2010 February

Near Deming, NM

We cycle between giddiness and overwhelmed exhaustion today. Even at our slow pace we pace places we’d love to explore, like the rock spires of the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces. Ann drives the rig, which is highly stressful for her still, while I experiment with using the computer in the passenger seat. It all feels unfamiliar.

On I-10 we hit a border patrol checkpoint. This isn’t even a state border. It strikes me as strange that we now have roadway checkpoints for the general citizenry. The image is one I had imagined in Iraq or Palestine, and it suprises me enough that I take a picture, then get chastised for it as we pass through the checkpoint. It could be used for planning a terrorist act, they tell me.

I don’t know what they could be doing here if they’re not profiling. They don’t look at our licenses or any other documentation. If I give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they look up vehicle registrations.

This leaves us a little frazzled. We stop in Deming, have lunch at the visitor center, and decide to overnight at nearby Rockhound State Park. It’s still just afternoon, but the place is filling up and we’re put in the day use area. Still, it’s a nice spot with a covered picnic table. We go exploring the trails. All kinds of cactus and other nicely labeled desert plants here. Side trails marked with spray painted dots all over the place. Warm temperatures – sixty degrees. Glorious.

4 public photos

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (rockhound-20100227)

Near Socorro, NM

It seems a little too easy to leave Santa Fe with all our possessions when Ann gets off work on Friday, and it is. But we’re eager to go before the next round of predicted snowstorms roll in, and we’re unbearably excited about our nomadic future. So we fill tanks and head south, everything apparently in order.

The one part of our setup that isn’t entirely familiar at this point is our 6×10-foot cargo trailer. I created anchors on the front to mount our recumbent bikes on, and I do my best to batten down the contents. Thankfully the bike mounts hold, but when we open the trailer after the final bumpy dirt road into the Socorro Box, we see a pile of overturned bins and clothes. Quickly we close the door again and head up the road on foot under a brilliant moonrise for some excercise.

In the morning the mess is not as bad as it looked before, and we try again to fix things in place. We’d like to climb a little, but there’s a frigid wind blowing, so we get back on the road headed south.

4 public photos

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (socorro-box-20100226)

This book kind of leaves me speechless. The setting is so bleak, it’s tempting to give up on it, but the characters don’t give up so I didn’t. Maybe that’s what it’s about – removing all reason to hope, looking at one father-son relationship, and seeing what’s left. And being forced to admit that hope can survive without reason, and what’s left can still have beauty even if the world’s beauty is stifled to the brink of existence. And imagining such a world helps us appreciate all we have, and all we can lose.

Near Santa Fe, NM

Figuring this may be our last hurrah in the snow for a while, we head up the mountain in heavy snowfall. Ann has held a grudge against Raven’s Ridge ever since our six-hour posthole trudge last May, and wants a rematch in some real snow. Real snow is what we get, dumping all day long. The ridge is still long, but we beat our posthole time regardless, and this time we get to ski down! But not before a quick trip to the very white, windswept, unfriendly summit of Desolation Peak. Then the reward – soft, poofy turns down down down…

3 public photos

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (ravens-ridge-20100221)

People like me who use a GPS unit to track their movements often end up with a GPX file full of incomprehensible data at some point. There are many ways to make sense of the data using maps and graphs, but my favorite so far is Jürgen Berkemeir’s GPX Viewer. Unfortunately, it wasn’t clear how to make good use of it in a WordPress post. To remedy that, and add some US English user features (while preserving the German and metric originals), I worked up a new WordPress plugin. It’s quite simple and lightly tested at this point, but feel free to take it for a spin.

• Only non-commercial use is allowed to comply with Berkemeir’s license requirements. WordPress repository plugins are not allowed to have this restriction (they must be GPLv2 compatible), so I won’t be able to make it available for automatic installation.
• download gpx-viewer-0.3.zip
• Sample Viewer:

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (viking-20090926)

In a series of portraits of avant-garde artists, Lehrer lays out his take on the stormy relationship between Art and Science. I felt like the book taught me many things, due in large part to Lehrer’s crystal clear interpretations of ideas that seem murky or impenetrable in their original expressions. It boils down to the elusive human self – while science will continue to refine our understanding of the mechanics of the self, it does little to help us express the experience of selfhood. Lehrer shows us that artists do this job much better than science gives them credit for, occasionally offering astonishing insights long before any scientific evidence is found for them. I feel comforted by the idea that I always have the option to experiment on myself, and that I may find things there unknowable to me by any other avenue.

Near Santa Fe, NM

I usually shy away from repeating outings, but I must admit that I improve and learn things when I do it. I’ve always been impressed with how friendly people here are to us, the uphill traveling minority. At other areas we’re subjected to the endlessly witty, “You’re going the wrong way!”, all day long. Here people tend to just smile or wish us a good run. Today a ski patroller stopped me to let me know that every year on the equinox they host “Ascensionist Day”, an all-levels race up the hill and down again. I’m sorry I won’t get to participate – “ascensionist” sounds so respectable!

Ann wants to work on her turns, so she goes in for a half-day lift ticket with friends Wes and Marize. I decide to see how many laps I have in me. One before lunch and one after feel great, and I even pound out a decent line down the Fall Line bump run. By the end of my third climb, though, there’s been a transfiguration, and my Ass is now a Dragon. The last run is still good, and we gather in the camper afterward for snacks, beers, and some incredibly good valentine chocolates that Marize got at the Chocolatesmith. Yum.

I missed one of my 3 laps with the GPS, so you’ll just have to trust me that there were 3

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (laps-20100214)

Near Santa Fe, NM

The snow is still good, and we enjoy the mood booster of a deep blue sky and warm sun as we climb the ski hill in Ann’s best time yet, about 1:20:00. The run is great as well, and it’s so nice to have our home waiting at the base with dinner and a warm bed. Clear skies usually make for a cold night, so we just hope we don’t freeze up too badly.

Photoset

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (ski-basin-20100213)

Near Santa Fe, NM

We’re “embracing the snow” while we can before we head south. I truly enjoy huffing up the ski area under my own power just to bomb down again. Ann may be doing it more for the exercise, but that’s good too. I get two laps in while it snows just enough to keep the bumps soft.

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (ski-basin-20100207)

Near Santa Fe, NM

Aaron takes me up the mountain for another lap on Heaven Hill. Conditions are cloudier and a little cooler today. Our route takes us up to the top of Raven’s Ridge after leaving the ski area, where we start to feel the bite of some wind.

The ridge has changed quite a bit. There’s a little more snow, some ice, and rime coats the rocks. The clouds only give us a peek out here and there.

After a slightly more difficult traverse than last week, we hit our hill in snow as good or better than before. We break to the left side today, which ends in a bowl that is just a foot of snow short of perfect. Bumping a couple of rocks under the surface is a small price for the powdery goodness.

We return to the parking just as Ann arrives with our home! Life is working out pretty nicely.

Photoset

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (heaven-hill-20100206)