Yesterday I hiked 15 miles through the Red Rocks Canyon just outside of Las Vegas, NV.  Red Rocks is known for being an urban playground for people who live in Las Vegas.  It's one of the typical answers that locals give when somebody says "all there is in Las Vegas is the strip".  But like any who gets defensive would be, locals are a little too impressed with the place.  Yes, it's nice, and if you have nothing else, it's amazing.  The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) runs the place, which I always find interesting because unlike the National Park Service, they have very different goals and ambitions.  Mostly they just leave the land alone and let you experience it as-is, which is nice.  And the rocks are beautiful.  15 miles through the Southern Nevada desert goes just about the way that you would think it would.  It was not actually a hot day, so the wind in my face blowing across the barren landscape felt great.  The last 4 miles were a dead straight line through the trackless desert.  You really can imagine that all this was once the sea floor of a giant sea.  Clambering over the rocks, I emerged at one point into the Calico Tanks, which purported to be open water in this dry world.  The view of the city, back across the desert, never fails to amuse me; the hubris of man, building this giant world in the middle of nowhere, like a stubborn SimCity player.  The Tanks themselves felt underwhelming to this nature traveler; a small green patch of stagnant lake.  The woman hiking next to me, in her 60s, was wearing a Sweden backpack.  I turned to her and - with embarassing cynicism - said "Not very inspiring, is it?"  But she turned to me, smiled a huge smile, and said,in accented English, "No, I am quite inspired."

I'm going to go back to trying to update the blog every day, or at least close to it.  I have some big announcements coming up, and a refocus on building community, about which I will say more later.  For the moment, let me know in the comments if you're reading, and what you'd like to see in this space.