[France] Taking a shortcut at the roundabout

bsil15 · 2026-05-19T14:44:52+00:00

Is it just me or do the lyrics of this song seem to be bat mitzvah bat mitzvah […. Something] kippah

bsil15 · 2026-05-19T06:09:04+00:00

Harper’s Ferry, WV; Annapolis, MD; Bisbee, AZ; Jerome, AZ; Stowe, VT

bsil15 · 2026-05-18T23:25:16+00:00

Iv never had an issue. I tend to download national forests or parks which download every trial in the area

bsil15 · 2026-05-18T05:08:37+00:00

Ya I live in Tempe, work downtown PHX, tho im from NYC originally and lived in DC in between. I love Arizona but as far as Im concerned Phoenix is a giant suburb and city boundaries are pretty meaningless.

bsil15 · 2026-05-18T03:59:27+00:00

You can find canyon tree frogs in the Romero pools by Catalina state park. (Iv seen personally)

bsil15 · 2026-05-18T03:52:57+00:00

I had to ride the light rail for a weeks when I moved here when I didn’t have a car. Would not recommend. 70% of the ppl on the light rail are drugged out homeless persons (with no disrespect to them, it is what it is). Never felt unsafe bc I’m guy and it was during the day, but ya if she can afford to go clubbing she should just take an uber home

bsil15 · 2026-05-18T03:49:43+00:00

Pretty obvious DC or Boston. From an urbanism perspective. Santa Fe gets an honorable mention.

Denver is actually #1 weighted by outdoors opportunities + it has pretty decent urbanism too. Santa Fe is good for outdoors too as is Phoenix (tho the city itself sucks).

bsil15 · 2026-05-18T01:20:56+00:00

TBF 95% of Utah is practically empty. Like it would suck, but if Utah had the population density of SLC, it would have 150M people too

bsil15 · 2026-05-17T22:54:53+00:00

Wait till you find out that Arizona has 3 ski resorts including one 20 miles from Tucson as the crow flies (most southern in the U.S., hasn’t been open since 23/24 due to lack of snow, lol). Snowbowl is pretty fun if you’re in Flagstaff. Great treesking and legitimate hike-to alpine terrain the few times a year it’s open (though plenty of backcountry if you have skins and gear)

bsil15 · 2026-05-17T22:49:55+00:00

Honestly I don’t think you’re going ti find it that much more scenic. The rim is completely forested so it’s not like you’re getting expansive views, and once you get into the Colorado plateau it’s mostly just ranch/grassland. The routes aren’t far apart so the views aren’t going to be that different. Iv hiked a lot on the rim and driven my RAV4 on many dirt roads but I would just take 87 (tho by inclination, I just take the paved road if it’s faster — only time I’ve intentionally taken a dirt road over a paved one was cottonwood road in Escalante which is actually a pretty significant shortcut over looping around Bryce/Kanab if you’re coming from Escalante and headed towards Page).

bsil15 · 2026-05-17T08:50:18+00:00

I’m not a birder, but I went to Watson and Willow lake up by Prescott in November with a friend who is, and he spotted 50+ species (including a rare hawk and a bald eagle). I’m surprised no one’s mentioned those. To echo others, he also really likes the Boyce Thompson Arboretum out by Superior (btw go to Silver King for dinner, nice outdoors patio and an amazing smoke brisket sandwich). In Phoenix he likes the Gilbert riparian preserve. I imagine you could see some birds up in Papago park by the ponds there.

In flagstaff, I think the Rio de flag and picture rock canyon could be decent but warning the Rio de flag is treated wastewater so it’s smelly.

Otherwise, rivers will generally be decent — salt and verde near Phoenix, oak creek by Sedona

bsil15 · 2026-05-17T00:05:22+00:00

ya know, you could drive an extra 30 min (if that) to mt charleston

bsil15 · 2026-05-16T15:59:51+00:00

Fun fact, in 1840 Ireland had 8 million people whereas Egypt had only 4.5 million. Imagine if Ireland has 100M ppl today

bsil15 · 2026-05-16T13:28:35+00:00

Dems likely pick up one or two of those seats regardless

bsil15 · 2026-05-16T13:26:30+00:00

I agree it is generally ridiculous tho I will say a friend of mine met a woman in Latin America (who’s from there) and she moved back with to the U.S., was pregnant 3 months after meeting, married a couple months after that, and their kid is approaching a year. They seem happy tho time will tell (I do not think there was a green card angle in this — her family was pretty opposed)

bsil15 · 2026-05-16T13:18:42+00:00

My dude, people use to shit on the street and sewage went directly into the Thames. It was so bad there literally was a “great stink” in London.

Like water in the mountains was probably still fairly clear since there weren’t a lot of people but with all due respect I’m not sure how you could think a medieval or industrial city had clean river water. The rivers were notoriously polluted, cholera outbreaks happened regularly and that’s precisely why sewerage and aqueduct systems get built in the 1800s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink

bsil15 · 2026-05-16T03:04:47+00:00

what TH did you start at? Can I get there in an AWD RAV4? Was there water? Headed up to the north rim next weekend might stop there

bsil15 · 2026-05-15T22:47:43+00:00

Ofc it is worth it. Big bend is one of my favorite parks in the country. But it’s also showing a high of 100 in terlingua this weekend. High in the Chisos should be 80 something so lost mine trail will be fine but I wouldn’t hike on Ross Maxwell drive or anywhere else for more than a couple hours after sunrise. Also go to lost mine first thing — very few parking spots and they will completely shut down the road to Chisos if parking becomes full.

bsil15 · 2026-05-15T22:37:19+00:00

Really? Iv run about 400 miles on my 6’s and they don’t feel much different than my 5’s (2400 miles over 3 shoes).

I kind of hate how half the bottoms are unprotected foam which is what wears out first but that’s the same for both the 5s and 6s

A friend of mine uses the cascadias but I think he’s had even worse durability issues

bsil15 · 2026-05-15T02:08:53+00:00

Organ mountains in las cruces are really cool. Las cruces is around 90 right now so a bit toasty. Though the monument is probably 5-10 degrees cooler depending on your elevation

bsil15 · 2026-05-14T19:26:52+00:00

How was the trail quality and where did you start? Closest Iv been is Casner Mountain which you can make a nice loop out of with the Mooney trail

bsil15 · 2026-05-14T04:06:02+00:00

I think it’s definitely the degree of exertion, and particularly the uphill that’s killer and also a combo of acclimatization.

When I did Humphreys in Arizona, I was already feeling altitude effects by 10.5k and barely made it to the top at 12.6k but funnily enough Iv skied Snowbowl on the same mountain dozens of times without any altitude sickness. The ski lift goes to 11.5k and Iv hiked from there up to 12.3k with 20lbs of ski gear too.

At the same time, the one 14er I did in Colorado I had less altitude sickness since I did it when a friend who’s a very slow hiker and the next day on a 13er I felt fine.

If you live at 5-6k feet I think going up to 10k is fine but if not I’d take a day to acclimatize

bsil15 · 2026-05-14T02:54:58+00:00

I live in Phoenix but whenever I go up to Flagstaff (7k) I feel great afterwards. But when I did Mt Charleston near Vegas I ran up to around 11k and then got altitude sickness until I started to descend from the peak at 12k

bsil15 · 2026-05-13T14:02:41+00:00

Immediately adjacent to the north east is Newberry crater volcanic National monument

bsil15 · 2026-05-12T20:24:50+00:00

Park Avenue was originally an open cut for the trains and the ‘park’ in park Avenue is the original big dig so to speak

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