Canyon Sin Nombre and Mine Peak

Knocked off a couple more hikes in the desert.
Canyon Sin Nombre included some great slot canyons.  My route was to walk down the road, then up the big slot canyon and then back along the ridge.
"Afoot and Afield" did not describe the route for Mine Peak very well.  The text says to take up a use trail from "behind" the mine.  But behind really meant taking the curvy road up the side of the hill until it dead ends to a big pile of ore.  I thought "behind the mine" meant behind the main structure.  This led me a route that was east of the "trail" and was much steeper.  No worries though as I made it to the peak and the awesome views.
One the way home, I stopped by Red Feather in Ocotillo for a great burger, highly recommended!

Entrance to small slot canyon

Entrance to main slot canyon

View from Mine Peak to the east

View from Mine Peak to the north

Books and Lectures

• Jerky: The Fatted Calf's Guide to Cooking and Preserving Dry Meaty Goods by Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller
• In the Kingdom ofIce: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette by Hampton Sides
• Coffee Isn't RocketScience: A Quick and Easy Guide to Buying, Brewing, Serving, Roasting and Tasting Coffee by Sebastien Racineux and Chung-Len Tran
• A Brief History of Time by Stephan Hawking
• Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
• The Black Death: The World's Most Devastating Plague by Professor Dorsey Armstrong
• The Other Side ofHistory: Daily Life in the Ancient World by Professor Robert Garland
• Human Errors: A Panorama of our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes by Nathan H. Lents

Paso Picacho Campout

The troop had its first campout of the season out at Paso Picacho campground in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  We hiked up to the lake, got a lot of advancement in and had a great time!

Campsite

My tent

Meadow east of the lake

Big sky

Stonewall Peak

Laguna Mountain Batch of Hikes

With a heat wave coming, I chose to knock off some short hikes up in the Lagunas that might be a bit cooler than the rest of San Diego.

• Cottonwood Falls - obviously no water was running but this would be a good one to hit in the spring
• Wooded Hill - very nice day hike with plenty of shade
• Foster's Point - Great lookout point with a very interesting guide to local peaks at the end
• Fages Monument to PCT - Recon'ed a segment of the CRHT to do with the scouts

Cottonwood Creek Falls

View from Foster's Point

Fages Monument

Week in Prescott

We spent a week in Prescott, AZ to drop off Bengt at Embry-Riddle.  He is studying Cyber Intelligence and Security and is trying Air Force ROTC so we had to be there a few days early.

Unfortunately, his dorm is still under construction so him and his roommate are in the lounge area of existing suites but they are making it work.

We had time to checkout some of the sights in town:

• Thumb Butte Hike
• Watson Lake
• Highlands Nature Center hike
• Zoo
• El Gato Azul - wonderful tapas
• Thumb Butte Distillery - don't miss their sage gin
• Some interesting spots on the road 

 

Two guys in the lounge

Our Air BnB near downtown

Controlled burn on Thumb Butte

Thumb Butte

Desert View Tower

Mountain Springs Monument

Desert Tower Monument

Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial

Freshman pep talk

Watson Lake

Congressional Award

Bengt earned the Bronze Congressional Award and got to receive the medal from Congressman Darrell Issa!

Bengt and Congressman Issa

Crowded Beaches

Never seen Moonlight beach so full.

Crowded Moonlight

Midsummer Books

Great World Religions: Islam by John L. Esposito
The Gold Hunters: A First-Hand Picture of Life in California Mining Camps in the Early Fifties by J. D. Borthwik
The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East by Abraham Rabinovich
The the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration by Edward J. Larson
World War I: The Definitive Visual History by R. G. Grant
Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson
Foundations of Economic Prosperity by Daniel W. Drezner

Weekend Activities

• Passed my Security+ exam!
• Jyoti finished her Baldrige review!
• Super fun BBQ at Mission Bay
• Great night at La Costa Wine
• Embry-Riddle kickoff dinner with the Molitor's at Chief's