple on my CamelBak. Had to keep it inside my down jacket. The other is the Fox Run trail which is 3.5 one-way, so 7 out and back. I have to report I was pretty pleased with myself on Fox Run. I was able to accurately follow the contour map and be able to tell where I was. I also had the excellent idea of noting the time I reached significant landmarks. This was useful to gauge remaining distance and my pace on the hike back.

6) Castlewood State Park & Al Foster Trail (Various times) - Over a couple of weekends I did most of the trails in Castlewood State Park. If you can only do one, do the 3 mile River Scene trail. Spectacular views from high bluffs overlooking the Meramec River. TL & I did this and it was really nice. I did really enjoy the 3 mile Grotpeter trail, but it is definitely not as scenic. But it is less crowded and you do feel more isolated.

Also, semi-part of the Castlewood system is the Al Foster Trail. This is a new trail established as part of the Meramec Greenway multi-purpose trail. The nicer section runs from the Glenco Trailhead in Wildwood to Sherman Beach. There it connects up with the western side of the Castlewood State Park trail system - the Stinging Nettle and Cedar Bluff trails. The connection between the River Scene Trail and Stinging Nettle on some older maps is currently off-limits (the latest update I can find is May 2010.) I think because it goes too close to railroad property.

So, anyway my parents and I walked the western half of Al Foster one day in April and then the next weekend I did the eastern half (which is the north part of the Stinging Nettle Loop), and included the Cedar Bluff loop. You can tell no one gets to the Cedar Bluff, it is not that well-maintained. After I got back on the Stinging Nettle / Al Foster, it was only a little ways to the point where the trail used to go east to the rest of Castlewood. Unlike everyone else there that day I choose to honor the off-limits sign and walked back the way I came on Al Foster. I did that since the high Meramec River had closed part of the southern half of Stinging Nettle.

7) Rockwoods Reservation (Sept 2010) - Three good trails in this park. Did the Rock Quarry (2.2) and Trail Among the Trees (1.5) in the spring. Finished the park up with the 3.2 Lime Kiln Loop.

8) Lewis and Clark Trails - More good hiking in St. Charles. This was a pretty trail with great views of the Missouri River. I saw a fox near one overlook. It was curious enough about me to get within 10 feet. This is a "double loop or figure 8" trail - the Clark trial is the western half, taking the middle cut-off is 5.3 miles. I continued on the eastern Lewis Trail for an 8.3 mile total.

I really need to buy a camera to capture all the great sights I am seeing. But this is basically the fox I got within 10 feet of.

And the fox I will never get within 10 feet of :

I've also almost completed Greensfelder Park. So hiking "task" is proceeding nicely.

#21 - Pure Power

Knocked #21 off the list - signed up for the Pure Power program with AmerenUE, my local electricity company. Costs me $15 per month, which they use to buy renewable energy certificates. And while the program itself might not be perfect (there's high overhead), it is at least a start, and a monetary "vote" that consumers (well, at least this one) will support the higher costs of switching over to more sustainable energy sources. In my mind it is better to make a gradual transition rather than a jarring dislocation to a post-oil economy. Whenever I think about that I always think about Cliff Robertson at the end of Three Days of The Condor.

Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to get it for 'em!

#94 - Fiction roundup - Short but happy dreams edition

Fiction books to report: Turns out half of these I've seen as movies before I read the book. Usually I do it the other way around. Also oddly, most of these are technically novellas.

1) About a Boy by Nick Hornby - Not as good as High Fidelity, but enjoyable.

2) Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote - Quite a bit different than the movie. I remember in a TV-movie about Audrey Hepburn the Truman Capote character, while watching filming, said, "Well, she was a whore in my novel". Or something to that effect. Pretty accurate assessment.

2a) The Truman Capote collection I read also had A Christmas Memory as one of the short stories - and I wanted to make special mention. Read it if you haven't - it is so beautifully written, and so vivid, and funny, and touching, and sweet. Not counting for list.

