14 miles of beauty and fun – and hard work. Hike in from Grandview Trail Head – to Horseshoe Mesa, around the mesa then up from Cottonwood Creek change in elevation – 3,843 ft (7,300 to 3,800) – we covered all of that on the way out in just 4 miles.

We started our hike on Saturday afternoon – after a long drive from Phoenix.  Arriving the night before and taking the time to get gas for the stove at the local REI.  We had packed our backpacks in duffles  -  with everything we needed.  Delta will allow you to ship a stove after all – so that was in there.  My trekking poles, knives, water filter, tent, pads, etc.  Since I’m platinum on Delta – we were able to check them for no cost. The cashier said – that’s all you need – wow, great preparation!  Daniel and I said – yup – proudly.  However, as we crashed that night in the hotel I suddenly realized – we forgot one key thing…  Our BOOTS!  Think about it – all that packing and repacking of our equipment, but we simply didn’t think – and had our sneaks on for the flight.

So while our plan was to leave really early bypassing Flagstaff to the trailhead by 10AM, instead we timed our trip to get to Flagstaff by 10AM so that we could pick up something for our feet. I just wasn’t comfortable hiking in my cowboy boots or sneaks – and Daniel’s sneaks are so old – well, it just wasn’t an option.  We ended up at a local sporting goods store and picked up some inexpensive boots for $29/each.  I mainly thought – well, they won’t last but at least we won’t have stubbed toes or rolled ankles.  Made for a nice breakfast at Cafe Pickles however – and a quick tour of Flagstaff.

We arrived at the G.C. center by noon and tried to change course – so that we could go down to the river, but that wasn’t an option.  Burned 2 hours we didn’t need to but still, we got to the trail before 1PM.

The hike down wasn’t terrible – though a bit steep at times.  We did get ourselves some micro-spikes at the outfitters to combat a little snow on the trail -

My big personal insight was how this is so corollary to what we do in business, life and our own social evolution. Consider how our industry and society has evolved to do just the same things. Some build, others manage and still others lead these managers strategically. The parts of computers and robotics, the CPU’s and the instructions to turn these switches on and off in the CPU and Memory chips. It makes me think – could the same thing be true of all the parts of our brain that we assume to be unused? And even the way we develop software here at Intuit – the happy accident resulting from customer driven innovation and design for delight.

These evolutions in the product come from observation and change based on what works better. The interesting question for scientists I suppose is how they can apply these changes, these bits of insight into forced evolution. Nova touched on this in the end with the treatment of genetic disease. In the show they talked about how this now helps parents to prepare for what they know will be a disability for their children. Is making the change in the embryos the key – or wrong. Now you step into life, creation, evolution and all that – not a battle I want to begin with a I’m conflicted internally as well. But it makes you think – if you have the open mind to do so.

Its a minor peak at 4,458 feet – walking up from the trailhead at US highway 19/129 near the The Walasi-Yi Center – Mountain Crossings is only 2.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1,800 from the Byron Reece Memorial trailhead, 1,300 if you go from Neels Gap and the Walasi-Yi Center . Neels gap is the only place on the AT that goes through a man made structure – built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the thirties.  Blood Mountain is the highest peak on the AT in Georgia.  Interesting factoid – my grandfather, Anthony Capizzi who is 95 years old worked in the CCC when he was a teen. 

I walked up to the peak to find that they are renovating one of the oldest shelters on the AT – a stone edifice that has been around since 1934 when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built it.  I’ve provided some shots here of it in 2006 and then today under renovation.  This is one of my favorite places as so many interesting parts of my experience on the AT have happened here. My first walk in the woods on the AT with Andrew Kaplan back in 2002 culminated here. Daniel and I have come up here many times and I first saw the character in his soul as he walked around cleaning up litter as a tiger scout handing it to a local ranger – because he wanted to. Years later we lumber up as two experienced hikers and campers – just plain comfortable out there.  Now its a day hike for me – a respite from things that matter to things that really matter.  My big picture, eagle, horizon view; contrasted to the respite I have in my back yard, insect view, looking inward and contemplating how every day counts. 

