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     Hi, Rob here.

     This is my traditional year-end report. Rather than bore you with lots of text here - I refer you to lots of boring text and mundane photos and videos via links.

     Of course, not all hikes and adventures are summarized in the WV reports. Many photos from day hikes appeared on the False Bravado, AKA Farcebook (https://www.facebook.com/robazpsych). Other trips were not posted on the WV (wildernessvagabond.com). Yet, these adventures were enjoyed all the same.

     Well, I actually finished something this year, and it was the Completioñ of The Quest to Hike the Arizona Trail. It took two attempts to finish the small distance remaining on this quest, attempts you can read about in the trip report. As usual, I tried to warm up in Death Valley Dreaming, 2019, yet this time it became escape into Winter rather than Winter escape. A solo jaunt, Bóucher Bound in The Canyon, allowed me to finally hike the Bóucher "Trail." While on a revamped plan to hike in the Sierra, I met and hiked with three charter members of the Dusty Gaiters Guild. This, it seems, is the beginning of a fantastic reciprocity of adventures. It's refreshing and I feel honored that there are hikers who share trips and invite one to their trips, a real rarity for me because mostly it's been I design a trip, invite others, and there is no reciprocity at all. Yes, reciprocity is refreshing. These adventures helped push my total yearly mileage on foot in 2019 over 1600. Yuge. Now, this is wandering without being lost, paraphrasing a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of The Rings).

     The word for 2020 is "flaneur." As in one who rambles or travels, perhaps idling and dawdling. I hope to be a bit (or a yuge amount) of a flaneur during 2020, rediscovering old haunts anew or new haunts déjà vu.

     The impeachment of t-rump prompted me to consider the (pseudo) gilded age of this failed, inhumane person. How many lies, how much corruption, how many harmful, costly policies from which it will take decades (if ever) to recover, how many opportunities to do the right thing squandered? What are we leaving for the youth who follow? Yuge messes to clean up? A faltering planet Eaarth? Certainly we leave them this, and less. Less wilderness, less margin for error..... On and on, an atrocious regugnant repulscian legacy of pandering to the rich and corporations and stealing from our future. t-rump is fond of gold, especially fool's gold, an ostentatious display where there is no substance. Will we recover from this fool's errand to destroy our democracy and replace it with an authoritarian plutocracy? Tolkien has more to say about this.

     All that is gold does not glitter,
     Not all those who wander are lost;
     The old that is strong does not wither,
     Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

     From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
     A light from the shadows shall spring;
     Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
     The crownless again shall be king.

Poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring. It appears in Chapter Ten, "Strider", in Gandalf's letter to Frodo.

     And, I hope you get the oportunity to enjoy, revel in, be your own version of flaneur in 2020.

  A data sketch from 2019 includes:

     Hiking - total miles = 1619.1 (ERM* = 2391.1)

of which Backpacking = 345.5 miles (ERM* = 590)
Average backpacking day = 8.0 miles. Average ERM per backpack day = 13.7.

and Day Hiking = 1273.6 miles (ERM* = 1801.1)
Average day hiking day = 9.4 miles. Average ERM per day hike day = 13.9.

     Bicycling - total miles = 213.5 (all day tours in 2019)

*ERM - Energy Required Miles. A mile is added for every 500' elevation gain or loss. It's a very serviceable method of estimating energy required miles.

Abbey speaks (Click the image for the full-size image)

     Thanks to co-adventurers, members of the Dusty Gaiters Guild, Steamer (Ken S.), Stretch (Ken I.), and Horse (Kevin G) from the Sequoia backpack; and Bob B. and Rich M. from a Canyon trip. Also, thanks to my fellow VIPs (Volunteer In Park) from the three 2019 VIP projects in The Canyon (Grand Canyon National Park). We VIPs invested 769 volunteer hours in the care of our Park in 2019. Hoorah.

     Cheers. Let's all work for more peace and less repugnant repulsicans.

     Take good care, Rob

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Under the desert sun, in the dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean, the rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance across the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thornbush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime." Ed Abbey

""Wilderness is not only a haven for native plants and animals, but it is also a refuge from society. It's a place to go to hear the wind and little else, see the stars and the galaxies, smell the pine trees, feel the cold water, touch the sky and the ground at the same time, listen to coyotes, eat fresh snow, walk across the desert sands, and realize why it's good to go outside of the city and the suburbs."" John Muir

Rainbow over March Butte, Bóucher Bound in The Canyon Click the image for the full-size image)

wild things (Click the image for the full-size image)

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Now, some truth about trump. He says little that is true, so clarification is needed.

