Early

Last night Kadizzle drank more wine than prudent, and suffered all night with fire belly.  Up at 4 A.M. and out of bed at five.  The young couple we had dinner with will show up shortly and we will head our for a difficult hike.  The hike was hard three or four years ago and the body has not improved since then. The goal is to go deep into a mountain canyon and visit an well preserved ruin.

The strange thing about the ruin and the two others close by is the location.  Whoever lived there was there to protect themselves.  It would be a difficult place to live all year around.  Hunting or farming would have been a long daily commute.  If someone did attack it would be like attacking a castle.  There is no draw bridge, but there is such a narrow path into the place that you could knock you attackers over a cliff one at a time easily.   The dwellers must have had food and water stockpiled.

All Indian ruins in the Southwest have suffered from over visitation.  The one we will visit today is so difficult to get to only the most hardened search will take the time and effort to get to them.  That is why they are well preserved.  Sadly there is not a ruin anywhere that has not been vandalized by pot hunters. At every ruin you can see where pot hunters have dug.  One thing you notice at any site that has wood is the small bore holes made by researchers.  By taking a plug of wood from a roof beam or whatever the date of the dwelling can be determined by the tree rings. It is an interesting science.