3) The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum - One of the rare books I liked less than the movie. Though that is probably an unfair comparison, since the movie is almost nothing like the book. That said, I still don't think it was a very good book. It had flashes of brilliance, but I thought it was too slow-paced for a spy novel.

4, 5, 6) Three novels by James M. Cain - Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce - All three were pretty good noir tales. And for the first two I thought the movies tracked closely. Recommended to see both of them if you like film noir. Double Indemnity might be second only to The Maltese Falcon in that genre. I'll see Mildred the movie at some point since Joan Crawford won an Oscar for the title role.

7) Kiss of The Spider Woman by Manuel Puig. Wow! I did not know what to expect when I picked this up on a whim at the library. I was falling behind on #92 - Read Non-English novels. And I'm so glad I was. This is a very, very good novel. Interesting construction - there is no narration or scenic descriptions. It is 90% dialogue, with just dashes indicating change of speaker. It paints an intimate portrait of two men in an Argentinian prison, the revolutionary Valentin and the homosexual Molina. To pass the time Molina recounts old movies he has seen to Valentin. The rest of the time they talk, fight, argue, and bitch about themselves, each other, politics, etc. I know it sounds very "buddy movie" to say at the end they grow to respect one another and appreciate their differences, but it is true, and it comes across in the novel in a surprisingly deep and affecting way.

The 1986 movie (William Hurt - Oscar), which I saw later, was good but not as good as the novel was.

8) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - Guy turns into a bug, no one really seems to care, other than how it effects them. Counts for #92 since the original is German. Even Gregor (the bug) is curiously indifferent to why or even how he became a monstrous bug. I wonder what it would be like to know a foreign language well enough to be able to read something without translating it in your head. I can imagine it would be a powerful experience.

9) Rant by Chuck Palahniuk - Another weird novel by the author of Fight Club. Told as an oral history by multiple characters, it is definitely worth the read. Might be worth a second read too since (as in most oral histories), characters conflict on timeline and perceptions. So, going back and trying to figure out what - if anything - is the truth could be worthwhile.

#95 - The Truth is Sometimes Uncomfortable

Non Fiction to report:

Cary Grant: A Biography by Marc Eliot. One of my favorite actors of all time. Evidently he was much gayer than I thought he was. I had heard like it was maybe, but unconfirmed. After reading it is more like they said in Blazing Saddles "you'd do it for Randolph Scott". Well, Grant certainly did.

In the President's Secret Service by Ronald Kessler. A behind the scenes look at the people who protect the president. Dishes some interesting dirt about the past and current residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Also makes the case that given the strains on the resources, budget, and people of the Secret Service, a protection failure is inevitable.

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. Collected writings of Zen Habits Leo. Not much new content but it was easier to read than perusing through the blog archive. I'm attempting to implement the Most Important Task (MIT) / One Goal principle. I think part of my lack of progress on the list is too many areas to focus on. So, concentrating on 3 things for 6 weeks. First up is 1) Be in Bufferland, 2) Visit doctor & dentist, and 3) catch up on this blog. Bufferland also relates to my overall One Goal of being debt free by this time next year.

Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard - A sort of "response" to Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed which I mentioned in an earlier post. Fresh out of college kid starts out in a new city with $25 and the clothes on his back. He vows to have a job, apartment, car, and $2500 savings within a year. He also places the additional constraints of not using that new degree, previous contacts, or his existing credit history. Well-told, and an object lesson in perseverance.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin - Autobiography of the "Wild and Crazy Guy" who became a comedy legend in the 70s and then walked away from stand-up a few years later. He's done a few other things since then (plus writing plays, books, and composing). Tells the story of how it took him 10-12 years of hard work to become an overnight sensation. An inspiring story, told with modesty and humor. Occasionally heartbreaking when describing his strained family relationships. Recommended. Also recommended is one of Martin's fiction books The Pleasure of My Company. Doesn't count for this list but it is one of the handful of books I had to read cover to cover in my life.