La Quinta motel near the airport, Albuquerque NM, 23 June 2005

I have come to respect the difference between higher altitude locations and sea level.

Beautiful hiking for as high as I got. Wildlife everywhere. Cacti of all varieties, flowering like crazy (recent big rains), flowering bushes of all types. Salamanders, lizards, snakes, spiders, ants rabbits, frogs bees, giant flies, birds. It was non-stop noise until you got to about 7500 feet, then much quieter.

And the heat, so amazingly dry here. You can feel the water leaving your body by the minute, but no sweating whatsoever. I went as far as water bottle number 1, and then turned back clutching water bottle two.

Ran out about a mile off the trail head. Kept getting lost down low. Trail poorly marked and ground so smooth and hard it's hard to tell trail from anything else.

When I finally get back, it's about 7 miles over 3 hours. I buy a ticket to go up the tram to 10,375 foot peak. Almost pass out from dehydration on SRO ride up. Amazing trip though, hanging 1000 feet over a canyon at one point. Thank God for the bar up top. Two big Sprites no ice. Then better liquids down below before the cab ride home. Cabbie's son and grandkids live in Columbus IN. Being an NM native, he said that Indiana, in his opinion, was full of grass, and so humid!

I'm just glad I didn't become any mountain lion dinner. My head was so dizzy at times, I kept imaging the lion watching me in the distance, thinking to himself, "Some guy from the coast. I just wait until he keels over and then . . . snack time!"

When I got off the mountain I called my brother Ted (after the cab) and talked to him til my cell phone gave out. My baby bro turned 40 today. He's an eye surgeon in St. Louis, who heads up his own research unit at Washington U., about the best eye place in America.

Nice phonecons today with Greg Jaffe of the WSJ and my own bud Rob Holzer, previously of Defense News and the media guy at the Office of Force Transformation since 01. I called each just to run some thoughts by them for the Esquire piece I dashed off on China a while back. Warren's hoping to get it into the September issue (too late for Aug), so I will beef it up on the plane home tomorrow.

Wife called today and said unbound galley for BFA arrive today. Dog Bailey chewed up the box plenty, but manuscript untouched. It awaits me atop the fridge, one of the few standing items still in our house. I attack it first thing Sat morn, so I have to get this Esquire piece off my desk tomorrow.

Brought all these newspaper clippings to process in my 3-ring binder compilations of endnotes. An entire 50 pound suitcase. Haven't done a thing with them the entire time here.

But the mountain was worth it.