July family outing: Danger on a High Rock.

 Saturday we decided to take a little hike to the Indian caves. The hike was a little longer than we expected since the road was not as passable as I remember it 25 years ago. The kids were troopers and did great going up the mountain.

 We enjoyed the scenery and looked for arrowheads on our way to the caves. Susan was visiting from Texas, so she joined us on our little adventure.

Mary and Susan rested with the baby while I took the older kids and scouted out the caves. It was a nice relaxing family outing, until Mary decided to try out her free-climbing skills. I heard Mary whistling for me, so we headed back to bring the rest of group to the caves. When I got back Mary was gone,. Then I heard her call out "Sam, I think I have a problem. I may be stuck." Her voice was coming from back up by the caves, and I wondered how I missed her on my way down. 

This (below) is where I found her.

You might want to blow up the wide angle shot below to see what kind of pickle she was in. She had come around the back side of the rock, and free climbed to the top thinking it was a short climb down on other side. What she found instead was a good 50-foot drop off. Of course she had climbed about that far coming up, and free climbing down is a lot harder than going up. So I told her she would have to go across the top of the rock to a place where she could easily get down.  Easier said than done. Mary couldn't move. The top is only a few feet wide with a 50-foot drop off on either side. If you fall down one side, you'll scrape across the sharp granite on your way down. On the other side there is only air between you and the ground. But let's not think about that right now.

Mary was able to get up on her hands and bear crawl across the top. I went up to the top end of the rock to help find the best path down. At least we got a nice shot. You can see the drop off is not straight down, but cuts under. Our 3-year-old was pretty nervous and was crying when he saw his mom up on that rock. Then he got even more scared when he tried to follow me up the rock. He climbed up about 10 feet, and then he was stuck. I was able to lift him down. Then we watched nervously as Mary shimmied her way across the rock until she could safely get down.

 On the way back down the mountain we decided to wade through the creek. Here's our 3-year-old enjoying himself after the adventure.

 The whole family got in on the fun.

And Susan was the only one to find an arrowhead! Beginner's luck I suppose. Sam and the kids found a few chips, but nothing this exciting.