Today the Kadizzlites made a trek into Mule Canyon. Mule Canyon is one of the fine areas in Cedar Mesa with famous ruins. As Kadizzle made his way up the canyon past many wonderful ruins with Ruth, Rodger, and The Commander he noticed one of the strangest natural phenomenon he has ever seen. At the age of 62, and with thousands of miles of hiking under his belt Kadizzle has never run across anything like this. Walking up the canyon there was a strange grove across the trail. Kadizzle's first thought was what could have caused this? Closer examination showed a rock had rolled across the trail and fallen over about ten feet to the right of the trail. Puzzled, Kadizzle looked to the left to the trail and saw about six feet of grove made by the rock. How did a rock get up and roll 15ft? Then the real clincher jumped into view. A small tree was freshly smashed where the rock had apparently landed before it rolled to its resting place. Something like this could happen, but the laws of physics are laws. Kadizzle was down in a canyon, the rock could have rolled off the side of the canyon, jumped in the air and came down on the bush then rolled. The problem was things did not add up when you examined the area. The rock would have needed to be launched from a ski jump to make it as far out into the canyon as is did. Examining the trees it was evident the rock came almost straight down. The condition of the breaks in the tree indicated it had happened recently, the freshness of the moisture in the grove indicated it may have happened earlier today.
When Kadizzle ran across this strange rock, The Commander, Rodger and Ruth were hiking higher in the canyon searching for ruins. The temptation was too great to resist telling a whooper. On the way back down the trail Kadizzle showed the site of the mystical rock to The Commander. Earlier The Commander could not grasp what Kadizzle was talking about, but after seeing the evidence The Commander understood what had taken place. To spice things up Kadizzle told the Commander all of this had taken place fifteen feet in front of him on the trail. Kadizzle heard a great whoosh, the tree splinter and the rock roll in front of him. Nearly struck and killed by the rock Kadizzled was dazed, when a voice from nowhere said "Be nice to The Commander". Although The Commander bought the part of the story that Kadizzle had seen the event, she did not buy the voice part. After a few minutes it became necessary to tell The Commander Kadizzle had not seen the event. Ruth and Rodger were good accomplices for the untruthful part. Both of them had seen the area earlier and new the truth. There are a million ways to die, but had Kadizzle been hit by that rock it would have been a clear message from someone.
Now, for the rest of the story. The picture above is The Commander's version of a famous photo called "House on Fire". Ruth saw the picture and decided she wanted to make an attempt to capture the ruin in a similar picture. So, the crew got up early because the ideal time to take the picture was at 10:00 A.M. according to photo folk lure. We got into the canyon early, but it took the sun until well after eleven to light up the ruin properly. Just as the light seemed to do it's magic clouds appeared. As we sat patiently waiting for the proper lighting for two hours photographers started to show up like ants. Apparently a lot of people had the same idea today. Getting the picture was the main purpose of the hike today. The Commander actually did a pretty good job of duplicating the famous shot. As luck would have it an older professional photographer woman was there. We had a great conversation and she had the same camera as The Commander. The pro of course had a much more expensive camera also. The professional's camera batter was dead, so The Commander lent her the one from our camera. In exchange The Commander got some photo lessons. It looks like they paid off.
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