ROCKS

The theme for the day: ROCKS!

1. First thing this morning I saw a message on Sister Mortensen's t-shirt. It said, "My Bishop Rocks". That is pretty shocking when considering our Bishop is Bishop Palmer. Oh well. I saw that on her t-shirt at 6:30 am as we were gathering for another 2.4 mile hike at Squaw Peak. There were a lot of ROCKS on the hike. There were big rocks to step over. The rocks were mostly white chalky looking ones. Some Bozo must have tried running down and wiped out because we were able to follow a fresh blood trail dripping on the rocks all the way back down the trail. Some rocks were rather sharp and some were well worn to a smoother finish. I wore my boots and so my feet were happy - the rocks didn't hurt my feet at all. We got done and I was home by about 10 am.

2. That gave me just 2 hours to get ready for another hike with my group getting ready to hike Paria Canyon. I bought a pair of trail shoes to wear on this hike. It will take us through slot canyons and into and out of the wet creekbed many times so I needed ones that would drain out water easily and not be really heavy if they were wet. I wore these shoes to the hike out at the White Tanks. We hiked a loop that included the following trails: Mesquite, Willow, Ford's Canyon, and one more connecting trail. We met at noon and I got home by 6 pm. Crazy - we hiked 9 miles! I did pretty good too. But back to my theme. There were lots of rocks on this hike too. The rocks here had much more variety. There were red, brown, yellow, orange, green, blue, gray, black, and white rocks. The variety of colors weren't all I enjoyed about them. Some of the rocks had stripes of different colors. Some were just plain stripes - some were more like "x's". I even saw a few rocks with polka-dots. There were some really cool looking black ones that sparkled in the sunshine. I liked hiking on the big rocks - you know the ones that are buried deep enough to be very stable when stepping onto them. The large rocks that looked very stable but then rolled and shifted when you stepped onto them really kept us awake. I didn't like walking on the parts of the trail that were completely covered with smaller loose rocks - those took a lot of care as we hiked. Some rocks were buried deep into the earth but just had a small point exposed. I usually tripped on those. Those rocks were good at making me practice my balancing skills. I never did fall. Then there were the teeny tiny rocks - some of us call it sand - that sapped our strength as we plodded through it. Then our hike leader decided to let us do some bouldering off the trail and following a dry creekbed. Yippee! That was after about 6 miles.





It was pretty awesome. What at first appeared to us to be impossible - upon further inspection we determined with a little extra effort it became possible! Yes we started to feel like the sure footed mountain goats (is that a good thing?). Some of those boulders were really very huge rocks! Really huge!! Of course I forgot the camera. Then after bouldering for an hour or so we bushwacked through the blooming desert bushes back to the established trail. That was wonderful on my allergies! Anyway, we made it back to the car and it was a wonderful day! The thing is even after hiking over 11 1/2 miles today over, around, and through many many many rocks, pebbles, sand, etc. - NOT ONE OF THOSE ROCKS MADE IN INTO MY SHOES! What a miracle! I love my shoes! My feet really love my shoes! I hope I don't wear them out before the actual hike!