Ron and I spent the past week in Arizona. In my last post I talked about some of the sites on the way to the Grand Canyon. This post is about our canyon hike, down and then back up the Bright Angel Trail.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon late on Friday. After a traumatic but ultimately successful search for parking outside our hotel, we made it to our room. Very cold outside! We knew that rain was heading our way, but it wasn’t due to arrive until late Saturday. Regardless, we were going in.

The next day, Saturday, we set out from our hotel at 9:25am. The weather was cold with high clouds, but no rain yet.

I’d hiked part of the Bright Angel trail once, long, long ago, in the summer. It had been so hot! This time, there was ice at the start of the trail. We went carefully and soon left most of the people behind, although there were always others on the trail, including some long-distance trail runners.

It wasn’t long before the temperature warmed up. We paused to take off some layers and then, stopping only briefly to snap a few photos, we made our way to Indian Gardens, 4.6 miles down the trail and a 3,000-foot drop in elevation. Yes, the downhill muscles were a bit tired of downhill at this point!

We had lunch and debated if we should add an extra three miles to our trek by heading out to Plateau Point. My courage was fading as I looked up at the cliffs we would have to climb to get out, but then I interrogated someone who’d just returned from the point and his enthusiastic recommendation decided us. We headed on.

Fortunately, this section was nearly level — and totally worth the effort. The view of the Colorado River was amazing! Absolutely the highlight of the hike.

Well, it was getting late. The day had been beautifully overcast, with curtains of rain over the north and east sections of the canyon. Great hiking weather. We hadn’t gotten wet yet, but it seemed inevitable. We set out, going at a steady pace, and sure enough the rain caught up with us, the drops hitting the light-colored trail dust, turning it dark. We got a little wet, but the rain was fairly light and kept us cool. Eventually I put on my rain jacket, mostly to avoid getting chilled.

Where there had been ice in the morning, there was thick gooey mud in the afternoon. That was kind of a bummer, but what can you do? We tromped on and managed not to fall down (thankfully we had our hiking sticks which helped immensely), and we reached the top a bit before 5pm. We’d done twelve miles on the trail and a bit more than that given that we walked to and from the hotel. So this was one of our longer day hikes — and a terrific one. The highlight of our trip.

I didn’t do any fiction writing while we were on the mainland. A whole week with no progress on the newest novel! But I wrote this post on the plane, so as you read this I’m already back to work.

Getting there:

Ron loves to travel. I’m less enamored with it. I like visiting places, but the hassles of planning, packing, and getting there would likely keep me at home if I didn’t have Ron to encourage me and to do most of our trip planning.

This past week we visited Arizona, with the Grand Canyon as our primary destination. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that we are into hiking. Our primary goal was to do a rigorous hike down the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail.

The first step, of course, was getting there. We flew into Phoenix and took a couple of days to drive north, stopping at six National Monuments on the way. These monuments exist to preserve relics of First Nation pueblo life, but I admit the three things that excited me most were three natural features.

The first was at Montezuma’s Castle. The cliff dwellings are amazing. It’s impossible not to consider the challenges they embody, the difficulties of getting to them, of hauling water and other necessities up a series of ladders, day after day. Still, what I fell in love with at this site was the grove of Arizona Sycamore trees — huge, and gorgeous in their white-bark. We were there so early in spring that they were not in leaf yet, but they were still very beautiful.

The second feature I gushed over — pun intended — was the entirety of Montezuma’s Well. Here there is the well itself, which is a deep pool surrounded by cliffs. Water from a limestone cavern gushes into the bottom of the pool at a furious rate, causing sand to swirl, meters deep, above a bottom that no one has ever accurately measured. Despite this, the pool’s surface is calm and quiet, giving no hint of the turbulence deep below. Water drains from the pool through a series of cracks so that the water level rarely varies.

Long ago, the pueblo people constructed a ditch to direct some of the outflow. This ditch has been rebuilt and you can walk around to the primary place where water escapes. The path is directly alongside the little ditch, which is beautifully made, and there are more huge Arizona sycamores. I imagine in summer it gets very crowded, but when we were there, only a few people were about and it felt like a magical place, a scene from some lovely fantasy story. Ironically, the water from the well is supposed to have a high level of arsenic in it, which likely contributed to ill-health in the people who created the original ditch.

Limestone caverns create some amazing effects. Montezuma’s Well is one; the “blowhole” at Wupatki is another — and it’s the third feature on my list. Wupatki is an area set aside for its many pueblo ruins, but there is also the blowhole. In Hawaii, a blowhole is a hole in shoreline lava rock, one that goes all the way through the shelf of rock to the ocean. When big waves roll in, the water slams under the rock and shoots up through the hole, creating a column of spray. A blow hole in Arizona is completely different. I don’t really understand why it works beyond “differential air pressures” but air was continuously rushing out of this small hole, creating a strong wind. And if the barometric pressure were to change the flow could reverse and air would rush back in. Amazing. (The picture shows the stone frame constructed around the blowhole.)

Next time: the hike.

