Feeling Swell

The weather is turning its most beautiful in southern Utah so I seized the opportunity to spend a few days in the San Rafael Swell, just north of Goblin Valley State Park. Many people had told me that it was an interesting place, but this was my first visit, and I was not disappointed. Angelica, Zachary and I drove down after Easter dinner and found a nice backcountry camping spot where we gasped at the stunning display of stars and also a little at the cold, as it got down below freezing at night and made exiting our sleeping bags in the morning a test of our resolution. We passed, and after an oatmeal breakfast drove down to check out Chute Canyon, which would be our exit. There we met a couple of old climbing hippies from Boulder who had hiked Ding and Dang Canyons the day before and supplied some beta which got me thinking. (I say they were “old,” but probably no older than me!)

Back to the Crack Canyon trailhead and we entered the canyon as it was warming from the sun. It’s a fun little slot with some interesting downclimbs. Unfortunately, we missed the best and easiest cut-off to Chute, as I was using one of Michael Kelsey’s guidebooks, which are notorious for being incorrect. So we hiked longer than planned, but eventually turned just before Temple Mountain (which is quite majestic, if not religiously inspired) and found our way to Chute. All in all, maybe 13 miles of hiking, climbing and clamboring. Makes it easier to sleep at night.

We were going to do Wild Horse and Bell Canyons on Tuesday, but I became convinced Ding and Dang would be more fun and challenging. So off we went, despite not having a topographical map to find the canyons, and relying completely on Kelsey’s rough description. And naturally, given my keen route-finding skills, we were soon wandering aimlessly, with no idea where the canyons were. But we knew they went up to the reef, so we found a canyon that looked most interesting and climbed up, thinking that might be Ding or Dang. It proved to be a lot of fun, with some challenging climbs, stems, chimneys and a body-anchor assist. Eventually we hiked to a high point for lunch and reconnoiter, still not sure where we were, and decided one canyon up looked tougher and more fun than the rest, and that if we took it we could probably find our way east around a large fin, and that another canyon down also looked like it might be tasty. So that’s what we did, never knowing what to expect next. It was more exciting that way. I do enjoy spontaneity, and adventure even more, and I am often my happiest trying to peer through a veil of uncertainty.

Back home on Tuesday night I looked at the map and realized we had totally missed Ding and Dang, and hiked unnamed canyons, which I will blame at least in part on the Kelsey hand-drawn map. But no worries about the canyons not taken. I will save them for another day. Yet knowing how way leads on to way …

Bluebird Day

Is there anything better than snowboarding/skiing in light fresh powder on a beautiful sunny day with your family? Nope. And that's the way it was on Thursday at Solitude--maybe 8-10 inches of soft, fluffy pow at the top and by 11:00a the snow had stopped and the sun was shining brightly on Tim, Zach, Brandon and me. We were the second ones on the lifts and first-tracked a couple of blues before heading to the top, where we found virgin powder nearly everywhere we looked until a well-deserved lunch. In the afternoon we hit the trees and chutes where the snow was still soft and in many places untouched. What a paradise we live in!

Tim was in town for four days of skiing--Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Grand Basin--and lots of other fun. Craig and Teddy Lopus joined in today and Rebecca, Angelica, Zachary, Brandon, Courtney, Lanee and Sam all hit the slopes for at least one day. Overall, a great time with family and friends. Life is good!

My Irish Eyes Are Smiling

It’s St. Paddy’s Day and as is always the case my thoughts turned to my Irish father, Victor William Farley. I lost track of my dad when I was a few years old and didn’t see him again until after I was married and had children. It was a pleasant reunion, however, and I greatly enjoyed getting to know him. Perhaps the highlight of our relationship was when we went to Ireland (I think in 1997), after he retired. It was one of the great times of my life, getting to know Dad while we visited our ancestral home for the first time. As we drove through the countryside, roamed castles, explored cemeteries and ate at pubs we discovered we were alike in so many ways.

My dad was an unusual man with a colorful past. At 15 he left home and tended bar in Chicago. Then he lied about his age and enlisted in the army in World War II. They kept him stateside so he went AWOL, not once, but three times I think. Exasperated, the Army sent him overseas, and I think he mainly served in India. When he came back he ran bars again in Chicago and Miami, sometimes for organized crime and sometimes his own. He was a very tough guy, and was proud of the fact that in all the years he ran “saloons” (as he called them), he always “handled his own business” and never once called the cops. I have heard stories about him handling his own business. Although he was a kind, good-natured and overly accommodating man, it was wise not to cross him, for he had an Irish temper and iron fists.

I think of him as a great servant to friends, family and strangers. Numerous times I observed him helping others in unusual ways that would never occur to me. Another highlight in my life was going to a Cubs game with Dad in 1998—my first at Wrigley Field—and watching Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa bash homers as they both chased Babe Ruth’s record.

So today I put on the sweater that I bought with in Ireland and we looked at the Irish photos and I put on my favorite album of Irish pub songs and reminisced and thought about Dad. And it was good.

