Jose Anes Weblog

One of the farthest away White Mountains 4000 feet.  14.6mi, 3600 elevation change via the Rocky Branch Trail, Isolation Trail, and Davis Path.  Some people do it as a long day-hike.  We did it as a short backpack.  The things I liked the most about this hike:

• Weather was great, the views at the top where even greater.  There was a lot of wind at the top, as expected, but otherwise a clear day.  No rain, snow or hail (like other times — we guess it is because Lina was not with us).
• Our first 4k this year.  We haven’t been hiking too much.
• Adriana’s feet has healed — at least enough to hike one of these.
• We found an official campsite that was not documented in our maps.  And was conveniently located at the time we got tired, with an unexpected water source.

Photos on the usual place.

Map:

Profile:

Other Links on Mt Isolation:

• Hike The Whites
• 4000 footers home
• AMC
• Wikipedia

I had the custom of keeping track of my hikes.  Recently I have not been hiking as much as I would have liked, and I have had much less time to keep track of what I hike.  I was browsing through my New England 4000 scorecard and I noticed that I had not entered 2007 hikes.  Fortunately, I was able to keep record of some of this by keeping photos and maps.  (Great thing photos record the date and time now).  4k Scorecard updated to reflect changes.

White Mountain Hikes:

Mt. Madison(photos) – September 9th, 2007

We climbed through the Air Line trail. This is marginally more difficult than the Valley Way, but has dramatically better views. It is a bit more exposed, however, and not the easiest one on inclement weather. It brings you to the Madison Spring Hut first, half a mile before the summit, but a great place to catch your breath, buy some snacks or warm up with the soup they make at noon.

The day was very cloudy, and by the time we reached the summit it had already started raining. Visibility was around 50 feet at best, and from there until the time we where able to get below the tree line (about two hours and a half later) it was a slippery, cold, wet way down through Watson Path (RMC). Once under tree cover it was a good day. On a sunny day, it is probably a great view of the northern part of the forest from the mostly exposed Watson Path.  Few more than 7mi.

Photos / Maps.

Hale and Zealand Falls - September 16, 2007

Great loop that ends in a very short road walk (less than a mile and very worth).  We did Mt. Hale, which does not have any views at all and the fire tower is long gone.  To reward ourselves in some other way than the traditional view, we went to the Zealand Falls Hut where we got the bottomless $2 soup (I love it), and enjoyed the Falls — which are a lot prettier than the view less Hale.

Photos / Maps.

Hancock - Sept 02, 2007

Fairly easy, in/out hike with a nice loop at the end where most of the elevation and interest remains.  A campsite close to the start of the road that could be great for people starting to hike but who want to get away from the car-camping campsites.

Photos / Maps.

The Wildcats - Sept 23. 2007

Out of the Pinkham Notch area, and walking almost all the way to Carter Notch… but we turned back to our car the same way we went in - about 7 hours of a very, very steep climb, and ten a steady ride.  Could have been combined into a great backpacking trip, but we where short on time that weekend.  Interesting Ski area on the top - we have never tried it for downhill skiing.  Photos/Maps.

Mt. Jackson - Sept 29, 2007

End of season hike (for us).  Terrain is interesting but nothing out of the ordinary - strong hikers don’t have any issue.  A little over 6 miles day hike.  Mt. Webster views tend to be a lot prettier than Jackson’s, and we did it even if Webster was not on my peak bagging list.  Very windy day.  We couldn’t stay too long at Jackson’s summit.  The hike is close enough to Pinkham notch that if you stay in that area you may want to combine the trip with other day hikes.  Photos / Maps.

Other Hikes of Interest:

Catskills:

• Sugarloaf - May 27, 2007
• Windham - May 28, 2007

Nancy Pond - October 21, 2007

End of season hike to see the fall foliage.

Photos / Maps.

It seems that with our sister in law living in the Albany, NY region we may stop by the Adirondack region a lot more often.  That is why I have created my Adirondack 46′er scorecard.  It seems I have 44 more to fill out.  Somewhat related to the New England 4K’s.

A simple entry to keep track of our progress in the White Mountains (New Hampshire) 4,000 Footers.

