Hiking is the New Diving

On Sunday we got up at 7:00 and took off for the Coyote Mountains for another attempt to find Fossil Canyon. Graham wanted to get some good hiking in before he had to leave on Monday. Lucas and Davis are now here, so we have a fairly large hiking party. We hiked for three hours in the morning, and then went again Sunday evening.

The morning hike took us up a small slit canyon to a small crevasse climb up about 12 feet. Once above that, the canyon

opened up into a wash. At the top of the wash we picked up a small trail that cut across the top of the ridge.

This trail was either a big horn sheep trail or perhaps a much older Indian trail. The hike was steep.

We ended the hike at the top of the first ridge line. The sun came out and we beat it back down the mountain to avoid the heat.

What do we like about hiking?

Davis likes the "view from the top." Lucas likes being able to say that he is a "Mountain Climber."

"Once you get to the top you feel like you accomplished something," he said.

Martin said, "I like feeling connected to nature and the environment." Which is a bunch of hooey.

I like the danger of the free climbs. They are crazy and serious adrenaline pumpers. Though they are small right now, all I can think about is the last dive on Grand Turk on the north reefs looking for sharks.

I don't like it so much with Davis. Just like diving, I find that I have a real aversion to Davis doing anything remotely dangerous. It kind of freaks me out, because the apple has not fallen far from the tree.

Which is OK. Just as long as the apple doesn't actually fall from the tree.