Last year I found Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire fascinating, and this, particularly after Fast Food Nation and "Supersize Me" and with my being such a Whole Foods whore, fascinated me. I knew corn was pernicious, and now I know it better; I knew Whole Foods was a delusion, and now I know by how much; I have wondered if any farming is sustainable over the long term (look at the Fertile Crescent after only a few millennia of irrigation and agriculture), and maybe it can be; and I'm glad I don't have to gut my own meat.
Readable, unpoliticized, honest, and unself-righteous. I had hoped Eric Schlosser could be our next Rachel Carson. Maybe Michael Pollan can be.
Okay, I didn't hike 22 miles down to the Colorado River and back in one day and maybe therefore cannot say that I have seen the Grand Canyon. But I've looked into it from many angles and hiked a whole half mile along a trail into it (not a half-mile altitude change), and while it's grandly big and grandly lovely, it's just a little too large for me to make friends with. I liked the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Perhaps I should raft through the Grand to correct my opinion. Mmm...
I also liked Waimea Canyon better. For one thing, it's greener. Its cliffs are red, like Colorado, and it gets 19" of rain a year itself, but it enjoys runoff from Mt. Wai'ale'ale, which gets over 400" a year, and you can see ocean to the south.
At the top of the road up the Canyon is Kalalau Lookout. While the canyon was perfectly sunny, beyond it clouds descended. While we hoped to see something like this, instead we saw something like this, only cloudier. Like this, except more so.
We walked a mile after that to a trailhead, and a mile along the ridge that forms the head of Kalalau Valley. Makai (toward the sea), clouds socked in the view even below us, which we could glimpse only as damn steep. Mauka (toward the mountain), under pristine blue sky and sun, stretched forest and forest and more forest in more shades of green than anywhere, back to the edges of the canyon. Pretty much we walked from the right crest to the left here. The last bit was not walking but hiking, almost climbing, over roots and stepped trail, very fun.
This day we had our shortest swim, little more than a dip, but I didn't want there to be a day when I didn't immerse myself in the ocean at all so swim I did.
