A trip up a mountain and a road trip to Kingman

Part of the wings are carved

After abusing my body on Tuesday’s hike I decided to take a one-day break from my fitness routine. So I stayed in bed until about 7:30 a.m. and then got cleaned up and headed to the wood carving shop. I’m getting plenty of help with my project from a bunch of guys who are infinitely more knowledgeable about wood carving than I will ever be.

My little eagle is taking shape and hopefully will be ready for staining next week. I’ll include a photo here on how far I have come as of Thursday.

I know I keep raving about the entertainment here in the park, but they really outdid the previous offerings last night. In the ballroom Wednesday night was “The Tokens.”  If you don’t remember the name right off their biggest hit was “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

Hard to believe, but they are old just like us. But they were in good voice and good instrument last night and really brought the house down with a medley of great songs from the 50s and 60s. Phil Margo, the current lead singer (the band is missing three of its original members) was funny, engaging and informative about the history of the band.

Me at the memorial at Josephine Saddle

Phil’s brother, Mitch Margo, the other original member of the band, started playing “The Lions Sleep Tonight” at the opening set, but Phil stepped in and said: “What are you doing, if you play that first, they’ll all go home.”

What we didn’t know about the band is that in addition to performing their own music, the produced some very memorable hits. Among those, which I’m sure most of you will remember were “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons, “One Fine Day” also by The Chiffons, “Denise” by Randy and the Rainbows, “See You in September” by The Happenings, “I Got Rhythm” by the Happenings, “Go Away Little Girl” by the Happenings, “Candida,” “Knock Three Times,” and “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” all by Tony Orlando and Dawn.

They played many of the songs they produced and for kicks wore female wigs when they sand “He’s So Fine.”

On top of Mt. Wrightson

During another set, they sang a medley of old favorites and they would stop during a part of the lyrics, hold the microphones toward the audience and we would fill in the blanks.

At one point we sang a really silly lyric, something like “flying purple people eater” or something like that and Phil Margo stopped and said, “isn’t it just a little sad that you can all remember that lyric, perhaps the most useless of phrases to remember, when you can’t remember where you left your car keys?”

One of the newer members of the band is the drummer, who it turns out is Phil’s son.

“See, if you last long enough you can grow your own band,” Phil said.

Ken enjoying the summit view

Anyway, it was a really fun night, full of great music and laughter and we went home feeling very happy.

On Thursday, I returned to the fitness center early and then went to Bible Study at 8 a.m. It was another great session and I have met many really fine people here. One of the men was talking about St. Patrick last week so I loaned him my two study books on Celtic Evangelism and “How the Irish Saved Civilization.”

It is my way of extending my studies at home to Arizona.

After Bible study I headed back to the wood carving shop and then Joan and I headed to a shopping center near here so I could get my haircut and she could get a haircut and her nails done. We are all pretty now.

Our lunch spot on the mountain

Last year I climbed Mt. Wrightson on my own. It took most of the day and was perhaps one of the more grueling day hikes I have undertaken. The payoff, the 9,460-foot summit, is well worth the effort though.

One of the Tuesday hike leaders organized a special hike Friday to assault the summit of Mt. Wrightson with a group. Only 10 of us signed up, and only 9 showed up, and because of the lengthy drive to the trailhead we set out from the resort at 7 a.m.

We arrived and started the hike at Madera Canyon at 8:15 a.m. Our leader decided that we would take the Super Trail up to the Josephine Saddle and then take the Old Baldy Trail to the summit. The Super Trail from the parking lot is 3.7-miles, which is 1.5 miles longer than the opening segment of the Old Baldy Trail to Josephine Saddle. It is also not as steep, which is the reason it is considerably longer.

Patching up Ken after his fall

It was windy and temperatures were in the 40s when we set out. Two of the hikers didn’t realize that we were starting the hike at 5,000-feet and wore shorts and one of them didn’t bring a jacket. So I loaned my jacket to one of them because I knew once I started hiking I would warm right up.

It took until about 10:30 a.m. to arrive at Josephine Saddle, which is always a sobering stop because it is the location where three Boy Scouts died during a sudden snowstorm in 1958. There is a new memorial plaque installed there since I stopped at the spot last year. I added another small stone to the memorial.

A photo at the bottom of the trail

We took a short water break at the saddle and then began the 2.7-mile trip to the top of Mt. Wrightson. The hike is a long series of fairly steep switchbacks and the footing in places is pretty loose, and in a couple of other places it was a glaze of ice.

The ice presents a problem because it is located in sections of the trail that feature large drop-offs so a slip and fall can be disastrous.

One of the group was struggling with the altitude and breathing so I laid back with him and allowed him to make the hike at a slower pace. I was in what the hike group calls “the sweep” position as I am the last hiker. The rest of the group was getting far ahead of us when suddenly two of the folks, including the lady I loaned my jacket, appeared on the way down the mountain. The high winds and cold temperatures were getting to them (they were wearing shorts) and decided against going on to the summit.

The Grapes of Wrath exhibit

Mike, the man I was helping up the mountain, decided he’s had enough so he decided to go back down with them. That freed me up to pick up the pace and I caught the main body of our group about .7-miles below the summit about 8,900-feet.