On the table in this posting you will find the 48 goal Mountains and the date on which they where accomplished as well as who was with us (keeping track of the climbs for them).  Click on the date for more information about that day’s adventure.  Related to my Adirondacks 46s Scorecard.

Other interesting links:

• Peak bagging the 4,000 Footers of New England.
• Appalachian Mountain Club.

Lately I have been lucky enough to make acquaintances with technology consultants originally born on a wide range of foreign countries.  It has become increasingly difficult to find hard working, qualified consultants born in North America anyways - the variety of nationalities should be no surprise to anyone by now.

What is particularly interesting about a recent engagement is having the opportunity of sitting at the same table, for many weeks, with two consultants of very different origins: One from Palestine, and another that although born in the old Soviet Union, has significant family and religious ties with people on Israel.  Both of them very smart, professional, hard working — people I would love to work with at any time.  They get along wonderfully.  Needless to say, both of different religions, and although they do not practice in a die-hard way (pun not intended) they do feel very related to their own religions.  If it wasn’t because of CNN I would have never thought people with those ethnic origins could fight each other.   

At dinner tables and breaks we treat each other origins with curiosity, respect … and sometimes even some fun - recognizing with good humor the reality of the interesting combination.  Religion is treated in “historical” terms only — without discussions about beliefs.  Truly mature.  And these two friends are only an example - albeit a very interesting one.  The same happens with most of the people with whom I associate myself.

Yet, as far as tolerance goes it doesn’t translate into all of the three “forbidden topics”.  Most of the dear friends I make along my travels are educated enough to truly and sincerely respect differences in religious belifs.  Even those of previously (or event currently) opposing countries are mature enough to try to forgive emotional (or even physical) scars that may have been left by previous conflicts.  Politics however, seems to remain a difficult topic to touch.

I do recognize I was very harsh with those who didn’t shared my political beliefs with me — maybe I still am.  On personal events I still ”preach”.  I am sure I still feel I am right and others are wrong — otherwise they would not be “beliefs”.  However, after I went on my own independent business I have been avoiding the politics theme altogether — at least on business events.  My views are certainly far too radical to be tolerated by the people I relate to — and I do not want to harm my business too much.  Being a true libertarian (who votes republican because they protect my interests far more often than the democrats do), the liberals find me too conservative and the conservatives find me too liberal.  Listening to the comments made by business partners I feel afraid, almost persecuted, by angry liberals who are willing to behead (figuratively… verbally…) the first republican that sits across them in a table (which could end up being me).  I do not feel any tolerance in most of these people’s words.  It almost feels as if they had concentrated the hate they had reserved for the three taboo topics into one. 

Then again… it could be just my opinion.  Maybe I have been or am as harsh as other people has been on my beliefs.  It could be that in a newly democratic world (compared to millennia of monarchies) politics is considerably more important than religious discussions.

As for sports — I guess that when people from very far away and with very different sport tastes meet there is little ground to oppose each other on the sports topic.  Never had an issue on this one.  However, I can’t miss any opportunity to declare my Red Sox fanness to a Yankee fan - even if I do not even know if the Red Sox won last night or not.

Sitting at an airport watching CNN at 5am.  A full hour of a program titled “Being Black on America” about how difficult life is for ethnic groups.  All of the stories are heart breaking - some of them rightly so (I could even identify with some issues), and some of them carefully coreographed to make you shed tears about something that is perfectly natural even if undesirable.  During the program I started remembering the news I have been watching on airport TVs and on the web recently.  Although I have not made any scientific study on it, I am starting to believe that the sad/failure stories outnumber the success stories. 

For a moment I start to think that failure sells better than success.  And I wonder why?

I would rather watch a story of how someone succeeded at fighting a disease, striking rich due to hard work and dedication, or raising four kids who went to Ivy League schools than to listen to numerous families complaining about how difficult it is to make ends meet.  Not that I do not feel pain for them, but watching them does not makes me any happier… or does it?

Could it be that we like to watch other people in a disadvantaged possition (in comparisson to ours) so that we can feel better about ourselves?  It is just an idea… I am just trying to find out why I have the strange feeling that there are more news about how people suffer than about how people can succeed.

I would rather see success stories from which I could learn something.

