America 250 Local Jeep Trip

As part of America's 250th, Lily and I headed out for a jeep trip in the local national forest.  We started out on Tonto Rd, to Fair Oaks to Telephone Rd to Camp Wood Rd.  These were all easy roads and the going was fast. Jordan Well and Mud Tank trails had some tight spots but still were easy going.  We then turned north onto Walnut Creek.  Our goal was to get near Apache Creek Wilderness so turned east onto FR 95B.  Then the trail got very rough and tight.  It took a while to get to FR 95A and Graver Wash to hook back up to Walnut Creek.  From there, we headed back along Williamson Valley Rd.

Overall the trip was fun but rough.  We got in to some great views.

View to the east

Granite Knob

Lily does not stand still for photos

Jaya's Graduation

Dr. Jaya Osten graduated from Bastyr on Friday as a naturpathic doctor!  After 4 long years she is ready to take on the world.  Next up is moving to Tucson, getting married then taking the board exams.

Dr. Jaya Osten!

Part of the visit included some visits to friends and local sites:

• Hiked the loop around San Elijo lagoon
• Dinner at Ki's
• Took my parents to Cabrillo National Monument where we spotted the San Salvador under way.

Along jogger hike

View from Cabrillo NM

Batch of Books

• Laws of Life by Jack Spirko
• One Second After series by William Forstschen
• Masters of the Air by Donald L. Miller
• Dan Kilmer and Enemies series by Matthew Bracken
• Tools by Theodore Gray
• Bring Me the Head of Joaquin Murrieta by John Boessenecker
• Patriots series by John Wesley Rawles

Hammock

My dad gave me an old hammock he has for some time so I put it up.  Since we don't have a good set of trees, I had to dig a post hole for one of the ends.  Our ground is super rocky and hard so it took a while using mainly a digging bar.

Hammock at sunset

Animal Preppers

I recently started seeing a whole bunch of YT prepping videos that were done with AI animated animals.  There are bears, raccoons, tigers, wolves, squirrels, foxes, tortoises and ducks . They are fairly entertaining and often have some good information.  It is fun to see all the errors in the videos that AI generates (e.g. two tails on a fox).  I wouldn't be surprised if these were all done by the same person since they often have similar topics at nearly the same times.

Memorial Day Activities

Lots going on in Highland Pines...

• Happy Hours started up
• Annual Meeting and Ice Cream Social
• Fire patrol near Porter Mt
• Brush clearing

Giant juniper

Mine entrance

Walking Lily

Coffee Greatness

It seems that coffee is really good for you.  Good thing that Prescott is seeing some great new coffee houses in town now.