It’s not really a good idea to go on vacation right before a book launch, but circumstances worked out that way so I spent the last week in Japan with Ron, my daughter Dallas, her husband Ed, and a new camera which I don’t know how to use. For most of the trip I had the camera inadvertently set on some kind of burst mode and I haven’t had time to figure out how to pull individual shots, so all but the first of the photos below are from the second to last day of our trip.

We started in Tokyo — my first visit to that city — then headed out to Nagano for a few days. From there we were able to visit Matsumoto Castle and attend a firefly festival in Tatsuno. This was the first time I ever saw fireflies! They are amazing and wondrous little creatures. I did not realize they are so bright.

We also took a long day trip, starting with the Shinkansen to Itoigawa. From there we transferred to a one-car train that headed into the mountains — the “Japanese Alps” — following a spectacular narrow gorge with a white-water river. We were heading for a nature preserve, so we left the train and took a bus up to a ski town, nearly empty in June. From there, a twenty minute gondola ride with more spectacular views, and then a five-minute tram. By this time it was late afternoon and we had only twenty minutes at the top where the nature preserve was located. We didn’t see the green meadow in the brochure though because there was still several feet of snow on the ground! The scenery was gorgeous all the same and well worth the adventure.

We returned to Tokyo and visited some sites around the city. Our first day was rainy, but a sunny day followed and we were able to visit the Meiji Shrine Inner Garden and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Photos below.

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Home again and happy to be here!

Oddly enough, the football season determined our travel schedule this year — the University of Hawaii’s football season, to be precise. Ron is an avid fan, so when he heard the UH team would be opening the 2016 season in Sydney, we decided that would be a fine time to revisit Australia. But we also wanted to visit family in the Pacific Northwest. The only time we could do that — without Ron missing any home games — was last week.

So we had two-and-a-half weeks between trips, with a friend visiting us in between — and that didn’t leave me much time to write!

What am I working on? Well, the same new novel that I’ve mentioned in recent progress reports, including that last, “final” report. (In this business, “final” is a relative term.)

At last report, I mentioned that I’d sent the manuscript to my agent. He read it while we were down under and gave it a very enthusiastic thumbs-up. But he also had a few suggestions that he thought would enhance the closing sequence. His ideas made sense to me, so I agreed to undertake one more round of revision — and I’m really pleased with the results so far.

I’ve got just a couple more items to address before I send the manuscript back. I’d best get on that.

More soon…

I thought I’d post a few “travelers tips” in no particular order – just some thoughts and perspectives gleaned from the short time I’ve spent in Japan.

* Getting there and getting back
From Honolulu, the flight to Japan—on this most recent trip, our destination was Osaka—is around nine hours. The flight back is significantly shorter, maybe seven hours, a difference I blithely attribute to tailwinds and the direction of the Earth’s rotation.

* No one speaks English
Yes, that’s an exaggeration, but even at major hotels or at information desks that advertise English-speaking personnel, the amount of English-language help you can get is minimal. I find this very interesting because here in Hawaii, where we get many tourists from Japan, there are many guides and hotel staff who speak fluent Japanese.

Ron and I are lucky. While neither of us speaks Japanese, we always take along our daughter Dallas, who speaks a little and can read a lot more. We’d be lost without her.

* Some signs are in English
And that English is often very creative! The rail stations and trains post destinations in both kanji and in Roman characters, which is extremely helpful, and the Shinkansen has English-language announcements about upcoming destinations. Many restaurants have an English-language menu. If you’re not offered one, ask. People everywhere are very friendly and patient, and no one gets offended if you need to point and use gestures to get your meaning across.

* The JR Rail Pass
Foreigners can purchase a pass that will let them ride the Japan Rail trains without the hassle of purchasing tickets for every ride. We bought seven-day passes that allowed us to ride any train in a large area around Osaka, including certain routes of the Shinkansen. Take only one smallish suitcase and pack light so you can easily lift your suitcase onto the luggage rack. (more…)

Japan is an amazing, fascinating place to visit. My husband has been reconnecting with his relatives there, which has led to several visits over the past three years. Usually we go to Kumamoto, where his family lives. On this most recent trip we didn’t — and that turned out to be a very good thing as Kumamoto was struck by two serious earthquakes on the second and third nights that we were in the country.

Fortunately for us, we were far north and didn’t even feel the quakes. There was, of course, extensive coverage of the damage on the evening news—and we were very relieved when Ron’s family checked in on Facebook, reporting that they were well.

Many others, of course, lost homes and loved ones. There is little that is helpful to say in the face of such a tragedy, beyond that our best wishes go out to all those affected. May the recovery be swift.

Sasquan, the World Science Fiction convention of 2015, was held a couple of weeks ago — August 19 to 23 — in Spokane, Washington. Other than the Nebula awards weekend last year, this was the first SF convention I attended since the 1990s, and it was a lot of fun!

The convention ran Thursday through Sunday, though all of my scheduled events were on Thursday and Friday. I sat on two self-publishing panels, and had much to say on both. I was also on the military science fiction panel where I had less to say, as the focus was firmly on the past, with lots of discussion on early works in the field.

