November rememberings

On to November, an excellent time to be in southern Arizona.  Here are a few things I took pictures of.

This made me laugh when pulling up to drop off compost at the community garden:

Another day in the Catalinas, when I did a loop up to Little Kimball and down Pima Canyon.  This bunch of flowers was the highlight:

John dropped me off at the first trailhead and then spent the day climbing Table Mountain, with a nice view of Pusch Peak and town:

During a long run I swung by the site of the next Trader Joe's to see how progress was coming along (I'm looking forward to this one opening soon!)

Just for kicks we went to the Lego convention.  It was a long wait to get in for some reason (not sure about the organizer skills for this one) but once we did it was fun walking around.  Artist AC Pin was there with a display of his floral creations and I got to chat with him for a bit (super nice guy, didn't mind that I don't know anything about Legos):

He uses only pieces that available already, nothing custom built specifically for him.  His flower designs are beautiful:

Adorable Baby Yoda:

An elaborate cityscape:

A very elaborate Star Wars bunker with a ton of tiny details:

We have considered going to the All Souls Procession ever since we arrived in Tucson several years ago.  I usually lose momentum for going out by the end of the day, then there's the question of parking anywhere close.  We had a plan for all that last year but then it dumped rain and it was too easy to bail.

Finally!  This year we took the bus to town, had a lovely dinner, and then waited for a tram to the Annex.  Here's a fitting downtown mural for the occasion:

We wandered up the parade route before the procession started and got to see many amazing costumes!

In loving memory of all souls:

These ladies were happy to pose for pictures, thank you!

Back to more normal (for us) adventures... we traveled to Phoenix for a 10.5-hour adventure race (John) and rogaine (me).  More desert time, searching for checkpoints (yay!)

The following photos are courtesy of the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club.  Race director Ron doing the morning briefing:

Gorgeous view of the lake from high on a hill:

Andy was manning one of the remote aid stations and took some pictures of people punching the checkpoint - including John (as part of his bike section):

And me (on foot) - I love the little control flag hanging off the other side of the barbeque:

Heading off to collect a few more points before the finish deadline:

This is probably Ron's photo during course setting - a perfect example of some of the fun terrain we navigated through:

Peek-a-boo from Catalina State Park - again!

I updated the "Catalina All Trails" FKT route to add two new official trails and figured I should go run it and set a baseline time to beat.

The page on the FKT site:

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-catalina-state-park-all-trails-az-2025-11-25

A view of the Tortolita range on the far horizon:

Saguaros guarding the stairs:

Looking at the Catalina Mountains to the east:

The CDO Ridge Trail is new on the park maps (although it has probably been here for a while), necessitating an extra climb to add it to the FKT:

This bathroom is even newer - and very nice:

I really like the Alamo Canyon trail.  I had not been on it before but I would love to go back and see it again.  There's an even better view of the Catalina range:

To close out the month, a new (to me) Thanksgiving activity.  Our orienteering club fielded several teams in a cross-country 5K race at Reid Park.  Fun group of women to run and hang out with!

Charging up the first little hill, with Cristina passing me and going on to finish in a solid time:

There were hay bales in several spots that I think we were supposed to jump over, but I missed the first couple (too many people, not enough hay bales).  Then I wasn't highly excited about veering to take on the obstacles.  Finally I went over a couple near the end, probably the ones behind me in this picture:

5K's are hard!  But at least they are over quickly.  Thank you Cristina for organizing us and giving me a reason to run faster for once!

John was in Texas for Thanksgiving and did his own Turkey Trot race - with cookie medals!  Most excellent.

That was a fun, variety-filled month!

Back to Tucson (thru October)

Let's see, where were we?  Arizona, Flagstaff, oh right, we were almost back to Tucson toward the end of last September.  Back in Howie (our travel trailer) after a couple months of living out of the truck and various types of camping and lodging.

During a run while charging the truck in Phoenix - a fun pedestrian bridge and I think the red things are meant to portray the fruit of a prickly pear cactus (we are definitely back in Arizona):

I'm guessing it was still rather warm at that point, so a day up in the Catalina Mountains would have been a pleasant relief.  John and I hiked around the Bigelow area, did an orienteering map from an event we missed, and apparently tried to push a rock off the side of the hill:

Interesting rock shapes and an interesting man:

John's on top of the world (at least a local maximum):

More Catalina trekking, this time up the Babad Do'ag trail, cross-country over to Soldier's Trail, and then back down to the road.  Somewhere along the way to get back to the truck we found this lovely symbol:

Along the same line, celebrating our anniversary - love you bunches!

Lovin' Spoonfuls always delivers an amazing vegan meal:

This blog has now arrived at October!  Here's a cool sunflower mailbox I saw during a run:

October 13, 2025 was officially "Beard Day" in the Wordle World.  Finally!  And we didn't miss it on one of our out-of-cell-service backpacking days, yay!!

It was also a rainy day in Tucson.  There is normally very little water in the Santa Cruz "river" but that changed briefly:

The sun came back the very next day and the water was still flowing well:

My favorite image of our TV screensaver - puffins!

Ever since I first heard about the "Man Against Horse" 50-mile race near Prescott, I wanted to try it.  I'm amazed that there are guys who can beat the horses outright (even subtracting the vet checks where the horses get to rest).  That was never going to be me, but hopefully I could finish within the cutoff time.

The race number sure is pretty:

Knowing my (lack of) speed, I opted for the early start:

A few pre-dawn runners getting ready for a head start on the horses:

It was an entertaining, interesting, challenging day.  The horses passed me as I was starting up into the hills and I enjoyed greeting the riders.  The fast runners weren't far behind.  Up into the highlands with beautiful views.  Some steep climbing, lots of up and down, mostly reasonable footing on the trails, and I tried to stay focused on keeping a good pace.  I smiled when I caught a glimpse of Jerome, and I think I could see Sedona in the distance (if I remember right).

Then there was the crazy steep uphill grind, which I had some idea about in advance (it tended to make the stories).  John was at the top to cheer me on and help me through the aid station.  Great to see you, John!  Several more miles through the woods, staying focused and happy, then a wonderful switchback-y downhill.  My legs did great and amazingly didn't try to cramp even once.

One quick aid station and one confusing sign later (the "miles to the finish" number was way low) and I was hustling to get through the fields to the end before the final cutoff time.  I didn't enter many races in 2025, and after DNF'ing Hardrock it was nice to get confirmation that I could still indeed finish an official race.  Thank you to the organizers and all the wonderful volunteers and horse people for the unique experience!

John spent the morning climbing Granite Mountain and took a couple pictures.  There really is a lot of granite up there:

Rocks of unusual shapes:

The next day we finally made time for a tour of Arcosanti where we saw some beautiful architecture and learned about various types of artforms being created there:

Bells are apparently a specialty:

It's a really neat space with a fascinating history:

Meanwhile, back in Tucson, it must be getting close to Halloween...

Quite the yard decoration!

Thanks for playing along and letting me revisit some recent memories!