Hike #8: Helium

When

Saturday, 2015-01-17

Where

Piestewa Circumference Trail, from the Piestewa Summit Trailhead

Duration

2 hours

Notable

More bees than usual at the drinking fountain at the base of the Summit Trail

Today's hike is one of my favorites in the Phoenix area: the Piestewa Circumference Trail, officially named Trail #302. The trail leads around the mountain instead of up it, and it has much less foot traffic than the Summit Trail.

For the second time in January, I discovered a bunch of birthday balloons littering the desert landscape. This time I picked them up and packed them out, unlike what I did with the balloons I discovered while on hike #1. My good deed took some work, too. I trail-blazed up a steep gradient over loose rocks and around some scraggly brush to get to the balloons, and then I used my pocket knife to untangle them from a bush.

The helium once filling the balloons is the second-most abundant element in the universe, the first being hydrogen. Nevertheless, helium is a precious and nonrenewable resource. This is because helium is lightweight and nonreactive, two qualities that together cause the gas to rise out of the earth's atmosphere when released into the air. We get our helium just like we get natural gas, by drilling into rock. Most of the helium below the surface of the earth is a result of the natural radioactive decay of uranium and other unstable elements—the same radioactive decay that probably keeps the earth from being a frozen rock incapable of supporting life.

Hike #7: Moving parts

When

Thursday, 2015-01-15

Where

Out-and-back along trail 100, from the 40th St trailhead

Duration

½ hour

Notable

First after-work hike of the year

For all hikes this year other than hike #2 , I've used a bicycle to get to and from the trailhead. Hike #2 is exceptional because I hiked with my wife, who, other than her fear and loathing of bicycles, is a reasonable and thoughtful woman.

A bicycle is simple in both senses of the word. On one hand, a bicycle has fewer parts than automotive alternatives, and most of a bicycle's parts are some combination of visible, accessible, and modular, so a bicycle is simple as in not complex. On the other hand, a bicycle is easy to use—indeed, the very model thereof. We say of a skill not soon forgotten that it's like riding a bike. So a bicycle is simple as in easy to do.

Nevertheless, a bicycle has more moving parts than you would guess. Many of these moving parts are hidden. For example, there are dozens of ball bearings, such as those in the hubs of the two wheels or in the bottom bracket or the headset. But most riders never see the insides of these parts. Wheels come pre-built, modern bottom brackets have sealed cartridges, and a headset doesn't need servicing due to normal wear. And in any case, bearings make up only a small percentage of a bicycle's moving parts. Where are the others? Are they hidden? Not at all! They make up the chain.

Each chain link comprises four or five parts—two plates, a pin, a roller, and an optional bushing—so the 114-link chain of a typical upright bicycle contains 456 or 570 parts. Each of these parts rubs against one or more of the others, and the rubbing causes the chain's metal to wear away over time. Sometimes I think about all this rubbing and wonder at how my legs made only of flesh are able to grind down alloy steel.

Nevertheless, chain friction is nearly negligible, as a typical chain transfers about 98% of the power from chainring to sprocket. The other 2% is waste energy that escapes as heat and noise, with the noise sometimes crescendoing to the tell-tale squeak-squeak of a chain that's past due for maintenance—and that's less than 98% efficient. But mostly the waste is heat. On a bicycle with a rider pushing 200 watts to the chainring—a moderate effort for a fit rider—the chain disperses about as much waste heat as a 50-bulb strand of LED Christmas lights. That's cool to the touch.

Hike #6: A simple hike

When

Saturday, 2015-01-10

Where

Dixie Peak, from the 40th St Trailhead

Duration

1 hour

Notable

First rainy hike

Today's hike was an midday interruption to an all-day marathon of reinstalling Linux on my laptop. The reason for the reinstall? To switch from CrunchBang Linux back to Arch Linux. Why? I lacked a virtue. While I've got impatience and hubris, my laziness is in short supply.

Installing Arch Linux reminds me that the word “simple” is its own antonym. Arch is simple. It has no installer, and after you (manually) follow the steps to put Arch on your computer, your computer won't have any graphics or even the ability to connect to a wireless network. These features and anything else beyond the minimum you want for your computer you must install explicitly.

To use a car analogy, Arch Linux is like a car with a manual transmission, manual steering, manual windows, no A/C, no radio, etc. Imagine this no-frills car and ask yourself this question: Is this car simple?

On one hand, the car is the very model of simplicity because it doesn't have needless complexity. Here, “simple” is the opposite of “complex.”

On the other hand, the car is harder to drive because the car lacks features that assist the driver. In this sense, the car is not simple. Here, “simple” is the opposite of “easy,” or “convenient.”

These two uses of the word “simple” are often at odds—something to keep in mind the next time you say something is simple.

Hike #5: Dawn

When

Wednesday, 2015-01-07

Where

Camelback Mountain, from the Cholla Trailhead

Duration

1½ hours

Notable

Watched the sunrise from atop Camelback.

The sky first hints of the new day to come with a deep purple to the east, and soon the few brightest stars, visible in the city the night after a full moon, disappear. The faint purple glow isn't enough to see my way by and I've still got half a mountain to climb, so I continue upwards by the dim beam of my headlamp. By the time I reach the summit, the purple has given way to dark blue, and soon thereafter pinks and oranges and lighter blues yet. Several hikers stand at the summit, and together and separately we wait for the main event, when the sun first shines its radiant yellow over the horizon. Like clockwork, the big moment arrives, and instantly the sun proves too bright to look at, even when it's as yet a tiny sliver peeking over the Usury Mountains. My heart fills with happiness to be alive on this planet, this morning, watching this nuclear explosion rise into the sky.

