Aspen grove information sign, October 2011
The road to Lockett Meadow was open for less than a month when I noticed that people had already started defacing the aspen trees along the Inner Basin trail again. Sad. Makes me wish I could place a few carefully worded aspen conservation signs along the trail.
"We're all mad here, said the cat." Flagstaff, Az, September 2011
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where – “ said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“ – as long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. “What sort of people live about here?”
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people.” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here.”
the Kingdom is At hand, I-40 Overpass, 4/14/2011
Another graffiti pic, this time from under an I-40 overpass. I wonder if this was painted by the same person who did the "Soon We Are All Going To Be Dust" graffiti from a couple weeks back? The forms of the letters are similar, especially the e's and t's, so I bet it was the same guy. And it's the same MO, i.e. under a freeway overpass along the FUTS trail.
Yeah, I know.... One of these days I'm gonna get mugged poking around in these places.
It's been a long time since I posted a graffiti pic, so here's an especially philosophical one for y'all. This one is from under a freeway overpass.
We all
just need to
take care of
each other because
soon we are all
going to be dust.
Make it good now!
I don't think the people who typically hang out under this bridge at night (transients, mostly) would've painted this on there, but you never know. More likely it was drunk college students from the nearby University.
I photographed the above arborglyph on a youngish aspen tree along the lower Weatherford Trail. Because it hasn't turned black yet I'm guessing it's probably only a year or so old. Of all the contemporary arborglyphs I've seen on the Peaks it's probably one of the more original ones. Most of the time you just find people's initials and dates, professions of everlasting love, or statements of loyalty to 80's hair bands cut into the trees.
I'm very much against anyone carving the bark of aspen trees because it allows disease agents like the Bronze Poplar Borer and Cytospora fungus to enter, potentially leading to the death of the tree. As far as I'm concerned there is simply nothing you can carve into the tree that is worth taking that risk. Maybe it was different in the past, but now that we have SAD and climate change affecting so many of our aspen they are in just too precarious a position - too precious, really - to be arbitrarily damaging them for stupid reasons.
Arborglyphs, as cool as they can sometimes be, are one tradition that needs to be placed on hold for a while. If you care about aspen trees and want them to survive and thrive, leave your carving knife at home.
I guess the pedestrians on central NAU campus have had enough of drivers flaunting the speed limit and blowing through crosswalks.
On the back of this Arizona Trail sign I discovered an unexpected bit of wisdom from one of our nation's founding fathers:
And here's the back of the sign with the quote:
Googling the verbiage a bit finds several interesting sites with info about it. Apparently this quote is purported to be from Thomas Jefferson and is popular among libertarians, which explains why it would be found scrawled on the back of a sign in the deep woods. Too bad that the quote is fake.
Sinclair Wash near NAU is finally drying up so I was able to snap a couple of pictures of the graffiti under the Lone Tree bridge last week. The anti-graffiti folks painted over everything last Fall so the graffiti "artists" have a blank canvas with which to start the year. So far I'm not impressed with their efforts.
First up is a statement on education and self-reliance:
What is that that thing off to the right supposed to be? Snoopy?
Next up is an indian chief with full feather headdress and peace pipe:
Slightly better. I'll give 'em a D+ for at least trying to do something artistic. But come on, I know these guys can do better. Give us something interesting to look at!
And finally, some mindless vandalism down at the Rio de Flag marshlands:
This pisses me off. These signs have been down there for years and no one ever touched them because they were cool. The signature on the second sign is the same as the one here. Definitely the same guy.
While I was taking the above pictures a jogger went past with his dog and growled something like "The asshole with the marker who did that better not let me catch him!" So our little tagger has an ass-whoopin' coming his way from at least one urban trail user. I'm guessing there are a lot of other people who feel the same.
My reaction to this bit of vandalism is kind of interesting. I don't seem to mind the graffiti when it's under a bridge or even on a utility box. But when it's on something like an educational placard, especially one with bird-related info on it, it's a whole different story. A little hypocrisy there?
The big green box down in Sinclair Wash just east of the NAU campus got a new paint job over the winter:
Thursday was the first time I've been birding down there since the snows came last Fall so I'm not sure how long this has been there. If you recall, there was a big Down To Blaze thing painted on it back in September. This new bit of graff is much more artistic than before but still looks a lot like someone just doodling around. I think this might be the work of bones (a tag I've seen around town a few times) but it's hard to tell for sure. There doesn't appear to be any letters in the main picture and the script on the upper right is pretty cryptic.
It's kind of interesting to see how the paintings on this box evolve and change through time.
The philosophic chalkers at NAU must've taken a break due to the huge snowstorms. Thankfully, they're back at work now to enlighten us:
The masses are unknowingly thirsty. Sadly the river of revolution is Dry!
