The Bomber

       The latest addition to my Adventure gear takes the form of a four-wheeled monster, which I have dubbed “The Bomber”.  I anticipate that it will facilitate many stories and Adventures in the years to come.  Here is just a sneak peak at my beauty.  I can’t wait to really take it out! 

Keep alive the Spirit of Adventure!

Craft Sale

            Unfortunately, I’ve been busy with work and battling the sickies so I haven’t had much to speak of recently.  However, today Sedona Rouge put on a small craft fair in their porte-cochère.  They had a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, apple cider and of course several tables set up for craft sales.  I had to check it out.  The crafts didn’t really catch my fancy; they were geared toward a more feminine clientele.  But I’m glad I went, if only snag a photo of my coworkers with Santa (one dressed in full elf attire). 

 Yours truly with St. Nick (sorry for crushing your leg). 

            Here’s a question, why are craft sales always so girly?  I want to see a manly craft sale!  Maybe one that sells hand crafted swords or weapons.  Or there are guys selling their home brewed beer or spirits.  And maybe there’s a guy who makes things out of leather, like holsters or hats or hell, even full on jackets!  Or there’s this old guy who sells ancient maps with great promise.  This sounds just like a seaside marketplace in the 1700’s.  Maybe I have pirates on the mind.  Anyway, somebody please steal this idea!  Manly craft sales need to happen! I don’t even care if I get credit; just make it real.  BUT DO NOT FORGET TO INVITE ME! 

See you at the sale!  Arrgghh!

Family, Turkey and the Beginning of Something Great!

           Once again, it’s been too long since my last post and for that I apologize.  I have been keeping myself very busy.  Between my family visiting, Thanksgiving, work and just trying to relax on my days off, blogging hasn’t been the first thing on my mind.  So let’s recap a few of the highlights. 

            As I mentioned, my family came out to Sedona.  It was fantastic seeing them (a little overwhelming at times) but fantastic non-the-less.  This was the first time I had seen them since I left Sunny San Diego.  We toured the local towns, ate at fancy restaurants and bought souvenirs.  But, by far the most excited thing that we did was rent a RZR (Pronounced Razor) from Sedona ATV & Buggy Rental.  For those of you who don’t know, Sedona ATV & Buggy Rental rents out ATV’s, RZR’s, Buggies and Tomcars to people who want a little Adventure in their lives.  You pick your vehicle, they give you a map and instructions on the recommend routes to take and after that you’re on your own.  It’s a self-guided tour of Sedona and it is bad-ass! 

            We choose a four-seated RZR.  Our route took us through some trails off Soldiers Pass Road then up Schnebly Hill Road.   We got some great pictures off Soliders Pass Road but Schnebly Hill Road was where things got really interesting.  If you took Schnebly all the way it would take you from the 179 to the 17 freeway. For our purposes we just drove to the peak and back.  There is an incredible elevation gain when driving up Schnebly, so it got cold real fast.  Oh yeah, did I mention that it was drizzling the entire time we were driving around.  Yeah, it was definitely what I put down in my book as Adventure.  It was my first time driving a RZR and it was love at first sight.  My family and I had such a great time out there I would highly recommend doing this on a trip out to Sedona.  Damn, want to go again!  Here are some pictures from out Journey:

I also enjoyed this excellent Belgian with my father (not when we were driving obviously).  Straffe Hendrik Heritage 2012.  It says on the bottle that it was a quadruple ale, but I was told it was a Belgian.

            Another thing that I find odd about Sedona is that there is a tradition of going out to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner instead of staying home.  Or at least it’s a tradition for the restaurant I work at and the 197 people who had dinner that night.  I had never heard of such a thing before I moved here.  But what did this mean for me?  Working all day (literally).  It was pretty intense.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, in fact I think I strive under stress, but I was exhausted after that then working 7 days in a row.  My family did not stay long enough to celebrate Thanksgiving with me, which was fine since I was working anyway.  But I did however get to have a Thanksgiving dinner with a dear friend of mine from SDSU and her family.  I had an absolute blast! 

