THE HIKE AND SEX 101

After a study of the way to the tree via binoculars, we would descend into the canyon which began right next to our camp.  Then we would take a jaunt down the bottom to a spot where there seemed to be less dangerous climbing up the the ridge.  I had trouble keeping my mind on our path as the thoughts of Bob's obsession with showing himself to me bothered me considerably.  I was certain he was not through with it.  I felt un-comfortible about the whole thing.  I considered his Father who was unable to talk about it.  I knew that he would get false information from his friends.  I wondered if it was important for him to know anyway.  We made it to the bottom of the canyon where there was a good sized creek splashing over rocks.  We stopped to survey the climb to the top of the ridge.  There were lots of boulder sticking out of the steep hill, but pathways between them.  It took us about an hour to reach the top of the ridge.  Of course little Bob had to show me how old I was and how young he was.  He would run way ahead of me, then stop, sit on a rock and laugh at me struggling to get up. We were both together as we climbed through the last boulders...a big formation going up about ten feet on both sides, and I pointed out how the formation had split in two many years ago.  There was also a fairly wide crack going off to our right side...a mini canyon of sorts and we decided we would explore as far into the canyon as we could go. It was then we saw something that made us stop in our tracks.  There was a human skeleton propped up against one wall.  It was sitting down, legs out stretched and back against the wall. Shreds of clothing still visible.  We could find no identification nor jewelry of any kind. We then noticed his left femur was broken.  Bob was most fascinated with it as he had never seen one before,  I told him not to touch it as we needed to report this to the authorities and they would be doing forensics.  I had a pencil and paper and sketched a rough map where it was located.  Bob wondered how he died and I said probably from starvation or exposure.  Obviously he had fallen and broken his leg.  I noted the time and the date.  Bob wanted to pull his skull off and put it in his room.  I forbade him from doing it.  We went on up until we reached the top of the ridge.  We then walked across the crest until we came to the tree.  "That's not the one"  Bob said.  I believed that it was and I asked Bob why he thought it wasn't.  "Look across to your left, there is an even taller tree and the sillhouette showed no other tree near it.  He was right, so I let him lead the way.  "That's it"  he said.  One lone tree with a slim spiked top.  We sat down under the tree and it was so quiet except for scurrying sounds of lizards and squirrels running from one place to another.  "Look" Bob shouted.  "There is our camp site"  There it was.  I let him use my binoculars and he was amazed at the detail he could see.  He just loved them and I decided to give them to him.  He panned 360 degrees amazed at every thing he saw.  "Hey, look at the ridge over there, there is alot of dust blowing off of it"  He handed me the glasses and yes..dust...the Santa Ana wind that was supposed to come in last night was coming in.  I told him things were about to change and it would be a real education for both of us.  The wind hit the North side of our ridge and a wall of dust was forced up the side and into the air.  We were above 7,000 feet and I told Bob Santa Anas could blow up 100 mph on hight peaks and canyons.  The wind hit us with  terrific first gust.  We had to sit down and turn our backs to the wind.  Grains of sand stung any bare skin showing.  Our tree was bending over and waving its limbs like  "stop, stop"    I had set our canteen down and it blew over the side.  "Bob, we have to get out of here"  We crawled on our bellies to the crevace we had come up in.  Our eyes were hurting from all the dust in  them.  When we reached the crevace, we found shelter and we just stopped to rest and try to get our vision back....(to be continued)