Slots for the 3rd Time

But when I feel like giving up
And I'm ready to walk away
In the stillness, I can hear
A voice inside me say

Do something
Do something
It's too late for saving face
Don't just stand there takin' up space
Why don't you do something?
Do something
It's not over
No, it's never too late

The Eagles

Got up Friday morning after the quick trip to Vegas convinced I would find a nice easy hike to get me to the weekend. I was wrong; really, really wrong. I let my friends talk me into doing slots again. I know you are thinking that I have done this hike a couple times and it can't really be that hard if I am willing to get on the horse for a third time because that reverse white rocks I will never do again. I learned that my first two trips out to Slots were merely the bunny slope version of the hike, today I was getting the Olympic Downhill version. It started as with all the slots adventure with a sharp descent into the canyon. Me and my ten fellow campers ( all women, I know shocking) caught a beautiful 55 degree morning for the hike. The sun was shining and it was truly a chamber of commerce perfect February post card kind of day.

Here is the happy group of campers in the first of our "slot canyons" Now, Jimbo is not really a big fan of tight confining spaces but after passing on heading into this canyon the first two times I hopped in and got a picture with the merry band of hikers.The back 6 were already positioned on the ledge when i walked in so rather than obscure the whole bunch I figured I would stand just to their side. Still a pretty cool picture. Now would be a good time to talk about the women at the ridge. They have pretty much emasculated me to the point that I'm not sure they recognize or even care that I am guy anymore. Just one of the happy bunch of girls wandering the desert. Because they don't care one bit what they say around me. I could pass any quiz on tips to avoid cramps, the best mascara and yesterday learned that one of my fellow campers was happy to share her perfect techniques for satisfying her hubby with the rest of the girls. Lord help me. Really??.... just for the record girls when us boys get together our discussions are sports and boobs that's it , that's the whole list. The discussions we have about pleasing our women involve handing you guys an American Express card and turning you loose. Get me to mid-March :)

Back to my day at Slots. Huge shout out to Merinda, not only did she run me in at the stop sign Monday, she slowed her pace down a bit today to hang with us turtles in back of the pack. We hit Wedding Rock at around 10 am. My first time this deep into the hike. I know there is a story behind the naming of this rock, wedding rock but no one seems to know for sure what it is. I assume I don't have 10 new common law wives but this being Utah who knows. The picture on top, of me and the peace sign, is on top of the rock. The drop off behind me is literally the biggest I have backed up to. Not scary if you can stand without falling over but it certainly makes you realize that there is some fragility to life as falling there would be awfully bad. In fact a misstep there and it wouldn't be Slots hike it would be the "Let's go see where Jim bought it" Hike.

At 10 am I know we are going to be a bit late. We haven't seen the famed "Birth Canal" portion of this hike and had about 25 minutes of more hiking to get there. Now I have had plenty of hiking , know just how far it is to the vans, and am ready to get heading back. Darlene has other ideas. She says "Hey we are this far lets just keep going to the canal" She may as well have stuck a fork in my eye. We get the go ahead from the powers back at the Ridge and I know better than to turn down my fellow girlfriends on their Friday hike.

I don't remember hearing before we continued on that the next 25 minutes would consist of me turning a corner muttering an expletive and then scaling some rock just to turn another corner, utter another expletive and do it again and again, and again, but it did, We made it to the "birth canal" There was no way I was going into that thing. I had heard stories from previous campers of squeezing through that and feeling like they were too big to get through. And these campers looked like I could carry them in my pocket. The thoughts of a rescue squad, the jaws of life, and 6 cases of Vaseline to extricate Jimmy from a hole in a rock was a little too daunting to me. By the way I couldn't decide what I liked better for this picture. I heart Cherise or While many people where their hearts on their sleeve Cherise wears hers on her back. Pick the one you like best.

So we have about a 2.1 mile hike through sand, rocks, up and down climbs and what not to get back to the vans. I need a thesaurus to look up as many words for dread as I can find. I am sore and tired and hungry, really hungry. My 1200 calorie allotment ran out few steps out of the van and my body is not happy. Top it off with a slight new pain in my left knee from an awkward step climbing down and I get to limp home the last 1.5 miles. 4 hours from when we set out, well over 2000 calories burned, shoes full of sand, aching feet, pain in my stomach, an ice pack on my knee and a hat I have wrung sweat out of 3 times; I am damn happy to get in the van. That was one long-ass challenging hike. By far the longest hardest thing I have done in probably my life but certainly at the ridge

Got back in time to have the 180 calorie Caesar salad for lunch. My stomach was like are you freaking kidding me? Protein and fat please. I also got to hear the girl across from me, who had been doing advanced hikes this week, say she thought the hike was slow and okay but not that hard. She wasn't happy with the look I gave her and would have been a whole lot unhappier if she could have read my mind. The truth is I wanted to trot her over to the weight bench and challenge her to do medicine ball sit ups until one of us puked and then clean her puke up with her own hair. But I smiled and said I hope I didn't slow you down too much.

Really cool day, but I can promise you that today will be like Christmas Morning compared to that as I am heading out for some Saturday morning basketball. That is, of course, without actually having gotten out of bed today and putting weight on my knee or checking the puffy achy toe on my foot. Speaking of those two maladies, they kept me from dancing on Friday afternoon. Disco-cardio jam next week I swear. Speaking of music, my thanks, to the blog reader who is probably reading from the furthest spot distance wise from me, Thanks Becky for today's blog song from one of my favorite bands ever. Becky Wong is a wonderful friend residing in Hong Kong. I will never forget singing along in the pool on her trip to the Ridge. And she never accused me of singing poorly to make others feel better. Thanks Rebecca !!! I hope everyone has an awesome weekend. Peace and Love, Jim