Last week we were riding the West Rim, thunder to the south.  Then lightning struck somewhere close.  A spark jumped from the bike to my face.  That was as close as I've been to being struck.  Yesterday on the South Kaibab thunder to the south.  With our West Rim adventure in mind, we scuttled out as fast as possible.  One of my friends tells me of huddling under an overhang on the SK when lightning struck the ridge.  The whole group was lifted into the air and deposited a few feet further down the hill.

Back in college, our first hike was always to Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and the Little Colorado.  The second weekend was Humphries, the highest peak in the state.  Coincidentally rated 14 on a scale of 15 for lightning danger.  Coincidentally during monsoon season, when it rains almost every afternoon.

I climbed the darn mountain three times before I made it to the top.  A storm always moved in, and we boogied off the ridge as fast as our little boots would carry us.

One year we were on the ridge, and a storm moved in. On schedule.  I reversed direction and told everyone to get down posthaste.  Instead they kept going.

They took photos of themselves on the summit with their hair standing straight on end.  Sparks flying from their pack frames.  When they got down one young lady looked straight at me and said, "Who was that bitch that told us to come down?"  Needless to say we did not bond in ensuing

years.

The problem is, of course, that usually one gets away with it.  The lightning doesn't strike the ridge.  The flash flood doesn't show up.  The rim to river to rim hikers make it out by midnight, but they make it out.  Sometimes one does not make it.

A climber once said, "It is better to turn around ten times to early than once too late".  On K2 in 2008, eleven climbers turned around too late.  This summer two hikers kept going until they died.

I would like it if someone, someday, said, "Well, I guess we didn't have to turn around.  But I understand why you warned us to."  Instead of "There was nothing dangerous up there!  Why did you pull out out early?"

And then there was the time in Colorado when I was co-leading a backpack for a group of teens from a local camp.  This was a religious camp, one of the sects which believes that disease is not caused by bacteria, and bad things only happen to those with bad attitudes.  We were crossing Music Pass at 12,000 feet tied together with a climbing rope as part of a "trust" exercise.  Lighning was striking the peaks around us.  One of the kids looked at me curiously and said, "Slim, your hair is standing on end."

"Really?  Ha, ha. Drop that rope and run like hell".

When we got down I was the one that caught hell. Because I had spoiled the trust exercise.  I lacked faith. Nothing would have happened if I hadn't had a bad attitude.  "Well," quoth I, "My attitude was bad enough to fry the whole mountain.  So we ran."  

Two things today.  It rained all day and all night so we hiked to Dripping springs because the Hermit Trail doesn't get all ooshy like the South Kaibab.  A better workout too, because it is so rough.  There appears to be a Red Tailed Hawk nesting around Dripping springs, because we could hear it scream for several minutes.  I think it was feeding its chicks.

The helicopters were really at it.  We counted four in one batch.  They were NOT 1000 feet above the rim, or were they one mile apart.  Also I think the noise scared the Red Tail.

Someone at Dripping springs has discovered that the mud makes a good paint, and the walls were covered with hand prints, names, hearts, and phony pictographs.  The hands aren't so bad, but I spent 10 minutes erasing it all anyway.

So  five year old boy wandered away from his campsite two days ago on the North Rim.  The family was camped at large, not in the developed area, and he was chasing grasshoppers.  There have been bad storms for two days.  They have been searching with dogs and with infrared from helicopters.

I remember when Robbie was wee little I told him if he got lost to stay put.  Searchers find someone who is lost much more easily if the search area is limited.  When we visited the Metropolitan Museum he and his Grandma Marji lost track of us, and Robbie sat down and refused to move until we found him.

I also dressed him in fluorescent colors, usually orange.  I had noticed that people in bright orange ponchos showed up from miles away, and I figured if it worked for hikers, it would work for small children.  Probably explains why he only wears black now.

When we went hiking he always had his own pack with food, water, clothes, and a whistle.  I figured if he strayed he could at least have some basic supplies.  I felt pretty smug about this until one day I rounded a corner and saw Robbie's pack with no Robbie.  I looked up.  He had spotted some rock climbers, threw his pack off, and hied off after them up the cliff.  I can't remember if I made him wear a whistle when we were camping.

This is not to say that this poor family is at fault.  I was just trying to convince myself that even though we took Robbie into the Grand Canyon, and onto 14'ers and, into geyser areas, and all sorts of places that gave both grandmothers fits, I felt better by setting Robbie up for success.

We were also lucky.  Robbie was capable of taking off at a dead run for reasons known only to himself, and it is just luck that he never did so in a wilderness area.  In stores, many times, yes.  I recall when he was trying on a pair of shoes which were clipped together with a plastic tag to keep people from stealing one (though why just one?)  Robbie was hobbling around trying to get a feel for the fit when the plastic snapped.  He yelled, "Oh, good, now I can run!' and did so.  Didn't find him for a good ten minutes.

We are fortunate (more spiritually inclined friends would say blessed) that Robbie never managed to completely lose himself.  Given all the odd places we dragged him when he was too young to fight back.  Bad things happen to good people, and we are just lucky it never happened to us, no matter how much we thought we were "prepared".