Of Storms and Canyons (Part 9)

Jersey Boys on South Rim | Unknown Photographer

I squinted and shaded my eyes from the glare of the sun. I saw it all ahead; a series of pink, plastic flags that cordoned off the slide on Dripping Springs Trail. It was inevitable that we'd encounter something like this. The rain had been relentless all week and there was evidence everywhere that the rain had battered the canyon for a lot longer than that.

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Of Storms and Canyons (Part 3)

Descent to Hermit's Creek | Mark Lindsay

There were more slides on the Hermit Trail than I cared to count. I actually did try to count them for awhile but decided to keep track of my foothold instead. I lost track at around the ninth slide—which was a big one. I heard myself groan as I climbed over the massive boulder field that constituted the slide. It cut off the trail at an almost-perfect perpendicular angle. The trail continued on the other side but my attention was to my left where everything dropped off into nothingness. The nothingness continued for about 1000 feet straight down where it ended in another boulder field. "It's all academic," I muttered to myself. "It would only take a fall of about twenty feet to kill me anyway. The rest just adds drama to the story." The next noise I made was another grunt as I safely landed on the other side of the slide.

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