Then there was the Ditch Diggers Live Podcast! I was invited to participate in this only a couple of days before the convention, and I’m very happy I agreed to it, because it was a lot of fun. Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace officiated, with Kate Elliott, Aliette de Bodard, Fonda Lee, and myself on the panel. We discussed ways to deal with some difficult and demoralizing situations that writers can face, involving publishers, payments, and such…but we did it in a role-playing-game format. I have no idea who, if anyone, heard the podcast, but people in the audience seemed to be having a good time.
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I’m planning to attend this year’s World Science Fiction convention, aka Sasquan, in Spokane, Washington. If you’re going to be there too, do say hello! All my official activities are on Thursday or Friday. Here’s my schedule:

THURSDAY

Panel: Self-publishing — How To Do It
11:00 – 11:45, Conference Theater 110 (CC)
Once your book is written, what next? Successful self-published authors explain how to go from manuscript to completed book, or ebook. (This panel discusses the sources, processes and procedures. Marketing and promotion are covered in a separate panel.)
Panelists: Stu Segal (M), Doug Farren, Nick Mamatas, Linda Nagata, H.M. Jones

Panel: From Starship Troopers to Honor Harrington and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of Military SF
13:00 – 13:45, Bays 111A (CC)
Military SF has had its heyday. Is the topic done? Where do we go from here?
Panelists: Greg Bear, William Dietz, Linda Nagata, Toni Weisskopf

Kaffe Klatche
14:00 – 14:45, 202A-KK1 (CC)
Join a panelist and up to 9 other fans for a small discussion. Coffee and snacks available for sale on the 2nd floor.
(I’ve never done a “Kaffe Klatche” before. Come talk to me!)

Autographing
With Paolo Bacigalupi, Ellen Datlow, Molly Gloss, Frog Jones, and Louise Marley
16:00 – 16:45, Exhibit Hall B (CC)

FRIDAY

Panel: Self-publishing — When to do it, When to Publish Traditionally
11:00 – 11:45, 401C (CC)
A discussion of the whys and whens of self-publishing versus traditional publishing. Timing, royalties, promotion and more. Panel will consist of successful self-published authors, self-published authors who have been picked up by major publishers, and publishing industry professionals.
Panelists: Stephen Segal (M), Taiyo Fujii, H.M. Jones, Linda Nagata

Reading
Friday 15:30 – 16:00, 301 (CC)
(Come to my reading! And by the way, what should I read?)

Last New Zealand post!

Tiritiri Matangi Island is an amazingly successful ecological restoration project. The island itself is one of the Hauraki Gulf Islands off of Auckland. It used to be farmed, but beginning in 1984, rodents on the island were killed off and replanting was begun — the beginning of an immense volunteer project. Today the island’s vegetation is mostly native, and is home to many native bird species that thrive in the absence of introduced pest and predators.

Both Ron and I are interested in conservation, and we were told multiple times that we must visit the island — but we almost didn’t go. The weather during our last few days in Auckland was cold, windy, and wet, and a visit to an offshore island where we would need to remain for most of the day was not all that appealing. But we gathered our courage, and went anyway on our last full day in the city. And we were so glad we did!

The western side of the island, where we docked, was cold, a bit wet, and very windy as expected, but once we left the shore and entered the shelter of the bush, the weather wasn’t bad at all.

The island itself is beautiful, again with those amazingly well-kept New Zealand trails! The walks are guided by volunteers, which is wonderful for learning about the island’s history and having help sighting the native birds, which were very active during our visit. So yes! If you’re ever in Auckland, consider a visit. This is a wonderful conservation project, a great way to spend a day, and the hiking is easy.

Here’s our transportation, docked at Tiritiri Matangi Island.

 
The western shore, a photo that does not communicate the fierce wind that was blowing and an imminent, if passing, shower!

 
An oystercatcher nesting on the beach. This is my only semi-decent bird photo, and only because the subject was considerate enough to hold still!

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The walk to Taranaki Lookout was our second New Zealand hike. This one was much, much shorter than the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, but very different and fascinating. We did this one the day after Tongariro… well, actually, in the last half of the afternoon. It was only about 6.5 kilometers total, round trip.

This one was a rainforest hike. We walked from the hotel, through the little village of National Park, to a gravel road in a forest reserve. Just walking on the road was fascinating. The tree below is, I believe, a native cypress. Note the epiphytic ferns where the trunk begins to divide.

And this is what the road looks like… on our walk we saw only one other person on the road, a young woman on a bicycle who happened to work at our hotel.

We were following a map that was part of a brochure given to us by the hotel. Here’s the map. Note the distance through the town. Note the distance on the road and then the trail. As it turns out, this was not to scale. I admit I did not actually read the brochure…so before long as we were walking on the road I started to wonder aloud, “Did we miss the trail? We must have missed it. It’s not nearly this far on the map!” As it turns out, the brochure clearly states it’s two kilometers to the beginning of the trail, but the map makes the distance look much, much shorter!

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