Tales of Two Men

Last weekend I had plenty of driving time down and back to Death Valley. And since I was alone, there were no negotiations on what played on the iPod. So I decided to listen to a few audiobooks. On the way down, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, about the political leadership style of Abraham Lincoln. This was recommended to me some time ago and I’ve been waiting for the right time to listen. On the way home it was Bob Spitz’s biography of The Beatles, which was on my iPod when I bought it, and one of the few book-length choices that I had available.

I was struck by the enormous contrast between the two. I have read some about Lincoln before, but prior to this had never really appreciated him as man. Beyond his intelligence and sagacity, he was a man of extraordinary character and goodness—good-natured, humorous, forgiving, long-suffering, patient, kind and considerate. I was humbled as I listened to his story, and deeply saddened when it came to his assassination, for the world lost too early one of its noblest souls.

Listening to The Beatles provided some interesting background to their music, which I have enjoyed and admired since I was a kid. The White Album was one of my first, and Hey Jude was an early favorite that I learned on the piano. But I must admit to being disappointed in discovering them as people, and particularly John Lennon, often considered the soul of the group. Lennon was certainly a gifted songwriter and the catalyst for the development of the band. But he was also a cruel, arrogant and insecure individual whose penchant for hard drugs and later heroin addiction squeezed out his humanity and left him and Yoko parading as symbols and seeking publicity and attention at every turn. It is a sad and unfortunate story, and one that I rather wish I had not wasted my time on.

It’s too bad that we look for so many of our “heroes” in the world of pop culture. There are great people among us, and many more to be found in history. Listening to Abraham Lincoln’s story inspired me to be a better person, and I would be wise to spend more of my study in that direction. John Lennon’s story went the other way, glamorous and successful but morally empty. What we read, what we listen to, turns out to be an important decision. I’ve certainly had my fill of pablum at the expense of more fulfilling options. And unfortunately, I can’t go back. But now in hindsight I see how readily I have sacrificed my mental and spiritual health by partaking of demoralizing junk food and popular swill.

Death Valley Days

I had the unique pleasure of spending a few days in Death Valley over the weekend, enjoying its canyons with some very nice folks from Las Vegas. It was my first time there and the place is truly awesome in its desolate loneliness, appearing nearly lifeless and with intimidating ruggedness. From Dante’s Peak you can look over the vast expanse of the valley, all below sea level and covered with immense salt deposits, leading to an inevitable feeling that God did not create this bleak tract of earth for human habitation. And in fact, few have lived here over the course of history, mostly miners, battling the mountains and elements to extract precious deposits of gold, silver, copper, chloride, borax, lead and even cyanide.

The canyons are equally stark, surrounded by black, craggy mountains with approaches filled with slippery talus-covered inclines, one of which carried me on my butt for over 40 yards while I grasped desperately for something to stop my fall. At the bottom, looking at my bloody hands, I was reminded of why I brought my gloves, and kept them by my side for the rest of the trip.

Day One was Styx Canyon, which includes 13 rappels and plenty of challenging downclimbs, dropping nearly 5000 vertical feet. Unlike Utah sandstone, these canyons offer many layers of mineral-laden rock, from crumbly limestone to hard-edged quartz and large igneous deposits. This made for a very different sort of canyoneering experience, and although not as beautiful as Utah, they are certainly as impressive and awe-inspiring. And after a 10-hour day in Styx, I would say equally challenging as well. Day Two was Coffin Canyon, another 4600 feet down and seven rappels, including one 190-footer and another that passed sea level during the descent. Both canyons finished about at about -250 feet in elevation with walkouts over vast alluvial fans overlooking the saline-covered valley floor.

I would like to return to Death Valley. I've read about a stunningly long line of petroglyphs west of the park that sound fascinating. I've heard that the mountain wildflowers are awesome a little later in the spring. Of course, there’s the infamous racetracks, where the rocks leave long traces in the sand as they roll imperceptibly across the perfectly flat desert floor. And then there are more canyons to do. But I think I’d most like to walk in the salt-covered valley in the middle of July, baking in the sun in the hottest and driest place on this earth, enduring for a while this one extreme, and taking the best and worst of what the sun can give.

Getting Needled

When it comes to pain removal, I’m willing to try almost anything. So when a back pain started to flare up again recently, I was pretty open-minded. I’ve tried vigorous stretching. I’ve also had a series of chiropractic treatments. But nothing has worked. Which is how I found myself doing a Google Maps search for “Acupuncture” businesses in my area.

I had only one important criteria for choosing an acupuncturist off of Google—I wanted a real Chinese guy. From China. The worse English the better. I wasn’t looking for some New-Age acupuncturist who learned her trade in southern California and would make me listen to Michael Bolton while she pricked my back. Nor was I interested in a former junkie turned tattoo artist who had traded up their needles along the way. No, I wanted an old man, with calluses on his feet, who had learned the secrets of acupuncture deep in mainland China, gaining wisdom quietly passed down by wise and aged Oriental shamans over many generations.

