Creek Running North

No! No! You can’t go! 

That’s just WAY too scary!

Are you forgetting the family history of seizures?

Yeah, mom, and what if I get hit by a meteor? There’s a great big impact crater not far away from there, so Arizona is obviously meteor country. Or what if I die of a sudden case of cancer, right there on the trail? What if Bill brings some jerky that has Extra Strength Mad Cow Disease in it, and I get the staggers?

Advance Directive: if I ever start to let health worries keep me from going hiking, please, all of you: have Becky shove me off the nearest cliff ASAP.

In any event, I will be hiking in hiking boots, unlike some people I could name who tried to climb Mount Tam in cowboy boots and fell on their head, with seizures starting mysteriously sometime after.

It looks like it is going to be a beautiful journey. Take lots of pictures, so we can all be dazzled by the Grand Canyon’s beauty. I hope you finds lots of fossils, too. That would be truly grand!

I don’t like this. I don’t have a fear of heights, I have a fear of OTHER people falling from heights.

I remember one time at Watkins Glen where you went to hang over the edge, Chris, and seeing you do that had me falling to the ground as my legs went out from under me.

I don’t think there’s a name for this phobia.

chris—how clumsy are you? does your family know something we don’t? are your knees and elbows covered with scar tissue? how many times have you fallen? ok, enuff questions.

i checked all the pictures on that site you linked to. RD and i want to go there. we do mainly day hikes and our favorite is up in the high sierra. cowboy boots? i always hike in thongs (shoes, not underwear, i mean i wear regular clothes and thong shoes). i enjoy that running down mountains thing too.

go. enjoy. don’t fall.

I thought the Dread Pirate Roberts was actually an accountant named Cummerbund.

Anyway, I haven’t fallen down in many years, DPR, at least not without the help of alcohol. And I don’t plan to drink any on this trip, so I should be fine.

One of my elbows is in fact covered with scar tissue from a fall, but said fall happened 35 years ago.

Berna, I’m so sorry about Joachim.

Do it stoned, and you’ll be my hero forever.

Dave, I’d tell you about my adventure on this bridge:

but my mom is probably watching.

Yes, Craig, OTHER people falling is my phobia, too.  I even have had dreams of a kid of mine at one time or another falling from great heights and dying.  I now can empathize with the way Mom reacted in Nova Scotia.

Berna, I’m very sorry, too…

I am sorry also, Berna. You guys can check my blog for my post on Taughanock Falls, to read about my fear of heights, especially concerning other people falling. I’d give you a link to that particular post on here, but haven’t learned how yet.

Craig, I am watching, but you have hinted around at that bridge escapade to me in the past.

Chris, a great tragedy that occurred while you were attending Calasanctius was the death of another student, Chris Scheeler, when he slipped in the snow and fell into the gorge at Letchworth.

Anyway, I hope we haven’t totally bummed you out. We want you to have fun, but be careful.

I remember Chris Scheeler well; he was a pretty good friend considering the five years’ age difference.

OK, family people, I have nightmares about my kids falling over Niagara Falls every time we go anywhere NEAR there, AND I’m terrified of heights myself, but I’d still go!  It looks amazing!

That’s the thing, Coral… even with my lack of a vestibular system I’d go, and feel safer about it than seeing someone I know do it — or a stranger even.

Looks fantastic!

All that means is that you inherently believe others to be too incompetent to keep themselves from breaking their necks.  It’s deeply mistrustful of humans.  I like it.

Holy shit!

A friend of mine went on a lark to the canyon, headed down near dusk, wondered why all the questions from other hikers and warning signs. They got to the bottom, begged a spot to sleep on a picnic table (both attractive 20-something women) and the next morning actually looked at where they’d come down, arms full of beer and not much else, and realized how stupid they’d been.

I’m sure that path is wider than it looks. But still…

go...enjoy...be thrilled! we usually more regret the things we didn’t do than those we do.

Chris,

You should have an incredible visit there.  The place is so very beautiful, it literally takes your breathe away.  My partner reminds me that all I could say was “Oh my God(dess)” about 5 times when we first came upon the Canyon.  On the drive toward the Park, a Coyote was standing on a ledge on a cliff looking so beautiful and stoic staring out at the landscape.  It’s like no other place in the world.  I can’t wait to visit there again.

Have a great trip.

~ Samhain