I should have known that something was wrong when my travel plans where from Boston to Toronto, but my layover included Philadelphia (put them on a map). Not uncommon to get discounted tickets that include such awkward transfers. But for some reason I have always have had a bad feeling about them.

For starters, they waste more fuel than you would have needed to get from point A to point B – unless you think that the seat you occupy was cheap for a reason: it was going to fly empty anyways.

Then there is the waste of time: precious one, as I do not have too much of it. Nobody does. Everybody has a long list of things to do with two columns of priorities (the conscious and the unconscious one – and for some reason they tend to be opposite in order of importance). Fortunately my laptop was equally loaded with documents to finish and episodes to watch.

My Tuesday’s experience included sitting on the tarmac in Boston for two hours, on the Philly airport for 4 more, and an extra hour in the tarmac on Philly. Not to mention the extra two hours of flight that I would have saved on a direct flight.

It seems I have to stop engaging in these Contra-Natura activities.

The fact that you have landed 9 times on your feet doesn’t mean that you will land the 10th time on your feet. The idea of a cat landing on its feet is what I feel every time I face difficulties, yet somehow I get out of them…. or do I?

Could it be that we tend to think a problem resolved itself into a happy ending when in reality we ended up at a worse situation than the one that we would have had if we haven’t met misfortune? Could it be that as long as we get out of a situation alive (landing in our feet and still breathing) we consider it a victory? Could it be that we are more ’survivors’ than ‘winners’?

Cats are wise creatures, I believe. Although they do land on their feet, they do not like to throw themselves into the abyss voluntarily all that often. And if you throw them into the air, they clearly indicate you their discomfort after landing safely on their feet.

Hopefully I will land on my feet… this time. But the important question is not if I will land on my feet – but if I will be able to jump higher than the original position?

This Friday the 11th of June, Apple will release their 8 and 16GB 3G iPhones.  I will be traveling on Friday, so I will not have the opportunity to go and buy one.

Come Saturday morning I will go and check if there are still any available ones.  Apple has surely created more than they expect to sell on the first day — they probably want to sell a few more over the next few days.  Or… have they?  I have heard so many people talking about buying one this Friday that I wonder where are the people who struggle to make ends meet or to get gas money.  Can’t blame them, the iPhone is almost a dream come true:  I would probably go a month without food to buy one if I where economically struggling (talk about an iPhone diet — I can loose about 10 pounds).

• If Apple runs out of 3G iPhones, I propose raising the Gas Tax a few dollars per gallon!  Just to slow down consumption of both, iPhones and Gas: too much money on people’s pockets mean inflation, and inflation is bad.  I should also run and buy a few AAPL stocks, even after the beating they have taken lately.
• If they do not run out of iPhones, I still don’t know if I would buy one.  Waiting for the blackberry bold may be the wisest thing to do.  It is just that the iPhone seems so cool.  Then again… I can probably wait a bit longer with my almost destroyed phone…  After all, it makes calls about 50% of the time.

Seriously… should I buy an iPhone like the hoardes?  Or should I get one of those old, indestructibles Nokia 5160 and be done with the craziness of having the next cool gadget?

The iPhone is calling me…  Yes, I can hear you now….

Farmers have not received their fair treatment in the last few years.  Some have been called rednecks.  Sometimes the profession has been relegated to sectors of the population that can’t get a better paying job, like temporary immigrant workers. In general most haven’t received higher education degree.  Yet, they are some of the people I most respect.  Why?

They do and produce something that people really need.  People do not need ipods, luxury cars, flat screen tvs, or other luxuries.  But they do need food - most people consume it daily.

Lately it has been shown that farmers are more powerful than we used to think.  Recently they have started to hold the world hostage with food prices that are either paid or people suffer.  They hold the key to allowing world population to grow.  Their ability to succeed may prevent wars over resources — or their failure will cause bloodshed.  For a moment… they are not so simple any more.

Sometimes I reflect about my career.  Most of what I do is making people have a faster, better internet.  Although useful and revenue generating - it is not so simple to understand its impact on society.  Without food and/or energy all of what I do is useless.  And the world is starting to show me that cruel reality: food and energy are beginning to appreciate more than my information technology services.

It seems in the end, the invisible hand is bringing the farming and energy gathering profession to a level comparable to the value they offer.  Too bad I am not in them to benefit.