Hike #4: Dusk

When

Sunday, 2015-01-04

Where

Phoenix Mountain Preserve, from the 40th St Trailhead

Duration

1½ hours

Notable

First hike in a new pair of old shoes

I started today's hike after sunset and finished under the pale glow of the moon one day before fullness. My route was an out-and-back, starting from the 40th St trailhead on the north side of the Preserve and turning around at the 36th St trailhead on the south side.

If hiking during the day is about seeing nature, hiking at night is about hearing it. Tonight the air was still and quiet, and I heard the hoots of owls and the yelps of coyotes. But mostly I heard voices of other hikers far off, as well as the distant, unceasing roar of freeways many miles away.

Hike #3: Perihelion

When

Saturday, 2015-01-03

Where

Lookout Mountain, 16th St Trailhead

Duration

½ hour

Notable

Hiking in the middle of the day with no water and no sunscreen—won't be able to get away with that in a few months.

Today's hike was a quick out-and-back up and down Lookout Mountain, which is the mountain north of North Mountain. A few years ago on Lookout there was a large beehive obstructing the trail near the summit and if you got close enough you could observe the ceaseless activity of thousands of worker bees. Today the only buzzing to be heard was from an electric remote-controlled helicopter a man was flying at the bottom of the mountain.

Today is the perihelion. That's the yearly moment when the Earth is closest to the Sun. This year the moment happens about a half hour before midnight Arizona Time, so anyone a timezone or more to the east observes the perihelion during the next calendar day, Sunday.

The perihelion is also the moment when the Earth travels fastest through space relative to the Sun. The fact that the Earth speeds up and slows down during its elliptical orbit causes several asymmetries in astronomy and timekeeping.

• The northern hemisphere's summer season lasts longer than its winter season because the Earth moves faster around the sun during the winter, which means…

• The northern hemisphere receives more sunlight than the southern hemisphere.

• The month with the fewest days is February, a winter month in the northern hemisphere, whereas the two consecutive months with the full thirty-one days are July and August, both summer months.

• In the northern hemisphere, the earliest sunset happens before the shortest day of the year and the latest sunrise happens after. By how much earlier or later these days occur depends on the latitude of the observer. In Phoenix we have a few days to go till the latest sunrise, but cities far enough to the north, such as Seattle, may observe the latest sunrise as early as December.

Hike #2: Sunny

When

Friday, 2015-01-02

Where

Dixie Peak, from the 40th St Trailhead

Duration

1½ hours

Notable

Saw the “happy birthday” balloons still tied to the marker from atop Dixie.

Laura, back from her eight-day trip to New York, joined me for today's hike, a mid-morning out-and-back up Dixie Peak.

In the apartment before the hike, I told Laura about my new year's resolution to hike-and-blog. She told me it'll lead to boring blog posts. No one wants to read about me walking around in the desert, she said. No, no, the blog posts won't always be about the hiking, I said. The hiking is merely a prompt for the blogging; I'll write about whatever I think about while walking around. It'll be like Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, the travelogue about hiking the Appalachian Trail in which Mr. Bryson wrote less about hiking and more about the neglect of the National Forest Service and the extinction of indigenous American flora. That's what Just Enough Craig will be like—though maybe a little less pessimistic than Mr. Bryson's book.

Later, while descending Dixie and bemoaning my ignorance of indigenous Sonoran flora, I thought of an idea for a smartphone app: a hiking guide that takes the user on different trails and uses GPS to help the user locate specific sites, with each site focusing on a different species of plant. The app would show photos of the plant to help the user identify it, and then link to the Wikipedia page, or maybe have a condensed summary of interesting facts. For example: “Creosote bushes have a distinctive smell, especially after rainfall. Rub your fingers on the leaves to release the fragrance.”

Laura liked the smartphone app idea and identified the first two steps for implementing it. Step one: buy a smartphone. Step two: learn how to program smartphones. Alas, the first step might be beyond my capability.

Hike #1: Wintry

When

Thursday, 2015-01-01

Where

Phoenix Mountain Preserve, 40th St Trailhead

Duration

3½ hours

Notable

First time on the Voaz and Irregular Link trails.

This morning I awoke to a rare wintry day in Phoenix, with the temperature down and the sun hidden behind gray, dreary clouds. Puddles that had formed from yesterday's rain still lay around the parking lot outside my apartment. It looked to be a good day for a hike.

Through teeth-chattering cold I rode my bike to the nearby 40th St trailhead, locked up, and began walking towards my one and only target for the day, Piestewa Peak. Despite my new year's resolution to read more, I didn't take any time to read the map on the sign at the trailhead. It's impossible to get lost in the Preserve.

Early on I found some soggy, half-deflated “happy birthday” party balloons caught under a tree. I tied them to a nearby trail marker and tried to take a photograph. At this time I realized my camera battery was discharged, so no one gets to see any photos for today.

In the words of a small troupe of small boys coming down the summit trail of Piestewa Peak, “Happy New Year!”