Hiking on Christmas Day

Hiking on Christmas Day
Originally uploaded by shermans.

We wandered around in the South Mountains on Christmas Day. The hike wasn't too bad, unless you are carrying a young child. Shortly after this picture was taken, the "Hidden Valley" trail seemed to end in a minature box canyon. We wandered around a bit before we decided we need to go up and over. This was not a terribly difficult scramble except that I couldn't do it with Ciela on my back, and she was too short to walk it on her own. Judy and I ended up doing a Ciela hand over to get her up and over the rocks. Awkward and a little bit risky, but we got her up.

Then we had to do it again about 200 yards down the trail.

And then nearly a third time at what the trail guide cleverly calls Fat Man's pass (I think I've walked through 8 or 10 Fat Man's passes, miserys and dilemmas in my hiking and spluenking). Except that Ciela is very skinny, and just walked through the 14 inch passage way between two house-size boulders. She found it very funny, laughing the whole way through. Her father, unexpectedly, was able to go through sideways and did not freak out from the claustrophobic sensation of being pinned between two very immobile rocks.