            And now it’s December.  And it’s the 4^th already.  The 4^th doesn’t have any particular significance; I merely bring it up because this month is going by too fast.  I want to savor every last second of this month!   December is a holy month in the book of Wayne.  Allow me to enlighten you.  Not only does it hold Jesus’ birthday (aka, Christmas: the best holiday ever) it also holds my birthday!  Also the 21^st of December is the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year (bring on the night!).  And it gets even better, December (at least for us in the northern hemisphere) usually means it’s getting cold outside!  Some people even get beautiful snow!  (I’m not going to lie, I love how San Diego is hassle free when it comes to snow, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to visit it.)  December is also the last month of the year, which is cool (pun intended) because it’s the finale!  It’s like the ending to a great movie and then everyone celebrates the coming of a sequel.  New years celebration takes place partially in December, which just makes me thing of women in black dresses, champagne, fireworks and shiny stuff (absolutely sexy!).  December also reminds of the greatest hero ever, BATMAN!  Because so many Batman storylines have revolved around Christmas I can’t help (and neither should you) but associate the dark knight with Christmas and by extension December.  Need I say more? 

            I’ll try to be a little more vigilant about keeping up with my posts this month.  Hope you enjoy this month as much as I do and as always keep Adventuring!

The Legend of Posse Ground: A Link to My Past

I apologize for the lack of posts recently dear readers.  On top of being busy at the resort I got sick and was not able to Adventure in my free time.  Instead of exploring the outdoors I explored the libraries of netflix in an effort to “take it easy” (yuck!).  Good news everyone, I’m feeling much better now! 

In other good news, my family is coming out to Sedona to visit me this weekend.  This will be their first chance to actually spend some real time out here, since their last trip was cut short.  So in an effort to clean my place up for them I decided to take my laundry to the Laundromat.  On my way out, for whatever reason, I remember something a friend told me.  They said that up Posse Ground road there was a teen center, which had a skate park.  I thought: why the hell not, let’s check it out!  So like so many of my Adventures, I spontaneously decided to follow some vague directions that I remember hearing about from some local. 

Back in the day my best friend Jesse and I used to be avid skateboarders.  We would go entire summers where we must have skated every single day.  I dare say, we became quite skilled in the art.  But one fateful summer there was a huge accident leaving us both traumatized!  No not really, the truth is that we were just getting too beat up and we found other hobbies that occupied our time, like airsoft.  But I kept a board or two and have occasionally rode here or there. 

So today I decided that I should check out this park and maybe try my hand (or feet) at the park. 

Well here it was, Sedona’s only skate park.  One thing that I love about this park already is that it’s one of these skate-at-your-own-risk type parks.  No supervision, very few rules and the possibility of danger (in opinion the American way).  So jumped on my board and started to shred.  Well, maybe not shred, but had a blast just riding around.  It had been a while since I’ve stood on a board.  Thankfully, my balance has good memory and I was able to enjoy myself with only a few mix-ups.  The only thing that I would have enjoyed more would have been if Jesse could have joined me on this Adventure. 

So if you ever find yourself in Sedona Arizona and you need a place to skate now you know where to go, Posse Ground Skate Park up Posse Ground Road off West State Route 89A.  So I guess I should get back to cleaning since my family is coming in.  Hopefully with their arrival will come more Adventures and of course more blog posts so be looking forward to that in the near future.  Until next time fellow Adventurers do something you haven’t done in a while and see you next time!

This song fit the mood so I threw it in.   

Famous Pizza

After my many Adventures I often find it necessary to hit up the local eatery to unwind, replenish nutrients and maybe knock back a cold one (or three).  Being new to Sedona I haven’t established said spots yet, until now. 