Google showed me Master Lu’s Acupuncture. Now that sounded pretty good. I pictured the old blind guy on the Kung Fu shows I watched as a kid. But I called and it turns out Master Lu had a heart attack, sold his business and moved back to Taiwan. No good. Then I tried Yancheng Acupuncture and Herbal Clinic. Dr. Yancheng answered the phone. I didn’t understand a word he said. Perfect. I made an appointment for the next day.

Dr. Yancheng has a spartan office—a house which he has converted half into his place of business. I was led from the reception area into a back room which had his desk and several bookshelves full of glass bottles filled with many curious-looking herbs. But fortunately, no bongs around, so I figured he was probably ok. (I’m not sure exactly what an eye of gnewt looks like, but I think I saw one.)

Dr. Yancheng told me he was also an orthopedic doctor, but preferred acupuncture to conventional methods. When I described my problems, he assured me he could fix them, showing me a book written completely in Chinese as some sort of reassurance to me. Turns out that mine was problem #117. Or maybe he was recommending the Kung Pao Shrimp. Anyway, we went into a little room and I laid down on a massage table and he stuck me in the back with needles and hooked me up to an electric current for 15 minutes and then proceeded to twist, prod and massage my back and neck, cracking it vigorously, bending me roughly and poking at me mercilessly with his knife-like fingers.

“You very stiff,” I think he said. (Or maybe it was “Blue fairy skip,” I’m not sure.) He indicated that it would take a lot of work, then made the next two appointments while I imagined I heard a cash register in the background go “ka-ching,” a universal sound which I think originated in China. I told him that had been my first ever massage and he was surprised. If he had known that before, I think he would have been more gentle. Anyway, we talked for a while, and eventually I began to understand him a little. “Chinese medicine not like American medicine,” he said. American medicine want to fix you after you get sick. Chinese medicine want to help you never get sick.” Now that made perfect sense to me.

And next time I'm going to ask about the jars.

March Quotes

There are many ways of going forward, but only one of standing still.
---Franklin D. Roosevelt

Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening all at once.

"A team is a group of people who may not be equal in experience, talent, or education but in commitment."
-- Patricia Fripp

"I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
-- Maya Angelou

"What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books."
-- Thomas Carlyle

"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."
-- William Connor Magee

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
--Walter Gagehot-

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
-- Confucius

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
-- John Wooden

"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."
-- Vince Lombardi

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead were there is no path and leave a trail."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."
--Winston Churchill

Nothing ruins the truth like stretching it.

"Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means."
--Albert Einstein

"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance."
--Ray Bradbury

Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain... only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know... But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?
--From the Wizard of Oz

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
--Albert Einstein

"Why do I rob banks? Because that's where the money is."
--Willy Sutton

"Paradise is here or nowhere: You must take your joy with you, or you will never find it."
--O.S. Marden, founder of Success Magazine

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
--Will Rogers

Fantastic Voyage

I just finished reading the book Fantastic Voyage (Live Long Enough to Live Forever) by Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Terry Grossman (see www.fantastic-voyage.net/). I first encountered Kurzweill some years ago, when I read his fascinating book, The Age of Spiritual Machines. He’s one of the world’s foremost technology futurists, with scientist credentials and an impressive track record of seeing what’s ahead.

A few months ago I ran across his book The 10% Solution, which I read with interest. It advocated an extremely low-fat diet to virtually eliminate your risk of heart disease and other life-taking ailments. The led me to discover the latest book, which has a rather dramatic premise: In the next 20-30 years, biotechnology will advance far enough that it should be able to eliminate most diseases, including arteriosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and others, primarily through nanotechnology, which will provide molecular-sized robots with the ability to destroy, rebuild, replace or reprogram your cells. The result: If you can keep your health until the time comes, you should be able to live forever. Ponce de Leon, eat your heart out.

Kurzweil approaches the subject like a scientist, looking at all available research and concluding with what existing knowledge suggests about optimizing our health. It is a comprehensive look, covering not only diet and exercise, but other factors which include cell phone radiation, stress, etc. He takes a three-fold approach:

1. How each one of our body’s systems work, including what can go wrong and why. I’ve never been a capable student of science, but I found his explanations both interesting and readable.
2. Based on the best available research, how should you take care of each system? In most cases, this includes rather extreme dietary principles and lots of natural supplements.
3. Developments in technology that address the deterioration or diseases we incur. Most enlightening for me is all that is happening now, especially with testing done on animals, in many cases successfully. I was pretty skeptical when I started, but finished as a believer.

Two things. Thing One: I’m not really interested in living forever on this earth in its present state, and I’m doubtful that will really happen. But Thing Two: If I knew I had the option to live to a ripe old age with the benefits of a healthy mind and body, well, that’s worth some radical diet and lifestyle changes in my book, and in Kurzweil’s, too. Whether I die at 65 or 100, I’d like to do it with my boots on.