I went
up Bell Pass today. It was a tough hike of approximately four miles with the last two miles being steeply vertical. The pass bridges the mountain range between the western and eastern aspects.
Phoenix is perenially hot now and there is no good time to go and do a hike. I did it between 10am and 1pm which put the temperature around 105F (about 42C). I took three bottles of water up which summed to two pints of water and had used every last drop by the time I had got back down to my car.
The city hikes of Camelback, Squaw Peak and South Mountain are well known but with the expansion of Scottsdale so far north new trails are being put in the McDowell National Park for hikers and mountain bikers. Bell Pass is one of the new ones. I expect as it gets better known it will rival Camelback's Echo Canyon and Squaw Peak's main trail as a tough vertical hike. Personally I think it is harder than Echo Canyon.
Cholla cactus on the ascent to Bell Pass, McDowell Ranges.
Fish-hook cactus. Bell Pass, McDowell Ranges.
We hiked Bell Pass again. It is a good hike, not too short, not too long, and a good incline at the end to get you up to 3,200 feet. It is also a very pretty hike, and this time the Saguaros and Fish-hook cactii were in bloom amongst other things.
Afterwards we decided to stop at Starbucks and get cold drinks. I swear Starbucks is the most successful re-branding of a milkshake store I have seen. I ended up with a strawberries and cream milkshake. It is too hot in Phoenix for hot coffee. It was only pushing 95F today, and i ended up with my shoulders burnt.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
