June 1985
We camped at the top of Sonora pass, about 9500 feet.
In the first weeks of June the alpine flowers are really, really beautiful
Afternoon #2 we-uns decided to hike
A mile or so had passed and we came to a fork in the trail.
Right fork went across a snow field, left fork climbed above it.
Wife says “I’m going left”
Mr. Adventure says “I’m going right”
About 200 yards across the snow, the toe holds I was making in the snow began to fail.
I slid backwards, downwards about 20 feet.
Stopped
Looked down
Maybe 300 foot crevice of rock
A dead fall.
The words that went through my mind were
“Looks like I’m the stupid human on the 6 O’clock news”
Took me nearly an hour to extricate me-self craw-fishing so to speak.
Stupid Human Tricks