             Famous Pizza is one of the many pizza joints here in small town Sedona (it’s bizarre how many pizza places they have here).  But what makes it stand out you ask?  Excellent pizza, reasonable prices, friendly staff and most importantly the best selection of craft brew in town!  They carry Stone, Oak Creek Brewery, Port Brewing, North Coast, Firestone, Sierra Nevada, Ballast Point, Green Flash, Dog Fish Head, Alesmith and Bear Republic just to name a few.  Being a San Diegan I come from a city with an exploding craft brew culture.  I credit my father and uncle for getting me hooked.  So when I stumbled upon Famous Pizza I flipped my shit!  I thought to myself “thank God I don’t have to go without decent beer here in the desert”!  They have three locations but I have decided to frequent their West Sedona Location: 3190 West State Route 89A Suite 300 Sedona, AZ. 

            Today Famous Pizza untapped two imperial stouts.  One was the Big Bad Baptist from Epic Brewing Co. and the other was from Stone Brewery.  I sampled both and went with Epic.  To accompany my Beer I got a Hawaiian pizza substituting the Canadian bacon for pepperonis.  I finished my beer before my pizza so I decided to follow up the stout with Dog Fish Head’s Palo Santo Marron (which is one of my favorite beers ever!).  So clearly I had a great lunch today. 

Imperial Stout from Epic.

Palo Santo. 

            I am of the opinion that Adventurers need a spot to unwind and tell grand tales and epic exploits.  Hopefully you have such a place. 

Keep life interesting fellow Adventurers!   

Happy Halloween

       It’s that time of year where people in my age group get totally wasted, eat way too much sugar and turn the most innocent of things into slutty costumes.  You can see why it’s one of my favorite holidays.  Sadly I will not be participating the debauchery this year.  This is because I’ve moved to a new town and have no friends (hahaha just kidding.. well kinda).  For those of you who don’t know me as well as you should, costuming is one of my favorite hobbies in the world!  So this is kind of a big deal (*Ron Burgundy voice).  But that’s all right, I’m sure I’ll have something planned for next year.  I’m still getting used to Sedona.  So I’ll leave you with two photos from my families Halloween party in 2009. 

I'm sure you can guess who yours truly is. ;)

       Shout out to my beautiful cousin Lani and her talented husband David!  They always have incredible costumes!

Sterling Pass (Trail 46) and Vultee Arch

            A few of my co-workers from Sedona Rouge invited me to go on a hike with them on Tuesday.  When this morning rolled around I got a text from the organizer stating that our hike was canceled due to a chance of rain.  This is what it looked like outside:

            Having been cheated out of my hike I decided to lone-wolf it and go on my own Adventure.  But where would I go?  Well, I remembered a conversation that I had with one of our regular guests at the resort.  This gentleman was an avid hiker and knew the area extremely well despite not being a local.  He told me about this trail called Sterling Pass, which was just north of Manzanita Campground.  I really wish I could tell you his name, because it’s a very fun German name that I thoroughly enjoy saying with an accent.  But for the sake of privacy we shall refer to him as Herr Zimmerman (why? Because it too is a cool German name!). 

            So I head out!  Driving east on the 89A from the Resort I passed the two main round-a-bouts and passed through uptown (the tourist trap).  From uptown the drive is about 15 minutes north along the 89A as it becomes a small two lane highway the weaves through trees and boulders the size of buses.  My trail is on the side of the highway and “you could drive past it a hundred times and miss it” in the words of Herr Zimmerman.  There is a small area for about two or three cars to park in front of the trail or you could park at Manzanita Campground.  I suggest you pull over on the side of the road so you don’t have to walk along the highway and so you don’t have to pay the ridiculous $18. 

            Here is the beginning of the trail.

