Ted Tenny’s long career as a Software Engineer is evident in his button-down appearance and the way his analytical mind chooses the perfect word to complete the equation of each question I ask of him.

He has been a member of East Valley Writers’ Group for two years and now serves as one of its facilitators. “I sat in a few times before I tried to read anything,” he says, “But I knew right away that this group was for me.”

Ted has a nonfiction book currently at a publisher that will soon be released and is presently working on a novel. He is literally exploring new creative paths in his retirement.

His book, Goldfield Mountain Hikes, is being published by Gem Guides Book Company of Upland, California. It is slated for release in November, 2005, and will be available for purchase at all major bookstores. In addition, it will be offered at REI, Wide World of Maps, The Superstition Mountain Museum, and any place hiking books are sold in the Phoenix area and around Arizona.

Ted’s first experience in the Goldfield Mountains was on a Sierra Club hike in 1996. He readily admits it was love at first sight. He spent the next five years in his hiking boots doing the necessary legwork. Ted says, “Basically it was a matter of going there in person and scouting hiking routes and taking careful measurements with my GPS. I then drew accurate routes on the map and then wrote up the descriptions in a way that a hiker could follow it and enjoy everything that I did. I’m still discovering new routes but will save them for the second edition.”

When he began his research, there were no books available on hikes in the Goldfield Mountains, although there was plenty of information on hikes in the nearby Superstitions. He recognized this need, had the expertise and experience to accomplish the task, and has fearlessly blazed the trail for other hikers to follow. He did hours and hours of research, gathering a collection of publications, geological reports, historical articles, and anything he could get his hands on, in order to get the information necessary to complete his hiker’s guide.

The Goldfield Mountains are located in eastern Maricopa County just north of the Superstition Mountains. “If you’re driving to Canyon Lake on the Arizona Trail Highway, State Route 88,” he instructs, “look to your right and you’ll see the Superstition Mountains. On your left are the Goldfield Mountains.” The area is a part of the Tonto National Forest. It is not yet a state park, but Ted hopes it will be in the future because he would like to see the mountains protected.

According to Ted, only one hiking trail is marked, the Pass Mountain Trail. “Most of the trails are not marked and in most of the Goldfields there are no trails to mark,” he says. “So what I’ve got is one marked trail, some unmarked trails that I send people on, and a lot of off-trail routes where there was simply never a trail built.” Navigation is by landmarks. The Goldfields have an advantage because the vegetation is so sparse that you can actually see where you are going. “If I say that the peak is on the right side of Bulldog Saddle, you can see the peak and you can see the saddle all the way up. So as long as you know which landmarks you are looking at, the directions are easy.”

Thanks to modern technology, many hikers now use GPS systems. “I’ve given waypoints for the places that have names. There is a table in the back of the book that has GPS coordinates for all of the named places. If you have a GPS, you can pre-program waypoints into it and then push a button and the GPS will take you there. It gives you continuous readouts as to the distance and direction from where you are to the point you have chosen. You have to be really careful that you get those coordinates right, or it will take you somewhere else.”

There are very few place names in the Goldfield Mountains. On the USGS topographic map, the only named peak is Dome Mountain, the highest peak. Many places are named after the Bulldog Mine, such as Bulldog Wash and Bulldog Canyon. Bulldog Peak is a rock that someone thought looks like the face of – what else – a bulldog. Ted’s book lists place names that were given by somebody else or those that have some sort of historical significance. He feels that if something doesn’t already have a name, it should be named after something that describes it, like the Golden Dome.

The Bulldog Mine is one of about a dozen mines in the Goldfields, all of them on the south side, in the valley between the Goldfields and the Superstitions. Ted claims that the miners got most of the gold many decades ago, but the sparkle in his eyes makes it obvious that if he stumbled upon something, he wouldn’t hesitate to pick it up. The Lost Dutchman, Jacob Waltz, is rumored to have found his gold in the Goldfields, but he used the Superstition Mountains for his entrance and exits into the area. As other miners followed him, he’d “get lost” so nobody could see which way he went, and he fooled the others into assuming he was getting his gold from the Superstition Mountains. Ted says, “People still go in the Superstitions and they dig in the rocks trying to find gold, and all they ever find is more rocks.”

The book also includes information on the type of vegetation and assists in their identification, with lots of pictures which Ted personally took. “I tell people to avoid the thicket of Teddy Bear cholla that’s growing north of Hill 2290. Wherever the vegetation is important, I write about the kind.” He recommends hiking the Goldfields be done in the cooler months of the year. If a summer hike is planned, it is best to start early in the morning while it is still dark so you can finish the hike before it gets too hot.

Although he’s never heard of anyone getting lost and dying in the Goldfield Mountains, he sheepishly admits to have gotten lost once. “I got all the way up on the ridge line and discovered, to my chagrin, that I was on the wrong mountain ... it’s a terrible confession because you shouldn’t be off trail and alone.” This experience hit home as to the importance of his book Goldfield Mountain Hikes which will soon be available.

Currently, Ted is working on an autobiographical novel based on experiences from the early days of his career. Structured Programming and the Road to the Devil’s Postpile includes people he met in his first six years out of college. “I don’t think it’s possible to just read the book and find out who these real people are, including me. Everybody has a stage name and I never give a hint as to the geographical location where the action takes place. However, if I can remember what somebody said, I try to quote them accurately.” The only character in the novel who knows about it is his wife, Jacquelyn Tenny. “The book ends when the two of us get together and realize that we were meant for each other. I stopped the story while it was still G-rated.”

Always the researcher, Ted is using an extensive collection of letters he both sent to his mother and received from his father as source material. He also has some documents from work that help him remember what went on between his cast of characters. “A lot of it is technical because that is where I was spending my time, and what I was doing then.” When asked if some of the techno-speak can be taken as metaphor, Ted says, “It’s like Hacksaw’s definition of view factors: if you can see the front button of her blouse then the view factor is greater than zero. Later on, when Sophia caught Hacksaw looking at the front button of her blouse, I knew what he should say to give her a technical explanation.”

Ted hopes to finish his first draft by the end of 2004. “I get a kick out of reading it at East Valley Writers Group and hearing comments from other writers, even when they straighten me out on things I need to do better.” He says that the hardest part of writing is “getting the technical stuff palatable.” He tries hard to make the story sound like the action is real and the reader is observing it as it happens. The easiest part of writing, he has found, is the dialogue. “When I can remember what somebody said, it’s easier to remember it than make it up.”

His experience in finding a publisher relied heavily on networking. For his book Goldfield Mountain Hikes he contacted writers of other hiking books and one of them told his publisher about Ted’s website with information on his book on the Goldfield Mountains. After taking a look, the publisher contacted Ted directly. He considers his website instrumental in finding his publisher, and encourages other writers to do the same.

Future projects include another hiking book which will be called Alternative Phoenix Hikes. It will give details on hikes to unusual destinations, and off-trail or one-way hikes, which are easily accessible from Phoenix. “I’ve got about twenty of these hikes and all of them are in places other than the Goldfields. They’re in some way different from the usual hikes and not written up elsewhere.”

Look for Goldfield Mountain Hikes which will be available in November, 2005. To view his website, see the Goldfield Mountains Home Page.

You can contact Ted Tenny; hiker, explorer, trailblazer, and author by . Or you might find him wandering around the Goldfield Mountains hoping to stumble upon a new hiking route, a pile of those shiny rocks, or additional information for his fellow hikers.