Three Sisters Falls, San Diego, CA

Finally took advantage of my adventure pass and did some hiking in the Cleveland National Forest.

Reading about this hike most people rate it 8 to 9 out of 10 on the scale of difficulty. I think this rating was undeserved. I would only put it at about a 6. With good shoes and taking your time on the steep area of loose sands, there is almost no risk.

For what turned out to be for no good reason we carried a surf board and a body board the whole way. The only thing they proved useful for was a prop in the photo below, with the three sisters in the background. This picture was taken on the way down just before the steep and loose part of the hike.

Once we got to the falls it was time to play around. The hike up to the top of the third sister was a little sketchy, it was a slab scramble. If you lost your grip you would tumble down the rocks and over the water falls. The water at the bottom of the falls was only about knee to waist deep.

The shallowness of the water didn't prevent me and Jeff from jumping. There was a sandy bottom under the shallow water, so it was soft when you hit bottom.

Above the third sister there was this queens bath in a crack between the rocks that created an infinity pool. I slipped my way down into the pool and relaxed for a minute. Getting out of the pool turned out to be a little hard. The rock gets really slick when your wet.

A little way from the parking area on the way back we crossed paths with a Rattle Snake. This was only my second encounter with a rattler in the wild.

Even got to take a little Poison Oak home with me all over my right arm. I might have been able to avoid leaving home with it if I had read the directions better. At the bottom of the hill when you reach the creek you need to rock hop or hike along the left side of the creek. The trail seemed to cross the creek so I did some bush whacking on the right side of the creek.

-James

Lele Kawa

Paintball Slaughter House Imperial, CA

The guys of Yuma Vindictas and I headed west to Imperial, CA to take on Nemesis Paintball in their slaughter house paintball field. There was a clash of styles. Nemesis is a traditional scenario type team, and their field lent itself to their style of play. Yuma Vindictas play a speedball tournament style.

The field was two main rooms with two rows of pillars in each room. Separating the main two rooms was a small connecting room with large doorways to one wall. Most of the action took place in the doorways of the connecting room.

Vindictas's superior firepower overwhelmed the tactics and home field advantage of Nemesis. Four of the Five games played Vindictas was able to take the win.

Sketch I made

-James

Lele Kawa

Stand Up Paddle boarding the Colorado River.

I finally got around to stand up paddle boarding on the Colorado River. In my typical fashion I went in the hottest part of the day starting around 1:30. I took off from West Wetland Park and headed up stream. I didn't have any plan on how far I would go, but I knew I wanted to go at least as far as Gateway Park, about one mile up stream.

There was no shortage of people doing float downs on the river. Almost every one of them asked me what I was doing and told me that I was going in the wrong direction.

The river in the area I paddled varies from about 1 foot to 5 feet in depth with a bottom of sand and the occasional beer can from lost form one of the many people floating down. The river really is the only oasis here in the desert of Yuma.

The first mile was peaceful, I only encountered one family flowing down. I let them try my board for a little while.

At Gateway Park the river was full of people and I threaded my way through. I continued to get a lot of attention as I paddled by. Upstream of Gateway Park was when I started passing the giant flotillas of rubber rafts and some jet skis. I also passed by the sherif in their air boat, that you could hear long before you saw, as its made its way down stream.

I am happy with this trip as a whole. The only bad part was the heat. Next time I will start earlier in the morning and try to make it all the way to "Shit Creek" as the convergence of the Colorado and Gila rivers is known. I will also try to get video of next time. I thought I had things set up this time but when I got home my camera hadn't recorded anything.

If you zoom in, you can see on the map below the upstream route wasn't nearly as strait as the down stream.

-James

Lele Kawa

Morning Mountain Biking at Sugarloaf, Yuma, AZ

I took a pre work ride with one of the guys I work with. This was my first time going out that early, and also my first time going out riding with somebody else.

The guy I went with rides about 20 miles a day, but is not used to single track riding. I blew him away on the trail. I had to stop and wait for him every time the trail split. I was hoping I could get him in some good follow or lead shots with my helmet cam, but he couldn't keep up.

-James

Lele Kawa

Sabino Canyon, Tucson, Arizona

Lonely planet list Bear Canyon in the Sabino Canyon park as one of the best hikes in Arizona. Unfortunately I was there the wrong time of year and there was no water and so no seven falls.

I wasn't about the let the lack of water or triple digit temperatures stop me from getting in some hiking. I decided to just wander around and see if Sabino Lake had any water, it did not. I made my way along the trails and then down the creek bed to Sabino Dam.

I liked how this area of the desert has so much more life than here around Yuma. So many more cacti and bushes.

  

When I arrived at the dam, there was no water behind it, but there were some small pools of stagnant water below it. Despite their small size the pools had minnows swimming around in them. I found it kinda funny that there was water below the dam but not behind it, seems to kinda defeat the purpose of a dam, Near the damn there was also a shady little picnic area that I took refuge in from the sun for a while as I decided if I should hike any farther.

 View of the Dam from the trail

 The Dam

 Survey Marker on the Dam

 Pools below the dam

Dam from below

I will need to head back during the late summer monsoons or in the late spring to do the seven falls hike and enjoy the pools.

-James

Lele Kawa

Piestewa Peak, Phoenix, AZ

What better to do for Memorial Day weekend than hike a peak renamed in memory of Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa. It is one of the two peaks in the middle of Phoenix. I was surprised by the crowds, there was a steady stream of people heading up and down. The path was partially reinforced, but clearly needs more work, because in its current state it only seems to make the walk more difficult. There are a lot of awkward steps and stone cemented into place edge up.

Over all it was a pretty good hike. A short climb to the top of a mountain with views of downtown and the areas surrounding Phoenix. A good bit of cardio to start the day.

 Looking up to the top

 Downtown

 The trail

 The peak

 Survey marker at the peak

Looking down at the trail from the peak.

-James

Lele Kawa

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ

One of my main draws to Phoenix was Taliesin West. A Frank Lloyd Wright home and school in Scottsdale, celebrating 75 years.

I first became interested in Wright in high school. While studying architecture in I took trips to the houses built by Frank Lloyd Wright and saw some movies about him. I also had a friend, who's father was an architect and his style imitated Wright.

One of the first sights on the tour was some petroglyphs. This one at the entrance includes the squared spiral that Wright came to use as a symbol of Taliesin West.

Each area of the house had these Chinese theater scenes in the spaces that divided them. The story goes that Wright bought them in pieces and his students erected them.

The front fountain and front yard also acted as a fire break. It also offered a little green separating the house from the surrounding desert.

The campus Bell Tower over the kitchen, that acted as the dinner bell.

Fire breathing dragon, that was originally a gift to be part of the fountain. Mrs. Wright did not think any self respecting dragon should spit water so she had it connected to propane.

One of my favorite little things about the house was the use of irregular pentagon doors. Only Wright would be so bold as to think that he could improve upon doors.

I am disappoint that I did not get any pictures of the three theaters on the property. My favorite being the cabaret theater. A well designed cave to be used as a dinner theater. The acoustics were the best part. The lack of right angles and the sounding board under the stage made it so any whisper from the stage could be heard everywhere in the theater.

-James

Lele Kawa