Written by Chris O'Leary, former 10 years of Active Duty at U.S. Marine Corps (1989-2000), and self-proclaimed non-liberal.

Link to the article by Chris O'Leary here

First, consider the Dunning -Kruger Effect. Trump knows more about the Dunning-Kruger effect than either Dunning or Kruger. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people with little expertise or ability assume they have superior expertise or ability.

A person asked the question, "Why are people so hostile towards President Donald Trump?"

Before you pass my answer off as “Another Liberal Snowflake” consider that
1.) I'm an independent centrist who has voted Republican way more often in my life than Democrat, and
2.) If you want to call someone who spent the entire decade of his 20’s serving in the Marine Corps a snowflake, I’d be ready to answer the question what did you do with your 20’s?

Why Liberals (And not-so liberals) are against President Trump.

A.) He lies. A LOT. Politifact rates 69% of the words he speaks as “Mostly False or worse” Only 17% of the things he says get a “Mostly True” or better rating. That is an absolutely unbelievable number. How he doesn’t speak more truth by mistake is beyond me. To put it in context, Obama’s rating was 26% mostly false or worse, and I had a problem with that. Many of Trump’s former business associates report that he has always been a compulsive liar, but now he’s the President of the United States, and that’s a problem. And this is a man who expects you to believe him when he points at other people and says “They’re lying”

B.) He’s an authoritarian populist, not a conservative. He advances regressive social policy while proposing to expand federal spending and federalist authority over states, both of which conservatives are supposed to hate.

C.) He pretends at Christianity to court the Religious Right but fails to live anything resembling a Christ-Like Life.

D.) His nationalist “America First” message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.

E.) His ideas on “Keeping us safe” are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.

F.) He couldn’t pass a 3rd-grade civics exam. He doesn't’ know what he’s doing. He doesn't understand how international relations work, he doesn’t understand how federal state or local governments work, and every time someone tries to “Run it like a business” it’s a spectacular failure. See Colorado Springs’ recent history as an example. The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise And that was a businessman with a MUCH better business track record than Trump. We are talking about a man who lost money owning a freaking gambling casino.

G.) He behaves unethicaly and always has. As a businessman, he constantly left in his wake unpaid contractors and invoices, litigation, broken promises, whatever he could get away with.

H.) He is damaging our relationships with our best international friends while kissing up to nations that do not have our best interests in mind. To his question “Wouldn't’ it be great to have better relations with Russia?” The answer is Yes. But it is RUSSIA who needs to earn that, who must stop doing the things that are damaging to that relationship, or we are simply weaker for it.

I.) He has never seen a shortcut he didn't like, and you can’t take shortcuts in government. “Nuclear Option, Remove the Filibuster, I’ll change the Constitution by Executive Order…Don…what happens when you remove the filibuster and the other side retakes the majority in the Senate? Suddenly want that filibuster back? What happens if you manage to change the Constitution by Executive Order and an Anti-2A President wins the next election?

J.) He behaves and has always behaved as an unabashed racist. Yes, I’ve seen your favorite meme that claims he was never accused of racism before the Democrats…Absolutely false. Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019 See the Central Park 5, the lawsuits and fines resulting from his refusal to lease to black tenants, the 1992 lost appeal trying to overturn penalties for removing black dealers from tables, his remarks to the house native American affairs subcommittee in 1993. The man sees and treats racial groups of people as monoliths.

K.) He is systematically steamrolling regulations specifically designed to keep a disaster like the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis from happening again.

L.) He speaks and acts like a demagogue. He sees the Legislative and Judicial branches of government as inconveniences, blows up at criticism no matter how deserved and actively tries to countermand constitutional processes, not to mention attempts to blackmail and coerce people who are saying negative things about him

M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is “nearly as bad as heroin” and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who’s appointment is probably unconstitutional.

N.) He denies scientific fact. Ever notice that the only people you hear denying climate change are politicians and lobbyists? 99% of actual scientists studying the issue agree that it’s real, man-made and caused by greenhouse gasses. Ever notice that every big disaster movie starts with a bunch of politicians in a room ignoring a scientist's warning?

0.) He does not have the temperament to lead this nation. He is Thin Skinned, childish, and a bully, never mind misogynistic, boorish, rude, and incapable of civil discourse.

