First Hike

I'm WAY too tired to post a full report, but I went on my first actual hike today up at Mt. Charleston, and actually, it was my first TWO hikes. In total, we hiked about 6 miles up, down and through the mountainsides today......and I will be feeling it for days to come! If you should happen to be familiar with that area, we hiked Mary Jane Falls in its entirety and we hiked up and back the first 1.5 miles of Fletcher Canyon. I'll try to empty my pics off the phone soon and get them up here. Until then, have a happy holiday weekend everyone!!!

Some Old Favorites

Matt clued me into some brilliance that occurred on Saturday Night Live last night since I've pretty much given up on that show these past couple of years. Will Ferrell hosted the SNL season finale and some old favorites made some appearances. Here's a couple hulu embeds in case you missed them.

Go take a hike!!

I'm officially committed to a new hobby! It seems that I was bitten by the hiking bug on the trip to the Grand Canyon a couple weeks ago. I don't know if it was the tiny trek down the Bright Angel Trail that did it or the more leisurely walk along the Rim Trail, but I've definitely got a new interest in getting out and seeing some of what the great southwest has to offer. Actually, now that I think about it, my interest in hiking might have something to do with the fact that its pretty much an activity that is an antithesis of anything to do with casinos! While walking a nature trail, there are no slot machines, no smokers, no Let It Ride douchebags complaining about their cards, no LOUD HOUSE BANDS, etc.

So a few days ago, Danielle and I went shopping and I splurged a good day's wages on a pair of light hiking shoes and a hydration backpack....as seen here:
The shoes feel very good and seem to be very well made and the backpack is already packed and ready to go, with various items such as first aid supplies, flashlight, water, multi-tool, emergency poncho, etc. etc. I found a list of the essential hiking items on this web site:

http://www.hikinglasvegas.com/

Danielle turned me onto that web site and it looks like it'll be extremely useful! There are three major areas in the Vegas vicinity that have maintained hiking trails (of various difficulty). Red Rock Canyon, the Lake Mead area and Mount Charleston. I'm not sure about Red Rock, but unfortunately, the Lake Mead area is pretty much out of the question for a few months since its hotter down there than it is in Vegas, and the temps in Vegas are already eclipsing 100 these days. However, Mount Charleston is usually 20-30 degrees cooler than Vegas, so some hikes up there this summer should be a nice respite from the unending summer heat in the dessert!

Another nice aspect of that web site is that it breaks down all of the possible hikes into difficulty categories. I'll obviously need to take it easy the first couple times out since I'm not really in that great of shape. Danielle tells me that the Mary Jane Falls hike is something I'd probably like and one that she has taken her dog on in the past. The next catch is to find a day to go. I'd prefer to go with Danielle instead of taking my first hike alone, but I seem to be working every Saturday and Sunday lately and she has a normal M-F job. So maybe one of the days of Memorial Day weekend will work out. When it happens, I'll try to post some pics and a report on here afterwards.

Syd Barrett Tribute

This is for die-hard Pink Floyd fans. I've recently discovered a Floyd related message board (http://www.pinkfloydz.com) and a member over there (singtome70) has created a great video! It's a half-hour video tribute to Syd Barrett. There is a TON of videos and pictures in this movie that I've never ever come across before. It's very well-done and I guess it could be enjoyed by non-Floyd fans as well. If you have some time to kill, please give it a look.

Grand Canyon Trip Report

I wrote up a modest trip report for the Grand Canyon on the T2V board. You can read it by clicking this link.

GC TR

Grand Canyon Pics

As I mentioned in my last post, Danielle and I headed out to Arizona last weekend to see the Grand Canyon for a couple of days. I haven't had a chance to get a full trip report ready, but I did get a chance to upload all of the pictures off my camera phone. Here are a couple of sample pics from the trip. Depending on which browser you're using, you may be able to click on each picture for full-size goodness!

I uploaded about 50 pictures off the phone and put them (in no particular order) in my photobucket account. To see ALL of the pictures, please click the following link:

Rob's Grand Canyon Pics