Free Range Hiking (Colorado Chronicles)

I had forgotten how much I adore hiking.  When we lived in Las Vegas, a lifetime ago, we spent many a weekend hiking at Red Rock Canyon or on Mt. Charleston.  Now, ten years later, a hiking mountain vacation was on the agenda.  Not only did it feel oddly familiar, like riding a bike, but I also had a number of flashes back to the past as my muscles remembered the drill.  It felt like I could just glide over the terrain moving rhythmically like a pulse (which was elevated, by the way, in the altitude).  What was even more exhilarating than being back on trails, was how the kids both took to it.

It was hard to keep up with Charles.  This child has to climb everything in sight when we are not on a gorgeous alpine mountainside.  Our cabin was situated in the gully of a boulder surround.  When we kicked the kids outside to explore the first morning, what struck me most was how fearless Sidney was too!  She thrived on made up games, climbing and just being outside (as always).  I now know I can take this farm girl and put her in the mountains and she is still my outdoor girl, regardless of the location.

We were a group of sixteen, eight adults and eight children and these kids had begun to accumulate a multitude of scrapes, scratches, and bruises, which they all seemed to be wearing like a badge of honor.  Something that was hard earned, meant to be compared, and marked their passage through the vacation.  We gave them quite a bit of freedom with their climbing within a few basic guidelines.  They tended to watch out for one another and thrive when their parents gave them the ability to do a little bit of free range hiking.