Big Wall
Here's a Big Wall in Zion National Park.
You don't see any climbers on this wall because the Peregrine Falcons are nesting.
You can't get a permit to climb when the falcons are nesting, because they are an
endangered species, I reckon, and nobody wants to disturb them while they're smooching.
How come there aren't any environmentalists making sure that nobody disturbs Pucketts
while we're nesting? Of course, maybe nobody WANTS Pucketts to reproduce. Most of all,
Pucketts. But we're not an endangered species; we seem to be replacing numbers quite
well. But only by breeding with other species, and thinning the blood...
It's hard for me to imagine that peregrines are endangered; in my old office building
in Salt Lake, they told us not to freak out if we saw bird heads laying on the sidewalk
by the doors, because the peregrines nesting under the roof would catch smaller birds
and eat 'em. Peregrines, like coyotes, seem to be adapting very well to urban environments.
I'm not sure if Pucketts will adapt to urban environments or not - as I type this, we are
north of Phoenix, driving to Anthem and back during rush hour. The idea is to see how bad
the traffic is, to determine if a commute from Anthem is possible or feasible. Phoenix is,
without a doubt, the largest city that I have ever lived in - 3.3 million or so people,
all of whom have a car, and drive everywhere, all the time, and complain about traffic.
I want to do some big wall climbing, like this stuff shown here in Zion, but I'm not sure
that I have the sort of inner resources and calm that will allow me to sleep in a bag that
is hanging from a couple of ropes clipped into pieces of metal shoved into cracks in a
cliff several thousand feet high. I find that very idea disturbing - no, wait. That's not
true. I find the idea very exciting, but I have a notion that when it's bedtime, I'm going
to find the idea disturbing. What happens if I wake up in the middle of the night, and have
to go to the bathroom? Will I forget, and climb out of my bag, and try to walk to the john?
"Watch that first step - it's a DOOZY!"{
Comments