P.) He still does not understand that the words he speaks, or tweets, are the official position of 1/3 of the US government, and so does not govern his words. He still thinks when he speaks it’s good ol’ Donald Trump. It’s not. It’s the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You have probably spread a meme or two around talking about how no president’s every word has ever been dissected before…YES, THEY ALWAYS HAVE. It’s just that every other president in our lifetime has understood the importance of his words and took great care to govern his speech. Trump blurts out whatever comes to his mind then complains when people talk about what a dumb thing that was to say.

Q.) He’s unqualified. If you owned a small business and were looking for someone to manage it, and an unnamed resume came across your desk and you saw 6 bankruptcies, showing a man who had failed to make money running CASINOS, would you hire him? He is a very poor businessman. This is a man it has been estimated would have been worth $10 BILLION more if he’d just taken what his father had given him, invested it in Index Funds and left it alone.

R.) He is President. But he refuses to take a leadership position and understand that he is everyone’s President. Conservatives complain about liberals chanting “Not my President” while Trump himself behaves as if no one but his supporters matter.

S.) He’s a blatant hypocrite. He spent 8 years bitching Obama out for his family trips, or golfing, or any time he took for himself, and what does he do? He was already on his 20th golf outing in APRIL of his 1st year in office. He constantly rants about respect for the military, yet can’t be bothered to attend the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day because of a little rain. (And that excuse about Marine One not being able to fly in the rain is HILARIOUS.)

T.) He’s a misogynist. It's not really ok in this day and age to be a misogynist, but it’s not a huge deal if you’re a private citizen. It’s a pretty big deal if you hate half the people you’re elected to lead. The disdain for women seeps out of his …whatever…. and he just can’t hide it.

U.) Face it. In any other election “Grab Em’ By the Pussy” would have been the end of that candidate’s chances. Back in the 90’s I used to marvel about how Teflon Bill Clinton was. I no longer do. The fact that he managed to slip by on that is as much a statement about how much people hate Hillary Clinton as it is about what is wrong with politics in this country right now.

V.) He has one response to a differing opinion. Attack. A good leader listens to criticism, to different points of view, is capable of self-reflection, tries to guide people to his point of view, and when necessary stands his ground and defends his convictions. Any of that sound like Trump? His default is not to Lead, its’ to attack. Scorched Earth. The Jim Acosta reaction is a good example. There was no defense of his convictions when Acosta was asking him repeated questions about his rhetoric on the caravan. His response was to attack Acosta.

W.) He takes credit for everything positive while deflecting blame for everything negative. Look at him with the Stock Market. He’s been bragging about it since day one, and to give credit where credit is due, speculation on coming deregulation early in his presidency did fuel some rapid growth, but to pretend that it’s all him, that we’re not in the 9th year of the longest bull market in history and THEN, when the standard market volatility that deregulation inevitably brings about starts to show up? Yeah. Look at yesterday. Hey! Stock Markets losing because the Democrats won! Do I need to bring out the Stock market chart for the last 10 Years again?

X.)He emboldens the worst among us. Counter-protesters are slammed into by a car while countering actual Nazi rally, and the response is there’s fault on “Both Sides” The media is at fault for a nut job sending them and Donald’s favorite targets pipe bombs. The truth is not all Republicans, not all Trump Supporters are racist, fascist lunatics. Many are just taken in by the bombastic personality and are living in an information bubble made worse by the fact that they unfollow anyone and ignore any source of information that makes them feel uncomfortable. People on the left do that too. The Biggest problem the right has right now is that the worst of the Right is the loudest and the most in your face, and the actual right, especially the Freaking PRESIDENT needs to be standing up and saying No. Those are not our values.

Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he’s read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that’s something he really should have before he took the job, because they’re not going away.

Z.) I’ll use Z for something I do blame him for, but the rest of us have to carry the blame too. Polarization. This country is more politically polarized than I can remember in my lifetime. Some of you who are a few years older than I may remember how it was in the late 60’s when construction workers in New York were being applauded for beating up hippies, I think it’s pretty close to that right now, but that was before my time. And he is the cause of much of the current level polarization, but also the result. It didn't’ start with Trump. We’ve been going down this road I think since the eruption of the Tea Party in the early years of the Obama Administration. I do hope the tide turns before it gets much worse because the thing that scares me more than anything is what if that keeps going the way it has been? "

yesterday (Click the image for the full-size image)

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