Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Arizona

  • Another Hiker Lost in the Superstitions

    Do as I say, not as I do.  Stay out of the rattlesnake infested inferno known as the Superstition Wilderness in summer! I often hike alone in the Killer Mountains in the summer.  But I observe the following precautions:  I hydrate throughly before leaving the house and carry at least a gallon of water and enough…

  • The Obama Administration’s Contempt for the Rule of Law

    We are living in very dangerous times.  You need to inform yourself. Krauthammer: Obama Intent on Not Enforcing Immigration Law Charles Krauthammer, Obama's Naked Lawlessness Thomas Lifson, Rule of Law Now an Election Issue Diana West, Why Arizona Matters.  Excerpt: I find it difficult to regard the Supreme Court decision on Arizona immigration law as…

  • Arizona Can’t Do It; Washington Won’t

    Debra Saunders' article begins: President Barack Obama hailed the Supreme Court's 5-3 decision Monday that struck down most of Arizona's 2010 immigration law. In a statement released by the White House, however, the president said that he remains "concerned about the practical impact of the remaining provision of the Arizona law that requires local law…

  • The Case of Morris Starsky

    Quite by chance this morning I stumbled upon materials relating to one Morris Starsky, a professor of philosophy at Arizona State University who was fired from a tenured position for his political views in 1970.  Here is the Wikipedia article; here is something from the Phoenix New Times; this is from The Militant.  All of…

  • Desert Light Draws Us into the Mystical

    Just as the eyes are the most spiritual of the bodily organs, light is the most spiritual of physical phenomena. And there is no light like the lambent light of the desert. The low humidity, the sparseness of vegetation that even in its arboreal forms hugs the ground, the long, long vistas that draw the…

  • Walter Brennan, Dutchman’s Gold

    It is just astonishing what one can dig up on YouTube.  Aficionado that I am of the legends, lies, and lore of the Superstition Wilderness, I had never heard this hokey tune before, though I well remember Walter Brennan from '50s TV. Great pictures, though, of my beloved stomping grounds.  More pictures here.

  • Gunfire Tonight!

    One of the exciting things about living out here in rural Arizona is that all too many local hombres love to greet the the New Year with a hail of gunfire aimed heavenward. It adds a nice Middle Eastern touch to the Copper State. Part of the problem is the sad state of science education in these…

  • Family Dies When Small Craft Fails to Clear Superstition Mountain

    These mountains I love are rugged and beautiful but unforgiving.    A small craft departing from Mesa and heading east failed to gain sufficient altitude and slammed into the Flatiron part of Superstition Mountain on Wednesday evening, killing all aboard.  Story here.

  • First Water to Canyon Lake

    Here are some shots from last Sunday's Superstition Wilderness 7.6 mile point-to-point hike from First Water trailhead to Canyon Lake trailhead.  A delightful hike that starts out easy as one meanders out on the soft and flat Second Water trail though Garden Valley.  But then it gets rocky.  By the time you come to the…

  • Arizona is not California . . .

    . . . and proud of it. The Golden State is crumbling. 

  • Scenes from the Superstitions

    James L., fanatical hiker, who I have been introducing to the Superstition Wilderness.  A native Arizonan, he has no problem with hiking in the summer in this rattlesnake infested inferno.  I hope not to have to make use of his nurse practitioner skills.  The knife hanging from his belt suggests he might, in a pinch,…

  • Bluff Spring Loop, Superstition Wilderness, 6 May 2011

    This is a 9.3 mile hike out of the Peralta Trailhead, Superstition Wilderness, Arizona.  I have done it countless times in both the clockwise and counterclockwise directions.  The route sports about 1260 feet of elevation gain according to David Mazel (Arizona Trails, Wilderness Press 1991, p. 47)  We commenced hiking at 6 AM on the dot…

  • Summer’s Here

    The morning's hike was in short pants and the afternoon's coffee was over ice.  Summer's here.  Snowbirds soon to depart.  Desert rats set to rejoice.

  • The Romance of the Road

      Picketpost Mountain, View from a side car, Stop in Superior. 14 January 2011. Click to enlarge.

  • Spring in January in Central Arizona

      Sitting in back of my house the other day, in a T-shirt, reading A. N. Prior’s Objects of Thought, this is what I had to look at.