Stats:
Byron Reece Memorial 2:08PM, 3,125ft
Walked 2.5 miles to Blood Mountain Summit and Shelter 4,461ft, 2.4 Miles – arrived at 3:00PM
Walked 2.5 miles back to Trailhead, arrived at car 3:50PM

Its Shabbot – and today as we lit the candles, had our wine and partake of the bread – I thanked God for all we have and the day of rest – and I reflected on the day. Thanking God for the health I have, the family in front of me and the freedom to enjoy all that nature provides.  And I thanked the veterans who kept this country free – for you and for me.

Shabbot Shalom

Here is Daniel in 2006 enjoying the day with me

Here is the front of the shelter - under renovation

View from the top of Blood Mountain 2011

On the way up to Blood Mountain - trail head

I will say that it was well attended and the crowd was interactive. As far as cash management banking software vendors. The verdict is still out on what will happen with FundTech and BankServ combination. And the ACI – S1 combination will be tumultuous – especially for the folks at S1. Fiserv continues to invest in Corillian commercial services but they aren’t all there, the Fiserv Ecorp Product survives and BankLink chugs on. But no breakthrough there. FIS same old ADP Brokat mash up.

We have our BFS, the iteration of Magnet that is in its third gen with still superior functionality but still not part of our unified platform. Look for that in 2013, with cross platform small business solutions in 2012. We did have strong interest in our new Business Mobile Banking and the market segmentation that allows for packages and unique user experiences for small business has helped our banks gain fee income and retain customers. We will leverage the Intuit small business franchise heavily in 2012 – that will be market changing.

Details on Garmin Connect

Since I had run a little longer than I wanted I decided to make it a 10K and the speed was good, maybe I will try for a race sometime soon.

I ended up stopping in the Commons to walk around and take in the scenery.  The leaves were beautiful, this is truly something special – people were walking to work, taking time off, running, playing – dogs, bikes, rollerblades… You name it.

The run started out slow and confused – coming from the Omni its crowded, but when I found the commons that became easy.  When you get to the corner of Beacon and Arlington look across the street for the White Trail.  I kind of ran around confused for a minute but found the spiral Arthur Fiedler foot bridge to take me across the highway.  That brings you into the Arthur Fiedler memorial area – a cool sliver statue of him.  To the right is the Esplanade, to the left the Dudley White bike path – across the stone foot bridge you can run along the Charles River on the Esplanade – I did that.

This path goes a pretty long way – I imagine you could take it all the way to Harvard. Maybe next time I will take a long slow distance run and do that.

The fall foliage was somewhat gone, but there were enough trees left with leaves of color.

I enjoyed the crew rowers in the river, the dog walkers chatting with each other, the serious and not-so-serious runners chugging by.  If you go to Boston – don’t fight the traffic, walk along the river and enjoy the scenery.

There is nothing more important than family. There’s nothing more important than work. I guess it all depends on your perspective. For me it is the former even though I know the better my work is the more I can provide for family. So it is a balance. Today started with a trip to the boy scout popcorn distribution center to pick up our pack’s popcorn – I’m in charge our our annual fund raiser of selling popcorn and so this is all part of it. We headed to the scout hut, sorted with some other parents and Daniel (who you see here) was with me all the way.
The remainder of the day involved a little work and hanging out with my daughter Sophia as I watch her attempt to play guitar

She is trying to teach herself. From friends and I showed her the lesson in Garage Band. It’s fun.
These are the everyday things I try and do for balance. What do you do?

I will say that the data service for email and calendar is slow compared to blackberry on our Microsoft exchange server. Mostly I believe it’s the rich text downloading. The flexibility to use quality tools like this and other real Apps are a big plus though and after six months side by side with an iPhone 4 on my personal line it made sense to switch. The company was moving away from the blackberry as a standard anyway – only iPhones and Androids from now on.
I will dictate my next post – see how that goes.