I had most of the day off on Sunday, and I was itching to get out of the city. The heat and the traffic were getting on me. I called Banu and said, "Where can I find some trees without driving clear to Cedar City?" She recommended Mt. Charleston, which is about a 45-minute drive from where I'm staying.

After turning left off highway 95 and heading up highway 157, elevation started going up dramatically. Signs along the way let you know just how thin the air is getting. The trailhead I chose (Cathedral Rock) started above 7000 feet. Perfect. Temperature went from 95 in the valley to 73 when I got up to the trailhead. Felt great!

I hike wearing these. They're a little odd, and I found them when I wanted to get some moccasins for hiking. These were the closest I could find to what I was looking for. Here's a picture:



I love how they feel, and my body has adapted well to essentially going barefoot. I normally really enjoy these for hiking, but the trail at Cathedral Rock had long stretches of hard-packed gravel that was slightly larger than golf balls, and sharp. I avoided these stretches completely on the way up by taking some hidden back-way game trails, and the shoes were great. I came down the main trail, however, and my feet were definitely sore on the way down. I think there's a reason why white people didn't find gravel trails everywhere when they showed up in North America: gravel is hard on the feet when you aren't wearing mattresses strapped to your feet. On natural trails, I zip along with the fastest hikers, but on gravel, I was forced to pick my steps carefully and I moved as quickly as I could to end the pain. The good news is that as soon as I found a spot to get off the gravel trail and back to pristine forest floor, the pain quickly subsided and I was back to my quick stride.

Overall impressions of Mt. Charleston: a lot of people were up there because it was a Sunday afternoon. Harleys could be heard frequently in large thunderous packs that climbed around the windy mountain roads. Everyone I met on the trail was very polite, but if you're looking for solitary forest time, you'll have to venture far from the trail.

I found two springs in my explorations and drank heartily from them both. I am grateful for the media scare campaign regarding mountain spring water and giardia because it means I don't have to share one of nature's most enjoyable gifts with a bunch of yahoos from the city. As I was dipping my hands in the water for a drink, some guy asked me, "Is the water safe to drink?" I said, "Not if you're from the city. It will make you very sick. You should stick to bottled water." He bought it hook, line and sinker. I felt no ill effects and appreciated the refreshment of natural mountain spring water that can only be fully appreciated after an hour and a half of hard hiking in warm weather in full sun.

I will head back to Mr. Charleston again soon, but next time I'll try to find a more remote area to explore.

Tags: hiking, travel, exercise, Las Vegas

I've been in Monte Carlo for the last few days covering the EPT Grand Final. I added a gallery of photos I took here in Monte Carlo at night. I'll write a different blog post explaining the process I used to make them.

Thoughts on Monte Carlo:

• Everything is very expensive, and that's exacerbated by the terrible exchange rate. No big surprise there. A 20-euro hamburger could never taste good enough to justify the cost.
• Two buttons on the toilet, one for number one and one for number two. The number one is just a quick flush. Great idea for saving water.
• Even at the Monte Carlo Bay hotel, where rooms go for 600-850 euros per night (that's approx. $1000-$1600 per night), they don't have hot water in the bathroom sinks.
• High-fructose corn syrup sucks. How do I know? There's no HFCS in European Coca-cola, and it DEFINITELY tastes different. And by different, I mean 237 times better. Americans are getting ripped off in this category.
• Most people speak English very well and are very accommodating and very patient with my non-franophone-ness.
• Motorcycles and cars run around these streets (very quickly, I might add) in equal numbers. Most of the motorcycles are two-stroke engines, which means they get great gas mileage, have a lot of horsepower, but are very loud. But when fuel is 1.55 euros per liter (around $10 per gallon) you take whatever measures necessary to use as little of it as possible.
• Buses (1 euro) are your friend.
• Baguettes here are amazing. They taste similarly to sourdough and have a great texture. Very tasty.
• The ham in Monte Carlo isn't cured using brown sugar. They use a much milder curing process and the ham is very flavorful, but not so damn sweet as ham in America
• French TV = boring. Three(!) fashion channels, at least eight news channels (that are frequently reporting on fashion shows), soap operas, American movies dubbed with French and a music channel. Boring. I had heard all of these rumors about how racy and sex-filled European television is. I've seen none of that. Makes me wonder if some kind of propaganda machine is at work behind that little myth.
• When you're crossing the street, you better be paying attention, because the margins for error are very slim.
• Evian water doesn't taste any better here.
• If I lived here, I would love the two-hour lunches.
• 64 degrees fahrenheit is warm enough for topless sunbathing for people in Monte Carlo.
• Hope you enjoy the photos! Let me know what you think of them in the comments for this post.

Tags: monte carlo, photography, poker, travel, europe

If New York is so avant-garde and the rest of the country is just a bunch of backwards fly-over-country idiots, why don't they have wireless internet at JFK?

Tags: JFK, Airport, wireless internet

Off to Borgata to video more segments for the upcoming Full Tilt Poker University. FTPU will be a great source of poker instruction from the stable of Full Tilt Poker pros. Videotaping, and later editing, the videos has already helped my poker game. I look forward to really gaining a grasp of poker by getting some hands-on instruction from pros.

I felt a little off-kilter at the beginning of this trip because my wife, Banu, is out of town, so she couldn't see me off at the airport. I like the comfort that comes from little rituals like that. She's visiting an old friend in Vegas and took Sapphira with her, so I've been alone for the last couple of days. When I'm alone, my anxieties and insecurities really assault me and work their way to the surface. I hyper-overstimulate my senses by playing poker, reading articles and listening to very loud music simultaneously, all in an effort to shut out this looming sense of things just not being quite right with me. Read More...

Tags: Borgata, Atlantic City

I'm back on the tournament circuit, but in a different capacity. World Poker Tour, once lauded by the poker media community as a friendly free-for-all as far as media access went, has now entered into an exclusive agreement with Card Player that makes the KGB's grip on Soviet Russia look effete and pathetic. In response, pokerwire will be let out to pasture with other tired poker media websites, and I'll be taking on a new project for Full Tilt Poker. I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, so I'll just say that I'm looking forward to the change in responsibilities. A guy can only hear "How's your table draw?" so many times before wanting to retire to a Zen monastery in Japan.

Tags: Los Angeles, poker, travel, Bike Casino