The thin air and the speed of my trek was getting me a little light headed, but the pace slowed considerably after I caught up with the group and we reached the summit about 1:15 p.m.

The views from the top are unbelievable, with vistas of Mexico to the south and Tucson and Casa Grande to the north. We lingered on the summit only about 10 minutes as the cold winds were bitter and we decided to eat our lunch at a more sheltered part of the trail about a mile down from where we were.

Andy Devine and his children

Going down the mountain is nearly as tough as going up and considerably harder on the knees. On the way up on the lower trail one of our leaders fell off the side of the trail and slid a few feet down the side of a hill, but was otherwise undamaged.

Things were about to get a lot worse for one of us. During the last 2.2-miles of descent, one of our hikers accidentally walked too close to the edge of the trail and suddenly began tumbling down a steep hill. He fell about 30-feet down the hill, momentarily losing his glasses and tearing up his knees and putting a nasty gash on the side of his head.

I got out my first aid kit and we cleaned up the cut with triple antibiotic and he declined a band aid. We did find his glasses, which were unbroken and continued our hike down the hill to the cars.

We slowed the pace a little to help Ken out with his damaged knees and we finally arrived back to the cars about 4:45 p.m. A pretty eventful hike for sure.

The Enola Gay, but no explanation as to a connection with Kingman

As you can imagine I was pretty tired after the 12-mile hike and after calling Joan to let her know we were OK and down off the mountain I drove me and my passengers back to the resort, a trip of about 1 hour.

Joan had some “Sloppy Joans,” her version of “Sloppy Joes” ready for me on arrival. It tasted mighty good.

For the first time since we arrived here we are on a short road trip to Las Vegas to visit our friends from Michigan, Ed and Betty. Because of some commitments in the resort we will be returning on Tuesday evening, but are looking forward to spending time with our friends.

We were up early Saturday for the trip and headed to Kingman, Arizona to get a good night’s sleep before finishing our trip on Sunday to Las Vegas.

An aviation display at the Mohave Museum

The scenery in Arizona changes dramatically with the elevation and we drove through areas of dense Joshua trees and then dense areas of Saguaro cactus and then almost as quickly were out of both. The rocks and vegetation vary significantly in short spaces of geography. I guess that’s why I am so fascinated with Arizona.

Traveling through Phoenix we saw several advertising signs announcing the “Tattoo Expo and Beer Fest” which begins on Valentine’s Day. The combination of a beer fest and a tattoo exposition seemed a “perfect storm” of events.

We sometimes watch a show called “Bad Ink” which is a program about a tattoo artist in Las Vegas who repairs weird or bad tattoos that people have gotten.

The view from our Kingman hotel room

One of the tattoo artist’s favorite sayings is “Don’t drink and tattoo.” And yet here they are in Phoenix advertising an event that combines both. Should be a lot of Valentine’s Day body art if the beer flows like it may.

Interestingly, we were passed by a new red BMW sports car with Arizona personalized plates that read “TIGRS84.” We tried to get a look at the driver, because we had a thought it could have been Kirk Gibson or someone from his staff considering his role in the Tigers 1984 World Series win. Kirk Gibson is the current manager of the Phoenix baseball team.

We also saw signs that read “Watch for Animals.” Not a specific animal, just “animals.” We watched and watched but didn’t see any.

Joan acting like her dad the engineer

Just outside Phoenix we went through a town called “Surprise” which lived up to its name because we had never heard of it. There was also a MetLife blimp flying overhead so we speculated that there must be a golf tournament going on.

We finally arrived in Kingman about 2:40 p.m. and after checking into our hotel room we headed out to play a little tourist. We ended up at a Route 66 Museum and then at the Mohave Museum, both of which were very interesting.

Joan in front of the engine

An actor from my youth – “Andy Devine” – is a native of Kingman and the Mohave Museum had an extensive collection of Andy Devine memorabilia. One of the items on display was “Froggy” from Andy Devine’s Saturday morning kid show from the 1950s – “Andy’s Gang.”  I was once a card carrying member of “Andy’s Gang” and “Froggy” was always encouraged by Andy Devine to “Pluck your magic twanger Froggy.”

Andy was in more than 400 movies and television shows (he was also known for being the whiny sidekick in “The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok.”

The main drag – the former Route 66 – is named for him through Kingman.

Joan also got to pose on a large steam engine in railroad park.

It never ceases to amaze us the interesting things we discover when we come to small towns and spend the time to visit the local museums. Every town has a story of its own, or famous people with a story of their own.

The Dambar Steakhouse

After our tourist adventures we went to a local steakhouse for dinner. The restaurant is named “Dambar” and as you can imagine they have played off that name offering “Dambeer” or a “Damsalad” or any other “dam” thing you can imagine.

We both had a small prime rib and we left happy and full.

For more photos of the hike and Kingman, Arizona scroll down to the next post.

Mileage out: 70155

Time out: 9:04 a.m.

Mileage in: 70469

Time in: 2:16 p.m.