            It was only about thirty minutes into the hike and I was already breathing heavy and sweating profusely.  There is a quick elevation gain on the street side of Sterling Pass.  Les Stroud would have been very disappointed in me; I waited too long to take off my jacket.  In the wilderness and especially survivor situations you must do whatever you can avoid sweating.  Even if that means taking off your shirt and showing off your amazingly sculpted abs.  Think I’m joking; well think about this, why do we sweat?  It’s so our body can use that liquid to better transfer heat out of us.  Liquid is a great transferor of heat.  So when you sweat up your shirt and a cold gust of wind comes along get ready to suffer.  How do you suppose you’ll dry your shirt?  You certainly don’t have a dryer machine.  Anyway, the point is, don’t sweat if you can help it.  Where was I?

            Do not be discouraged fellow Adventurers; though there is a quick elevation gain it is plenty worth it.  The trail switchbacks along the mountainside and there are some very interesting rock formations along the way.  At one point I came across this formation that jutted out from the side of the mountain and had a sheer drop on the other side.  It’s a little difficult to explain so here are some pictures (which don’t really do it justice either):

            About forty minutes into the hike I reach the top of the pass where it begins to go down the other side of the mountain.  I found myself a little disappointed.  Traditionally I have always been a fan of hiking to the top, conquering that mountain and then coming back down.  I guess I just like having goals (i.e. the top of the mountain).  So I keep going down the other side since I certainly wasn’t going to stop after a mere 40 minutes.

            This side had a different feel to it.  There seemed to be a much thicker canopy of trees.  Many of the trees were changing colors into reds, yellows and oranges so I took some pictures (perhaps my three least favorite colors):

            There were also a lot of trees that looked like they had survived a fire and many had also fallen over.  I’m not sure what the story is here. 

            When you spend enough time alone and have an imagination like I do you begin to think up strange things.  On my way down the switchbacks I heard a noise that I did not recognize.  It sounded like a rapid succession of loud taps on a tree.  Almost like a clicking sound up in the canopy.  Perhaps you’re thinking the same thing as me?  Predators in the trees! 

            It wasn’t long after this that I came across another human.  When I first spotted him farther down the switchbacks it would have been too difficult to communicate.  So instead of awkwardly shouting down the mountain I picked up the pace a little.  I eventually came up on him and asked if he had done this trail before.  He said no and told me he was not from around here.  I asked him where was he was from and he told me Germany (I now know where I get my spirit of Adventure, it must reside in my German blood).  He also informed me that he was attempting to reach Vultee Arch.  I’m glad he told me this because now I had a goal too!  I walked on ahead of him and was determined to find this Vultee Arch landmark. 

            At the foot of the mountain it hit me.  I realized what that clicking noise must have been.  After see so many burnt and fallen trees I realized it must have been the sound of trees squeaking in the wind.  Anyways, I soon came up behind a sign.  It was facing away from me.   Upon inspection the sign read <- Vultee Arch, -> Sterling Pass (which was where I had come from).  So I took the trail to Vultee Arch.

            Although the trail was a little difficult to spot at times it was wasn’t too much farther to reach the Arch.  And what a magnificent sight it was!   

            I’m so glad that my German friend had told me about the Arch.  This gave me a goal and it was a really cool landmark.  There was a fifty-fifty chance that I would have gone straight at the fork and missed it altogether.  I waited around a little bit to catch my breath and let him catch up with me.  I knew he wasn’t far behind. 

            He eventually did, and we sat next to the Arch and talked a little more about other hikes in the area and introduced ourselves.  I didn’t quite understand his name but he just told me to call him Ralph.  After a few minutes I told him to be safe and I departed once again.  I was now on my way back up Sterling Pass to get back to my car.  On my way back I ran into a few more people.  I was glad to see people pushing themselves. 

            This was a great hike and in total took me about three hours.  Thank you Herr Zimmerman for the suggestion.  I’m glad that it didn’t rain because Sterling Pass crosses over what looks like a dried up river bed numerous times and that would have made the hike a little more challenging.  I would give this a 5 out of 10 on the Adventure scale, since it was difficult but was still a trail.  

Weiter Abenteuer meine Freunde!