Tales From The Travels

 

 A woman was swept away in a flash flood in Zion National Park over the weekend and they have now found her body six miles downstream. This was an innocent woman who was merely out enjoying the natural wonders of Zion, so I am sorry to hear of her death. But, there are details in the story that are pertinent to me and some of my recent experiences. One of the things that stands out to me is that she was hiking with a brother and a friend. They both decided to turn around when they heard about the flash flood warning, but she continued on to explore the canyon. Let's ignore the fact that "flash floods" are aptly named and can be literal walls of water rushing down river beds, sweeping everything away in front of them. Instead, just focus on The Narrows and the Virgin River in Zion. This river is very well known for its dangerous flash floods and the fact that there is very little you can do if you're in the canyon when one comes. When she made the decision to contin...

Christopher Paolini, of the Eragon series fame, wrote a book of short stories a few years back that I enjoyed - The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm . Overall, the book was pretty good, but there was one story I really enjoyed - The Worm. A dragon moves into a valley and attacks a village. A young woman witnesses it killing her father and vows revenge. Over the years, she becomes a very accomplished wizard, but all efforts to combat the dragon failed and it would periodically descend on the village to feast on the people. Then, one day, a worse terror enters the valley and the dragon does battle with it, not to defend the town or its people, but to defend its territory. But, in the process, the dragon actually saves the lives of everyone in the town. The woman eventually realizes her limitations and learns to accept the situation she was in, finding healing and happiness as a result. I thought this was a good metaphor for life. There are bad things out there and sometimes life sucks. But...

It's been over 100 degrees where I live in central Texas nearly every day this summer. So, what better thing to do than to go to Colorado and spend a week hiking in the Rockies?  It was a good trip and a much needed break from the heat and the never-ending effort to implement my Master Plan. I'm a qualified leader with our local chapter (Austin, TX) of the Sierra Club, which means I took all of the training in first aid, wilderness first aid, and the Sierra Club training for being an event leader. They contacted me last winter and asked me to go on this trip. They were short qualified people and the annual trip was at risk of not happening without a sufficient number of first aid qualified hikers. Hmmm. Colorado in August or Texas? Quick decision. But, only as an assistant leader, not the primary leader. That is too much work and responsibility for my taste. I did all of that for decades and now I want to enjoy my trips. So, about a dozen of us met at Ridgway State Park and sp...

I saw an article about a hiker who died on Mt Washington in New Hampshire over the weekend.  I climbed that mountain in the fall of 2019 and the weather was fairly mild. It was still and not too cold, but the fog was so thick I could barely see from one rock cairn marking the trail to the next. I would have to stop at the cairn and peer into the gloom until I spotted the next one to make sure I didn't wander off trail and got lost. This mountain is the tallest mountain in the northeast US (6288 ft/1916 m) and is world famous for its weather. A wind speed of 231 mph was recorded in 1934 and is still one of the highest wind speeds every recorded. A temperature of -50 F was recorded in 1885. The highest temperature ever recorded there is only 76 F. As a comparison, here at my home in Texas I'm measuring days this summer where it doesn't get that low during the night. With this kind of weather and size it's not surprising that people get killed or injured on it fairly regu...